Make Today a Brighter Day

Do you ever have gloomy days where it seems like everything is just a little off? Why not stop the trend and create a day you can enjoy. I love these ideas on Creating a Brighter Day:

1. Push Back Curtains/Up The Blinds Completely all the way for a full view of outdoors (this includes no matter what the weather is outside--sun, rain, sleet, or snow)
2. Turn off the Television and Turn On Uplifiting Music at a moderate volume (if you do not have a radio or other source for music, most televisions have a music channel: therefore, the t.v. may stay on only for the purpose of music)
3. Look through your linen closet for the brightest, most colorful, or favorite throw blanket and drape it over the back of your couch where it is in full view for you to look at preferrably near a window.
4. Be further creative and if you have colorful throw pillows, and/or fresh or artifical flowers place them around the room you are in with your throw blanket.
5. Grab any candle you can find and lit it up on your coffee table or kitchen table.

Now, realax! Sit on your couch glaze at the outside or look around at the new color in your home listen to the beautiful music. (Busy day? Schedule your "me" time ... it is so neccessary!) Let yourself daydream. If it is raining out-how cozy and warm you feel inside. If it is sleeting or snowing-how pretty and wonderful to be home. If it is sunny-how beautiful outside and inside my home.

Extra ideas: pick up a bit of paint and return home and designate one wall only in your home as a focal point and paint it a pastel, easy color (not hard on eyes) ex: pale yellow, pale seafoam green, creamy butternut, light coral, and feel free to mix colors and try some sponging which is easy to do with an old rag.

 

Small Changes Produce Big Results

I like the sound of that, don't you? I can handle small changes!

I was perusing the pta.org site looking for some good info to post to our PTA facebook page and came across this great article. Here are the tips:

Be Fad-Free - The best path to better nutrition is to be free of fad diets and to choose a plan that is appropriate for lifelong health.

Stick a Fork in It - Keep your dressings on the side. Dip your fork into the dressing first before stabbing the greens. Save hundreds of calories and avoid unwanted fat.

Switch Hands - Did you know you will snack less when you are munching if you use your non-dominant hand because you will have to think more about what you are doing. Try it.

Count Colors Not Calories - Have at least one fruit and one vegetable that is green, red, purple, orange, and yellow each day.

Put Kids In Charge - Get kids involved in the grocery shopping. Let kids pick out their favorite vegetables and help prepare their choices for dinner. They will be very excited to have the hole family eating what they have chosen and prepared.

A New View - Think of food as a way to fuel your body and as the tool to significantly reduce your chances of cancer and disease rather than placing it in good vs. bad-for-you categories.

Cold Turkey - If you are trying to eliminate caffeine it is much easier to quit if you gradually cut down. Mix decaffeinated beverages with your regular and gradually decrease the amount of regular as you increase the decaffeinated.

A Better Bean - All beans are a healthy idea but beans with the darker seed coats pack the most nutritional punch. Black beans rank the highest in antioxidant nutrition followed by red then brown beans.

Raising the Bar - When choosing a breakfast cereal bar, look for bars with low sugar and at least 3 grams of fiber.

Shake the Habit - The amount of salt we physically need is found naturally in the foods we eat. Cut back on salt by slowly reducing your daily intake. After about 3 months you will actually prefer less salty foods.

The Right Start - When deciding which cereal to have, choose one that has at least 5 grams of fiber per serving; 7 grams is even better.

“In Own Juices” - If you buy canned fruit look for the products that say they are packed in their own juice and skip those that say “heavy” syrup. “Light” syrup is fine occasionally.

Bone Up - Daily calcium needs change with age. Children ages 1 to 3 need 500 mg. Kids 4 to 8 need 800 mg. Adolescents 9 to 18 (when most bone mass is developed) require 1,300 mg. Adults ages 19 to 50 should get 1,000 mg while those 51 and older require 1,200 mg.

The Eyes Have It - Leave fruit and cut-up vegetables on a plate in plain sight on the counter for easy snack options. Family members are much more likely to grab what they see instead of digging for an alternative from the pantry.

It's All About Planning

Life gets crazy, there's always something. If we sit around waiting for things to calm down before we start eating healthy, we'll be waiting forEVER.

I came across this great article from self.com (loving this site lately!) about planning (AND preparing) your meals throughout the week. Ialways tend to do my planning on Sunday night. And if for some reason I miss it, it throws me off. So instead of having ONE night to plan and prep, spreading it throughout the week will lessen the load and allow for more success!

Here are some of the tips that help me stick to my plan:

• Plan menu (not just dinners). Normally I will set my dinners, but then have 2-3 breakfast & lunch choices to choose from and an assortment of snacks. This helps me to feel like I still have the freedom to choose.
• Prepare snacks. If I haven't pre-measured or cut up my snacks, chances are I won't grab for them. It's all about convenience.
• Put snacks where I can see them. I read this tip a while back & it is one of the best. The concept is, you will eat what you can see. So instead of hiding the veggies in the drawer, put them prepared on the shelf at eye level. In the pantry, keep the eye-level shelf free for grab-n-go snacks!
• Stick with what works. Everytime I get a book with a new nutrition plan, they always seem to have a different choice for every meal. If you are spending each meal looking up the recipe and preparing your food, it's won't be long before you fall back into old nutrition habits. (Again, convenience!) Instead add a few new recipes on days you know you have the time, but for the rest of the time stick with what you know you like. Also, plan leftovers into your weekly menu.
• Plan ahead for special occassions. Seems like food is everywhere from parties to meetings to sporting events. Decide when you want to splurge and plan accordingly.
• Don't shop when you're hungry! 'nough said.

Here's to making a plan and sticking to it!

Killer at Large

Man, this is a powerful video and really reminds me of WHY this journey to health is such an important one to me. I have had to learn how to be healthy and have really struggled (and still do) with food. I have many reasons to be healthy, but the biggest one is actually two reasons ... Aubrey and Braden. My sweet children.


I hope that I can be a positive example of how to be healthy.

Coming Up For Air

Life has been a crazy (FUN) roller coaster these last few weeks. Being PTA prez has really monopolized my time. As a results I've had to cut back in other areas temporarily. Hope you haven't missed me too much!

I have been squeezing in my workouts and working on my nutrition however. That it one area that is NOT expendable. Not anymore. It's not perfect, but I'm working on it!

Here are a couple pictures from the start of school, aren't they gorgeous?

Aubrey started 5th grade this year. She has a new found interest in how she looks and each outfit and hairdo is carefully planned out (those teenage years are just around the corner ... YIKES!) She is very excited for school and loves her teacher. After the first week of school she said, "I have a feeling this is going to be a good year!"

Braden who just turned 5 started Kindergarten this year! I'm still trying to get past the fact that he's not my baby anymore (though he tells me, "Mom, I will ALWAYS be your baby!") He was the first one in line on that first day and has not looked back since. He thinks that since he is now 5 and in Kindergarten that he is much too grown up for many things he did when he was 4 (like holding hands in the parking lot.)

I am lucky that my kids still like it and think it's cool that I help out at school. I've been spending most days there or home working on PTA stuff. Things will calm down soon (yeah right!) and I'll have more room for the other things in life. But for now, I will relish this time!

Enjoy the Ride!

Do you ever get overwhelmed by all the stuff that needs to get done? Yeah, I do. I'm one of those people that likes to bite off more than I can chew sometimes.

I'm PTA President at my kids' school this year which is exciting, but sometimes quite daunting. I had a day last week that was one of THOSE days. You know the kind. I had a million and one things to do and it seemed like everything was getting in the way of me getting things done. The kids were fighting and I just couldn't handle it. I kept losing my patience and it was just a crummy day. 

At the end of the day, I realized that this was NOT how I wanted life to be this year. I chose to do PTA to help make my children's lives better. And to make a difference. I did not want to get to the end of the year and look back to a year of stress and torment that I would never want to repeat. This is what I decided right then and there:

I CHOOSE to enjoy the ride! I am doing things that I love to do and will make this fit with my family (always family first). Some things are going to be SO successful, others will totally bomb. I will NOT stress over this, but just keep working my to-do list. I CHOOSE to enjoy the ride!

The next morning I woke up and told Aubrey, "You know what? I'm not going to lose my patience today!" And you know what? I didn't. And it was a fantastic day. And I still had a million and one things to accomplish.

World, today I chose to Enjoy the Ride!

Eliminating FAT Talk!

Being a mother of a very impressionable 10 year old daughter, I am becoming more and more aware of the words that come out of my mouth.

Sometimes it's hard and things just slip out. Case in point, I was recording a 4 minute clip of myself for a Back to School video I am putting together for our school's PTA. When I played it back, I was dying. I was SO critical of myself. I finally walked away, realizing I was being (irrationally) hard on myself.

I came across this book, which is now on my wishlist. (I hope it's as good as what I've read so far.) Operation Beautiful: Transforming the Way You See Yourself One Post-it Note at a Time:

Here are some tips from the book on how to bolster your self-esteem:

1. Start slow. "The worst thing you can do is try to overhaul your fitness and eating habits overnight. It took years to develop your bad habits; it will take more than a few days to break them. Let's say you're starting from healthy eating ground zero--fast food, frozen dinners, no vegetables. Trying to figure out how to cook all your meals, eat more produce, and manage your own snacks could be overwhelming. Instead of a complete diet overhaul, just focus on improving one meal (like breakfast) for two weeks. Or try replacing one of your snacks with a piece of fruit.

2. Consciously replace negative thoughts with positive BUT REALISTIC ones. "It's important to tell yourself something that's believable and uplifting."

3. Remind yourself that negative self-talk has actually been shown to increase unhealthy behavior when it comes to diet, exercise, and other areas of a healthy balanced lifestyle.

4. Make a list of your positive qualities and tape them to your bathroom mirror.

I love that last idea. I’m cheesy and I love to idea of leaving love notes around the house. Plus I have some really cute post-its! Wanna try with me?