oh so nifty

What's on your plate?

I try not to be too pushy on here, but I watched 'The Future of Food' again last night, and I am a little fired up! If you haven't seen this I recommend you do. It's a great documentary that shows the truth of how the U.S. agriculture truly works, GMO foods and what you are really getting in the 'food' you buy.

Watching this movie really makes me a little sad that our country has allowed this to happen. BUT we can change things! Every dollar you spend tells the retailers what you want. If you buy healthful organic food you are telling them that you care about where your food comes from and it's impact on our planet.

I know for some people it is hard to go completely organic, maybe you live somewhere that it's not very popular yet. Every little bit helps! The more you buy the more they will stock!
Here are the top 5 things to buy organic to avoid GMO: wheat, soy, corn, canola, and cotton.

Also, this is a handy little chart to help you decide what produce is most important to buy organic.

The best way I have found to getting great local organic food is to find a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) near you. It's usually a small to medium sized farm that grows a variety of food throughout the seasons and you get a box full of that weeks bounty every week. Straight from the farm to your house, you cant get better than that! Here is a neat site that explains it more, and you can type in your Zip code and it will show you CSA farms around you.

Thanks for letting me rant a little! This is something that is really important to me and I feel like I need to share it every once in a while. I hope this made sense and isn't just rambling...

Insta-Friday!

Woooot! Friday!
AND I'm not going to completely bombard you with photos!
Just and actual weeks worth... no catching up!

I made this vegan corn fritter sort of from the recipe I mentioned the other day here.

It was amazing! Seriously!

and of course since I was cooking I had to wear a fancy apron

I wore it most of the night. It was too cute to take off. lol!

fun shoes!

We had a really foggy Sunday this week so we headed for the hills where it was nice and toasty!

Got my tan on! Woot!

Started to crochet a bit, and now I don't want to stop! I've been pin-ing crochet projects nonstop!

and I've been hanging out with these lazy mutts. lol

Hope you've had a good week too! Happy Friday!

Happy August!!!

I love the first of the month! I'm not sure what it is, the newness, starting fresh or just the promise of something different. We are finally feeling settled in our new place, so this month is going to be much more mellow than July. Plus, the creative bug is gnawing at my ankles! I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I'm going to see where it leads me!

So, here's to a fabulous August full of health creativity and peace.

Striving for health

In the past four years I have been on a journey to become healthy. It all started back in 2008 when my husband got really sick and we started looking into what was causing his illness. One thing led to another and we ended up finding that diet was the number one cause to ALL illness. So we started to change how we ate. With every new book we read, or film we watched or natural doctor he saw we would learn more and change something. We started by removing all processed foods from our diet. Then switched to all organic foods. We soon gave up most meats, then dairy and after a while most things with gluten.

Now, this was over quite a big span of time, we didn't just change overnight. It took time and adjusting before it became a way of life. When we started all of this it was to save my husband, which I'm very happy to say that it did... completely! But, the other great thing that happened with all the changes we made is how much better I felt! I didn't realize I was so unhealthy before we started this. Yes, I knew I could lose a few pounds, and stop eating so much garbage food. I did have for years what my doctor at the time called 'a sensitive stomach' and they assured me it was completely normal. Basically every time I ate I had a stomachache. Sometimes it would be minor, sometimes I would have to go lay down. I had become used to this, it was just a part of life. Well, about two months into our diet change I realized I couldn't remember the last time I had a stomachache from eating. I was stoked!

So, we have been eating healthy ever since, still modifying our diet when we learn about anything new. Since 2008 I have lost over 20 pounds just from eating healthy. Most of that came off in the beginning, but a little more here and there since then. Now I have come to a new challenge, I have lost the extra weight and eat healthy, but I am NOT in shape. I do not work out at all. I have the muscles of a 10 year old girl! I have been wanting to shape up for a while, but have been completely unmotivated. Now that is changing! We are taking a trip to the Grand Canyon in September and I just might die if I went in the shape I am now. Not to mention the fact that I deserve to be in shape, what good is a healthy body if I do nothing with it!?!

I am sharing this today in hopes that one: I will hold myself accountable{if I tell everyone I am going to do it I have to, right?} two: I hope to gain support from others possibly doing the same thing. and three: to inspire someone else to shape up and be healthy! You deserve it!

I am taking measurements to track my changes. I figure I'll probably gain weight, or at least not lose any while working out because I should be gaining muscle! =) I also happened to find my starting measurements from 2008. It's crazy how much of a difference 20 pounds makes! So, here they are, and I'll post them again after a while.