To Exercise or Not Exercise

For all of us exercise is the arch enemy.  For the last 4 1/2 years I dedicated my life to changing how I eat and even changing how my entire family eats.  Here's a list of the stuff I no longer allow in my house, well unless your a visitor and you have bad eating habits.

-no pop
-no sugary treats
-no juice of any kind unless it's made from scratch
-reducing starch foods like rice and potatoes
-no fast foods
-eating more greens
-no meat for me please, my husband still eats it once in a while but my kids try to stay away
-reducing chicken intake has been a challenge because the kids don't eat seafood as much
-there is so much more I can go on and on, the key is cook from scratch and make the choice to live a healthier life

So now that I have the food plan down I recently started to move my body and found that there were too many muscles in my body I wasn't using, like a muscle that runs along my back leg.  OUCH! And here I thought that parking farther away from the door and walking was helping, um NOT!

It really helps to have a work out buddy but in my case my husband is so fit it only makes me more self conscious.  However, he is my biggest supporter so I work out with him first for 20 minutes and then he does his intense workout for like 3 hours. No Joke!

People there is hope for all of us.  Between Juicing, eating right, exercising and just being more active I have accomplished so much. I have so much energy beyond my own imagination.  I was excited when the weather got better in Chi-Town that I sent most of my Sunday with my girls outside and my 8 year old is now riding her bike all by herself.  I don't know what I was doing the last 4 1/2 years but I sure as hell was not enjoying it!

Get up and get moving people! Movement is Exercise!

Trying new things What's YUCA?

No one else is going to make the choice for you to make a difference in your life. Whether its your attitude, health, finances, love etc. Only you can make the choice to make that first step. I have devoted the last few months of my life to living a healthier life. So to begin I'd like to start sharing some of my recipes. What works for me may not work for you but I hope that it will inspire you to try something new.

Let's start with Yuca. Remember, that with any new food you try always find out the benefits of that new vegetable or fruit. Learn and carry Super Foods in your house, they are essential to your daily diet. If you don't like to try new foods, be open minded, give it a try. We always tell the girls that they have to at least try it before they say NO.

Yuca, or also know as Root, is a gluten free vegetable. Who would have know, I've been eating Yuca since I was a kid. If you can find Yuca leaves, which I haven't see in the US, it's good source of dietary proteins and vitamin K. Vitamin-K has a potential role in bone mass building by promoting osteotrophic activity in the bones. It also has established role in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease patients by limiting neuronal damage in the brain.

It also has a moderate source of some of the valuable B-complex group of vitamins such as folates, thiamin, pyridoxine(vitamin B-6), riboflavin, and pantothenic acid.

How do you cook it. Two methods are, one in soup and one is fried. Here is what I do.

How to prep:
Take a medium size root, peel the dark brown bark off the root. It's much easier to cut the root in 2 inch sections and then peel each on individually. Put the root in a pot, cover with water, add some garlic and salt. Let it boil and when yuca is tender it is ready. The root is cooked when it's not a hard white color, it should me soft and tender.

Drain your water, cut the root pieces in half and then into smaller pieces. Here's the next step, you can either pan fry it like french fries using vegetable oil OR you can season with salt, pepper and olive oil and then stick in the over to roast. Either way it taste AMAZING.

Last but not least you can always throw in the raw root, but up into smaller pieces and toss straight into a soup like you would a potato.

Happy Eating!

Changing Seasons

As I watch Joel Osteen and listen to Father at mass, I finally realized that all the changing and flood of blessings I keep hearing about, has not only been right in front of my face, but it was me realizing what I had in front of me and me changing my approach. So I like to say that 2013 has finally arrived in my life. I see life with no blinders on and even if I get hit with any obstacles, I know it's going to be okay.

I also have learned that people have to be willing to change and people have to be willing to accept that people can change. We have to open minded to forgiving people for the wrong they have done by knowing that their acts of kindness and positive change is to better all the relationships in their life.

If we all took the time to see life in a different way, if we chose to be more positive and if we decided to be better listeners than maybe just maybe we will overcome all the negativity that surrounds us. But it all starts with us looking at life differently.

How do we do that you ask? Well look at yourself first and what do you need to change? What do you need to do to make yourself feel better about you first before you conquer the world? Take that first step and following it by many and what what you can do?

Be Positive!

Making the choice

I now am two months free of no coffee.  I feel much healthier just having eliminated caffeine. I want to set a healthier example but lets face it after three kids, a husband and a dog oh yeah and work oh and everything else, finding time to focus on me is hard.lol

I decided to start detoxing in Jan with fresh juice and now eating things like seafood, no meat and lots of grains, I feel better.  I have to make better choices when I go out to eat. For one, unless im cooking with wine I dont drink. My husband detoxed and now doesn't drink either.

Juicing has really helped me refocus and prioritize my daily life. My girls stop drinking sugary drinks almost six years ago. The secret is cooking from home everyday as often as you can. They now to ask for water first. Its become part of our daily lives. Read up on tap water...best thing for you is to drink filtered water.

On cheat days like on this day we ended up at Elly's...we discovered they had a fresh juice bar. I also found a vegetarian eggs benedict with artichokes spinach and mushrooms.  It was good.

What I have also discovered is that everything is in moderation. I found it easier to implement one change at a time.

So now I feel more disciplined and feel ready for step 2 which involves physical activity. 

Im going to start posting pictures soon. I hope I inspire you to start changing your way of eating.

Single Mom

Having been a single mom I know how hard it is.  I know the fear that sinks down into your stomach when you look at the little you have and wonder if you will ever rise above the storm. I get it, I've lived on ramen noodle soups, spaghetti, bologna and cheese. I remembered how my parents raised us with the little we had and I kept saying to myself, there has to be more to life then living this way.

I didn't get thrown into the life of a single mother.  I made the choice to remove myself from the life I was living and became a single mother because I knew it was the only way I was going to give my daughter a better life.

So many people wanted to see me succeed I had so much help from friends, teachers and managers.  So  you can see going into Human Resources was only natural for me.  I wanted to help people see that there was a light at the end of the tunnel and there is always a way out if you are willing to accept help.

We must be humble and put our pride aside and take the God given opportunities that are put right in front of us and not hold back. God doesn't give us anything that we cannot handle, he is preparing us for great things.

Today I had an employee come up to me and say, Maritza, in the short time I've been working here you have taught me so much about never giving up and there is always a way. See, he decided today to take the 52 Week Savings Challenge, as so many of my other employees.  I shared with them how being a single mother showed me how to be frugal and not to take for granted that even saving $1.00 a week will amount to something big.

It's Week 6, throw $21 into a pot and start your savings.  Take a shoe box, duct tape it, wrap it up again and then slit a whole on the top and throw in all your extra change and dollars and see what you get at the end of the year.

Both my little ones are doing it and I'm sure they will be happy with the results! Don't give up, you will overcome whatever obstacle you are facing right now. Don't be afraid to reach out to people for advice. Be strong and most importantly have faith!

Juice and more Juice

My dad says I get easily inspired and excited about new fads and then I put them off to the side. Buy years ago I said to my husband, "I'm tired of being fat." He looked at me and quickly said we can do it. So when my dad said that to me recently about me doing a juice detox my husband was there right next to me doing it too.

Why a juice detox...why not? Two years ago, before I knew my gallbladder was bad, I changed the way I ate and started walking. I lost over 30lbs. Then I detoxed by going vegetarian for 30 days. Not only was I more focused, more energized but also more determined.

So now in my first five days of juicing I have lost 7lbs. The best part is I see the results. My colon is being cleansed naturally...meaning these juices have fiber so you dont get the runs. Hehehe

My husband says I'm snoring less. I also see that my skin is not as dry. I can wait to see what I look like in three weeks. Im going to try the full thirty days.

To get started..you must educate yourself first. Watch Fat Sick and Nearly Dead and then watch Vegucate. How you eat and grocery shop will make you a more informed shopper.

Eat well be well and live long.

Happy Juicing!

I'm addicted to Netflix

I know I vowed not to ever go shopping Black Friday and I know this post is super late but I had to tell you about my new found love for Netflix and how it came about. I decided to buy my husband the Blu-ray he so much wanted. I bought the Samsung Blu-ray with built in WIFI. It was the best investment I ever made until I signed up for Netflix and discovered I can watch any show any time anywhere. Literally anywhere, on my Samsung Galaxy 3, on the IPAD, on the Tablets, at my dad's, you get the picture.

So anyhow, the Blu-Ray is easy to install, easy to use and easy to move around. Just remember that once you move it from one location to another you basically are resetting the settings so you have to reset the WIFI connection by reentering the password. My only complaint is that either my WIFI signal is not strong enough for the receiver in the Blu-ray or its not receiving my signal well. I'm convinced it's my WIFI signal, so I suggest to make sure to have the Blu-ray in an area where your WIFI will be its strongest. Otherwise, do what we are doing, we are moving our WIFI router in a more centralized location in the house. I might also invest in a WIFI booster to make our signal stronger just so we don't have any more buffering issues when watching Netflix shows.

Back to Netflix. Aside from being addicted, I find the convenience of watching Series on here to be ADDICTIVE because when one episode ends it moves on to the next episode and then you're hooked! Like me. What I love most about Netflix is that you can set it up so when you log in you go into regular Netflix where you see everything and then the option to log into Netflix for kids. So if you have children, like I do, they know to only click on Netflix for kids and they only see options for kids. Netflix also allows you to customize what you want to see when you log in and even gives you suggestions based on what you've seen. I love it...so you see my dilema. I've watched more TV in 30 days that I have every watched in my whole life. Should I seek help? lol No, I don't think so, what I also find is that I can search for movies from the 80's and even farther back. So just yesterday I watched Jumanji with my daughter. They don't make movies like that anymore!

I want to be a kid again. Happy Netflix!