Your Health

You are the most important person to yourself.  Honor your body by doing things to prevent illness. Visit your doctor once a year to talk about your pains or health in general.  No more can we use the excuse we don't have the copay.

We need to be proactive. My family depends on me but most importantly others do as well. I want to be the example not the exception.

Women go see your doctor and men you too.

Mondays

Mondays are a reminder of how much I love my family and wished we had a three day weekend every week.

I'm so grateful for having found my passion for exercising again. I really feel like I was missing out on so many things with my kids.

I had such a lack of motivation for so many years all I wanted to do was sit around and do nothing all day long.

We have to make a decision to live our lives as God intended.  Dont do what I did by wasting your time lying around doing anything. 

Take babysteps no one is asking you run a marathon.  Start by gardening, walking outside or even bike riding.  Whatever it is just do it.

The journey is yours alone to take.

Happy Monday!

No longer a YO YO

I decided last night that I'm going to put myself out there for all to see.  If you've been reading my post you know that January 2013 was my year for transformation.  I really feel like I'm an active member of my life and family now. There is nothing more to say than to show you. I'm no longer a YO YO! Will you join me?

I have a until June 14th to reach my Goal. I will achieve it!

Working It and Working It

Its been a long day long month and long year already.  I have beat all the odds of weight lost and have inspired my friends, family and entire company to jump onboard. Since January I embarked on a juicing cleanse and have made it part of my daily routine. 

Everything was truly in moderation.  In 2009 I was beyond unhappy with myself I'm looking for that horrible picture to show you all. I had to change how I ate because I didnt have the courage to exercise. 

Since 2009 to 2011 I lost over 33 lbs and lost five sizes, just from changing how I ate. Then in late fall 2011 I had my gall bladder removed. I had several gallbladder attacks thru the summer and didnt know why. After my surgery I lost 15lbs more. As the doctor explained my body was losing fat so fast it couldn't keep up. So when your losing weight always consult with a doctor.

Now juicing,  it truly has helped me focus, be more alert, more energized, and I get more sleep. Now that everything is in line, I work out almost five days a week and three of those days is kickboxing class.

I've now added body wraps to my regimen to help me loosen some of that stubborn toxins in my abs. Since last week I've lost 11 inches in my body.

People be inspired.  I'm reminded today, after the loss of my employee,  due to cancer, how important it is to heal ourselves from the inside out.

Look at your life and say to yourself,  "I will live a long and healthy life."

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!