Happy 2016 – Now What?

I hope everyone had a healthy and happy New Year. We have kicked 2015 to the curb, Now What?

Image courtesy of Serge Bertasius Photography at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We have a few exciting things to look forward to this year:

• Leap Year! We have an extra day to do something fabulous for ourselves or someone else.
• Elections! We have an opportunity to participate in a democratic process that so many of our brave young men and women have fought for.

Many use this new time of year to reflect about changes, however, I don’t understand why we don’t do that every day. So I ask again, Now What?

What makes this year the one that you will lose 25 pounds, finish that book, clear out the clutter, or join the gym?

Intention. Make 2016 your year of Intention. Do things with a purpose and focus on the things that you really want to do. Start small because you can’t climb Mount Everest if you haven’t walked out your front door.

A few ways to set Intentions:

• A vision board lets you create a visual space to see what you intend to do for the year.
• Affirmations help you laser focus on the things you want to work on
• Calendar reminders help keep you on track and can help with measuring metrics, unless of course you intend to unplug more :).

You get the idea, surround yourself with what you intend to do this year and instead of asking yourself Now What, you can say Now Yes, with Intention.

New Year, New You

Yeah Yeah Yeah… Who hasn’t heard that before? This New Year I decided to take a different approach to “New Year, New You.”

Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This time of year you get so many tips on how to make your life better, maybe instead you can make someone else’s life better, stand up for what you believe in or look into a cause that resonates with you.

The last few weeks of 2014 saw a lot of heartache (Ferguson & Staten Island), a bit of “it’s about time!” (Cuba) and some backing down only to give in (The Interview). If you put all of these stories together you get the central theme of doing the right thing.

The protests over injustices in Ferguson and Staten Island, recognizing the plight of the Cuban people and Sony deciding to stand up to bullies and show The Interview all exemplify the beauty of standing up for values.

So in this year’s version of New Year, New You go out and do something you believe in, no matter how big or how small. Your heart will smile, I promise.

Happy New Year!!

Actually I know January 1st doesn’t come for another 7 weeks but I just had a birthday and that means a new year in my world.

Image Courtesy of Tiverylucky / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As I reflect on the past year, that went way too quickly, I see that a lot has changed. I am now working full time doing a job (SNAP Outreach) that I love (yay!) and working on my business (Health Coaching & Writing) that I also love (yay!). While last year saw me saying YES to everything, this year has become the year of NO.

I realized this week that I don’t have to do everything that comes my way. That I have the freedom to pick and choose the projects I want to work on and do them well. I’ve decided to take a break until the other New Year to focus on what I want and can do; and it felt great not having a deadline looming this week.

I think nothing says self reflection more than that, we have to listen to our souls and if something does not feel right then be honest, most likely we won’t do it well and it will suck the energy out of us.

I know that many people feel that they don’t have a choice, yes we all have bills to pay. You can control a lot more than you think. You are the master of your domain.

How I Survived the Summer BBQ Season

Summer’s almost over and another BBQ season has gone by. We had our own last week which was a great success. We had lots of people, lots of great food and lots of good talk.

Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ve been pretty lucky this summer in terms of events and having food to enjoy. Most, if not all, of the hosts  had some sort of vegetarian/vegan option to eat. It’s also important to be a gracious guest and bring something, and for anyone with any kind of specific dietary requests it’s a bit of a no-brainer to bring a dish you like to eat. It’s also a great way to turn people on to new ways to see how yummy plant-based foods can be.

While I don’t have a photo of what I made for this summer’s BBQ I will share the recipe:

Image Courtesy of Adamr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Wheatberry Salad

3 Cups Sprouted Wheatberries
4 Cloves Garlic, Pressed
1 Tsp Salt
1 Red Onion, Chopped
1/2 Cup Walnuts, Chopped
3-4 Stalks Celery, Small Dice
2 Large Carrots, Shredded
1/4 Cup Cilantro, Chopped
3 Ripe Tomatoes, Chopped

Vinaigrette

1 1/2 Cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tsp Oregano
Salt to Taste
Pepper to Taste

Soak wheatberries overnight. Rinse the wheatberries and cover in about 2 inches of water, add the garlic and the salt. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer for 30 min. (If you cook without soaking it will take longer so keep an eye on them.) Drain the water with a sieve to keep the garlic in, let the wheatberries cool and combine with the veggies.

In a blender or large jar (if you are using an immersion blender)  combine vinaigrette ingredients and blend until well homogenized. Pour over salad and let marinade overnight.

You can play around with spices for the dressing, add chickpeas or navy beans and include a diced apple for even more crunch.

What was your favorite recipe for summer BBQs?

Listen to Your Inner Voice

Do you ever get that little voice inside your head telling you to do something? Sure you do, we all do – but do you listen to it? I mean actually pay attention and listen to what it has to say?

Image courtesy of Mr Lightman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sometimes we find it easy to ignore those inner voices, however, we know that what they have to say can have an impact on our day – heck even on our life. How often do we find ourselves ignoring that little voice to find out later on that if we had listened to it we could have avoided <insert crappy scenario here>?

So the next time you have a nagging little voice telling you what to do, stop and listen for a minute. It might actually make your day a little easier.

The Importance of Vacation

We all need a vacation, period, full-stop and whatever else you use to illustrate a point.

Maybe not all of us need to forget someone, in two weeks… but we certainly need the time to rest, regroup and regenerate.

Vacation is like sleep, when you sleep your body works it’s magic replenishing and doing all those things it can’t focus on while you are awake. Well when you are in vacation mode you (should) have less stress and anxiety, you know, no alarm clocks or crazy commute to deal with. It can also help your body take a break from the germy world of keyboards, airless offices, subways, trains, and in my case, hospitals.

Can’t afford to go anywhere, no biggie, staycations work just as well. Day trips to local parks or historic sites and cozy dinners at home sound pretty awesome too.

Why I Like to Compost

I can’t really take credit for starting our compost heaps, that was all Jared’s doing. Also his doing putting it in one of the garden beds, figure if we rotate that each year to a different bed we will have excellent results in that bed, and maybe a little extra gifts too.

Main Compost Heap w/ Kabocha Squash

I have come to support it for a few reasons:

• We have less food waste going into landfills
• It adds rich nutrients to the soil
• It recovers lost soil in the garden due to erosion
• Best of all – seeds get spread around the garden so we have extra veggies growing

My very first year of planting I planted a ton of tomato seeds, very few if any germinated – that’s what I get for buying “survival seeds” on eBay… anyway the compost came to the rescue! We had several rogue tomatoes thanks to the compost. Right now we have a giant kabocha squash growing in our main heap that has about 4 – 5 squashes on it – most we have ever had!

We also have another squash growing in the garden proper, I don’t what variety yet but I have a feeling it’s another kabocha Yippee!!

Unknown Squash

One cool project would be to spread the compost and see what comes up!

 

Mindfulness

You hear a lot about mindfulness but that can mean anything really.

From our Hong Kong Honeymoon in 2007

Yes for some it can include a meditation practice, however mindfulness can come from other places as well. I think of mindfulness as an awareness, and having an awareness of what happens around you, what others feel around and what you project to the world.

I prefer to think of mindfulness as a sort of awareness. It makes understanding the basics a bit easier in my opinion. And the beauty of awareness boils down to the fact that we can have an awareness of so many things. Things happening around the world, injustices to people (and animals) and injustices we see right in our own backyards.

But before you have expanded your awareness to the rest of the world, I ask you to focus the awareness on yourself.

Garden Update

I figured it was about time I gave you guys a garden update.

This spring I didn’t have a chance to get my seeds started early so I pretty much planted as late as I ever have. As I was telling my friend Nelson, who does an awesome job running the Metuchen Farmer’s Market, my gardening philosophy is to take whatever I have and throw it in the ground…

So here’s what has come up

Kabocha Squash

Kale and Mystery Squash

Tomatoes

Tomatoes

Borage

Calendula

Asparagus

“Permaculture”

I also have these wild flower looking weeds that have really come in, thanks to my lack of weeding and making it more of a “permaculture” type plot. If anyone knows what these are please let me know!

Mystery Flowers

What do you have growing in your garden??

LIEBSTER AWARD:

I want to thank my friend Charanya from Yes I’m Vegan 🙂 for nominating me. Below are the rules and questions to answer:

Rules for this award:

• Thank and link back the person who presented the award to you.
• Have the award on your post.
• Answer the questions that has been asked.
• Award the same to other upcoming blogs.

Charanya’s Questions

1. What’s your favorite cuisine? Too many! Middle Eastern Maybe
2. What would be the last meal you will love to eat? Something Indian or Falafel
3. What is your favorite vege? Changes every day!
4.  Do you watch Game of Thrones? Yes, though I am behind but have read through book 5
5.  If you are vegan, why? If not, do you think you could be one for few days? at first it was fr health reasons but as I did more research my reasons became more ethical and environmental
6.  Is there anything your life wont be the same without? Nope not really
7.  What’s your favorite movie? Too many to name! I love bad movies!!
8.  Is there any color you loved as a kid? Green, now my fave is red
9.  Is there anything you would change in your life if life had a rewind button?
10.  Do you own an iphone or an android? iPhone
11. 3 words that could describe you: Passion, Loyal, Independent

My nominees are:

1. Vegan Flavorista
2. Earthpages.org
3. A Lazy Girl Goes Green
4. Veganomics
5. The Novice Gardener
6. Vegan Muffin Woman
7. Epicurean Vegan

My questions are:

1. What is your favorite book?
2. What gets you up in the morning?
3. What color best describes you?
4. What do you do for fun?
5. If you could make one thing in the world right, what would that be?

What happens when you lose your mojo

Every once in a while I get a deep sense of mojo loss. The best way to describe mojo loss is a feeling of what you are doing, or not doing, is not that important and you would much rather watch a marathon of episodes of Angel on Netflix.

As much as I would love to watch Angel all day – and I have! It’s important to get back in the swing of things. Here are few tips to help you get your mojo back:

1. Talk to friends, colleagues, peers, anyone that knows what you want to do and are about. Chatting can help you articulate any fears that may be lurking that is subconsciously trying to squash your mojo.

2. Have a heart to heart with yourself. We are often the harshest to ourselves, would you say the same things to another person that you say to yourself? If not, then stop it – be nice.

3. Do something that pertains to your mojo, sometimes we forget why we do what we do and getting back to the roots can help center you.

4. Take it easy, it’s possible that you are feeling burnout, if that’s the case then take a vacation, if you can’t go away then take a mini-vacation, even an afternoon off spent with family and friends or alone at a great spa can help re-energize you.

Reflect, reawaken and remember, you won’t be happy if your mojo is out of whack.