What's Your "Thing"?

Photo taken from Pure Nourishment.  Give your "thing" the boot and yourself a kiss!

Photo taken from Pure Nourishment.  Stop boring your friends with your "thing".

How many times a day do you vent about how exhausted you are, how many pounds you need to loose, what you can't afford to buy, that a-hole boyfriend who dumped you?  What's your "thing"?  What do you complain about, just about every second of the day or at least any time someone asks how you're doing?  Now I know some of you are saints and everything is perfect.  Let's get real, nothing is ever perfect.  So stop comparing yourself, judging and please try and let go of your "thing".  As you know from my post, Emotionally Unstable, one of my many "things" was my 5 year old daughter waking up in the middle of the night.  If you're like me and love, and I mean really love, sleeping then you know how tough those 2am wake up calls are.

Well, I noticed myself talking about it all day, all the time.  It reached a point where I felt like a walking zombie, my daughter felt awful because she felt responsible and let's just face it talking about my lack of sleep doesn't make for interesting conversation.  So I made an effort to stop!  Now my girls are sleeping (not sure for how long, but I'll take it) and I've stopped fixating on one of my "things".

Shifting your "thing" to an affirmation helps.  For me I was complaining about being exhausted.  Now I say throughout the day that I am well rested.  Also talk about being abundant if you want the money to come in...  Yes please!  Write down a quick list of things you want to bring into your life and start with some daily affirmation so that "thing" won't be annoying not only you, but to your entire crew.

Chia Seeds

Love the chia seed energizing water at Kreation Kafe and chia muffin from Le Pain Quotidien.

Let's be honest, the first thing that entered into my head when I started hearing about chia seeds was that song for chia pets.  You know the plant that grows in your kitchen...  "Ch ch ch chia."  Well if the song doesn't ring a bell, and you're not cursing me later today when you start humming the tune, listen up because those little seeds are considered energy boosters!  WebMD says the Chia seed dates back to Mayan and Aztec cultures.  It also touts the black and white seeds as being high in Omega 3 fatty acids, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, antioxidants and calcium.

Needless to say, I got excited when I noticed that one of my favorite restaurants and juice bars, Kreation Kafe in Santa Monica, prepares fresh Chia Seed water.  I had to try it!  The chia water was the perfect pick me up.  The live chia seeds actually taste a little nutty and definitely add texture to the water.  According to the owner of Kreation Kafe, Marjan Sarshar, chia seeds are the cure for just about everything.  They especially help with digestion after eating a fatty meal, she noted.

One of my other favorite spots to pick up food is Le Pain Quotidien.  I didn't know they prepared chia muffins until my husband brought me home a few the other day.  I don't think they're low in calories but they taste amazing!!

Whole foods sells large bags of chia seeds.  You can sprinkle them on your cereal and add them to your smoothies.  The best part is that unlike flax seeds, you don't have to worry about grinding them to get the full nutritional benefits.  Oh, and just in case you want to hear the chia pet song, check it out on YouTube.  Cheers to ch ch ch chias!!

Is Fear Holding You Back?

This morning I woke up freaked out that all my teeth were intact because in my dream half of them had fallen out!  When I looked up the meaning, it wasn't pretty.  Then I heard about a 35 year old friend who died yesterday of inflammatory breast cancer.  In fact, her diagnosis led me to write this entry in 2010, What Happens When You Get the News.  I spoke to her a few times over the past few years about sharing her voice.  She was excited because she beat the disease, but then it came back with a vengeance.  Just as I was about to write off today as a miserable one, a reader sent me this video.  It was just the thing I needed...  A little inspiration for my soul.

* Just an FYI, here's more information about following your dreams.

What are you eating?

Photo taken from engormix.com

Photo taken from EnaxHealth

Last night I watched The Doctors...  Not sure why I don't watch it more often!  Yesterday's show was about "nasty" stuff in our food.  Lice killer in ice cream, potassium bromate which is a chemical banned in the UK and Canada in our bread, chicken soaked in chlorine water then injected with salt.  These are foods that are staples in our household, so what does it all mean?

This morning after preparing a green smoothie for my daughters (today I used frozen strawberries and rasberries), I pulled out the package of whole wheat english muffins and was shocked when I read the label.  It felt like those words POTASSIUM SORBATE were highlighted.  Now this is different from the preservative mentioned on the doctors which is potassium bromate, but when I started searching online, both of these chemicals are actually listed on Whole Foods list of Unacceptable Ingredients in Food.  Bromate was actually labeled a carcinogenic in 1991 under Prop 65, according to EmaxHealth.  See that photo of the hamburger Dr. Sears uses to demonstrate all the additives in fast food.  Well, that's from 12 years ago!  Scary right?

Make sure you check the labels.  Look for as few ingredients as possible, and if you don't know how to pronounce something, don't buy it!  Kids love ice cream, as do many adults...  Myself included.  So the thought of lice killer in that frosty treat makes me nauseous.  For so many of these food companies, it's all about the bottom line.  So why not use these chemicals that the FDA deem as safe in small doses.  But imagine little bodies ingesting all these chemicals.  It can't be good for our kids or us adults long term.  Ice cream is easy now, go for the all natural ingredients like one of my favorites, Breyers Natural Vanilla.  It tastes so much better than that chemically stuff too!

So what about chicken?  It seems so easy, you buy a whole chicken, roast it and pouf you have the perfect dinner for the whole family.  I prepare a whole chicken at least once a week for my crew.  Love the Barefoot Contessa perfect roasted chicken recipe.  Did you know that non-organic chickens are soaked in a chlorine bath that contains 50 times more chemicals than allowed in your backyard swimming pool?  The purpose is to kill off salmonella poisoning and other diseases.  Worst part is in a study The Doctors team conducted, it didn't even kill off the diseases.  After the relaxing chlorine bath, the chickens are then injected with salt so they taste extra yummy.  Double gross!  If I were you, spend the few extra dollars for organic, free range chicken.

Hope I didn't spoil your appetite for the entire day!

Emotionally Unstable

Photo taken from Girlwholovesparis.tumblr.com

Photo taken from Pure Nourishment.

Having a tough day, week or even month?  Feeling a little emotionally unstable?  That's okay!!  We've all been there...  Stop pretending that everything's perfect all the time.  Share your feelings, cry, scream, go on a run, slow down, breathe, re-focus and pick yourself back up again.  

The biggest challenge in my household is sleep.  Once my girls go down, I cross my fingers and hope that I don't hear any footsteps running down the hall at 2, 3 or 4 in the morning.  Last week, I heard those dreaded steps of my older daughter, yelling mommy then the scream of my 2 year old.  A double whamie which subsequently led to a 4 o'clock nervous breakdown.

I covered my face with a pillow and screamed.  Then I started jumping up and down.  Yep, not afraid to admit that I was a complete mess...  There's a reason sleep deprivation is used as torture!  I hit my breaking point.  It was emotional, exhausting and finally liberating.

How do you let go when you hit that breaking point with your kids, a draining friend or co-worker?  Don't worry about venting to that one friend you really trust, just as long as you reciprocate and support her. Work on some breathing exercises like the ones Jenny Miller taught me last year on my webisode, Relaxing Through Breathwork.  Or have a conversation with your child, like I did with my almost five year old.  If you want a happy mommy, we have to work together as a team to sleep through the night.  Sometimes things go as you expect, other times you just have to succumb to the chaos, move forward and know that the happiness you're craving is really just a state of mind.