Fun and Mental Changes

  Does anyone in blogland remember the wall-o-candy growing up???  The wall covered in huge glass jars filled with every kind of candy the mind could imagine.  And the candy was cheap, I mean REALLY cheap and you could go home with an entire bag of yummy goodness! Well, I totally feel like that at Teavana!  Only, it's an "authorized" fix, which makes it EVEN better because I can have it without guilt!!!  Just looking at that wall of tubs brings back very fond memories.... and picking the various teas to oogle and smell, fruity and delicious!  These teas keep me on track; they give me the feeling of satisfaction.  When I can't gobble down an actual keylime pie, I can hit up one of the baristas at Teavana to whip me up a decadent delight, OR I can pull from the big wall-o-tea and go home with my yummy delights for later.... BTW, there is NOTHING like having the barista whip you up a yummy tea to try before you buy AND they always share their VERY ...

  WOW, WOW, WOW!!!  So I just received the most wonderful comment on my blog from someone I've never met and it BLEW my mind because I had COMPLETELY forgotten that I wanted to use my blog for "Scribing" in my Miracle Morning program!  I have gotten completely off track with my blog while I've been focusing on my new journey.  And SO much has happened, so here is my update!!! Well, when I started this journey (AGAIN) almost a month ago, I had no idea that stars were truly aligning!  I hoped for it and wanted to believe it, but I honestly wasn't sure.  And then support from crazy, out of this world sources started showing up... are still showing up (thank you Nancy), prayers are getting answered at lightening speed and "effortless" is not the description I would use to describe THIS fun and mental change, but more like "enjoyable".  Yep, I'm going there.... ENJOYABLE!  I just visited my doctor for my "month one" ...

A few years back I joined my local Curves and jumped on the Curves Complete bandwagon with HUGE success.  Since then I moved to an area that doesn't have a Curves, my husband was forced to retire from his job, I started a new job and life has been FULL of fun and mental changes (some not-so-fun).  How do I respond to a whirlwind of changes that gives me whiplash?  I stuff my face and DON'T do what I know I need to do to stay healthy and reach my goals. Welp today I'm giving it another go.  I may not have a Curves near me, but I AM still part of the Curves online community and I have access to some pretty great resources and included in those resources is a meal planner complete with recipes and even an "on the go" menu that I lived on today until dinner.  While not advised to do on a daily basis, having "on the go" options means that you can stay on course when you are in a pinch!  Breakfast:  Dunkin Donuts Ham and...

I hadn't realized until just recently what a blessing my "mostly stocked" craft room is.... honestly, that little space of heaven might really be saving my life!!!  Not a bad way to start off my new year!!! My husband and I recently met my sister and her husband for one of those "paint nights" where you meet at a bar, recreate a masterpiece and have a bit of fun.  When my husband asked my sister why she decided to plan this outing she explained that as part of her breast cancer recovery, her holistic doctor recommended she take up something artistic to help relieve stress.  She was quick to point out that I've always had paper crafting for stress relief and artistic expression and I realized that she was right!!!  When I sit down to work on a project, I can COMPLETELY lose myself... truly not a care in the world.  HUGE chunks of time can fly by unnoticed when I'm in the throes of creative inspiration, even if it is only recreating a masterpiece.... ...

So I recently became a member of Young Living Essential Oils.  I became a member just before one of the biggest growth spurts this company has ever known and RIGHT as holiday sales are ramping up.  Needless to say, I had to WAIT for my Starter Kit and I was NOT happy.  But then the kit came and I tried the oils.  Can I just say.... SOOOOOOOO worth the wait.  This isn't my FIRST bout of impatience: Once upon a time in a land of tumbleweeds and super hot summers, a beautiful, charismatic and really quite skinny girl made her first trip to a well-known coffee shop. She met a friend there who was full of excitement and seemed to have a knowing glint in her eye. After 20 minutes our super hot, skinny, well-spoken, charismatic girl got a little irritated with the wait. "Why am I standing in a 20 minute line for a cup of coffee? Why would ANYONE wait for this? Don't th ese people have lives?" To which her friend turned to her a...

Sometimes I'm a jumper.  Sometimes I get involved in things that I have no clue what I'm getting into.  This is NOT one of those times.  I just became a Young Living Essential Oils Independent Distributor (member #2065124 thank you very much).... with no hesitation, not an ounce of doubt or uncertainty!!!!  And the reason is that I believe THIS is a better way. So I attended a Young Living Oils class, became a member that night and the following night, before my kit was even officially mailed to me, I signed on to sell these products and share the incredible opportunity for health with others.  It made sense to me... it helped that a friend gave me her weight loss trio (lemon, grapefruit and peppermint) to try so I was familiar with the product.  I was never on the fence and I haven't once second guessed my decision. I was never on the fence because years ago I had a homeopathic doctor tell me that ALL MEDICINE started out as natural medic...

It is not unusual for the Phoenix weather to be heating up right about now but the weather is actually downright gorgeous, so enjoying a healthful and delicious green juice on my back patio, soakin up some vitamin D this morning, is JUST what the doctor ordered so soon after my cleanse!  And WOW was it delicious with the sweet apples and kiwi... here's where I got the recipe:   Tattooed Martha . The smell of this wonderful juice mixed with the smell of the fruit tree blossoms and sunshine made for a WAY MORE RELAXED me before entering morning traffic to head to work.  Dare I say that if I'm not careful, I could make a habit of this and my morning road rage might disappear altogether!!!  NAH....this is Arizona!  It will be blistering hot by next month.  Road rage is still on! ***DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE BIG "FAVORITE THINGS" BIRTHDAY GIVE AWAY!!!  CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

Yesterday I got an early birthday present..... YAY!!!  You all know I ALWAYS do.  This gift I begged for after filling in for a girl at work who stashes hand weights under her desk.  Who wants to lug around hand weights???  The challenge for me has ALWAYS been, "What to do when I'm not at home?"  And, at the new house, my beloved Curves is nowhere to be found.  Coincidentally, that is where I first read about resistance band training... the Curves book. The workout in the book utilizes resistance bands to get the 1/2 hour Curves workout at home (BTW I'm totally needing right now), which I never did because I had my Curves close by.  But then we moved and my husband had surgery and has been using resistance bands three times a week at his physical therapy appointments and swears by the workout he gets with them.  SOLD!  I HAD to have these for my birthday! WOW.... no kidding these babies are INCREDIBLE an...

Please believe me when I say that this picture DOES NOT do this dish justice!!!  Today's gluten free dish is brought to you by the letter Y for FREAKIN YUM!!!!  It TOTALLY looks like I'm scarfing down on some pasta but its not.....it's spaghetti squash.  Now I'll be honest, the first time I made spaghetti squash I didn't like it.  I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds and baked it (skin side up) a LITTLE too long and it came out mushy like a baked potato.  It was not appetizing at all.  I also slathered it with hot marinara sauce which didn't help even in the slightest.  But THIS rockin creation.... I could eat this every single day.  I am so excited to find a gluten free dish that is actually better than its gluten counterpart.  I wish I had a name for this dish, but I don't.  This is literally something I threw together praying to baby Jesus that the second time would be a charm.  Thank the dear Lord it was!!! 2 b...

   THIS awesome yumminess is what I had for dessert tonight thanx to my super awesome Pampered Chef lady.  Why that is important is because not only did she share the original recipe for this low-cal dessert that I "frankenfixed" with my de-glutening super hero powers, but she also supplied me with THAT AWESOME square brownie pan that I love so much and use for EVERYTHING!  I have used this thing for mini single serve quiches, bacon bowl breakfast cups, single serve lasagna and, of course, brownies.  But THIS wonderful decadence is by far my best masterpiece!!!!   My Pampered Chef lady posted on her facebook page a recipe for a 33 CALORIE CHEESECAKE!  And added, "Let the Brownie Pan help you with your New Years Resolution!"  Well I immediately noticed that the recipe contains sugar and gluten.... the two things I swore to avoid as my New Year's resolution, but I have the pan so away I went "frankenfixing" this rec...

Hello my pretties!!!  Take a look at what I had for dinner!!!  Stuffed jalapenos wrapped in bacon.... and they were so so good!  I'll share the recipe here in a sec, but what I really wanted to talk about was this business about fat.  Fat does not make us fat?  Could this be real???  How could that even be possible when everyone from the time I started going to school has been telling me that a low fat diet is the way to maintain weight and stay healthy???  Could it be that dietary fat (real fats, not lab-created crap that the body doesn't recognize) is actually the key? I recently watched Fat Head, a documentary that debunked ANOTHER documentary I watched last year called Supersize Me.  In Supersize me a guy eats nothing but McDonalds for 30 days and "supposedly" ruins his health by the end (after watching Fat Head I REALLY questioned the authenticity of Supersize Me).  Do I believe that a diet of really bad food choic...

I've been gluten free in short bursts on and off for years, but I think this is the first time I've ever accomplished STAYING gluten free for a long period of time.  I'm coming up on a whole month and it feels WONDERFUL!!!!  I had no idea how bad I really felt.... all the time.  Sometimes you don't know how bad you feel until you start feeling good.  Well now I'm learning that it is a problem A LOT OF FOLKS might be having.  I just started the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis after hearing Dr. Wayne Dyer mention it on his New You Now video interview over at Hay House (click HERE to watch it) and then another friend of mine read it, cut out gluten and ALSO noticed a big change.  Well, with everyone getting these amazing results, I thought it would be worth a little shout out here on my blog. Just what if you could feel better?  What if you could have more energy?  What if mysterious symptoms weren't so mysterious after all?...

I've dealt with gluten intolerance for a large portion of my life and recent "attacks", for lack of a better word, have caused me to REALLY think about my lifestyle.  I've known that I shouldn't eat gluten, but was always able to tolerate it in small amounts and even when I would splurge and over-indulge I knew that I would feel bad for it later.  But suddenly, "later" is now minutes after consuming a meal containing gluten.  My latest attack ended with me feeling like I was having a heart attack and my hands swelled up so bad that my knuckles were white.  I am SUDDENLY terrified of gluten.  It's like my body is saying enough is enough.  So I gathered my gluten free cookbooks and began putting a meal plan together, but I really wasn't "feeling it" if you know what I mean.  All the recipes that I've collected are good, but I was truly wanting to find GREAT food to inspire me to change and change for good.  Let's face it, I'm ...

THERE SHE IS!!!!  My very first 100% Gluten Free Cauliflower Pizza Crust!  Sorry about the hazy pic, I don't know if it was the camera on my phone, the steam from just being pulled from the oven,the lighting in my kitchen or a combination of them all, but if you click on the pick to enlarge you can see that it turned out PERFECT!!!  Honestly, I surprised myself.  When you make the dough it doesn't look like it should turn out this beautiful.  I haven't "officially" eaten it yet because I made it in advance so I can just throw the toppings on tonight after work and pop it into the oven.  But I DID sneak me a little edge and it is SOOOOO YUMMY!!!  I can't wait until the pizza is done with all the yummy toppings I got for it.  I even picked up some turkey pepperoni!  So here is how this pizza crust is made; you won't believe how easy it is!!! Florets from on small head of cauliflower 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free...

Yes, yes... I know I've been away for quite some time.  Had a HARD tail end of 2013 with multiple moves, multiple surgeries and just as many nervous breakdowns!  WHEW!  Am I glad THAT'S over! I joke about having nervous breakdowns, but then again sometimes my nerves got a bit frayed and threatened to break right there toward the end of the year.  So I'm here today to tell EVERYONE what got me through and share my most recent 'HIGH FIVE'!!! So Hay House, the book publisher of one of my favorite people in the world, Dr. Wayne Dyer is hosting a " New You Now " event that kicks off in less than a week.  My guess is that Hay House will feature a good number of their published authors to sort of kick off book sales for the new year while at the same time sharing some insight and direction toward you reaching your full potential in this new year..... BRILLIANT IDEA!!!  My favorite of all is that RIGHT NOW they are featuring another life-changing v...

My cleanse ended YESTERDAY!!!  I officially made it 15 days on the juice cleanse.  Here's my take-away: Pros SOOOOO much easier in the beginning than The Master Cleanse ever was... as in NO HUNGER!!! SOOOOO much tastier... as in there are about a MILLION different juice concoctions you can come up with! SOOOOO not boring...Drinking the lemonade on The Master Cleanse gets VERY boring after about the 10th day. Weight loss was a steady 1 pound a day. Staying hydrated was a snap! Monster Energy.  There are always sluggish days on The Master Cleanse.  This juice cleanse had NONE!!! Skin glowed. NO SALT WATER FLUSH... those of you who have completed The Master Cleanse know EXACTLY what I speak of here. Cons Cleaning the juice machine after EVERY "meal" of juicing got to be annoying. I found that I had some serious cravings... and for bad food!  On The Master Cleanse all hunger and cravings pretty much disappear after the first 3-4 days. NO SALT WAT...

Ok you guys... I just saw Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead!  WOW!!!  THIS is the fast I'm doing this year!!!  In the past, I've always done The Master Cleanse, but after watching this movie... I'm ALL OVER giving this fast a try.  I LOOKS DELICIOUS!!!  Instead of daily salt water flushes and choking down the lemon/maple syrup/cayenne concoction (which I won't lie, I personally enjoyed but had heard COUNTLESS complaints) I am going to be undertaking 20 days of fresh vegetable and fruit juices.... only fresh vegetable and fruit juices.... starting tomorrow. The movie made the fast seem very doable and the juices they consumed looked yummy so I'm hoping I won't suffer the INTENSE feeling of hunger I alway have to go through the first few days of The Master Cleanse.  They did mention that you don't feel very good the first few days of this juice fast because of detox symptoms, but I'm hoping that because I fast pretty regularly, I won't have the same issue....

Yep... I've FINALLY discovered the MAGIC that is the Google Calendar!!!  I had NO IDEA that it actually synced to my phone!!!!  FREEDOM!  SWEET FREEDOM! Now for those of you who are NOT schedulers, let me tell you why schedules are so important and why this discovery, in particular, is so empowering to me. Schedules free your mind - when you get your thoughts out of your head and placed into some kind of order (or plan) on paper, your brain is not taxed with the job of remembering. Plans allow you to reach your goals quickly and efficiently - a plan maps out the best course to get you from point A to point B.  For example:  you know that you have to meet Judy on the west side of town for lunch, then be on the east side to pick up paperwork at the office, west side again to pick up flowers at the florist and finally north to pick up dry cleaning.  Well, planning your day allows your brain to go on auto-pilot.  All it has to do is f...

Ok you guys.... it has been awhile since I've reviewed/recommended a product, but with summer here, a high-five just couldn't be put off.  My high-five for today isn't just for one product, it's for THREE products and a GENIUS YouTuber's video!!! Since I was a teenager I've suffered with dry cracked heels and have used EVERYTHING on the market to combat the problem... well, so I thought.  Then I stumbled upon the video below and it honestly changed my life.  I know, we hear that all the time in the corniest of commercials, but this time it's really true.  Only if you've suffered with this painful problem can you appreciate what a life WITHOUT the problem would look like and how very "changed" it would be!!!  So check out the video below.  It's a long one, but she discusses all the well known treatments for the condition ending the video with some products that really do work:  I have been using the products listed at the end of this...

It has been SOOOOOO long since I posted one of my healthy recipes, which is super weird since that's all I've been making for the past 5 months!!!  I actually have a few to share but have been a little preoccupied with my Spectrum Noir design team activities.  One kind of play interfered with another... so to speak. So pictured is my Spicy Hawaiian that is COMPLETELY gluten free, crispy and soooooo yummy!!! Spicy Hawaiian Chicken In a large flat plate (I actually use a cookie sheet cuz I'm messy) mix: 1 C. coconut flour 1 C. shredded coconut 1 Tbsp. cayenne pepper (less if you like) 1 tsp. each of black pepper and sea salt (more if you like) 1 Tbsp. garlic powder 1 Tbsp. onion powder 1 tsp. crushed red pepper Set aside.  In another flat plate place another 1 C. of coconut flour.  Set aside.  In a large bowl whisk: 3 organic eggs 2 Tbsp. water Set aside.  Next is dipping the chicken.  Make sure you have a parchment lined cookie she...