Resistance.

March 28, 2014Leave a comment

bigleap The newborn honeymoon is over and Arlo is awake and crying much of the time these days. Neither him nor I have gotten much sleep the past 72 hours which means that most of my healthy practices are headed down the toilet. Today I have already been to Starbucks instead of hitting up the green juice stored in the fridge. Yet I refuse to give in and make excuses.

I managed to read a few pages of The Desire Map last night and thankfully I happened to read about resistance. I feel like my body is using sleep deprivation to make a case for resistance. It’s been hard to keep up with meditation, healthy eating, juicing, writing, etc. I still practice them daily but I would like to do more. I could say “It’s okay, I have a newborn.” “I also have a 16 month old and a just-turned-3-year-old.” It’s not okay. I will find a way.

“I’m changing,” we must remind ourselves. Todd Herman, a sports psychology coach, has 5 techniques to enact when we feel resistance building:

Deep breathing – instant energy for your cells! I must add hot yoga to my ever growing list of things to do for this very reason.
Focus on why you are doing what you’re doing. How do you want to feel?
Remind yourself: I’m changing. Your cells need time to grow and change, so give them the time they need to reshape themselves.
Visualization: visualize the exact outcome you desire.
Keep drafting your outcome. You must fine-tune your desires daily and get clear on what exactly you want your life to be and how you want to feel.

These 5 steps are empowering! Visualization is the key that turns the lock to your desires, so use it daily. Especially in times of resistance. Breathe, focus, and visualize!!!

I did, however, give in and snuggle this little man to sleep. It’s the only way I can get anything done at the moment, and these moments won’t last forever.

babysleeping

Vegetable Cauliflower Rice

March 23, 20141 Comment

Bye-bye white rice. Hello healthy vegetables that taste like take-out. Well, not even, because take-out tastes horrible when you’re used to eating clean. This is delicious!

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Vegetable Cauliflower Rice

1 head cauliflower
1 onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 medium carrots, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 cup peas
2 eggs
1 tbsp coconut aminos
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp coconut oil

Cut cauliflower into medium sized pieces and place in a food processor in 2 separate batches. Pulse until cauliflower resembles rice and set aside.

Heat coconut oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, and celery and cook over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and peas and cook for another 2 minutes. Then add cauliflower, stirring occasionally for another 4-5 minutes.

Make a hole in the center of the mixture and add the eggs. Break the yolks and let the eggs set a bit before stirring. Cook until eggs are set.

Add sesame oil and coconut aminos and stir to combine. Add more to taste.

Plate and enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies – “Paleo” version

March 20, 2014July 23, 2014Leave a comment

paleocookies If you like cookies, then you’re going to want to make these as soon as humanly possible. They are the most delicious cookies I have ever tasted, and they’re pretty much as healthy as cookies can get. I’ve been making these about once a week for a very long time.

Adapted from this recipe here.

Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a bowl, mix almond flour, salt, and baking soda.

Add melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract and mix well.

Mix in chocolate chips and form cookie dough into balls. Press each ball onto a cookie sheet with your palm. You can either grease the sheet with coconut oil, or use a silpat sheet – my personal favourite.

Cook at 350° for 8 minutes. Let cookies cool on the pan or else they will break!

Makes 18-20 cookies.

Blueberry Almond Bars

March 14, 2014July 12, 20142 Comments

Breakfast is always a struggle in our house. This morning I was inspired to play around with breakfast bars, and this was the delicious conclusion my 3 year old and I came up with. Enjoy!

Blueberry Almond Bars

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup agave
1 cup dried blueberries
1 cup almond flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup dried coconut
1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 tsp baking soda

Place almond flour, coconut, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl and mix. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Oil an 8 x 8 pan with coconut oil and press the mixture firmly into the base.

Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Cool in the fridge for at least an hour before cutting to give them time to set.

Core Desired Feelings

March 13, 2014March 20, 2014Leave a comment

It’s been one of those crazy weeks around here where I feel like I can’t get anything done. No wonder. Baby Boy #3 was born on March 3rd, and our 2 other littles have been fighting a virus for nearly just as long. My mom is here helping me soften the blow of 3 kids 3 and under until our part-time nanny starts next Monday.

I am so excited to have help with the kids I can hardly contain myself. For the first time ever I will actually have time to go to the gym, read, and put my heart into blogging – during daylight hours when I still have energy to think. I used to put the kids to bed and then mold myself into the couch for an hour before hitting the sac. It’s time to put myself first for once, and it doesn’t feel selfish like I thought it would. I need to fill up my tank or there will be nothing left to give to my partner or kids anyway.

My partner and I have been wading through the waters of reconciliation and personal development for the past 3 weeks. It will be a long road ahead, though a road worth traveling. If this detour has taught me anything, it’s just how much I want, need, and love my family. They’re where I belong and where my love thrives.

Yuri turned me on to Danielle Laporte a few weeks ago. She’s the queen of truth bombs on Instagram. She says things like “Sadness brings you eye to eye with your desires.” So true. Last night we filled out her Core Desired Feelings worksheet and I came to these conclusions about how I want to feel in my life:

I want to feel clarity. I want to feel grounded. I want to feel elegant. I want to feel ecstatic joy in every moment. I want to feel love, belonging, and connection down to my core, and I want to feel engaged and inspired.

The next step is writing down and DOING three things that you can do today, this week, and this quarter to generate these feelings. And naming three people to collaborate with who help me to feel this way. You can write in your journal all that you want, but unless you take action, those words aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. I am so excited to put these feelings into action.

So, today I started with putting on makeup and drinking green juice to make me feel elegant. I vowed to put in quality time with each of my 3 boys. I painted with my 3 year old, snuggled and put together puzzles with my 1 year old, and looked into my newborn’s eyes instead of reading while nursing. I was present. And lastly, as soon as I settle the newborn for the 100th time, I will meditate and ground myself, shower my heart in pink light, and have some quality time with husband. Thank you Danielle!

The Importance of Grounding

March 2, 2014March 19, 2014Leave a comment

When I am not grounded I feel incredibly anxious. And when my partner is not grounded I am anxious times a thousand. I can feel it. To say there is tension in the air is an understatement. When my partner isn’t grounded it’s like there is a spider web filling every ounce of space in the room, and I cannot avoid getting stuck in it. It makes me physically ill when it’s there, and there is no escaping it. Or is there?

This is when I send an emergency text to my energy healer and have her send clearing and grounding energy immediately. When she is able to do so there is an immediate shift in the way I feel. Suddenly there is no more emotional charge hijacking my soul. I am no longer lost in the non-physical dimension of downward spiraled thought and I am present again. Being grounded can actually turn a horrible experience into a very uplifting one.

How is this possible? When we are grounded, energy is allowed to flow through our root chakra instead of getting stuck and building up. Thoughts and feelings can flow through us rather than being over-processed by our minds. Grounding allows us to be fully present in our physical body and allows us to enjoy what is happening in the current moment, irrespective of seemingly omnipresent problems.

How can you ground yourself? Of course, not everyone has an energy healer on speed dial. I often ground myself instead of calling wolf. I only contact my energy healer if I’m having a do or die kind of moment, like when my partner’s ungrounded energy feels like it is literally going to kill me where I sit or stand. I know I am very lucky to have this kind of help in my life. Perhaps one day I will learn how to ground my partner, but for the time being I am able to ground myself.

3 Ways to Ground Yourself

1) Walk Barefoot Outside. This isn’t possible at the moment, being -10 C in Canada, but if it were even remotely feasible I would be out there rolling around in the earth right now. Being in direct contact with the earth allows your body to assume the same electrical charge as the ground, stripping away the damaging electrical charges that unhinge us. Alternatively you could probably go hug a tree!

2) Visualization. Sit or stand with your feet touching the ground. Imagine roots growing from the soles of your feet and see them diving deep into the earth where they wrap around the earth’s core. Picture the earth sharing her energy with you and becoming one with the ground. Tree pose in yoga is one of my favourite poses for this reason. If you can visualize yourself as a tree and become one with the earth, it is amazing how strong your balance becomes. It is for this reason that this pose is one of the very first poses performed in a yoga class!

3) Exercise and Proper Nourishment. I find this the easiest way to stay grounded, simply because these habits promote grounding without necessarily having to think about it. Clean eating and exercise are not difficult tasks once you make them a priority. Daily exercise is important for the mind and body, but it’s not enough. I would say that it’s even more important that you properly nourish yourself. This means drinking filtered water and eating as clean as possible: fruits, vegetables, organic meats. It also means limiting the bad stuff such as dairy and processed foods. Eat as close to the earth as you possibly can. This means preparing food from scratch rather than ordering pizza, though I have been known to order the odd pizza – I’m human after all.