“Think Positive. Come up with positive affirmations that you can repeat to yourself every morning in the mirror.  How bold are you going to be today?”

doTERRA Living Fall 2016

This is what I look at in the mirror in the morning….. The thing is, that this is not an abnormal look for me to have throughout the day. I have to laugh at myself. I am a mess. In a previous post, it was mentioned that Sierra and I had learned to love ourselves. That includes all of the crazy. For a long time I didn’t really care for what I saw in the mirror. My hair is messy, my face is not flawless, my body isn’t like so-in-so’s. There are so many things you can point out about yourself that you don’t like or would like to change, and not only the physical attributes. My positive affirmation had to turn to picking those same flaws out and loving them. I love that my hair is messy. It means the time it would take to do it was spent doing something else: painting, reading, riding my bike, finding a new adventure with my kids, etc. I love that my face isn’t flawless.  It’s a face that is just mine and no one else has it. It is a unique face. My body is not like the other ladies in the gym, and that is ok. It’s a body that has carried and delivered 2 babies. It is a body that is strong and capable of anything I work for to accomplish. It is a body that I am proud of.

Reinforcing regularly that positive attitude, it did not take long for me to look at myself differently, to love what I was looking at. After getting through all of that, I needed to affirm myself in other ways including letting myself find out who I am. I love the way that Sierra has done this for herself and in a way I do this as well,  but her words are better. “How bold am I going to be today?” That is perfect. She said she would ask if she were bold enough to get the laundry done today. Then, the day she made the decision to go to college, she asked herself “How bold am I going to be?”. She was very bold. With two kids, a husband working out of the state two weeks on and two weeks off, and then tragedy struck. It changed so much in their household with the death of her mother-in-law, taking on two teenagers and on top of it all, she went all of the way through school. On the day of her graduation, we were all there cheering on her boldness! I have asked myself on several occasions, “Am I going to be bold and take my bike out on a trail that I’ve never been on before by myself?” “Am I going to be bold and have an adventure that takes me across the country with my kids to learn what it is that we are capable of?” It is amazing how bold you truly are when you let yourself see it in the mirror.

How bold are you going to be today? Do you need to love yourself? Do you have goals that keep getting set on the back burner? Whatever it may be, WAKE UP, tell yourself that you are bold, that you can accomplish your goals, that you can make a small change today that can lead to reaching your goal, that you are beautiful!

Erin

I like to refer to myself as an adventurer, but in my domestic position you might call me a chef. I have been working in a kitchen for many years and I have always had a love for food as well as art and you combine those two and look out! It is very easy to lose yourself in indulgences more often than you should. It might seem strange being around food all day and still I would take the time every morning to not only prepare my food, but also the lunches for both of my kids every day. I loved how one day one of my son’s teachers cracked up at what I put in his lunch, mind you I lived in the south for his first year in school so eating habits there compared to here are very different, I had sprouts in his lunch. Not in a sandwich or on anything just a little container of sprouts along with meat and cheese and some veggies. My kids love sprouts. What can I say. Me personally I love them too but I don’t just eat them plain. I like them with a salad or in a sandwich pocket. It makes me proud that they are for the most part very good eaters!

“Preparing Meals can help you take charge of what you eat, along with taking away the temptation of going out.” doTERRA Living  Fall 2016

When I work in the kitchen it can be like going out all day long. You have all this food that is very rich and tastes so good right in front of you. It is very easy to put on several pounds with this as your job. It is not bad to indulge here and there. In fact it is actually good for you. If you are always telling yourself no, you can do more harm than good but every day indulging, not so much

A good meal plan will keep you on track and keep you healthy. Keep it simple the simpler, the better. I like the suggestions in the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute website https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/eat/calories.htm Given my background with food, it is easy for me to come up with creative solutions to change things up a little.  I understand that is not the case for everyone. Here is what I do and it is so nice and easy for a busy single mom of 2 kids:

Breakfast: (largest meal) 2 eggs scrambled, poached, or over medium (whatever I am in the mood for) with a good amount of sauteed veggies, very little avocado oil or coconut oil and half of a baked grapefruit.

Morning snack: 1/2 c. of cottage cheese sprinkled with sunflower seeds and a handful of blueberries, strawberries, or pineapple.

Lunch: a salad with a portion of salmon or chicken lots of veggies and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (keep in mind that your choice of dressing is where a good deal of you calories come from)

Afternoon snack: an apple with a tablespoon of peanut butter

Dinner: A hamburger with no bun and lots of veggies on the side. This meal tends to be the smallest one.

Keeping your refrigerator stocked with fresh fruits and veggies will help with keeping you satisfied. If you are grilling out one night, throw a couple extra pieces of chicken or fish on the grill and use those in your meals during the week. Getting bored with your veggies, throw those on the grill as well and that will change the flavor and make your taste buds happy without adding fat. Again keep it simple. We do not need to kill ourselves preparing food or stress ourselves out with it. Protein, fruits and veggies and some good fats and lots of water. Find the time that works best for you to set yourself up. If you like to do it daily, in the morning or before you go to bed that is great. If you like to, do it weekly and spend a Sunday evening getting it all ready for the week. Whatever works best for you. There is no right or wrong way to set yourself up with a plan. The goal is to give your body the energy it needs to get through the day. Stay within the suggested caloric intake for your body and eliminate the temptations of all of those quick meals that don’t give your body what it needs and makes you feel sluggish throughout the day.

Erin

It’s river day!! The first float of the year!! Its a bit late in the year for our first float but we had more rain than usual in June and the rivers weren’t floatable. You can’t float when the river is high and full of run off. Multiple dangers await in the fast, murky water. One of the biggest is snags. These are trees or big branches that get swept down stream in the spring run off and get stuck in the river. Sometimes you can’t see them under the water until the last second because the water is brown from debris and the churning of the river.  Your raft can run over a snag and get punctured. Or when the river is fast you can get swept into a large bunch of trees as you round a bend. Your raft risks puncture as well as it being extremely difficult to get the raft unstuck. If things go very badly your raft could be flipped as it’s sucked into the stack.

Once the water level comes down a bit and the river slows you can easily avoid snags. However there are other types of ‘snags’ we encounter on this trip. Our usual route is to put in at the Stevensville bridge and take out at the Florence bridge. Scouting the night before the float we discovered that the Stevensville bridge has been closed due to concerns of bank erosion. The next available boat launch is at Bell crossing. This adds a considerable amount of time to the float. Well we decided we had all day to float so it wouldn’t be a problem.

Our rafting party consisted of two rafts, two small kayaks, eight adults and six kids. We loaded up coolers full of food and drinks, sunscreen, bug spray, life jackets and an inordinate amount of enthusiasm.

The float got off to a great start! The kids bounced from raft to raft. I bought my husband a waterproof blue tooth speaker for Christmas so we had our own summer theme music playing. We stopped to play and eat on sandbars. Along the way deer, cranes, a bald eagle, a beaver, ducks, and geese were common sights.

The weather was hot and clouds rolled over giving temporary refuge from the sun. The water was cool and crisp. Perfect to drip into when the clouds were at bay.

Our journey hit another ‘snag’ in the late afternoon when the pizza had all been eaten and granola bar rations were running low. Due to us having put in farther up stream we were still a fair ways from the take out spot. We floated on and as we neared the take out spot I began saying it’s just around this bend slightly too soon.  We went around at least 6 bends before we got to the last one. In my defense it’s a VERY windy river. At any rate we made it to port.

A beautiful day, and friends and family made the first float of the year aweome in spite of a few ‘snags’.