Delving into my childhood

Even though I'm about to be a mother of two. I usually feel like I'm still a kid myself, when I'm not working, getting my education. paying bills/rent and making sure that actual kids are fed :)

I fell asleep last night thinking about how awesome yet maybe unconventional my childhood was.

My family never went to Disney world, or Wisconsin Dells or took a trip to the ocean.
our first (and only, so far) family vacation was when I was 18 years old.

We did kick a ton of ass though. We played basketball all evening until the sun went down. When one of the kids got hurt we knew we couldn't leave them, we'd drag their limp body home for inspection.

I could operate nun chucks, wrist rockets and butterfly knives before I started middle school.

We used to shoot icicles with wrist rockets.
we rode everywhere with my dad on his motorcycle.
we climbed every tree, explored the woods, watched out for each other, caught a million bugs, toads, tad poles, frogs, snakes, turtles and crayfish.
We filled fanny packs with frog eggs and forgot about them.
It was dog eat dog in our house - nobody had to make you come home on time to eat dinner. get home on time for dinner, because it’s on the table at 6, if you aren’t here to speak for your food no one will do it for you.
Punishment was fairly sentenced and you deserved it. We didn't run the house, our parents did.


We kids were strategists first. No matter what we had a plan and even if it worked or it didn't we HAD a plan.

Most peoples' childhoods ready them for a normal functioning adulthood.
My childhood had no Disneyland, sailing expedition or grand canyon. But, if a plane went down with all four of my brothers and sister in it, there would probably be four survivors. We could survive nuclear holocaust, maybe even a zombie apocalypse if we had to.

Regular adulthood has been pretty easy so far. I don't know what we trained so hard for. :)

Escape from Facebook - riding the blue pony.

Gooday to you. And also to you.

I had a few funny thoughts today so I think I'll share them.

Last month I deactivated my Facebook account. No big deal, I just didn't enjoy it and I thought it was taking up a lot of my time I could be using to do other things. So I deleted it. A lot of good and expected things happend after I deleted my account and one surprising thing. I'll share them with you now, as they all make me smile.

* I use my free time for getting stuff done, and when I'm done with that I actually relax. I don't incessantly scroll and check up on other peoples lifes

* I feel free to partake in any activities I want without have to take pictures or other wise document what I am doing or plan to do to gain attention for whatever I'm doing.

*"keeping up" with Facebook doesn't matter any more.

* I have my cell phone put away and its not dinging away with a notification every four minutes.

* I talk with my Husband about things that we want to talk about, not just about whats happening on Facebook.

* I don't have to read about people who have it pretty good complain about their lives every single day or sometimes multiple times a day. People are never that brash or annoying in face to face or phone contact. Common sense kicks in when they would actually have to verbalize the ridiculous shit they post on a news feed 100's of times a month.

* The best expected things are that I am less stressed, my life is simpler, happier and its pretty darn good. I complain less and enjoy more. There's no one to really report to so I find myself living more in the moment.

An unexpected consequence of getting rid of my facebook account is the countless angry mean looks and awkward encounters I've had with NUMEROUS people. Its funny really. I was wondering "Why is that person being so weird, or looking at me all mean?" This after a friendly approach on my part. It was hilarious when it dawned on me that they thought I had deleted them from my friends list or something. when actually I disappeared because I deleted my own account. Pretty much the weirdest and funniest thing of my day. You'd think there would be more important things to get riled up about!
Don't get cancer over it. :P
Peace out.
Good day babies - may the force be with you. and also with you.

Life is like a box of chocolates.

I'm starting to become convinced that ingenuity is a lost logic or art form. It’s becoming extinct because we have a tool for every task and gone is the way of one tool with many uses.
Sometimes we don't have all the tools for all the jobs. We need to realize that job A requiring tool A isn't the only solution. Thinking outside the box is what made us human. Imagination, inventing new uses for old things. These things sparked our entire evolution as a species. Think about that for a moment and translate it into your own life. Maybe you don't have all the tools, Maybe nobody gave them to you. you can't find them all, or your missing one. Maybe someone you know has all the tools and they aren't even using them! You don’t NEED all the tools to get your jobs done. I bet you already have a few things at your disposal that you don't even use right now. :) Whatever it is. don’t wait for the perfect tool to get your work done. You might never get it, or it might be a long way out. go a different way around, use whatever else you've got and you might just find what you only had to work with worked much better than the things you wish you had.

My husband is my prime example.
This guy was playing softball and slid into third while running full kilt (seems silly I know but he couldn't help it, he was so excited). He busted open his leg pretty good and I patched him up on the field so he could finish playing. I knew he needed to get cleaned up once we got home or he would get an infection. After his wound was clean I tore apart our linen closet looking for the biggest band aid we had, we had to cover his owie otherwise sleeping for him would be difficult. So we had little kid band aids and grown up band aids, I would need about 30 of those so that was out. and there I saw it, a box of big ass maxi pads. I mean, what’s a pad really than just a huge band aid? so with some Neosporin and athletic tape here is how my husband slept his first night a softball legend:

Sometimes we think we need a wound care kit when the whole time we could have used a maxi pad to get the same effect.
Thanks Jon.

<3

I'm sure

that I'm intterupting a good day in progress. I won't take up too much space or time.

I just thought maybe someone somewhere might need encouragment no matter what it is they are going to attempt to achieve today, this week, or this year. I hope everyone knows that whatever it is you want to get done - it is possible. People who tell you otherwise say that because THEY think they cannot do something and so they put that into their mind that just because THEY cannot do something that you cannot do it either. And thats how it starts. just one person thinking they can't do something, thats "too hard" or what have you. This ball has been rolling too long. and more of us need to realize that just we can do even very difficult things. So many things deemed "impossible" are actually just very difficult and can be done. Please don't limit yourself. The kids are watching.


Be true.
YOU can do it.

Better Recognize

Good day,

I hope I'm meeting you in the middle of a good morning.
I wanted to stop by this week and create a short blog about gratitude.

So often I know I and other people are always mentally and sometimes verbally aware of the things we don't have - or goals we haven't achieved. In a way its a good thing to be aware of where you stand when your trying to accomplish goals. But, constant mind-wind on that same topic can get a person to thinking more about what they don't have done than what they do have...

There are plenty of things and places we just aren't at at this moment, as we know you can only be so many places at once. But where you are right now is something to recognize and be thankful for. Where ever you are is still a place in space and its good you're here. For one moment its nice to clear your mind and just appreciate whatever it is you've got. Be thankful, be grateful you are where you're at. Because wherever that is- is a good place to leap up from. Even if or when you feel down low.

There are a lot of things I don't have personally, some I want, some I don't want. Some I know I will get there eventually. For right now at this very moment while I'm typing this and you're reading this I hope you sit quiet think for a moment- in this exact time and space, are you grateful for what you have right now? Or are you taking it for granted. family, health, love? are you making the most of it. Pay attention to your right now, this day will only come once. Make the most of it my friends.

-Josie

Make it happen

Normally, I don't advise trickery.


But in cases of health and fitness, or potential health and fitness- I advise it, it works.
most of how we get our exercise and decide what we eat is all about our minds. - It's how we relate to our fitness and food intake.

We've talked about goal setting. If you have a dream and you make a plan to get there and then follow it - that moves it from the dream or wish category right into the goal spectrum.
that's good.

Ways to convince yourself to help you reach any goals & some examples I can give you of what I do...

{An immediate goal of mine is to improve my physical health and increase my level of fitness.}

Things I really do:

Construct a dream board.
* Make a bulletin board into a dream board you will see everyday. cram it full of all the things you would like to see happen in your life. look at it every day. study it, add to it-  and draw power and inspiration from it. It's an evolutionary thing that can change as your goals do.

Put inspirational posters up where you know you need them.
*To get myself to run in the morning I put print outs of things I know will get me fired up to get outside I have one on my bedroom wall. the first thing I see when I open my eyes and also have a poster in my bathroom (everyone has that one spot in the bathroom they stare at in the morning when they pee. That's where my poster is at) They can say anything but most of mine say things like "If they hate you now, just wait till you're done." and "Wake up, the pavement misses your feet".

The Fridge.
* cut out a picture of something that motivates you could be an athlete or someone that holds the ideal of what you're going for. Cut it out and tape it to the fridge. it will help. I write notes also. on the fridge about eating for fuel and not emotional domination.
Mix and match whatever works for you best.

Know yourself
- you know yourself best. I used to say I was going to run in the morning but never wanted to actually put my running clothes and socks on when the time came. So I launched a

preemptive

strike on myself. - I went to bed every night in all of my running clothes socks included- and I got used to it. The result was i only had to get up put my shoes on and go outside. and i managed to run basically every single day for about a year.

You know yourself best so launch as many

preemptive

strikes as you need to to make sure you get your business done.

Oh, another BIG one for me is not buying what I know to be junk food at the store. I just don't buy it at all. Then it's not in my house. Its kind of a win-win for me.

That's all for now.
Thanks everyone for reading.
Have a secret weapon or trick you use against yourself for the greater good? Leave it in the comments :)

Tasty TASTY num nums

First of all, Good morning.

Second - LOOK at that.

What is that? Its a Homemade pear and caramelized balsamic onion flat bread. Delicious and good for you.

It can be made with any store bought or home made pizza dough. I prefer the whole wheat kind at Trader Joe's. I'll tell you how its made and then give the nutrition breakdown. * Quick side note: all ingredients to make 2 BIG cookie sheet size flat breads totaled under 10 bucks purchased at my local Trader Joe's. That's a tasty dinner, nutritious and not expensive. It keeps well in the fridge - and is nummy eaten either hot or cold.

----

So! Here's the deal. 1 bag of dough per large cookie sheet sized flat bread. Spray a cookie sheet, or round pizza pan, or put the dough on a dry baking stone.

- spray hands with olive oil (you've washed them already, so this is totally cool)

use your hands to press the dough evenly as possible to cover the whole surface that you will bake it on. Thin crust will be crispier - thick crust will be chewier. *If you take the dough out of the fridge an hour or so before you begin it will make this process much easier :)*

-after your dough is all pressed out nice, cut half a large white or yellow onion and dice it, saute the onion until soft and translucent (5 minutes roughly) watch it, stir it. don't let it burn. add 2 TBSP balsamic vinegar to your onions. Let them caramelize a bit and then take them off the heat, they're done.

Assembly; for the pear/onion gorgeous flat bread layer on your whole wheat pizza dough just sitting there waiting for you:

A mist of olive oil over the crust followed by sliced pears, your camelized onion mixture, 1/2 cup each of crumbled feta and 1/2 cup crumbled bleu cheese. Put that bad boy in the oven and bake it at 400 degrees until its bubbling and the crust is slightly brown on the edge and bottom. take it out. slice it into squares or slices. Whatever makes you happier - a cookie sheet size flat bread should yield about 24 complex, balanced, mouth watering pieces.

so to sum up the flat bread ingredients are:

Whole wheat pizza dough

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Onions

pears

feta cheese

blue cheese

BOOM - that's it.

- We also modified this and created a Sun dried tomato flat bread on garlic/herb pizza dough and took the pears out of the equation.

It's the same exact thing but we just swapped the pears for Sun dried tomatoes and the whole wheat crust for a garlic and herb one. It was just as easy but had a different but equally delicious flavor profile. The possibilities are really endless with this method. :)

Breakdown:

each slice contains 190 calories

11 grams of fat,

30 grams of carbs (derived mostly from whole wheat dough and the pear)

7 grams protein

A couple pieces of flat bread and a big salad would make for a well balanced lunch or dinner. If you give this flat bread a try I'm sure it will be a big hit- it is one of my new favorites. :)

Eat real food.
If it has a face or comes from the ground. Eat it. - If your into eating stuff with faces (understandable), go for it.
If it was created in a lab, blasted with hydrogen, chemically altered. DON'T eat/drink it.
Your body doesn't know what to do that that garbage - franken food. Do your self a favor and abstain from even buying that crap.

- Question. You ever see a Cheetos tree?
No. that's right - its crap. Your body can barley metabolize it.
feed your body REAL food and see what happens. You will be amazed.
If your already on the eating real food road - you know how awesome it is. *high effin five*

There's no magic anything people. Move your ass and fight the system.
Until we meet again - eat well, be well. Rock it out.

-Josie