Those of you who follow my Intense Life Facebook page know that part of my goals this year center around my health. As I mentioned on Monday, my passions involve around my post too! There are several reasons for this! First, both my grandmother and my mother died relatively young – my grandmother at 85 (cancer related), and my mom at 70 (also cancer related). My grandmother never practiced a healthy lifestyle. She was of the era that believed that women did not exercise. Furthermore, she drank and smoked to excess. My mother came to a healthy lifestyle later in life (around my age, actually). She smoked from her twenties until she was in her fifties and she hated to exercise. Otherwise, she was pretty healthy. She always ate a balanced diet, maintained a healthy weight, meditated daily or more, and regularly saw her health care providers. In the end, the smoking lead to her cancer (oral) and took her life prematurely.
Being healthy is something I have always strived to achieve. But, if I;m being completely honest with everyone, it is not something that was at the top of my list of things to become passionate about. Yes, I grew up exercising and eating right. I meditate daily, believe strongly in being physically active, and understand the need to a balanced approach to a healthy lifestyle.
That said, I’ve had my struggles – especially with my weight. When I was an adolescent, my weight defined my value in my head and an eating disorder was born. In my adulthood, food became a panacea for other issues. Biological issues came into play as I aged, and now obesity defines my current weight struggles.
Until this year.
That’s right – I have absolutely committed to reclaiming my healthy lifestyle – the one that exists in my head and heart, but has not made it in my everyday world. There are a million reasons why I am finally ready to do this, starting with living a longer life. This is literally about living for me. I am lucky right now – my heart is good, there is no diabetes or other obesity related things I need to panic about. But my blood pressure is creeping in the wrong direction, I have some issues around anemia and vitamin D deficiencies to deal with and I know I am setting up a lot of potential problems with the weight.
Which brings me to the point of this post.
Part of my commitment to making healthy lifestyle choices/changes is a commitment to going “green” with my diet. By this I mean including more vegetables, drinking green smoothies daily and taking the time to make sure that what I am putting into my body will serve my body well.
I started this journey the way I start many things – with a quick web search for recipes that included kale, spinach, and other greens. Now, I have an adventurous palette, and I am willing to try most things. But, I wanted to start off the whole green smoothie thing will something that didn’t really taste, well, green!
Enter my new fav website – Simple Green Smoothies. This site has recipes, testimonials and more. AND, the best part – I’ve tried several of the recipes and they are good. BEYOND good! My picky eaters at home even love them.
In addition to going green, I am meditating more, exercising more, and stressing out less! Yep, 2014 is all about LIVING GENTLY!
What are you doing this year?
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