My First Lesson

I just received my first lesson in Brendan Brazier's Thrive in 30 Program.  This is a free program that is emailed to you for convenience. There is a written portion and a short video to watch. Check out my previous blog for the link. 

This lesson focused on stress and diet.  I had never looked at stress in this way before, but he talked about two types of stress; complimentary stress and uncomplimentary stress.  Brazier defined these in simple terms.  Complimentary stress is stress that benefits you or is positive.  The examples given were the stress of studying for a test or the stress put on the body from exercising.  Uncomplimentary stress is stress that has no positive effects such as psychological stress or environmental stress.  The statistics that were given is that 60% of all stress that you experience is uncomplimentary and of that stress, 70% of it is what he calls nutritional stress, or stress put on the body from poor eating habits and choosing food that doesn't benefit the body nutritionally.

So let me get this straight, I can reduce the stress that I feel and that is placed on my body by feeding properly.  Okay, that makes sense, but I have never heard poor nutrition linked with stress before.  You may think that I am crazy, but when I hear it put like that, it kind of gives me an aha moment (Sorry, I think I just quoted Oprah).  It's not rocket science by any means, but when something is explained in a different manner, it can really make you think.

He continues on to give several suggestion (and good ones) on how to incorporate more fruits, veggies and whole foods into your diet and although he is vegan, there isn't any mention at this point on giving up meat.  It's more focused on making small changes to your diet to improve your energy and to reduce your reliance on things like caffeine and sugar to give you the stamina to make it through the day.  There is even a smoothie recipe at the end of the lesson if you want to give it a try!

I'm interested to see the next lesson to see what it leads to.  I'll keep you posted!

Fail!!

Okay, so I failed last week with the Meatless Monday.   I don't really know what happened.....okay, yes I do.  I was good in the morning.  I even ate Red River cereal with fruit.  But when it got to be dinner time, I had cooked a chicken for the rest of my family.    I couldn't resist.  Meatless Monday wasn't meatless anymore.  This week, just the way my menu planning worked out (yes, you did read that correctly, I plan my meals for the week on the weekend for the upcoming week), I am making my meatless day Wednesday.  Is that allowed???  Can  just change it to Meatless Wednesday???  Well, that's the way it's going to work. 

I have been looking for more reading material on the subject of vegan eating.  I had mentioned The Engine 2 Diet in a previous blog, but something that has caught my attention is The Thrive Diet.  The creator of these books (there are a few) is Brendan Brazier, a Canadian vegan triathlete.  He offers a free course called Thrive in 30.  http://thrivein30.com/sign-up-now/?cid=PPC-T30CAN-S I have signed up and am waiting for my first lesson to arrive.  Brendan also help with the formulation of the Vega brand of products. 

Brendan's website is http://www.brendanbrazier.com/  I plan to review the first lesson when it arrives in my inbox.  I'd love to hear it if you have followed a vegan diet and how it made you feel.

Meatless Monday Anyone??

I have decided that with my hectic life, the first change I am going to make is to reinstitute Meatless Monday into my routine.  This just means that for one day a week, I am going to avoid meat.  The reason that I feel that this is an important step for myself and m family is because we eat too much meat.  Typically at our house, breakfast is meat free, but both lunch and dinner involve some form of meat.  I think that no matter whether you eat meat or are vegetarian or vegan, we can all agree that everything we eat should be in moderation (except maybe fruits and veggies).  I think that, speaking for myself, I eat too much meat (and other animal products). 

If you decide to try Meatless Monday, there is actually a website devoted to exactly that:
http://www.meatlessmonday.com/
There are great menu ideas and lots of information as to why Meatless Monday is important to ourselves and society as a whole.

Anyone up to the challenge of one day a week of eating meatless?  I ask that you join me in this and post your recipes, successes and failures!  Check out the Meatless Monday recipe link on my page!!

Will This Be a Controversial Topic?? Veganism!

I have been having trouble deciding what to write about.  It's not that there aren't lots of things floating around in my head, but I never know how interesting other people will find them.  There is something that I would love to have a good discussion about.  There are varying degrees of it and different names for it, but the idea is the same.  Veganism....Plant Strong Living.....I went through a period of time this year when I spent a lot of time reading about it.  Vegan's avoid all animal products.  This means no meat, no dairy, no eggs, most avoid honey, some avoid refined sugar (which I have heard is refined using charred animal bones).  Also no leather.....nothing that has come from an animal. 

People who live plant strong eat no animal products and eat more whole foods, as close to their natural form as possible.  Bill Clinton follows this style of eating.  It has been touted by followers to lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of and possibly reverse the effects of heart disease. 

I have been considering attempting the 28 day challenge that is on The Engine 2 website.  Take a look.

http://engine2diet.com/tools

I'm still debating, but be sure that if I do, I will be blogging as often as I can about the day's menu and how I feel.  Anyone willing to join me?  Follow me here or on Facebook and let me know if you are up for a challenge, if I have a support group, maybe I can convince myself to try it for 28 days!

To the right of this post, is some recommended reading on this topic.  Consider reading up on it if you are unfamiliar.

Sorry This Has Taken So Long!!

I apologize for my absence.  We have had a busy few weeks here......I suppose that justifies my nickname, The Frantic Housewife.  Let me take a moment to fill you in.  For those of you who are also stay-at-home moms, you  know how busy life can be without anything else added in.  You are a cook, maid, chauffeur, laundry service, nurse, and many other things to everyone.  Then let's add in that I run a home daycare five days a week from 7 am to 6 pm.  Hence the franticness.

My son's hockey season has just begun....and so has arena life.  I try to be at as many games as I can be to cheer him on.  My husband helps coach.  This means quick dinners in the evening along with trying to squeeze in some homework time. 

My son also begged to go into Scouts. 

He has now joined the local cub pack.  We had to make a deal though.  The first sign that this is too much with hockey, if he doesn't get his homework done every week, he will have to give something up.  Right now, however, he is on his first camp out!

We just heard from one of the parents who is with him that he is having a great time!!  He doesn't want to head home until he has too!

My daughter just started ballet.  She is absolutely loving it!  Every week she comes home and shows us the new dance steps that she has learned.  One of my daycare kids saw her in her ballet outfit and asked me why she looked so beautiful :)

Then we discovered that there is a Girl Guide Unit in our town.  So we have signed her up as a Spark, and I signed up as a leader!

We are both so excited and are looking forward to having some adventures together. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, my husband is a volunteer firefighter, so now you can see why life here is frantic!!  I would love to hear what you do to make your life frantic!!

My kids are onely going to be young once and I hope that my husband and I can continue to support them as they participate in things to increase their confidence, independence and help them learn life skills.



Being The Wife of a Volunteer Firefighter Isn't Always Fun, But I Can't Help But Be Proud

My husband has been a volunteer firefighter for longer than I have known him.  It was always a part of our relationship. but I think it became more challenging after we had kids.  Things became less predictable at that point, and throw a firecall in the middle of that unpredictability and it can be sheer chaos.  I want to clarify what a volunteer firefighter is.  They do get paid, but only when they are out at a call. They are on call pretty much anytime they are home or in the area.  They wear pagers that notify them of the emergencies that they must respond to.  They must live in the community of the fire hall that they work out of.

Basically, that means that volunteer firefighters' free time is only free until they get a fire call.  Also, because they live in the area that they serve, many of them know the victims of the fire, the casualties of that car accident and the patient of the medical call.  In fact, my husband has responded to calls for his family members, when his grandmother passed away and when his brother was in a car accident.  They run into buildings when everyone else is running out, they console families and family members. 

They run out on holiday dinners, hockey practices, school plays. They miss bedtimes and stories. They have even had to leave their own Christmas party to respond to calls.  They've left dinner as soon as it's served and eaten reheated meals more times than you can count.  But they do it because they love it.  They do it because they care.  They do it because they want to make a difference.

They acknowledge their successes, they mourn their losses.  They are thanked, they are yelled at, they are loved, they are hated.  They accept that in these situations, they cannot save everything and everyone, but they fight to win.  They accept people's kind words and the words filled with anger and they continue to fight.

The fire department is a second family to us.  They are truly brothers.  When one bleeds, they seem to all feel the pain.  I may complain from time to time about changed plans, late dinners, sad kids who miss their dad, but I wouldn't ask to change it.  I am proud to say that my husband is a volunteer firefighter.  I am proud to see his selflessness and concern for our community.  I am just proud of him.

I Didn't Know Everything About His Past, But I Know That He Influenced My Future

There have been many people in my life that have influenced the person I am and the way I want to raise my children.  Most of those people are members of my family.  I am extremely grateful for the family that I was born into.  My parents have always been important to me, but if you take it one step further back, my grandparents raised a great family.  My grandmother (June) passed away when I was 18.  I can still remember the way her laugh sounded.  I think that may in part be because I hear a little of it when my mom and her 2 sisters laugh.  She was a remarkable lady.  The person who I want to write about today though is her husband, my grandfather, Stan Hoar. 

As I said in the title, I don't know everything about his history.  I know he lived on a farm, he worked at a psychiatric hospital for many years and that he and my grandmother raised 7 children together.  I can only hope that my husband and I still look at each other and act around each other the way that they did after all the years they were married.  He and my grandmother moved off the farm several years after he retired.  Once my grandmother passed, he moved to a retirement residence.  He remained active in his retirement, volunteering at the psychiatric hospital where he had worked and as a driver for community care (taking people to there medical appointments), playing cards, going to dances and anything else that he was invited to do.

He was always a healthy man, so when he developed a lump on his neck , it was a surprise to learn that it was an aggresive form of cancer.  There was a point during his battle with cancer that he was given a few months to live.  By that timeline, it was unsure if he would be around to see my daughter born.  As you can see by my picture, he did get to meet her.  Not only that, but he saw her first birthday and her second birthday.  He actually had almost 3 good years before he passed away.  And by good, I mean that he was still able to enjoy life and do the things he enjoyed doing for a large portion of those 3 years. 

This may seem like a sad story and I guess in a way it is. My family misses him, and my kids, despite how young they were when he died still mention him from time to time, as do my husband and I.  He is lovingly referred to as Poppa Stan in our house (a name my son started).  But this story is about more than sadness, it's about a legacy that was left behind.  My mother and her brothers and sisters (keep in mind there are 7 of them)  still get together on a few occasions through the year and manage to keep in touch much more regularly than that.  I have never heard a disagreement between them.  Their children (my cousins) and my siblings and I also keep in touch (thanks to the internet and social networking) and our children play together at family get togethers. We are lucky and blessed.

Thanks Poppa Stan and Grandma June!