Make your time in the Kitchen Efficient

Do you think you do not have enough time to cook healthy? All it takes is a little time to prepare and you can have meals almost ready for an entire week. As long as you have a freezer and a refrigerator, you can prepare meals for up to a week at a time.
Here is how it works.

1. Set up your kitchen. Know where everything is and make it convenient to find and use.
2. Pick a day of the week for preparation.
3. If you use recipes, pick out a few for the week.
4. Make a shopping list as you think of things throughout the week.
5. Purchase your ingredients.
6. It is best to start cooking soon after you go shopping, but if you need to break it up into two days, at least you are getting it done in a way that works for you.
7. Cooking day! Take a morning or afternoon and dedicate it to being in the kitchen. Make a soup for the week and freeze some. Make beans and/or whole grains and scoop them out as needed as you go throughout your week. Use beans/grains in soups, salads, stir-fries or just eat them plain with your favorite condiment. Bake some root vegetables. Blanch and freeze vegetables like broccoli, brussel sprouts, and kale for quick use later.

The key is to plan ahead. Although it may not seem like it at first, in the end, you save time and money and most of all your health!

Eating Organic on a Budget

If you compare prices while shopping, you might thing that transitioning to eating organic will break your budget. If this is you, please read the following tips for transitioning to eating organic food.
1. Eat more beans and whole grains and buy them in bulk. Eating organic beans is much cheaper than buying packaged TV dinners and meat. Beans and whole grains will keep you satiated and give you sustained energy. Processed food is devoid of nutrition and leaves you unsatisfied and hungry even though your belly may be full. (If you develop flatulence from eating beans, start with smaller beans such as lentils, mung, and aduki beans. Soak them overnight before cooking and add sea salt after cooking rather than during cooking.)
2. Join a CSA, a co-op, or buy produce from a local farmer. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Find a CSA or local farmer near you on www.eatwellguide.org
3. Prioritize buying the most highly contaminated fruit and vegetables organic and the buy conventional produce for the least contaminated fruit and vegetables. See a full list here: http://www.foodnews.org/index.php
4. Remember that you vote with your dollar. If you spend 50 cents more to purchase organic food, it is 50 cents well spent. Do your part to create a demand for high quality food and the supply will follow. Your best bet for finding quality food is from an organic or local farm. Wal-mart organics is not trustworthy.
Personally, my food bill is much lower than many people I know who do not eat organic. I have done this by joining a CSA and eating less packaged food and less animal protein. I am the healthiest I have ever been. The extra effort you spend on finding quality food sources and time in your kitchen is worth it. Your body will thank you and respond with exuberant health!

Do You Really Want it? -Tools for Change

How much do you really want it? I mean, how much do you really really want to change yourself so that you can have an amazing life? First, you need to know what you want out of life. Once you know what you desire for your life, it is time to take a sort of inventory of yourself. This means really looking at yourself. What are your strengths? What are the areas in which you will benefit from growth and self-development? (I do not believe in weaknesses, just potential areas for growth.) The more you are willing to grow, the easier making changes becomes.
Looking at oneself is not an easy feat. When you are truly willing to look within and see what makes up the wholeness of you, you will find two basic things. You will find your "darkness" and you will find your Light. As a whole human being, you have dark side, which if you have not yet seen within yourself, can be a scary thing to truly see and acknowledge. Just know that there is nothing about which to be scared. It is part of being human. What most people truly fear is their Light. Your Light illuminates your darkness (your cobwebs and the stuff you want to clean up) and reveals your purpose. It brings a responsibility to your life. Now that you know your purpose, you have a motivation and responsibility to change yourself so that you can fulfill your purpose. This brings us full circle.
It is a miserable thing to remain stagnant and not change yourself. Illness and disease develop. You might become an emotional wreck. It is imperative to your health to change yourself and develop yourself. I am assuming if you are still reading this that you truly want to change yourself. So hopefully you will never get to the miserable stagnant piece. Read carefully. Here are some tools that you can use right away so that you can make your desired changes. Do not be fooled by their seeming simplicity. They may seem simple, but implementing them will change your world.
1. The first tool for change is to take inventory of your life. What is working well and where do you want to make changes? Make a literal list of the areas in your life that are working well. Make a second list of the things that you are committed to changing.
2. Get support. Who are the people in your life that want to see you succeed? Let them know you want their blessing and support for the changes you want to make. If you have no one in your life like this, it is time to open yourself to meeting new people so that you can have the support you need to move forward.
3. Eat well. Eat whole foods that work well in your body. Eat slowly and chew your food.
4. Exercise. Move your body in ways that inspire and excite you. Physical movement gives your energy and clarity for making changes.
5. Prioritize. Focus on the most important changes you want to make and develop action steps to make your life happen.
6. Finally, appreciate yourself. Give yourself gratitude for having the desire and commitment to changing your life for the better. When you change yourself for the better, the impact it has on the world is immeasurable. You may never know the far-reaching benefits of the blessing you will be to others when you improve yourself.
Claim the responsibility to be a Light in this world. You owe it to yourself to be happy and to have an amazing life.