Healthy Living Heritage

Good tasty food is a guilty pleasure of mine.

I love good food.

I've always been interested in healthy living, and have strived to make it my lifestyle.

It started early in my youth, having a fit active hard working father, and a mother who created wonderful tasty healthy meals from whole foods - a big portion of which were home grown and raised.
One way I knew she loved us kids was by her diligent dedication
in feeding us and making such wonderful food.
She would often ask me what I wanted to eat and a few days later,
there would be the requested dish for dinner!

We always had:

* Regular meals as a family

* A vegetable garden & fruit trees - I would often sometimes help plant, weed, 

water, pick, cut and help can our goodies.
My favorite caned good would be the cherries from our Cherry tree or the plums...

* Chickens
 I loved collecting the fresh eggs as a kid!

And lets not talk about how much I loved the oven roasted young chickens from heaven where a few of us 4 kids would fight for the golden delicious drumsticks!

* Ducks
The baby ducklings were too adorable!

* Rabbits
 So cute as babies, which I was careful not to get too attached to as they ended up in a
delicious stew on my dinner plate!

* And the occasional goat
Fresh goat cheese, which I never ate as a kid, I soooo regret it now!

Let's face it, French cooking and food is the best on the planet!

We were not "rich" as to money but "rich" as to food goodness! 

Our physical needs were always met, I never had to go to bed hungry.

I feel so blessed to have had such examples in my early years.

And blessed to have grown up in France.

Merci Maman et Papa!

I strive to pass on a little bit of this way of living to my kids.

It hasn't been without challenges.
We had dinner every night as a family and I am saddened that this tradition has been mostly lost...

SometimesI think that I have failed in so many ways...

I feel sad to think that this healthy heritage from my parents will be lost.
But there is always hope... Especially as you kids get older.

Also I've had some picky eaters - you know who you are!
Amelie has been my try-everything-eat-salad-and-fruit kid from the time she was a baby!

There are other food influences in our home that have not been cultured in quite the
same way in their upbringing. 

[Food 'snobness' intended]

I find the American way of eating not the best to say the least.

And yes, a lot of it has influenced our eating as it is often fast, instant and convenient.

I hope my Kids - you reading this? - will see some value in what I have tried to teach them and feed them. Even if it's later on in life.

My philosophy has been.

Try it. If you don't like it, you don't have to eat it. 

But try it again later on, then again and again. 

One day you may like it.
Partake of Mother Earth's goodness!

 I was a little picky as a child too - for french standards - and now regret not eating all the wonderful things my maman would make.

My New Fitness Routine and Why I Exercise

For the past 2 years I've been doing Zumba 3 times a week and LOVING it!
Even though, I've been modifying any high impact dance moves, so it's not hard on the knees,

I still, unfortunately, the past few months, have started feeling some pain in my left knee.
Anyway I decided to stop for a while.

The challenge is to find something I enjoy doing.
I have to love it, if it feels to much like a chore, I won't do it.

So of course, I had to rethink my fitness routine.
Because I can't just do nothing as I know how important it is to stay active and fit, to keep my one and ONLY body, and mind, functioning properly.
I feel very grateful and blessed to have a body that in itself is an amazing wonder.
A gift from God.

 I don't like pain, and want to, at all cost, prevent any health issues I can.
I have to watch my cholesterol levels, as high cholesterol runs in my family,
and a recent blood test showed I am borderline high.
I also like eating what I want.
I like fitting in my clothes, and feeling attractive to my Hubby.
Bottom line: It keeps me feeling good, healthy and happy.
Also, being a Libra or in French a "Balance";
I like to feel evenly 'balanced'.

A Happy Body = A Happy Mind = A Happier Life

So Mike and I joined an affordable Gym on October 1st after trying it for a week.

I am now doing Yoga with a great teacher, and have discovered Body Flow and Piyo - which are all lower impact workouts.

I go almost every day to one of those classes, except Sunday of course...

Mike comes with me on Saturdays to Piyo with Elmer - who kicks our behinds and makes us sweat. 

It's our little Fitness date! 

I avoid watching him or listening to him grunt during the workout because it distracts me-

I tend to want to laugh, sorry Honey!

I LOVE it all!

 I've even learned some Ti Chi in Body Flow and like it.

And the best part of it all is that I have seen great results and feel GREAT in my body!
I've definitely gotten stronger and tightened up all over, especially those areas that tend to get loose with age.

Oh, and no more knee pain...

Our Second Brush With Death In Hawaii

For our return, we decided to go along the shore of the bay instead of crossing in deep ocean.

As it turned out it was not a good choice.

Rocks can suddenly fall and tumble into the water from the cliff.

As we witnessed from the ocean floor beneath us.

We could see the bottom, where all size boulders had taken a plunge.

No pretty coral here.

But we did see a big eel!

I had a bit of an uneasy feeling...

Then we made another dumb decision, we decided to take a break about half way across.

Here

The rocks were a little slippery, but not sharp, thank goodness!

It was definitely not a stable situation.

Mike took his mask completely off and held it in his hand. 

Unfortunately a couple of slightly bigger waves sent both his mask and myself back in the water!

And that is how Mike lost his mask and snorkel!

No way of getting it back!

We left the danger zone right away and decided to go towards the deeper waters.

As I said Mike, is not a swimmer and without a mask he probably would have not made it across, or he would have drunk too much water.

So I gave him mine, because I could manage without it better than Mike could. 

But it is made for women., and it took quite some time to adjust it. 

We would stop every few minutes, at least for 10mn!

He says it wasn't pleasant...

Boy was I having a few regrets! 

What was I thinking taking Mike on this challenging swim?

What if something happens? 

What if... The... Worst happens?

I don't even have a phone to call 911! 

(Which I could have brought with us in it's waterproof case!)

If I screamed would anyone hear me, people were so far away!

We basically did a triathlon swim with no training whatsoever!

What was I thinking?

He finally got it sealed and we were back in business. 

During this swim, Mike also finally got the hang of kicking his legs in a way 

that actually propels him!

His normal kick was more like a bicycle sort of kick, not efficient at all.

Yeah! 

I've been trying to teach him that for the past 20 years!

Having to save your own skin maybe does tend to make us find strength 

and smarts we couldn't be bothered to use before. 

The rest of the swim was not that easy for me, without at least a mask, or goggles, but I managed...

Having Mike be stronger and faster helped a lot! 

I was no longer pulling him.

He actually held me while I was on my back a few times and we both worked together

As I could feel the strength of his kick propelling us.

It took us about 45mn I think to get back to the dock from there.

We had left that morning at 8:30am and returned to shore around 1pm.

We were soooo happy we made it!

We dehydrated, ate, showered and slept and did nothing for 3-4hours!

*******

Part of me was pleased and happy to have accomplished such a swim in open waters!

I've always wondered if I could do something like this.

Kinda like a bucket list thing!

And I must admit, another part of me wasn't proud for putting 
my hubby at risk like that!

But I was very very very grateful nothing of grave consequence happened!

I could have lost him!
Our kids could have lost their daddy!

Don't Laugh!

Today I went with my friend Sandra to her Boxing class!

Boy did I sweat! And I didn't do too bad, kept up the pace... 

My favorite thing was getting a turn at boxing the trainer!

I'm thinking of doing this for a month...

No one mess with me now...

I can see how this can be therapeutic for someone that has... say, anger issues?

Or Someone who wants to feel more empowered. 

Which I like - feeling empowered.

Since I don't, have anger issues, 

I thought about the 2 terrorist from the Senseless Boston Marathon Bombing.

Yes, the blurr is moi!