Monday, September 26, 2011

Transitioning with Tomatoes and Aroma Touch

As I sit here, writing longhand with my purple pen, I can smell a fabulous aroma of clove, cinnamon and oranges.  I can even taste the flavors faintly, even though I haven't eaten anything with those flavors in it lately.
With cold and flu season gearing up for its first punch of the season, I rubbed some On Guard oil on the palms of my hands, and dabbed a bit under my nose.  With all of the sneezing and coughing going on around me at work, I don’t want to risk carrying germs home.
I must say that I am TOTALLY excited.  Within the next few days, I get to experience my first Aroma Touch treatment!  Deb just earned her certification in this technique of applying layers of certified pure therapeutic grade doTerra essential oils.  (The amazing orange-spicy scent on my hands is one of the 8 oils used in this technique.)  I wasn’t able to make it to the training because of other commitments, but at least I get to get a fabulous treatment soon, and I am learning the basics with an eye toward certification soon.  I’ll let Deb tell you more.
This has been a busy couple of weeks in our household.  With the cold weather barging in suddenly, dropping temperatures almost to the frost point, there was a scramble to load up o as many tomatoes and peppers as possible from our beautiful organic garden.







Once they were harvested, we had several different types of peppers and tomatoes, washed and taking up residence in various colanders, bowls, buckets, and even in the dish drainer!  We spent a couple of days up to our elbows in dripping juicy tomatoes as we peeled, blended, chopped and canned mixed vegetable juice and beautiful salt free tomatoes to use over the winter.  (Of course, we made a huge pot of amazing Pepper Sauce too, but that has been frozen by the quart this year, instead of being canned.)
To use up some of the bits that either didn’t make it into jars, or from jars that didn’t seal during processing, I made a delicious beef vegetable soup.  When I put all the ingredients into the My Fitness Pal database, my soup was only a little over 200 calories per serving!  It was even better when I warmed it up for lunch at work a couple of days later.
The garden is still not done being put to bed.  After a couple cold nights, the temperatures perked back up.  We still have some tomatoes ripening, peppers growing (and blooming) and some herbs waiting for harvest.
Between the two of us, Deb and I have lost 80 pounds in the past 6-8 months, divided evenly.  When people ask how we are doing it, although we each have different approaches, the primary thing has been that we are both PAYING ATTENTION to what we eat.  I log all of my food and exercise (yes, gardening counts, just as well as yoga and walking) into a phone app called My Fitness Pal.  It calculates my calorie needs for the day based on my goals, activity levels and current weight/height  This app and website helps to keep me focused and committed to paying attention, and I have met new friends along the way from all over the world- Hong Kong, Russia, England, and all parts of the United States.  We are all working toward getting healthier-each in our own way.
vegetables.html.jpgDeb has been using the “plate method”.  She doesn’t log anything, but as a rule of thumb (or plate), she mentally divides her plate into quarters.We bought 7” plates with funny blue monkeys on them to use most days instead of our 9-10” stoneware plates that we had been using.  One quarter of the blue monkey has protein on it, one quarter has a carb and one half (2/4)  is covered in vegetables (potatoes and corn don’t count!  They go in the carb corner).
This summer has been beautiful in terms of the food we’ve been able to grow or find at the Flint Farmer’s Market.  Eating a rainbow of foods is one way to insure a wide range of nutrients, so we have been eating a rainbow:  red cherries;  orange carrots;  yellow tomatoes;  green onions;  blue blueberries;  purple mulberries;  white garlic and black beans.  (We’ve even slipped in an occasional brown brownie or golden butter pecan ice cream along the way.)
Neither Deb nor I is perfect in any measure of the term, but we are humans In Process of becoming better through Living MindFully in the present with eyes wide open to the world around us.  Each day is a new opportunity to learn and grow, no matter what challenges or ruts we face.


Blessings,
Aimee

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