Filed under: Activity, Primary Food | Tags: agave, chia, exercise, lemonade, omega 3, Primary Food
Just a few things from this weekend’s holiday eats. I am still new to this blogging thing and promise to start adding some pictures soon!
Yesterday I hit the trails with my friends Deech and Lisa (pictures taken – they’re on their way!) at Shaw Nature Reserve. We all felt great doing this for many reasons. 1) The weather was mostly great. 2) We got LOTS of exercise. 3) We are supporting a local nature reserve. 4) Lots of exercise (did I mention that I already?). The three of us drank plenty of water and enjoyed nature.
I added Chia seeds to my water, yes, the ch-ch-chia pet kind of seeds, but they are actually for eating! Chia seeds have been used for hundreds of years in South America as an endurance food. From the Greens Plus website: the seeds are high in omega 3 fatty acids, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, fiber, potassium and iron (all in one little serving!). There’s also a great article at Living Foods. Gotta say, it took a bit of getting used to because the seeds turn the water or other liquid into a gel-like substance, but it was very tasty and I felt GREAT while drinking it on our hike. I plan on getting more to keep at home. Also, the seeds can be added to cereal, yogurt or used in baking.
After our nice long hike we headed back to their house for our evening BBQ. While Deech grilled up some delicious dinner (grassfed beef burgers and local specialty pork steaks), Lisa and I made some fresh lemonade. All we did was juice lemons, add water, and sweeten with AGAVE (that’s right, not sugar). Agave is delicious, already a liquid, and tends to be a bit healthier than plain old sugar.
With refreshing drinks, and delicious homemade food, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. There is no better way to enjoy good food than with good friends!
Just a little note on primary food and family, specifically mothers!
A key part of health and wellness is primary food, and relationships are one of the most important aspects of primary food. What relationship is more primary than that with mom?
Your primary food relationships should nurture you, support you and in general make you feel better. This may mean something different for each person. Some of us may need more time with someone, some of us less. But we all should acknowledge, thank and appreciate our moms (and other primary food relationships in our lives). You and I wouldn’t be here if not for mom! And while life has its rough spots, all in all it’s a fairly amazing thing. And the more we value and can be at peace with the important people in our lives, the fuller and healthier your primary food (and life!) will be.
So I hope you had a nice mother’s day and got to say thank you to someone special.
Love you mom!
Welcome to Natural Zest’s blog! I wanted a forum to share some of the wonderful information out there that I come across and think about. Hopefully, something here will inspire you to bring some zest into your life, naturally!
A little explanation about what Natural Zest is about. A healthy, happy life needs a few things, primary nutrition and secondary nutrition. Food is the secondary nutrition, what we eat, and it can be healthy and enjoyable! But primary nutrition takes first place! Primary nutrition includes our relationships, career, spirituality and activity.
So today I’d like to share a little about activity. In my path to Natural Zest and health counseling I have worked on my secondary food, cooking more, more vegetables, local food, delicious! And I have been exploring my primary food. So today, I took a big step (actually, quite a few little steps) and went for a run.
I have ALWAYS hated running, my whole life, every gym class, hated it. Until about 6 months ago. A little voice started whispering to me, “run, you want to go for a run. go outside and run.” What?!? No! I don’t like running! Stop telling me that! “but you want to go outside, you want to run, you will feel good.” No! It hurts, it’s not fun. No. Ok. Well, maybe.
So I told my dear friend Matt, my running guru, that I want to start running. And this wonderful soul not only gives me some running tips but sneakers! So today was the day. 70 degrees. Crystal clear skies, a light breeze. I headed outside to Tower Grove Park.
Was it easy? No. Am I out of shape? Yes. Did I feel self-conscious? You’d better believe it. Will I do it again? Most definitely YES!
I’m not sure what changed, but as other areas of my life have grown and come into focus, my desire for more physical activity has as well. I NEED this to keep up with my life, to expand my life, and to improve it.
Physically I feel better for what I did today. And my mind feels clearer. My food felt more nourishing. And this is something that I want and need in my life.
