It’s Not Paranoia

Posted on by Katie

For the past few days, my mind has been preoccupied with worry for the people in the northeast.  I have family and friends spread across the region so it has been pretty hard to concentrate.  I worry about lost power, enough clean water, food, and heat.  Are they prepared?

I found this list for a basic emergency preparedness kit and quickly realized I am missing some key items.  First and foremost, we do not have enough water stored in our home to support us all for 3 days. We always have a case of water bottles somewhere between full and empty.  Not enough for 5 people and a pupperoni. I already feel enough shame about the lack of preparedness of my household so I won’t go into detail on what we are lacking. I am inspired to bring us closer to being prepared. 

Why am I so worried about being prepared?  I don’t live in a region that can’t get a real hurricane (just the after effects), but we have gotten some pretty severe thunderstorms (no power), blizzards (no power, nowhere to go), and tornados (no power, fallen trees, shelter damage), and my house backs up to a river notorious for flooding.  There are countless scenarios in which we would need an emergency preparedness kit. 

Thinking about this lends me to want to know how to do more without the modern conveniences (despite my last post, haha) of our time. I have been dying to try canning and other traditional methods of preserving foods so I can survive if I am suddenly without power or locked down. I also think it would be amazingly helpful if I could identify edible plants in nature. I can’t even identify poison ivy!

I’m just generally uncomfortable with the level of unpreparedness in my house. How prepared are you? What would you take off or add to this list?

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Modern Conveniences

Posted on by Katie

There are very few kitchen tools that I hold on to for dear life. I have a spoon that I particularly love, my stand mixer,…..large skillet. That’s about it. Until I found this:

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My silpat baking sheet may be one of my all time favorite inventions. I use it to bake cookies and roast vegetables. The wonderful thing about it is that nothing sticks to it and to clean it, you just wash with warm soapy water and wipe. No scrubbing, scraping or frustrated drinking involved.

From what (admittedly little) research I have done, silicone bakeware is safe. The only thing to check for would be filler. If you pinch a flat area of the silicone and it shows white, then filler has been used.

Consequences of Juicing

Posted on by Katie

Don’t worry, we aren’t talking about the bathroom! Today is Thursday which means I ended my 3 day cleanse the moment I woke up yesterday. What did I learn?

  1. Know your limits. I was a first timer and I decided that to get through the cleanse I was going to need to eat some of the items meant for juicing  just so I didn’t feel like I was falling apart.
  2. I was definitely not getting enough fruits and vegetables before. Despite the challenging aspects of a liquid diet, I found myself feeling amazing! I felt lighter.  
  3. Transitioning back was not as hard as I anticipated. What makes it easy is the salad bar at work. I really don’t have to go out of my way to get a good salad.  Now that the cleanse is over I’m adding a small (non-creamy) soup to my lunch because it’s cold and I want to.

 

In a way, this has changed the way I want to eat.  It has changed what I crave and I think I’m all the better for it.

Katie Says Relax!

Posted on by Katie

I’ve long been a fan of yoga pants. Pretty much since the day it seemed to be ok to wear them outside a yoga studio I rock them almost everyday at home. As far as my experience doing yoga…I had one class in high school as part of a World Religions course with a very VERY odd teacher. I decided to reserve my judgement for a later date when I had a normal yoga experience. So I wore my yoga pants and didn’t really give it much thought.

Until recently, that is. My wonderful (seriously) boss’s sister teaches a free yoga class every Tuesday and she pretty much demanded I go. I Love it. Yeah, capital L. Love. I have always had a tense body. I cramp up my shoulder all day without realizing it and I clench my teeth constantly.  This makes for some sore muscles.  So when I tried this yoga class I was blown away at how I could finally relax. The emphasis on breathing and a mantra is spectacular. I never sleep better than Tuesday nights.

Yoga makes me feel more relaxed, more in tune with my body and more flexible.

I did have some reservations before going to the class at first.  I imagined a classroom full of those women in gym commercials. You know the ones. Yoga pants and sports bras and tights abs and I am a far cry from that kind of woman. That couldn’t be further from the truth. There are all types in the class and the teacher is really accomodating to people who need to modify the poses. It doesn’t feel like a high pressure situation. 

Incredibly relaxing. Trust me, I needed it.

Do you do yoga? How do you relax?

Let’s Get Political

Posted on by Katie

Before you start rolling your eyes and fleeing from my blog, let me just say a little something. This post isn’t to try to convince you to vote for who I’ll be voting for or to brainwash you. I’m not going to mention any candidates or even argue for or against any beliefs. Hear me out.

By now we all know what this blog is about: living a healthier, happier, more independent life. In my life in general I do my best to be a good person.  I do things with the express intention to not harm you or me or anyone. So when the topic of climate change comes up I kind of lose it. I honestly don’t think it’s a topic most people can speak on because, quite frankly, most people aren’t scientists. Most scientists are not studying the climate or its possible changes. So why don’t we all the butt out and think for a second.

Here are a few things I consider when thinking about climate change:

  1. We are all in the same Earth boat.
  2. We are using natural resources faster than the Earth can create them.
  3. There is no con to living a cleaner life.
  4. There is no con to having a cleaner planet.
  5. Leaving a better Earth behind for posterity is a good thing.

 

That being said, I’m not sure where the argument is. I don’t see why politicians are squabbling about climate change. Whether or not you think it is real doesn’t matter, there is no reason to perpetuate unhealthy practices. A healthy planet and population should be prioritized before the money you can make keeping it dirty. If, hypothetically, our emissions are not harming the environment and causing global warming, they are still absolutely terrible for us. They are the most literal form of carcinogens. It’s pollution and it is hurting you and me. So forget the politics, improve our world so we can be healthy.