Healthy Living

Well, day two of my big week off is coming to a close. The weather was better today; yesterday, it was quite rainy. Cincinnati has been void of humidity lately, which has been GREAT! It just makes me sad that my hair straightener has been sent away to be repaired, meaning that I have had to wear my hair curly for just about a week now. If I could wear my hair straight, it wouldn't be unmanageable for once! Just my luck. :) T says he likes it better curly anyhow and I don't have anyone else to impress!

This morning, I slept in until 10:15. It was glorious. To be honest, I don't even remember T getting up to go to work. I must have been really tired. It is so nice to wake up at a leisurely pace. I cleaned the house this morning, used more of my great Method products, and got ready for my day. I met my friend, Judy, for lunch at a great place in Fairfield called Roosters. I love eating chicken wings, and Roosters has the BEST chicken wings... they are huge! Five fill me up quite adequately. We had a great time catching up! I work with Judy and her daughter, Lindsay, is getting married in about a week. I miss that time of life. Don't get me wrong, but the months and weeks leading up to my wedding were some of the best of my life. Sometimes I get a little nostalgic at the fact that my wedding is over. However, if you were able to attend, I think it was a pretty great time. :)

After lunch, I headed over to my friend Viona's house. We meet every Tuesday and she is mentoring me. She is an incredibly amazing woman of God and such a blessing to me. I also work with Viona and she has quickly became a precious friend. I look forward to our times together so, so much. We are going through one of Beth Moore's books, Get Out of That Pit. I am learning so much from Viona and I look forward to many more times together. Viona and her husband, Robert, also have a precious little one named Wesley who has also quickly become near and dear to my heart. Honestly, I think he is one of the most (if not THE most) darling little boys I have ever met in my life. We are going over to their house on Friday evening for a 4th of July BBQ, so I will post pictures so you can see his darling-ness firsthand. :)

I have realized lately that it might just be physically impossible for me to pass a Target and not go in. However, today, I passed one and just kept going! Small victories for Rachel! It might also be due to the fact that I just was in a Target yesterday... but, whatever!

I went to a health seminar tonight with my friend Sherri who sells JuicePlus. JuicePlus is a whole food, not a vitamin supplement, that offers you more than the FDA suggested serving size for fruits and veggies everyday. The seminar was not a plug for JuicePlus, but specific guidelines for nutrition. I am so glad I went! I learned a lot about how to eat, what are common nutrition myths, and practical guidelines to eating healthy. I am really excited to start taking my JuicePlus and gradually change some things about the way I eat, namely cutting out ALL refined sugar and white flour. Is it the easiest thing? No. Is it impossible? No! Here are some things that I learned tonight:

• 1 in 3 women will have cancer in their lifetime.
• 1 in 2 men will have cancer in their lifetime.
• 1 in 6 women will have breast cancer.
  
• The average American child is consuming 5 POUNDS of sugar per week! Gross!
• There are 17 teaspoons of sugar in a 20 oz. Coke.
  

Those cancer statistics are mostly due to diet and nutrition!! Yikes! I think that it's our responsibility to know these things and how we can keep our bodies healthy. Leanne (the speaker) talked about how the first choice for recovery and prevention is nutritional excellence and she also gave me a good phrase: If it doesn't rot or sprout, throw it out! She showed us a meal from McDonalds that she has saved for the last four years... and it has not grown any mold or decayed or ANYTHING! It was actually very disturbing how many preservatives are packed into the foods we eat! She spoke on the importance of eating a lot of plant foods as opposed to animal foods. All in all, it was very stimulating and I hope to go back to another seminar with Sherri soon!

Tyler and I watched The Departed tonight until he got too tired and had to go to bed. Poor guy. He's been working so hard lately. That leaves me all alone out here writing to you! I have another day ahead of me in just a few short hours, so I think I will sign out for the evening. I will leave you with another great quote I heard tonight from Leanne: "Americans are overfed and undernourished!"

Love, the new health-lovin' Rachel ;)