The Smoothie Vegetarians

Things That Make Me Happy: I've been invited to a work Christmas dinner at a nice restaurant this weekend. Christmas, you say? Weird, I know, what with it being the second half of January. Anyway, a couple times lately I've gone to restaurants not of my choosing and ended up staring at a menu that contains virtually nothing I can eat. I mean nothing but a green salad. That's it. So I was pleasantly surprised – make that ecstatic – when I went online and googled the restaurant menu and found at least one vegan dish that actually looks good. Yay!!! It's the little things, folks. :) A couple of months ago my other half bought me an Instant Pot. This is the greatest invention of all the inventions of mankind in the history of the universe. For those of you (and you are few) who don't know what this is, it's a pressure cooker, crock pot, saute etc., etc. cooking device that works wonders. I don't like cooking, but I can quite literally dump a ca...

  I tend to be obsessive compulsive by nature, and food has been no exception. I've stood on the edge of the cliff that is eating disorders (and a close family member jumped off that cliff into full blown anorexia, so I've had some experience). I'm in no way diminishing the horror of eating disorders; I know that horror all too well. For me, though, it's been more about rigidity; which is a form of control I suppose. I was fortunate that it never went beyond that, and this is my personal experience. In my teens I tried some diets that were downright dangerous; 500 calories a day for weeks at a time. I counted those calories carefully. In my twenties I went the low fat route. I lost a lot of weight and I felt pretty good. I was, however, constantly figuring out fat percentages – nothing more than ten percent was my hard and fast rule. I was an avid exerciser during this time. I ran, which is something I've done on and off for many years. ...

Hey, guys, I know I haven't been posting as much and I'm sorry about that; I'm just tired. I am so tired! Being a grown up is one of the hardest things I have ever done. Oh, how I miss being a kid! My mom did everything for me I wanted for nothing. Now looking back I don't know how she did it. I am attempting (and failing at) to work a full tim job, pay my bills, take care of my fur babies, give my marriage the attention it deserves, maintain long distant friendships, and being the daughter and sister my family deserves. Somewhere in that list of things I have forgotten the most important part of life is taking care of yourself. In order to accomplish everything I need to accomplish I have manage to place myself on the back burner. In order to have more time for all my other responsibilities I have cut out my personal time that I had been using to practice my spirituality. I am one overwhelmed, vaguely human shaped, mess that's just trying to adult...