Pre-Cut Veggies at Whole Foods

One of the ideas I had years ago was making it easier for people to cook home-cooked meals by having kits of the appropriate amount of each ingredient bundled together along with a recipe. It would be nice to be able to just pick up an organic meal for 2 or 4 or whatever size your family was and have everything ready to be prepared at home. It's the healthy and easy way to cook for your family from scratch without having to spend time looking for every ingredient in the grocery store and then having leftover ingredients that you have to figure out another recipe for. With these bundles, it would be easy, fresh, and have everything you need.

I'm not quite sure if I'll pursue this idea, but I was walking through Whole Foods the other day and saw these pre-cut veggie containers. That's definitely a step towards making it easier for people to cook more at home! I've noticed that in New York, people rarely cook. People are actually surprised if you cook dinner at home. Everyone orders take out. Every day. Really. That doesn't sound too healthy, does it? And I'm sure it gets expensive. But, in a culture of not enough time, tiny kitchens, and having to lug groceries by foot, convenience is key.

 How do we make it easier for people (myself included) to cook more at home? I find the process of researching recipes extremely time consuming, and with everything else going on in my life, I haven't had time to just sit down and look through all of my cookbooks. I'm sure I can open up a cookbook and find a recipe to make, but now that I am trying to make even healthier recipes, the challenge is to find something that is tasty, nutritious, and quick! And I'm not just going for low fat = healthy type of recipe. I am looking for nutrient dense meals that are vegetarian, preferably vegan, and more raw than not, yet extremely filling at the same time. Hot foods are necessary since my body does get a bit cold, and I want "live" foods with as many superfood ingredients as I can get in there.

Hmmm, but this requires a bit of research. There are cookbooks out there that are raw, or vegan, or contain live foods, but I find it hard to follow recipes with no picture. Somehow, it's very uninspiring. As a visual person, I need to see the photo of the end result to see if it actually looks tasty before I even commit to the process. Know of any books out there that fit this criteria? If so, I'd love to know. Combination of hot and cold foods please. Maybe I'll do the research this summer, but for now I am sticking to the few recipes I know.

New Home!

I have great news! We have been approved for our new home in Brooklyn. After some long days looking at many different apartments in the neighborhood we wanted, we found one that was perfect. It has a little outdoor space for my future organic herb and vegetable garden, a downstairs space with a window for my workspace for all my design work, and it's near the park! The dogs get to roam free at the park during certain hours of the day, which will be great for Winston. If you haven't seen my dog, you can check him out here.

I am super excited that I will be near nature at last. I've had a deep yearning to be near nature all year since I moved to Manhattan, and moving to Brooklyn will be a welcome change to the concrete jungle of New York. I am also super excited about growing my own garden. It's been a burning hidden passion or mine that is ready to come forth. This is the summer for it!

There's still quite a bit of purging and furniture selling to do before we move in, but streamlining will be well worth it for this cozy well-kept home. I was also very excited to learn that there is a CSA (community supported agriculture) a few blocks away that the owners get most of their groceries from. That means organic fruits and veggies from a local farm ready to be picked up each week. Super!

We just need to sell our large dining table, buffet table, rosewood vanity, and our three large bookcases and I think we'll be good to go. I find that we constantly have to sell and buy furniture that fits the new home perfectly. It's a lot of work, but well worth it to create a home that feels great and works well for your current needs. I'm sure I'll take lots of photos at the park with our little pup and of my new garden as it grows, so I'll post it when it's all ready for show. Can't wait! Just in time for a beautiful summer... :)

Napoleon Hill talks about his meeting with Andrew Carnegie

Watch this video of Napoleon Hill talking about the advice Andrew Carnegie gave him that changed his life:

House Diet

Put your house on a diet! Watch my experience on Day 3 of my House Diet.

Detoxing My Life, April 2010

I have decided that April is the month to detox my life. I have three primary areas of focus for the month: body, home, and my new business. I started on April 1st and am keeping a daily log of what I accomplished that day in these three areas to keep myself accountable on the CCOR site. You can visit that link to see my daily progress. I'll keep all my mundane activities recorded there. :)

So far, even though it's only day 2, I've been very productive and am confident that I am on the right track. I have decided that once and for all that I am putting my health first, and it starts with getting plenty of rest (no excuses!), limiting what's on my schedule, and cleaning up anything that's bringing my energy down in my home, which means I need to simplify and really edit down to live a more fulfilling life! My goal is to live a really focus on the 20% that really matter rather than on the 80% that don't.

These are the different areas I plan on working on during this month:

Body:
1. Detoxing my diet by going vegan (I'm doing a one month trial) and eating lots of healthy organic vegetables
2. Exercising and practicing yoga
3. Getting more sleep and creating a regular sleep schedule

Home:
1. Getting rid of 10 items per day to simplify, simplify, simplify my life!
2. Finishing up all the little unfinished little to-do's around the home (ex. altering my clothes, returning library books, taking donations to goodwill, finishing unfinished projects, etc.)
3. Organizing things, files, and other items to make my life more efficient

Business
1. Do one thing to start building my new business every day, even if I only have 5 minutes. This could be sending an e-mail, listening to a webinar, researching online, competing an exercise in a business workbook, working on my website, etc.

These are the main three areas I am going to focus on this month. Of course I will tend to all of my other matters, such as my classes, errands, etc., but since these are not the areas I have a problem focusing on (and I always get to them every day anyway), I'm going to put the health of my home and body as priority, and take small steps to build my new health coaching business. This means that I cannot sacrifice my health for the sake of my school work!

Yesterday I was able to:
- get extra sleep
- start my vegan diet (I ate vegan starting from lunch) :) Had to ease into this one.
- attend a webinar for my business
- get rid of 10 items (I started with easy things like mail, disposable empty plastic bottles, old makeup, small miscellaneous items)

It looks like I'm going to focus on at least 1 thing for my body, home, and business, every day, no matter how small. I think writing it down here will keep me on target so that I know that by the end of the day I have to complete the tasks.

I'm off to a great start and am about to record the results of day 2. It's amazing how much cleaner my home is already on day 2!