Day 14 (summary of Week 2)

Ok, so here's the wrap up of my last week in My Year of Living Well.  

1.  It gets easier each day.
2.  I wish I had of started 12 months ago (but am comforted that in 12 months time I won't have to say that)
3. Having a super-gadget that whizzes things into different forms is making this new life both easier and fun.  Even if blitzing my green smoothie wakes everybody in the house, if not the street.
4.  Coming from a perspective of 'health' has changed my thinking for the better. There is no sense of deprivation, which is helpful as I have a highly-tuned deprivation radar and it always results in massive over compensation.
5. Pitted dates are my new favourite friend. So understated and humble.  Love those guys.
6. Boiled eggs really are nature's fast food, those marketing people at the Egg board were right.
7.  Kale might be a superfood but it is not a patch on baby spinach in the green smoothie arena.
8.  Cauliflower rice is right up there with the wheel in terms of life changing inventions.
9. Exercise can be illusive. A bit like a thylacine.
10.  Asparagus is the hipster of the veggie isle.  So fabulous.

Thanks for reading.  Would love you to say hi or wave if you're visiting.

Love,

Indigo Kate x

Day 13

Less meh today. No sign of the moving more/being more active/exercise thing either though, sadly. Getting 6 people (including myself) fed, dressed and out the door with a packed lunch each day is a full morning workout, by anyone's standards. But it doesn't come with endorphins. So to add an actual workout to the existing domestic morning workout requires an extra level of planning, and an extra dollop of energy. As they say in the classics, tomorrow is another day.

I have discovered that a frozen banana and baby spinach leaves are a marriage made in heaven on the green smoothie front.  Other things welcome too but with those two as foundation ingredients, it's all good news.

I made some fruit balls today. I whizzed up some dates, dried apricots, dried apples, coconut and (even though not required as per the recipe), a couple of dried peaches.  I pressed the mixture into round balls and rolled them in coconut.  Thinking they might just do the trick the next time hunger strikes between meals.  Will let you know how they go.

Heading to bed now wondering how to organise two children to have crazy hair and another child to get their bike to school tomorrow morning all by 8am.  Then to get myself to a 9am meeting with a film maker I hope to work with, hopefully without the crazy hair.

Love,
Indigo Kate x

Day 12

Things were slightly meh here today. Not blerky, just meh. I still did what has become my new normal.  Perhaps the zeal of the new beginning is starting to wane.  I do tend to take things on with all the unwavering enthusiasm of a religious fundamentalist, which can be hard to sustain.  So, it is to be expected I guess, that not every day will see me skipping and twirling my skirt and bursting into song, The Hills Are Alive-style.

I realised what may be missing from my life (apart from a family block of chocolate) - endorphins.  Particularly those exercise ones.  I have been so busy blitzing cauliflower into rice and blending spinach into smoothies that I haven't kicked any exercise goals of late.  So tomorrow calls for some movement. One book I read said that exercise has such negative connotations for some folks they are better off saying to themselves they are 'looking to be more active' or 'trying to move more' as it doesn't sound so bootcamp-esque.

I have a love/hate relationship with exercise. When I do it consistently I love it to bits and can't live without it. Then suddenly, I'm not doing it regularly and I hate the restarting up process.  But here I am. Again. At the restarting up start line, looking at my toes and wondering how I got back here.

But in the interest of stopping meh turning into blerkdom, I'll be lacing up my runners in the morning in an effort to get me some of those yippy endorphins.  Because I know that no matter how much green stuff I put in my smoothie, life just isn't the same without them.

Love,
Indigo Kate x

Day 11

I know they say it takes 21 days to make a new habit, but 11 days in I'm feeling like some of these new habits are cementing themselves quite nicely.  The warm water with lemon, the green smoothie, the dandelion root tea, the absence of sugar, are all becoming more automatic.  They require less thought and self-persuasion each time.

My big news is the discovery of cauliflower rice.  It's cauliflower transformed into rice size grains and steamed.  When served with vegies it really does, for all intent and purposes, taste like rice. I'm loving the chance to get another vegie in.

I also know that sleep is essential to health, and it is well past my bedtime as I type this.  I've been out at a school meeting and in the interests of my health, I'm off to bed.

Here's to new good habits and cauliflower rice.

More soon,

Indigo Kate x

Day 10

When I was pregnant with my first picaninny, I had this THING for dried peaches. It was not a craving, I told myself, just a preference. A preference that often saw me making a 60km round trip just to get hold of them. It also saw me uncontrollably eating them in the queue before I had paid for them.  They were unbelievably fantastic - just like a dried apricot's rather enormous, tastier cousin. I devoured so many of them I wondered briefly if my baby might look slightly wrinkled and dark orange when it arrived.

Today at the health food shop I spied them. Or rather they called out to me. 'Remember us?' they bleated from the shelves.  I certainly do!  There they were, 11 years later, looking just as fabulous as I remembered.  I breathed in that peachy smell and bought a dozen.  As I nibbled on one all the hopes and unknowns of that special time, came back to me. There I was again anxiously waiting, waiting, waiting, for this baby, our baby, to join us.

I won't be consuming them in the same quantities as previously. There will be no special trips to town for them, no middle of the night snacks.  But it was like running into an old friend. Look at you! What have you been up to? How did that whole baby thing work out?

I left some on the table for afternoon tea, and that little baby, now a strapping 11 year old with a kind smile and an easy laugh bit into one. And I swear a look of recognition washed across his beautiful face.

Love
Indigo Kate x

Day 9

I had some good advice to put the contents of my green smoothie on a plate before whizzing it into liquid form. This prevents mindlessly adding endless amounts of content.  I have done this for the last 4 mornings and it works well. It means I can think about the fruit/veg combination and adjust it accordingly.  Frozen fruit is definitely best, otherwise the smoothie tends to taste slightly warmed. Green and sludgy is one thing, but green, sludgy and warm is just plain weird.

As soon as I can work out how to insert a photo here, without pulling my hair out in clumps, I'll post my green smoothies on a plate for your visual pleasure.

And no, I did not eat any of the birthday pavlova in circulation for husband's birthday. And yes, I did feel mildly self-righteous about it. Indigo Kate 1. Sugar 0.

Talk soon,

Indigo Kate x

Day 8

There's a classic scene in an episode of the Simpsons where Homer's charming mate Barney is at the pub when he suddenly declares 'Hey! There's still some beer in this ashtray!' then proceeds to slurp it up. I thought of it this morning. I had made choc chip muffins for my husband's extremely humble (read: non-event) birthday celebrations. There were a few spare choc chips left lurking on the tray. I thought about it, then swiftly wiped them off into the sink of dish water, out of temptations way.  I then had a brief moment of regret and saw myself crying out desperately, 'Hey! There's still some chocolate in this washup water!' and plunging my face into those tepid bubbles.

But, I'm proud to report that didn't happen.   Scout's Honour.

Love
Indigo Kate x