Big Life Journal for kids

Big Life Journal for kids 
I would recommend this journal to anyone with kids. Even just signing up for newsletter comes with a lot of benefits. When you subscribe to their mailing list you get free PDF downloads for journal entries that you can do together with your kids. Benefits Journalling Include:
·· Higher Self Esteem
·· Becoming more resilient and less afraid of failure
·· More confidence when faced with challenges
·· Better understanding of navigating emotions

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Getting my Green Thumb

After years talking about wanting an indoor herb garden I finally got one!  Last Saturday my fiancé and I set out for a day date at our local garden centre.  What we thought would be a quick trip turned into an entire afternoon.  We ended up being those customers that you can’t get rid of, at least until we heard the ‘We are closing in 5 minutes so get your butt to the till’ announcement.

I’m really excited to share future posts with individual recipes and health benefits of all the herbs, but for now I’ll just mention some of the general benefits you get from growing your own indoor herb garden.

Benefits:

1. Add flavour and nutrients to your meals.
2. Full of Specific antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds. 
3. Food as fresh as you can get it.
4. Save money and waste less by clipping only what you need.
5. Connect to nature by growing your own food.

 

My fiancé and I hadn’t done a ton of research before our trip to the garden centre, we had an idea of what we might want but ultimately ended up winging it.  Thanks to the support staff at West Coast Florals we came out of there pretty confident we could successfully build our own herb garden.  Luckily the employees were equally as excited and passionate as we were, and didn’t seem to mind us bending their ear all afternoon. 

What we purchased at West Coast Floral:

Planting box
Soil
Plant Food(Fertilizer)
Rosemary
Chives
Dill
Mint
Cilantro
Lavender

As soon as we were home we got right to work and planted our rosemary, chives, dill, and mint in the planting box.  We added holes to the planting box for drainage, and made sure to give the herbs enough space to grow.  We left more space by the mint because we learned that mint grows fast and tends to take over.  We then planted the cilantro and lavender in their own pots because these herbs also tend grow fast and yield a lot.

Tips for tending to an indoor herb garden:

1. Expose them to sufficient natural sunlight.
2. Make sure to have proper draining to keep them from rotting.
3.  Trim regularly.
4. Feed the soil with a fertilizer.
5. Research the herbs so you can sufficiently care for them.

 

That’s it for now! Stay tuned for future blog posts on the health benefits of the herbs I’m growing and some delicious recipes.

Check out my previous article here for some spring power foods to get you on track to feeling your best 

It doesn’t have to be Complicated

Getting healthy doesn’t have to be complicated, you don’t have to drastically change everything you are doing right now, and it’s not “All or None”  Here are 3 suggestions of what you can change today to start feeling better tomorrow

1.  Start your morning with gratitude

2.  Drink your water

3.  Increase intake of dark leafy green vegetables

In the morning practice gratitude. When you wake up and step out of bed, start the day with a thought of one thing that you are grateful for.  Make sure to really feel that gratitude.  There is no wrong answer here it could be “I am grateful for my health” or it could be “I am grateful for coffee” whatever it is, starting the day with gratitude will set you up to have an amazing day.  When we show we are grateful, more things to be grateful for happen.  Having gratitude changes your emotional state; you can’t be grateful and in a negative head space at the same time.

Start drinking your water!  Our bodies are made up of 75% water (remember learning that in school as a child?) and yet people tend to not prioritize getting enough of it.  Our bodies depend on water for over 10billion biochemical reactions per second; that’s a lot. So in between meals we should be drinking good quality water.  You will always see me carrying my water bottle around because I found once you start increasing your water intake you feel better and keep wanting more.  To find out how much water you should be drinking per day, they say to take your body weight in kg and multiply it by .033 (Kg x 0.033=Litres of water intake per day) If you are active you should drink more to make sure you stay hydrated.  Research has shown if you are even 1% dehydrated that can cause anxiety, sluggish digestion, change in mood and many other health issues.  If you are currently trying to lose weight, or detox, or if you want glowing skin, you should make drinking enough water your top priority.  If when you increase your intake of water you find yourself visiting the washroom too often, try adding a pinch of himalayan pink salt to each litre of water.  This salt has many different minerals and helps your body absorb the water easier leading to less washroom visits and better hydration!

Increase intake of dark leafy green vegetables! I buy a large tub of spinach and find creative ways to make sure I use it up during the week.  Whether it’s throwing a handful into a green smoothie, or blanch it to go with my eggs, or in my favourite beet salad.  I try and find ways to use it up because I love the health benefits, and honestly I do not like wasting food.  I also make sure I have a head of fresh broccoli, and I always have frozen organic greens in the freezer.  Here is a highlight of a few benefits of increasing your intake of dark leafy greens.

Dark leafy greens are:

• A good source of fibre
• High in minerals calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium
• Help protect against heart disease
• Can help improve memory
• Are high in antioxidants
• A good source of vitamins A, C, K, and folate
• Have been shown to help with the precursor to diabetes “insulin resistance”

As you can see healthy living starts with simple habit changes that you make over time.  It’s not “All or none” and we should have fun with it.  Making healthful choices just keeps improving with time, once you start feeling better you add in another healthy habit.  Eventually I promise you wont even want that cookie in the break room at work, or that mid day coffee or sugar rush, and the day that you do want it, that’s ok.  It’s simple!

Taking 10 Minutes a Day

I didn’t grow up meditating but I’ve recently discovered the wonderful benefits from taking just 10 minutes a day.  There are alot of benefits to meditation that I’ll be talking about in future posts but for now I wanted to share one of my favourite resources “Headspace”.

Headspace is an app created by Andy Puddicombe that has helped me and many others begin the practice of meditation in a simple way.  Check out Andy’s TED talk below to hear it from the source!

 

If you’re interested in learning more or downloading headspace you can visit: https://www.headspace.com/

And the best part?  It’s FREE to get started!