Friday, April 11, 2014

Enjoy Your Weekend


All my Juice Plus+ friends are at the big conference in Phoenix this weekend and I am completely jealous. They are learning some great new information about new bonuses and some delicious protein bars!!! Meeting people like Dr. Sears...I mean come on he is America's pediatrician!! I am in awe of all the knowledge they will bring back and hopefully share so we can put it to good use. Hopefully I will be able to attend the next one in Memphis?

Have the best weekend and enjoy some links too:


Have troubles with allergies? Well we don't any more.

It would be horrible to be these parents, not because I think what they did was wrong but because everyone else does.

A year without sugar? hmmmm

Vaccinations 

Marriage is work and anyone you tells you different is lying

I've been debating going back to school, but Dr. Sears as a Health Coach Certification Class? hmmm

Thursday, April 10, 2014

One Year Ago: Allergies


One year ago today my son, Bubbie, was battling allergies. Not just a little sniffle here and there, not just a runny nose....NO he was battling thru tears for no reason, eyes so puffy he could barely see out of them, eye boogers, nose boogers, runny and stuffy nose, sneezing and coughing so much you would have thought a piece of his lung might come up. We went to the doctor almost every week it seemed. They had him on all kinds of allergy meds; eye drops ($100 eye drops that made him scream every time we put them in, "it burns mommy!!!" heart broken), nose spray, liquid meds to take every 6 hrs and an inhaler because he could barely breath at times. I felt so bad for my little man that wanted nothing more than to run and play outside with his friends. Who we signed up for t-ball but had him pumped so full of meds that he could barely enjoy himself thru the daze of it all. 


Needless to say it was a horrible spring last year. We received some relief from the meds and added some homeopathic methods, Hylands and honey; but it was still a very tough battle. My Juice Plus+ sponsor told me the story of her son's asthma and allergies and how he has seen relief from taking JP+. At that time I had already been taking JP+ for a year and was using it sporadically with my children. I don't know why I wasn't more consistent with them? Maybe because I still thought it was a fluke that I was feeling so much better? I was already paying for the product so I decided to go full force with Bubbie taking JP+. Two garden/green gummies and two orchard/red gummies, everyday...along with everything else he was prescribed. It felt like it was too much at times, but we pressed forward and by June he was feeling better and we lightened up on most of the meds but kept up with our JP+. As the year progressed we saw little differences in him here and there; the non vegetable eater was resisting less and tried and loved kale. He didn't seem as sick as he used to be; yes he got the sniffles during the winter but no flu or even missed school days like the year before where he got the flu even though he got a flu shot. Actually we skipped the flu shot for the whole family this year (not consciously just life getting in the way). No flu for anyone. Maybe the Juice Plus+ wasn't a fluke...It wasn't anything I could measure for you, nothing specifically that I could pin point ans say YES this is it. But...

Here we are a year later, just look at him up there! Happy smiling, able to play outside and not feel horrible. We still use Hylands, but on a as needed basis, not everyday just to live. He still has a bit of a stuffy nose, but again nothing like the year before. Are his allergies gone forever? Probably not, but does he feel 100% better than last year, heck ya! We have been doubling up his Juice Plus+ the last few weeks just to be sure we were ready for allergy season (4 of each, no worries about ODing, who can OD on whole fruits and vegetables!?). I hope that maybe next year we wont need allergy meds at all. This is a huge win for us. I was able to sign him up for t-ball again and not worry that he wont be able to enjoy himself. 

It was this little change that we made for him that made a HUGE difference. I only wish I would have listened to my own body sooner. If I was feeling better taking JP+ then of course my kids would be. Luckily the Juice Plus+ company is so committed to getting kids healthy that they have the Children's Health Study where kids (age 4 to college) can get JP+ FREE for four years, with an Adult sponsor!! That is a huge cost savings to our family, but more than that it is an amazing commitment to our kids health and well being. 

This is our story with Juice Plus+ and while I was probably the most skeptical person in the beginning I can see now how much JP+ has changed our family's health and lifestyle. Not everyone may have the same results as us, but this is working for us so "if it aint broke don't fix it"...we will continue on our JP+ journey!

Do you have allergies?

Friday, April 4, 2014

Enjoy Your Weekend


If this rain would ever let up! It would be nice to see less of these forts all over the house. they were so cute at first but now they are just another thing for me to clean up. Hopefully this weekend we will get some relief. Lots to do...


Bento Lunched for the kids: Pesto Chicken sand, carrots, baby bel and homemade granola bars


Was prettier in the pan, but eggs, with spinach, tomatoes and garlic. 


I forgot how delicious ants on a log are, and even better with Justin's Almond Butter!!!


Vitamin A is good for your eyes! 

Links:


Well you know I love a good egg!

LOVE comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders and whatever

Cincinnati's Reds Opening Day is the bestest!




Fun idea to get a kid started with journaling and just being creative

Enjoy the day, enjoy your life!


Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Zoodles

A love story of how noodles and zucchini made a delicious meal...

Hehehe, sorry for some reason that was much funnier inside my head ;) Oh well, I am just getting started with the Bikini Body Mommy Challenge and while sadly I have had to adjust almost every single meal (it's my sudo vegetarianism getting in the way and trying to make meals my kids will actually eat). But besides all of that I have really liked it! I know sounds crazy but it is a great start for me, who is already a cook to just get an idea of what we should eat. She has these great shopping lists for the whole week and the meal number is listed next to each ingredient so I can take away and add quickly to the list. It is like having the blue print for the house but you have to add the wall color, trim, and maybe make a room bigger or smaller...but anyway back to zoodles. This was not one of our meals this week and actually I didn't even read her blog post on it? Bad blogger I should do that, maybe her idea is better than mine? But the title really stuck with me and I created this meal that was amazingly gobbled up by my kids!!! and me


Sliced up a big zucchini with my mandolin into little string spaghetti. Side note: should have peeled the skin off and then maybe the kids wouldn't have realized this was zucchini?


Made some homemade pesto: basil, pine nuts, garlic, parm, olive oil, squeeze of lemon and water; blend the crap out of that!


I made noodles separate and then sautéed the zucchini in a non stick pan with a little pesto so that it would get tender. Added more pesto to taste.



For the noodles I added pesto and reserved a little pasta water to help thin out the sauce and make sure everything gets covered. I kept everything separate at first pending a disaster at the dinner table. 


Then viola ...zoodle love. Pesto, noodles and zucchini and my kids loved every second of it and actually asked why we didn't have to have veggies with dinner. HAHAHAHA little did they know!

Add this one to the rotation. 

linked here: