Working on healthy, whole food living....and how this one gal deals with stress.

There are times when life just seems to move along so quickly, you blink, and another day, week or month have passed by. This is the way it seems of late. So many things happening, end of summer, getting my grandson ready for a new school year, and plenty of family drama. Most of it, I can deal with in an easy manner, family drama on the other hand seems to just suck the life out of me. Especially when it's the type of which you are not in control and can do nothing for the people you love who are hurting. What I tend to do in these situations is try to move out of my head, which for me involves creating...whether it be cooking, crocheting, art, it doesn't matter, as long as I can forget the world for a short time. And now on to other things...

I have been working on ridding my life, body and world of processed things. A couple years ago I tackled my diet coke addiction, and now I only have one every once in a great while. Most often I don't even think much about it. What I replaced it with however is Crystal Light Lemon Tea. Maybe not as detrimental to the body as soda, but still, it is a processed, manufactured imitation sweetener, and I know those artificial sweeteners are not good for you. So, this past weekend, after reading a blog about real food (seriously, I read an entire years worth of blog posts on the matter), I decided to kick the Crystal Light. I have replaced it with water to which I add lemon and lime slices if I want it flavored, and I also made a pitcher of homemade Chai Tea Latte using almond milk and a bit of agave to sweeten it. So far it's been easy sailing. I do find myself wanting the other a couple times a day, but I just pour myself the Chai and sit and savor it and it seems to do the trick. Considering I was drinking 2 quarts of Crystal Light a day, I'd say that's pretty awesome. The other things I am working on is processed vegan faux items. These things are really no better for anyone than processed everything else. I would rather see someone eating the vegetarian versions than the nasty meat stuff, but for me, I want to be eating natural foods. This morning I made my own "meat"balls, using chickpeas, mushrooms, seasonings...it's a recipe I have been using for awhile and it's really great. I use the same base items to make a "meat"loaf that is delicious, especially for sandwiches. I feel better about myself when I am making my food from whole foods and I know what is in it. I've made a vow to myself that I will use what I already have on hand but any purchases made going forward have to be whole food items, or contain 5 ingredients or less and I have to be able to pronounce and understand what each of the ingredients are. It made my grocery shopping this weekend take quite a bit longer as I searched through items but it was great knowing that I was doing good things for my body.

One other thing, which basically combines the two previous things I talked about, creating and whole foods. I dug up the first sweet potatoes from my garden on Sunday. It was one of the greatest feelings. I love gardening, I love growing food, and this is the first sweet potato patch I've ever done. Here are my two beauties:

These are the first two sweet potatoes fresh out of the ground, dirt still attached.

Seriously, this potato was huge, it's larger than my hand, and I don't have petite hands. It fed two of us, no problem.

My babies, all cleaned up and ready to be baked. Momma's so proud.

Deliciously baked, needing nothing to adorn it. The outside was rubbed with a bit of olive oil and salt before baking.

So friends, that's the latest. I hope you also have ways to deal with the stressful days of your life, whatever that is. Here's till next time.