I sat down in front of my computer this morning determined to start blogging again. It almost feels like getting together with an old friend where you are kind of nervous that you will have nothing in common anymore…but at the same time you have so much to say that you don’t know where to begin. I confess I even went back to my very first blog, (Why this Journey Began), which was from almost a year ago, to read it again and reconnect with my purpose.

So much has been going on in our lives. Running a home with 2 toddlers and a baby and both parents working is a lot to handle. It is easy to go on autopilot simply to survive. At some point I started feeling like I had nothing to write about because to be quite honest we’ve established certain recipes in our lives and it feels like we do a lot of the same most of the time. But after reading my very first post this morning, I realized that I did not create this blog only to post recipes. After all, if you want to find a healthy recipe of any kind you can put in a google search and get hundreds of them in seconds. I created this blog to share ideas and experiences and offer options on changing your lifestyle….along with delicious recipes that we’ve found in our journey.

I had almost forgotten in the robotic state that I had entered, that lifestyle has much more to do with changing your thoughts about food and eating than it does with the actual recipes. So here we are again, summer is ending and routines are picking up again…everyone is trying to reestablish sleep schedules for their children, buying uniforms and backpacks, and gathering the materials necessary to begin another year of school. Even for those that aren’t parents, everyone knows traffic is about to get worse and the relax ambiance of summer is almost over. The month of August in many ways is similar to December and getting ready for the actual New Year.

So I’m feeling that way about my blog. I have so much to share. From what’s been going on with the baby and his weight gain, our Sarasota vacation, school lunches for the boys, the eating psychology conference I attended….the list goes on and on. I’m so excited about it that I want to plop down in front of this computer and just spit everything out. But that would make for an extremely long and confusing post!!!

So for today, I just want to share that I’ve regrouped and reenergized and am ready to blog again.

And because its Sunday and for some of us this is the last week before school starts I wanted to make some recommendations.

TAKE SOME TIME TO PLAN – we all know that to eat healthy we need some level of planning.  Do your groceries, think about your breakfasts, lunches and dinners this week. Pre-cut vegetables and fruits for your smoothies if you know you won’t do it in the morning. Even if planning means thinking about what foods you want to eat this week, it’ll put you in a driver’s seat state of mind.

STOCK UP – Go to the grocery store. Stock up on healthy foods that you know you and your family enjoy.

TRIAL RUN- This is something I intend to do this week. I put Orly in a gymnastics camp for one week this summer and some days he came home with his lunch untouched. I didn’t understand and he told me that there are foods that he and I quote….”likes to eat at home but doesn’t like to eat for lunch.” Not sure what this is about. Maybe he doesn’t like his lunches to look different than the other kids. Maybe he doesn’t like the food because its been sitting out too long. Who knows. So since I believe he deserves a say in what he eats and I want him to enjoy eating healthy….I am dedicating myself this week to doing a trial run of different “lunch” appropriate foods. That way he can say yay or nay and give me an idea what’s going to work for him this year. I’ll keep you posted on how this works.

COMMIT TO ONE CHANGE– Its hard to live a perfectly healthy, balanced life. Some of us eat better than others, some of us exercise more than others, some of us are more spiritual than others. The point is that we can all stand to improve. And we should never be totally complacent in our current situation. So try to make one change this week. Maybe start exercising, maybe commit to one healthy meal every day this week (lunch, breakfast or dinner), maybe you can commit to taking 10 minutes during the day to take deep breaths this week. Whatever you do, make one change (no matter how small) that you think will make a positive impact in your life if you adopt permanently.

Hope these suggestions help you get in the frame of mind for a healthy, powerful, energized week. I’m excited!!!!

Happy Sunday!