Oh, I want to make these! Raw vegan Halloween cupcakes

These look really, really good:

Three Months Left! How Will You Make the Most of Them?

Are you interested in joining me on a journey for the next 3 months? Only three months (minus a day; okay, today's almost over: minus two days) left of the year. At the same time, 3 months is a whole quarter of a year. With those three months being October, November and December, that's a full 92 days (okay, 90 now that today is almost over).

Imagine adding in a habit to do 10 minutes of meditation each day for the rest of the year. That's 900 minutes of meditation.

Imagine adding in a habit of 10 minutes of a mix of jumping jacks and burpees, or just going for a 10-minute run? Or 10 minutes of yoga?

How about reading inspirational things each day for even 5 minutes? Or starting each day with a few servings of fruit? Or having a salad each day?

Or working on a business idea for 30 minutes to an hour each day for the next 90 days?

90 days it's actually quite a lot of time.

I've been working on some goals of my own for the remainder of the year:
*finish the first course for my French "academy" website
*do what I can to transform my health like getting back into doing Egoscue (I've seen some great progress and now that I haven't been doing any for the past month, I'm seeing horrible regression), saying no to junk food, saying yes to better eating (I'm reading a couple of books at the moment; I'll share once I have an opinion!), more self-care
*get another business idea off the ground--more on that once the idea is better figured out in my mind

Those are my big 3. Check out the Pre-Training Action plan at http://www.100daychallenge.com/finish-strong-toolkit/?awt_l=L79hk&awt_m=3iedDmPsK9eUAyj . If you read this early enough, you might even have time to sign up if you want to get in on the 100-Day Challenge.

While I have my specific goals in mind, I also just have more of a mentality now of finishing this year on a high note and thinking more throughout the day on which behaviours will support me in that pursuit and which behaviours are hampering my progress.

So, are you going to do it? Are you going to make the most of this last quarter of the year?

What's Your Plastic Footprint?

The amount of plastic in my life has been hitting me hard this summer for some reason. It just seems to be everywhere. I don't suppose it's an easy thing to live in this modern world and to not have any plastic at all--gosh, even our computers and cell phones have plastic--but I know there are things I could do to reduce my plastic use.

One thing I did was to purchase some glass water bottles for myself and my kids.


Lifefactory 22-Ounce Glass Bottle with Flip Cap and Silicone Sleeve, Carbon

I found mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I didn't even bother to look anywhere else because it had been on my mind so much that I wanted some and there they were! We've done the metal water bottle thing, only to have it corrode or just have the water taste funny after a day in it. The plastic water bottles got rejected by my kids years ago due to how they affect the taste, even the more expensive water bottles. So, this was one definite step.

I've been remembering to bring my own shopping bags with me more and more. And even purchased a reusable Gap one: did you know that (in Canada, at least) if you bring their bag with you when purchasing items, they will give you 10% off? Even at an outlet store where things are already discounted? That's a pretty sweet deal. And I've been doing little things like not using a straw for smoothies I've been drinking and started using mason jars to store food rather than plastic storage containers.

And now a friend has posted on Facebook a video from the Plastic Pollution Coatlition. Here it is and it's worth watching. It's short, but still enough to get you thinking about the plastic in your life and how you might reduce it.

Plastic Pollution Coalition
As a member of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, I'm excited to share the launch of their new website! Check out www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org for information about #plasticpollution and it's toxic impacts as well as what YOU can do to reduce your #plasticfootprint.
Posted by Jeff Bridges on Thursday, 3 September 2015

I look now at my kichen and pantry and I just see so much plastic. Gluten-free products in plastic. Pasta in plastic. Vitamins in plastic. When you buy fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, plastic bags are the only things available. Unless you just let it all float around and touch everything. Detergents come in plastic. Shampoo. Conditioner. Make-up. Lotions. I have gluten-free doughnuts I made from the Cooking for Your Gluten-Free Teen cookbook. They are wrapped in plastic wrap. Why? How else are you going to keep them from going rock hard?

We survived in the past without plastic. Is there a way to live in this modern world without constantly having plastic--and without essentially living on a farm or completely off your own land without any modern technology involving plastic?

I don't know if there is a positive answer to that question. But I do know that there are things we can all do to improve our plastic footprint. I've already decided since watching the video to stop buying the cheap pasta and buy the ones that come in a box. And I might even stop purchasing disposable drinks--except in situations like the other day where I was at a mall that didn't appear to have a single water fountain. (How is that possible?? I came fully unprepared because I'd expected there to be a water fountain!)

What steps do you think you might take?

Allergies... and even more allergies

I started this blog already aware of my own issues with milk products and certain raw fruits: apples, peaches, nectarines, plums, sometimes cantaloupe. Then it became clear my daughter was dealing with something. Wheat is definitely a problem, but we don't know at this point if it's just wheat or all of gluten. What we do know is that the flour used at her work is highly refined and does not make her sick the way other wheat flours do.

She has also realized that chocolate affects her poorly, as does too much dairy.

And then we found out about another allergy (or sensitivity; it's just easier to say "allergy") the hard way: through hours of violent vomiting.

The first time it happened, we thought maybe it was a bug or something. Or a cominbation of foods. Couldn't figure it out.

Second time it happened, still couldn't figure it out.

Third time it happened, we started suspecting Bob's Red Mills' All-Purpose Flour Blend (the one with garbanzo bean flour).

The fourth time it happened, eating an Amy's Burrito with chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and garbanzo bean flour finally clued us in: she's allergic to chickpeas.

At that point, I was very glad we hadn't bought anything from Babycakes NYC when we were in DisneyWorld in June. Why? Well, the first vomting session was after the doughnuts from the Babycakes book. The third vomiting session was from crêpes made from a recipe from that book. Several of her recipes use that flour. It's not too far to think that that's what she uses in much of her baking at the stores.

Of course, this adds an extra difficult element when we're out and about. If she wants to eat gluten-free, she needs to be careful about what she's ordering and what it's made with. A small amount of chickpeas makes her far more ill than wheat/gluten does. She is not completely wheat-free with her diet and with this now popping up, it'll mean it takes precedence over eating wheat-free.

I am going to go back to what I've said before: if we all just switched to a raw food diet (and clearly avoided chickpeas in her case), this would all be taken care of. lol

Speaking of Disney, I do have some things to share about our trip and eating dairy- and gluten-free there. But that will have to be another day. I will say quickly that Disney World is actually a pretty great place if you have those two allergies. Lots of stuff you can eat.