A child of the 1980s and 1990s, I was a huge Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. I read all the “Little House” books and caught every episode of the simple life of living on the prairie in the late 1800’s. The idea of working in the kitchen or fields during the day and singing by the fireplace at night warmed my heart. By no means, can I now compare a pioneer life without electricity to our techno-centric world with “social distancing” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, somehow I’ve found a calm in preparing simple foods in the kitchen, like the Ingalls’, for our family dinner around the table. We don’t have a garden and we’re hibernating due to my compromised immunity, so our grocery deliveries are minimal. I’ve had to focus on a few simple foods and ingredients that I have in bulk and here is how I’m doing it.
Simple Foods to Eat Healthy With Less
How to Add More Nutrients in Your Life
My favorite fruit and veggies as a kid were green apple Jolly Ranchers and the infamous steakhouse bloomin’ (fried) onion. As I grew older, I walked away from candy and fried foods, thinking I was eating healthy with my bag of Baked Lays and fruit infused frozen yogurts. It wasn’t until my wake up call with stage IV disease that everything in my diet changed. Truth be told, it wasn’t just my diet that shifted, it was my mindset about the food we eat and how nutrient dense food was important for my survival.
A Virtual Wellness Book Club – A Bookish Club
Are you in a book club now? Do you read the book and analyze with friends or show up just ready to have fun and possibly learn something? I’ve been in a number of book clubs throughout the years with different directions.
A Culture Club – No Boy George, just a bunch of fun neighbors sharing our interests together and having fun!
A Wine Club with a Book – Need I say more? Not many conversations about the book, yet still a blast.
Reading Night Out Club – Book reading mandatory. Questions outlined beforehand. Always left informed.
All of the above can be fun and inspirational. Just like picking friends, we have to pick the right book club that fits our wants/needs. I’ve always been more of non-fiction reader and for some reason always wanted a non-fiction book club. So here I am – inviting YOU to join this virtual wellness book club – a BOOK-ish Club.
Wellness Work Series: Stress Reduction Tips
As a recovering workaholic, I can easily get sucked back into the grind and stress. If I haven’t completed my to-do list, I set my alarm to a painful early morning hour to finish up the project. My mind is in “rush mode” and body enjoys working in the flow. So I produce a lot in a short amount of time. Yet, in doing so, the heaviness of stress sits on my chest. For many years, I convinced myself that my type-A personality fueled my success. Yes, some stress motivates performance, though research shows continual long-term stress harms our health. So, as a part of the Wellness Work Series, I have outlined a few healthy stress reduction / stress management tips for busy individuals.
Healthy Lifestyle Hacks
We all want to make our lives a little easier, right? Finding simple solutions and lifestyle hacks can be the answer when you want to improve your health. We started PrettyWellness.com to share information together on how to take small steps toward better health. Whether you’re a working mom, a stay-at-home parent, an up-and-coming 20-something or anyone in-between, we’re all trying to find our way through a busy and complicated life. After my second cancer diagnosis, I learned that focusing on taking care of myself and tweaking my lifestyle, helped me feel amazing even under the stress of treatments. Now, it’s my mission to share this with everyone and create conversations together about our wellbeing. Taking small steps toward better wellness can put us all on the path to the life we want to live both personally and professionally. It starts with putting one foot in front of the other. This can be made easier, when you look for healthy life hacks to instill into your routine.
A Search for Non-Toxic Cleaning Products
Earth Day can be everyday and it can be easy to live a non-toxic lifestyle. Not only is recycling and reusing products important for our planet but also knowing what’s in our products can make a difference in our health. After my second diagnosis with breast cancer, I started investigating what might advance cancer and found a ton of information on toxic chemicals in our beauty and household cleansing products. I made quick changes and continue to investigate new products to see what works and what doesn’t. Now that I’ve spent the past few years paying more attention to the ingredients in my cleaning products and making sure they are non-toxic, it’s become second nature.