All posts filed under: Featured

How to Bust Through A Diet and Exercise Resistant Weight Plateau & Heart Health

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Photo credit: Juliette Rolfe “Is not this the fast that I choose… Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him…Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily…Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’” -Isaiah 58 Important note: Thank you for being patient, as we worked out the kinks in this blog post. This is the second time I am posting it and it is greatly altered, hopefully for the better. 🙂 Before you do any cleanse or fast, whether you’re in perfect health or not, you absolutely need to consult a qualified and experienced doctor, as everyone is at different places with their health and what their bodies can handle. A doctor who has experience with nutrition and fasting would determine the suitability of this type of cleanse for you, measure your percent body fat as you progress, keep an eye on your health as …

20 Years and Hot Pineapple Salsa

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“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm.” – Song of Songs 8:6 Wasn’t I in my teens just yesterday? Didn’t I style my hair with arcing, 5 inch bangs, wear the original skinny jeans with leg warmers, cheer, ” R.E.S.P.E.C.T.,” for Broadrun Highschool and have a crush on the consumate Mullet Boy who sat behind me in Algebra 1 just yesterday? Except for those nights I drop into bed at night from parenting, I still feel 20! 🙂 Last week, Daniel and I celebrated 20 years of marriage! We are taking our big trip to celebrate in the spring; I am hoping for somewhere hot, beachy, with tropical hikes and killer Pina Coladas. In honor of 20 years together… This little girl with a white fro from northern Indiana Amish country was born and her father, contrary to his Mennonite upbringing, joined the U.S. Air Force and traveled across the seas, far and wide. She became a young woman. At the same time (Give or take five years …

Easter Eggs and Dairy Air, All About Glutes

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“I touch the sky when my knees hit the ground” – Hillsong I was talking with a friend recently and we realized we both look at egg dying with all the fear and trepidation of Bambi accidentally released into the Mountain Lion cage at the zoo when funding is down.  It’s one of those traditions that is just flat out a mess and, with teenage boys who make everything a joke, you can imagine what it was like in our house this year! Let’s put it this way, how many random things can you do with a boiled egg and 6 colors to make your brothers guffaw harder? Yeah, they tried them all! One of my sons has taken to saying in a goofy voice, “I am so sorry, Loretta.” Obnoxious and hilarious, both. In fact, as I type this blog post, my sons are belting out a dramatic version of the smooth as butter, “pickup” song “Take Your Time” by Sam Hunt. I’m totally fine with a boisterous dance party in my living room, …

The Great Gift of Life and Homemade Spelt Bread

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“This is my one and only life … And it’s a great and terrible and short and endless thing.” – from the movie, P.S. I Love You Have I ever mentioned that I have old order Mennonite in my background? I know! Shocking to believe that this modern girl, who loves a very particular, persnickety latte that takes a seasoned auctioneer to recount, central heating, cute hair and who is drawn to all things glittery, just like the intoxicating effect of Catnip on our feline friends, would ever have come from that heritage! Two years ago, at the ripe young age of 42, I had my first pedicure, first professional nails done and first Mimosa. It was a year of lessons in all things girly, I guess. Let me tell you something, this Mama of four 100% burly boys, 3 of them in their teenage years, needs to enjoy those estrogen laced activities as much I can. Today alone, by way of example, I was sent to my early grave by the boys rigging a door …

My Health Story and Mexican Bibb Lettuce Wraps 

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My journey towards a healthier physical lifestyle started 9 years ago. Before that, I made reasonably healthy choices but had a very American diet. One evening, my husband, Daniel, and I were on a date, completely unaware of what the evening would hold. We drove through Starbucks and, as we pulled away, my eyes crossed and I couldn’t straighten them for half a minute. That doesn’t sound like long but, believe me, when your body won’t function right, your life seems to move in “SLOW MO,” like a bad video editing job from the 80’s classic, The Bionic Man. Daniel rushed me to the ER where they conducted a CAT scan. They had no explanation. This continued and other symptoms ranging from the feeling I was blacking out to being so cold I couldn’t tolerate it. That season of life was about as fun as wrestling with a stingy toilet paper dispenser in a public restroom. I mean, who mounts those puppies so low you can’t pull any down and out without it breaking off …

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

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Healthy Apple Turnover You know, it’s the weirdest thing; I came home the other day and noticed one of our Golden Retrievers was sitting in the outdoor kennel with the door shut. The kids informed me that Coco (short for Coconut) always does that, locks herself in a cage when she has acreage to run free. It really made me think- do I ever do that? Three years ago, let’s say, I would have honestly said that I didn’t feel bound up. But, in the same way that Coco doesn’t see that she’s unnecessarily locking herself in a cage, I now look back and see areas like that in my life. Sobering but SO GOOD to realize there’s a door and wide open glorious field! Some changes in me this year have been… I stopped just saying all the things I wanted to do and started doing them. In a new way, I started expecting to be treated with respect and mutuality. I started believing, that one step at a time and with God’s help, I could …

Boy Worthy BBQ

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“What are little boys made of, made of? Snips and snails and puppy-dog tails… What are young men made of? Sighs and leers and crocodile tears… What are all folks made of? Fighting a spot and loving a lot.” -Southey Daniel and I have 7 children. You read that right- 7! Yes, we know how they are made, for those of you who have asked that cheeky question, thinking we’ve somehow blundered into this, like a whale in a plastic blow up pool in the front garden. No, we didn’t calculate what it would cost to raise them. No, we had no clue about the amount of laundry or the driving I would have to do. And, yes, it is a glorious disaster most of the time, with a schedule that a military general would struggle to maintain, details and needs roughly 3.5 times the average American family, crazy conflicts and messes, that can happen faster than you can say Spicey Molasses BBQ Sauce, BUT a whole lot of love, meaning, and joy too! This week, I want …

Soul Food

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I love to laugh. If someone asked about my hobbies, I would say law, laughing, politics, laughing, reading, laughing, interior design, laughing, etc. It makes my list more than once! But, honestly, friends, today I am having trouble writing with my usual spunk and cheer. Why? Life can just be hard sometimes, even when there isn’t some huge reason. Some of the best wisdom I was given years ago was – “When life is hard, get up, light candles and make tea.” This was from an older woman and what was her point? When life is tough, get up, keep going, do the things that comfort you and take life beyond function to beauty and enjoyment, even when you don’t feel like it. My version would read more like go out to dinner and have a glass of excellent Argentinian Malbec with my husband and friends. As I think about one of my recent bouts of laughter, which often involves nerdy historical jokes that nobody gets but me, I think of the look of perplexed amusement on my …

Love is in the Air and a Pink Smoothy

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“Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken.” -Shakespeare This warm February in Colorado is making me dream of Maui. And, Maui is where Daniel and I finally took our honeymoon after 18 years of marriage! Shall I tell you my love stories? It’s rather scandalous but I met three of the greatest loves of my life at the same time! I mean, bear with the sap a little bit, it IS Valentine’s week after all! In December 1991, Daniel and I saw each other across the ham and cream cheese rolls at a New Year’s party. We didn’t talk until two years later but had that  pause in time where we noticed each other. Not a primal “he’s hot” moment, although I’m sure that was present in my single, 22 year old self somewhere… But, just noticed. It was Hollywood all the way, folks. The air stopped moving, the music became a low jazzy din in the background …

How I continue to choose fitness every day

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  “There is pleasure in the pathless woods.” -Byron The smaller pictures are me putting together my very first rifle last week, from springs, screws and pieces into a full gun. In the last few years, I’ve had a growing desire to become an excellent distance marksman. You know the Biathlon event in the winter Olympics? It involves cross country skiing and rifle shooting. Perhaps, it’s some latent nordic bloodline in me or something left over from when I lived in Rykkinn, Norway as a young girl and cross country skied everywhere, but that sport rocks! Biathletes, here I come! 😉 Fitness was like this for me a year ago; it was a far off dream. Life is full of function. If we aren’t careful, our dreams can become like a distant, Italian love song that is vaguely familiar in an alley somewhere outside our window. For various reasons, some of them wonderful ones like raising my seven beautiful children, I realized last year that I had stopped dreaming. And, that’s when I decided… It is time, …