What Happened To Summer? September Creeped Up, and Here It Is!

Joy 🥰🍁🌱 in the kitchen

Sep 03, 2024

Caregiving. It takes a lot out of you. No matter how it fits into your life, how much time you give to it each day, it’s always there, a part of who you are.

I’ve found that out this summer. Life hasn’t been about me. It’s been about my Mom.

And yet it is about me. After flying home for a little self-care, I promptly got sick and was down for several days. So much for my vision of self-care. It turned into a lot of sleep.

I’m back up and at it again, and I’ve found that all of this has made me look at each day a bit differently. Joy. That’s been a big word for me this year, and it’s growing in meaning.

Joy. How can you find joy in the midst of chaos?

According to Dr. Brené Brown, Joy is a positive attitude that comes from feeling connected to yourself. It’s not about happy. It’s about knowing who you are and giving yourself permission to be in the now. To be present. Doing what’s best for where you are today.

I have a lot of ideas on that. I’m happy to share a few of them with you today.

This month’s September Motivation will cover …

Cookbook Time!

So, what’s your guilty YouTube pleasure? A channel you can’t stay away from? Videos you scroll through regularly, trying to find one you haven’t seen before? Maybe even counting down the days until the next new one appears?

I’ll admit it: I’m in love with Chef Gaz Oakley’s channel. (I’ve talked about him before.)

Several years ago, I ran across him in my search for vegan cookbooks. I tried his first one, and promptly forgot about him. That all changed earlier this summer. I somehow came across one of his videos, and was instantly hooked.

Like many of us, something changed for him during the pandemic. He gave up his London home and moved to a homestead in Wales. He’s been growing food, sharing his recipes, and talking about the homesteading life on YouTube. His videos are addicting. (And his recipes are out of this world. I’m watching my zucchini plants daily at the moment, trying to get enough flowers to try this recipe …)

I love the recipes from his site. But after trying a bunch of them, I decided to go back and take another peek into his cookbooks. His third was released a few years ago, and it’s quickly become a staple on my shelf.

Plants Only Kitchen
By Gaz Oakley

One reason why: Curry. I did not grow up with curry. I probably didn’t know what it was until fifteen years ago. My parents were meat-and-potatoes-Midwest-cooking kind of people, and it took me a long time to dive into other foods.

Thank goodness, because … curry. Gaz has an entire section called Powerful Curries with eight separate curry recipes. September is the perfect time to give these a try, so they’re already on my menu planning schedule. Monday is Chickpea Curry with Turmeric Rice, Tuesday is Simple Chinese Curry, Wednesday is … You get the picture. 😉

Defining What Health Means

If you do any searching or reading on health, you can’t miss Casey Means. She’s written a book, Good Energy, and is making the rounds talking to MANY people about it. Along with her brother, Calley Means, they are firing up the online world with their opinions on the food industry. And I LOVE it! (It’s what we need right now.)

With over 2 million views, this video is definitely a viral sensation. It’s worth watching - their message is spot-on.

After watching, I went looking for more. And I found it. Casey Means spoke with another favorite of mine, Dr Mark Hyman. The two of them have so much to say.

Two things converged after this video.

One, my yearly appointment is coming up with my naturopathic doctor. I’m looking forward to checking in with her, and always value our conversations.

Two, I know we’re going to do blood work to check my biomarkers. And I remember from last year that my insurance doesn't pay for lab work - I have to meet my deductible first, and it costs me several hundred dollars for bare-bones testing.

Dr Mark Hyman is a functional medical doctor, and is beta-ing his new site, Function. With a one-year membership, you get access to 100+ lab tests, with a mid-year check-in to find out how your suggestions are impacting your health. For a very reasonable fee!

Why not combine the two? So I registered, and voila, I was offered the chance to use them for my lab tests.

I have to say, I’m super excited about this. Because I believe we should be testing for wellness, to discover issues we can fix NOW rather than letting them accumulate and get worse. It’s always been my approach. This is a new way of taking it to the next level.

NOTE: I’m not advocating anyone reading this should do so. I’m not a medical doctor, and can’t make recommendations for your approach to health. I’m simply writing about my experiences - and I’m excited to do this to take charge of my health.

So let’s talk about this. Let’s journal about this.

I will be talking about this in the coming weeks. But as I’ve navigated the portal and scheduled my lab visits, I’m thinking a lot about what I’ll learn in the coming weeks, and my expectations for my health.

That’s a perfect chance to journal. So let’s get started.

Get started by downloading my free guide. You can use this for the journal prompts - I give you plenty of space to write. Or feel free to use your own journal if that works better for you.

Let’s get started. I’ll give you the prompts as well as a little guidance to get you started. This is a subject near and dear to my heart, so I hope you’ll learn from my tips.

I do believe it’s time we focused on wellth, so let’s go!

Kitchen Joy

Have you ever heard of fridgescaping?

I’m a person who loves to be neat and clean, with everything in its place. Not saying my world is always like that, but I do strive to keep a clean house. It’s what brings me joy.

My kitchen counters are a bit of a mess at the moment. I have more tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash piled up than I can keep up with. That’s the fun of having a garden this time of year!

But even as I navigate around all of these veggies, I have “pretty” to make my kitchen a little more fun to be in. Like my Vitamix I simply can’t live without. And a basket hanging on the wall I’ve had for years - I searched a long time to find the right one.

Joy comes from the little things. When you walk into the kitchen, you’re more likely to stay there if it brings joy.

Now let’s talk about fridgescaping. No matter how clean you like your kitchen, your fridge is probably a different story. I know mine is.

I rent. But if I could change one thing in my kitchen, it would be the fridge. It’s small, set up inefficiently, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

But maybe fridgescaping can change that.

Fridgescaping is making everything pretty when you open the door.

Yes, this can get obsessive pretty quickly. Search on IG, and you’ll find a ton of examples.

elvira_disterhof

A post shared by @elvira_disterhof

I might not be up for using wallpaper or bouquets in my fridge, but I do think there are great ways of making it a bit prettier. And more usable.

Start here - I learned a lot from this article.

Then I think this is about adding what motivates you to dig in and start cooking (and eating healthy) more.

Start searching. Pretty bowls.

Minimalist storage.

Gorgeous pitchers.

Lots of color.

Can you add decor? Yes. I err on the side of functional as well as Gorgeous!

But have fun with this. The possibilities are endless …

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