Sigh.  I have missed my writing time.  Since starting a full-time job and still running a house with 5 people, I feel like a robot…

6 am- wake and get ready for work and get T ready for school

7:30- leave the house

8-3- work and deal with a barrage of texts and phone calls from the various members of the house….feel sick, pick me up I have a concussion, can I go here, can I go there, I need to go to Michael’s for supplies for a project, coach called a later practice….

3-8pm- run 3 people in 3 different directions, throw together a lame-ass dinner, make lunches for 4, put on pj’s and hit the hay!

It is robotic, logistical….energy sapping and a joy thief!

Don’t get me wrong…I like my job, love my family and our life, but it feels like life is passing by through the window of the train car and everything in me is craving a pause….

I have been reading, mostly on the weekends and the last few weeks, since I have been down and out with mono, lots of material on balance, health, food, nature AND I LOVE it all!!  

I incorporated a green juice every morning for the last month, I cut out sugar, gluten and dairy and while, physically I couldn’t feel a difference (I chalked it up to being sick) I knew mentally that it was definitely better for my body, my mind and my soul!  Well…this weekend I splurged…had a lil gluten and by lil I mean a big ‘ole plate of pasta in clam sauce, a slice of pizza and some peanut m-n- m’s and I can say…I am paying the price…I FEEL LIKE CRAPPOLA!!!!  Truly.  Instead of being all down about it though, I am using it as testament that absolutely “we are what we eat!”

Here’s the thing that’s got me down…in all of the books I have read, websites I have visited of people, who I truly believe, obtain the “secret” to health…eating lots of live, clean foods, taking walks outside, exercise, yoga, meditation…all of it….they all have a couple of things in common….

1. They make a living from the spreading of said knowledge….it’s their job!!  They are not incorporating this lifestyle into a full-time job that has nothing to do with health! Health is their job…they are PAID to drink green juice, meditate, rebound, hike and impart their wisdom onto us!

2. They have NO CHILDREN!

3. They HAVE NO CHILDREN!

4. THEY HAVE NO CHILDREN!!

The big question remains …the enormous paradoxical conundrum…how the HECK do we, you and I, the average American citizen, incorporate these vital practices amidst full-time jobs, families, bills etc….

The answer….I have not a clue….BUT, I am arduously attempting to find a solution!

We all desire peace, health, joy.  Unfortunately, we live in a culture that slams us with false promises telling us the key to our joy and health is in striving to do more, to stretch ourselves thin…if we work the extra hours it promises us promotion into a position of esteem(and less hours), which will undoubtedly cure our “less-than” feeling. If we eat this non-food product out of a beautifully packaged box we will shed pounds with little to no effort, it will magically energize us…

The truth is this….it is BULLSHIT!  All of it!

Companies lie to us…they sell us…and we fall for it… hook, line and sinker!  Especially the food industry…we buy fat-free, sugar-free etc…if it is labeled fat-free, you can bet it is filled with cleverly disguised ingredients…the main one being SUGAR!  If it is sugar-free than it is filled with “biochemically” engineered crap and you, quite frankly, would be better off eating the sugar.  We are very misinformed, misled and mistaken on the food we eat!  Our best line of defense….BECOME INFORMED!

We run ourselves ragged until we are so tapped out that the only thing we have left to give the people we love, the people who matter most to us, is short, curt responses, annoyed glances and anger unleashed because we just cannot do ONE more thing.  We run ourselves empty and then fill it up with guilt over our less-than-loving treatment of our loved ones AND then we try to cover our guilt with food…..well, not actually food…food-like substances created in laboratories, which are bodies are not designed to digest.  This in turn causes undue stress to our bodies, but we just keep going….after-all, there are mouths to feed, bills to pay….ugh…I am exhausted just writing it all.

My friends….I am on a mission, albeit a slow-moving one, a mission just the same….to discover how we can enjoy vitality, joy and health…wish me luck!

So far I conclude….adding a green juice to your morning routine is fairly simple and without a doubt will do wonders for your body and your mental clarity.