Olivia Eileen

What have I got to lose? Nothing. But, I'm still nervous about running the 17th Annual Army Birthday 10 miler tomorrow morning @ 6:30AM!!! And I think I have a legitimate reason :: I had mono the first 2 1/2 weeks of May. Looking back in April 29th when I found out from the Dr. that I did in fact have mono I was a mess. I had already been feeling undertheweather for 9 days. So, I was instantaneously depressed from the Dr's words, "You'll be sick for 4-6 [more] weeks. Rest and drink water.", thus entirely convinced I wouldn't be able to run the 10 miler... But, I prayed, my mom prayed, my friends prayed, my husband prayed, and I boosted my immune system with vitamins (and water and rest;))...and a week and a half later, my health started coming back! MIRACULOUSLY MY HEALTH IS BACK!!! AND I AM BEYOND GRATEFUL!!! I got to put in a couple "long" runs before the race and ended up 11 seconds off my pre-mono running ability, which is nothing race adrenaline...

I know, I know, for any true Irishman or woman a MEATLESS shepherd's pie is practically blasphemous...but my tummy of late cannot tolerate meat! [I could probably blame that on the food documentaries I've been watching;)] So, I've taken to being quite creative in the kitchen with some of my favorite dishes. To say the least, my creative and meatless rendition of Shepherd's Pie turned out quite successful, even the second time around! If you need something meatless or different, but also comforting, this is your ticket ;) Ingredients :: veggies, broth, and "meat" (veggies) 1-3 tablespoons olive oil 1-3 tablespoons minced garlic 2 medium carrots, diced 1/2 large yellow bell pepper, diced 1 large celery stalk 10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and drained (broth) 2 tablespoons Worcester sauce (we use vegan) 2 tablespoons soy sauce (we use gluten free) 1 cup vegetable broth ("meat") 1 can red kidney beans, rinsed and patted dry 3 tablespoons raw walnuts...

The next time our little one gets sick I'm running, no sprinting , to the store for a slew of new movies, tissues, tea, vitamin C, and extra cough drops ...because a repeat of communal sickness has finally taught me that once one of us gets sick we are ALL probably going to be sick!  It's been a long four weeks of battling shared sicknesses in our house, but we are finally on the mend... While my husband was sick last week, he confided in me that he originally thought I was crazy when I gave him herbal teas, garlic capsules, ricola cough drops, and a bunch of other vitamins the first time he was sick under my watch...until he got better after following my instructions ;) Now he trusts me so much with the natural remedies I research [for non-life-threatening common colds], that when I come home from the health food store and say, "here take this" he doesn't even ask me what I am giving him ;) I grew up with my mom referencing the Prescription for Nutritional Heali...

Recently, I watched Forks Over Knives documentary with my husband. If you want a convincing argument-that's not all about animal humanity-to decrease (or eliminate) your meat & milk protein intake and increase your intake of whole foods and veggies then you need to hop of Netflix and watch this documentary! My "take-a-ways" from this documentary were... The Standard American Diet is just that, SAD Childhood obesity and diabetes is PREVENTABLE (and our fault) A diet of 20% casein (milk protein) TURNS ON CANCER CELLS in our bodies A whole foods plant based diet has been proven to REVERSE DISEASE Cultural case studies showed that a shift away from a plant based diet and toward the Standard American Diet led to an increase in cancers  The biggest cultural case study that struck a chord with me was in the Philippines :: they were seeing the current generation's children diagnosed with liver cancer . The apparent cause? A shift away from their ancestral roots of a pla...