humbleneighborhood.com» good health

What’s It All About?

Maia — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:02:30 +0000

I love blogging. That is, I loved the idea of blogging as I envisioned a pithy online chronicling of the World According to Me, kind of a quirky glimpse into the organized chaos in my head, peppered with professions of my love of good food, good health and a few of my favorite recipes.

But then there were all these rules—suffocating, stifling, inspiration-sucking rules. Don’t get me wrong. I quite like rules…rules of grammar, rules of etiquette…you get the idea.

That is, I love the idea of rules. I walk a fine line between having a borderline Type A fascination with rules and being a freethinking, renegade. I recently concluded that what I like—love, really—is knowing the rules so that I can take wild, ecstatic pleasure in breaking them.

But back to blogging…

I’m not unhappy with my previous posts, but just as I began feeling bogged down by the rules of blogging, I also felt there was this mysterious “something” eluding me. I said as much to my friend Andrea, who observed the following:

Nobody knows you’re writing a cookbook.

Right over my head. Kept right on yapping.

She said it again, this time with the kind of patient tone one uses with a small and willful child who isn’t getting the message (she’s a good mommy).

Nobody knows you’re writing a cookbook.

Ohhhhhh… Passion, inspiration and the elusive “something” began taking shape…

Nobody knows I’m writing a cookbook!

So. Here goes.

Hey, Everybody! I’m writing a cookbook!

It’s wonderful, it’s frustrating and it’s taken over my life. All day every day, everything I do, it seems, is book-centric. Every meal, every trip to the farmers’ market, every garden harvest, every search for the missing ingredient and yes, every temper tantrum, meltdown and drama. I may actually be the Sarah Bernhardt of writing and cooking and writing about cooking.

Anyway, that’s what this blog is all about.

Keep it Simple, Sweetheart

Maia — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:39:41 +0000

Good health isn’t only about what kind of food we put in our bodies. You can be nourishing your body with lots of healthy food, but if other areas of your life are out of whack, you’re not going to be as healthy as you could be.

Simplify Your Life

How many times have you made this resolution: this year I’m going to get healthy? Oftentimes, a close second is: I’m going to get organized! Getting “organized” is a pretty tall order—and it may not really be want you want. You may simply want to simplify your life. Sure, you can go through the process to organize all your stuff…or you can streamline and simplify your life. Less is more, as they say, and the less stuff you have the more easily you’ll be able to manage it.

Healthy Solution

People tell me all the time that I’m organized. It’s true; I do have somewhat of a natural penchant for organization. I can file and color-code and alphabetize with the best of ’em. But my true goal is just to make things simple. Here’s my favorite personal anecdote about learning to keep it simple… When making my bed, I would always make certain the tag on the comforter always ended up in the bottom right corner of the bed. Same with the throw pillows—tags neatly on the backside and in the bottom right corner. True, this accounted for mere seconds of my day, but it was still something I thought about and spent energy on. I don’t know what came over me one day, but I had a mad desire to just not worry about those ridiculous tags—and so I cut them off. It may be a little silly, but frankly, it is a much more joyful experience making the bed these days. The moral of the story? Before you take on the huge project of organizing your life, start by finding one or two easy ways just to make things simple.

A Healthy Life is a Lush Life

Maia — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:21:12 +0000

You’ve heard the lament—or maybe you’ve even uttered it yourself, “Why is everything that’s good so bad for you?” So often when we talk about eating a healthy diet, we’re thinking about all the things we can’t have…we feel restricted, denied, deprived. In this way, we set ourselves up and make things harder than they have to be by introducing the Lure of the Forbidden Food.

Try this Nourishing Tip

Who says you have to start your journey toward good health by denying yourself anything? When you think of a beautiful garden, don’t you envision lush, healthy fruits, vegetables and flowers flourishing and abundant? You don’t think, “Huh, that must be some kind of restrictive regimen they’re on.” Of course not. They’re lush and beautiful because they’re being nourished—not denied. So here’s a healthy idea—put a positive spin on your approach to your own good health. Don’t start by giving up your favorite foods (thereby creating a mad, rebellious desire for them); begin by adding something you like that’s good for you.

Make Being Healthy Fun

Achieving good health and pursuing a healthy diet can be fun (that’s right—fun!) and an opportunity to be creative and explore healthy new foods. Who knows…you might just stumble across a few new favorites. Here’s one of mine that I love to have for any meal. It’s especially great for breakfast…or dessert!

Maia’s Favorite Fruity Salad

Ingredients

2 Anjou pears
1 C blueberries
1 stalk of celery
1/4 to 1/2 C walnuts
1/2 C organic vanilla yogurt
a smidge of nutmeg

Instructions:

Wash, peel and cube the pears. Combine all ingredients in a bowl (wash the fruit and celery) and mix together thoroughly. Add that smidge of nutmeg. Chill and serve.