Taking care of Mama - week 2

Hard as I try, I will never be a daily blogger and thus, my menu for my week of detox will just be a short one - but hopefully the basics will be covered. So this is the second week now of "Taking care of Mama" and this is what I'm trying to accomplish.

1 - Rest as much as possible. I'm in bed by 10 (which means no tv for me) and up around 7am. During the day, I try to lay down for a quick nap or rest when the littlest one naps. The technique I learned last week is something else I am trying to do each day. It's hard! Being mindful of it though helps and I have managed to sneek in a few down times.

2- Eat as healthy as possible (no sugars) and try some new supplements. For my detox, it probably isn't a real detox, but it kind of is too. I've added two new supplements to my diet - Floradix for iron and Evening Primrose Oil /Omega 3 combo. This is what I am doing for food during the next few days:

- Start the day with a glass of lemon water (just water with a half or whole fresh lemon juice) upon waking.
- After an hour, drink some herbal tea. One of my favorites is Peach Detox.
- After another hour, it's smoothie time! Here's my recipe - I fill a blender almost half way full of frozen blueberries. Then I add a little flax seed and hemp seed. Finally, I add enough Almond milk to make it milkshake consistency. This makes a full blender for us and I have a tall glass, then share the rest with the girls. They love it! You could do this with any type of fruit and substitute rice milk or regular milk as well.
- Lunch time - salad with lots of leafy greens, broccoli, spinach, carrots, etc. I do add just a little salad dressing, usually a vinagrette.
- Afternoon muchies - I grab a little bowl full of nuts - almonds, pecans and sunflower seeds. This really helps me make it to dinner time.
- Dinner time - Some type of soup usually. Last night I made a broccoli and arugula soup. I cooked a little onion with some garlic in olive oil on medium heat until tender. Then added a head of broccoli and cooked it until the broccoli was bright green (maybe 2-4 min). Added 1 1/2 cups of water and let that cook for about 8 min. I took a handful of arugula and tossed it into my blender then added the hot broccoli soup to it and blended. Be careful if you do this - it is HOT! The rest of the family had a heartier stew and bread with homemade jam. I was weak - I ate some bread with jam but other than that I did really good to avoid breads and sweets.
- Drink LOTS of water throughout the day.
- Exercise - I'll start that again next week. This week, I'm taking it easy and doing light stretches.

So that's it! I feel better already, my home is coming back together now that I am more rested and have energy to tackle the projects that seemed daunting to me just a week ago. I should add sunshine to my list as well. We are trying to get in some sunshine every day - so many times I find myself holed up inside the house and then I get stuck and just don't want to do anything. Our garden is coming along and the sunshine I get each morning by just watering the plants and inhaling the fresh morning air is helping my attitude.

Rest + Eat Healthy Foods + Light Exercise + Daily Breaks + Sunshine = Mama Feels Better

~Lisa