Talk to your pets, teach them the rules, show them respect, they deserve it and will respond positively.  My animals have always been fantastic and I attribute it to the love, involvement, attention, respect and love that I show them. The animals understand and want to please you. They show you oodles of love. They want to know what you want from them, they’re pleasers. They love you unconditionally, but do not abuse the unconditional love. Animals have needs that go far beyond the basics of food, water and shelter. Under the law if you’re providing just those basics, maybe the law says you’re doing what’s right but you’re not. Animals respond wildly to the attention and love I’m talking about. Try it for yourself and see…

Here are some suggestions for including your pets as a part of the family:

1) Talk to them–you would be amazed by what they understand

2) When you’ve been gone, greet them excitedly–animals have no concept of time and if you are gone five min or five hours, they can’t tell the difference.

3) Let them know the rules. They want to know what the rules are. You don’t do them any service by not disciplining them.

4) I highly recommend kennel training dogs so that they have a safe, comfortable place to be when you are gone. I have had dogs that were kennel trained and dogs who weren’t and I have to say that I would never have a dog that wasn’t kennel trained again. They like the safety of the kennel and even if they are house trained, if you are gone for many hours or they don’t feel well, then having them confined to a kennel really saves your sanity.

The world is very demanding especially for women and even more so for single moms. It’s very difficult to juggle all your responsibilities and take care of yourself in the process. It is important to take care of and nurture yourself. I’ve put together information on 10 ways to nurture yourself so that you can be a healthy, happy woman. 

Two of the main things are eating breakfast and eating right. So many women skip eating in the morning because they don’t have time. In my opinion, you need to plan better and make the time no matter what. It will help your energy level all day and help you to not overeat later in the day. In the morning, eating “breakfast” is breaking the fasting you have been doing all night so it is critical that you replenish your body with some nourishment to keep up your stamina and vitality throughout the day. 

Healthy habits need to take priority in your life because without your health, you have nothing else. If you don’t voluntarily make time for your health now, you will be forced to make time for sickness later. It’s your choice. Once you get used to healthy habits, your quality of life will skyrocket and implementing healthy habits is actually becomes fun! 

Ten great ways to nurture yourself are:  1) Eat vegetarian at least three times per week—more is better so if you want to do it 100%, that is even better but do it at a minimum of three dinners per week, 2) Exercise 30 minutes per day—get a pedometer and then just walk, park further away, take the stairs, walk while blow drying your hair and brushing your teeth, 3) Meditate 20 minutes per day—find 20 minutes in everyday for quiet time completely without interruptions to go within and get inner guidance on what you need to do to reach your full potential, 4) Hydrate yourself—drink plenty of water, this doesn’t mean pop, tea, coffee or lemonade but actual water. Green tea actually counts but the iced tea you get is black tea and that doesn’t count as water. 5) Increase your intake of fruits and veggies by adding spinach and cooked chopped broccoli to everything, keep frozen fruit on hand to add to cereal and smoothies, add dried cranberries and raisins to cereal and oatmeal, 6) Spend 30-60 minutes per day doing something you love—you should make time each day to do something enjoyable, it could be playing in the park with your kids, watching a movie or reading an uplifting book, no one knows how much time they have so spend your time doing things you love, 7) Take a bath once per week—baths are very nurturing and pampering, get some nice bath stuff (special soaps, scrubs , body wash and so on) and treat yourself to a relaxing, exhilarating bath once a week at a time when you aren’t in a hurry to get somewhere, Cultivate Your Friendships and Support System—make time for friends and family and develop those connections and then when you need someone to talk to or help you , you will have a bunch of people to turn to , 9) Music, Incense, candles and aromatherapy—these four items can be used throughout the day in a myriad of ways and they will uplift your soul and nourish your spirit and 10) Pets—pets are very healing and a great way to unwind and de-stress, pets are great companions if they are part of the family,. Pets are forgiving, kind and loving while the humans you encounter, might not always be

You want to cut down on meat consumption but don’t know how. All your life, you have been conditioned to have meat as the center of your meals so how do you go about finding some delicious vegetarian food to cook? 

I will give you some tips and recipes to get you started and maybe it will get you thinking about other nifty ways to add vegetarian food to your diet. 

First of all, the absolutely easiest thing to do in the beginning is to make the food you are used to and substitute soy based alternatives for the traditional meat currently in your recipes. For example, in spaghetti use fake ground beef; Morningstar Farms and Boca put out a great alternative that can be purchased in a regular grocery store. You can also use the fake ground beef in your tacos, beef stroganoff, pizza, lasagna or anything else you put hamburger in. 

There are a plethora of fake hamburgers to substitute for regular hamburgers. Boca and Morningstar Farms both put out a fantastic variety of them but there are many other brands too. If you don’t like one kind, try another. You are bound to find at least one that you find acceptable, even good. 

If you want to venture out a little more, you can make some great recipes with tofu, Morningstar farms “chicken” and Morningstar Farms “beef strips”.  

My mom is Hungarian. Europeans are very meat oriented. I have adapted several of her meat, fat laden recipes to healthier vegetarian versions. One really great recipe I adapted was her recipe for “Paprikash Chicken”. 

Paprikash Chicken1 pkg. Morningstar Farms “Chicken:2 packets of vegetarian chicken gravy1 can cream of mushroom soupsour cream, 4-8 ozpaprikaolive oilfresh or canned mushrooms, optional 

Put a very small amount of olive oil in a fry pay and cook the vegetarian chicken until slightly crispy. Blend up the gravy and add to the pan with the chicken. Then add the can of mushroom soup. Stir in some paprika. After it’s all warmed through and through, add the 4-8 oz of sour cream (I only use about 4 oz. because I think it’s enough). You can cook up some additional mushrooms (I prefer fresh over canned) to add on top before serving if you’d like. 

“You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I’ll buy you a new car. ~Harvey Daimond

We are not meant to eat animals. We do not instinctively want to kill animals with our bare hands. We are not anatomically disposed toward meat eating. We have a long digestive tract whereas true carnivores such as lions have very short digestive tracts. The reason for this is meat putrefies quickly and needs to be utilized and removed quickly. We are much better designed to eat fruit and vegetables. Since, for most people, it is unrealistic to eat only fruits and veggies, the next best thing to include in your diet are other vegetable based foods such as rice, soy products and potatoes.

Even if you don’t want to be vegetarian 100% of the time, cutting back on meat consumption is good for everyone including the animals and the planet.

Meat is an acquired taste and most people need to cook it and doctor it up for it to be palatable that is a good clue that it’s not really meant for human consumption. Carnivores eat freshly killed meat, we try to pretend it’s not a dead animal i.e. butterfly chops.Merely eating vegetarian doesn’t automatically mean you are eating healthy. You still need to be sure you are eating low-fat, healthy vegetarian food. Meat is difficult to digest and is highly toxic to humans, so cutting back on it will help increase your health, vitality and energy level.

What does your day look like? Today, my son is with his dad so I can actually veg out a little.  The great part about that is that this is the perfect time to nurture myself. I can spend time doing things I love, going places or just relaxing…I’m not a big nap taker but if I feel exceptionally tired, I could even nap!!!

Sunday Oct 28, 2007

I will spend the morning relaxing, writing and taking a bath and then alittle later, I will go shopping for some groceries. Later, my son will be home and then things will get really busy!

I will write what my whole week looks like as a single mom and maybe some of you could share yours…

Trust in Spirit even when, especially when, you feel desperate. I have been searching for my purpose in life and for something I could do from home that I really love and that I was meant to do. I have dabbled in so many things. Everything worked to some extent but I never felt any of the things were really “my calling”. I believe that everyone has a purpose and a gift to give to the world sometimes it isn’t always easy finding that gift.

I finally just gave up and asked to be led and promised to listen and watch for the signs. I believe now that my purpose is truly unfolding. I have been afraid to do the things I have always felt I was meant to do for fear they wouldn’t fly. It is scary sometimes to do what you think rather than conform to society. This is definately one of the most important steps to creating a life you love.

Even if you don’t want to become a vegetarian 100%, it is helpful to cut down on meat consumption. You will improve your diet considerably if you eat a vegetarian meal three times per week.

 There are so many terrific vegetarian options out on the market today. It isn’t like it used to be in the 70’s where it was all bland tofu! Tofu can be really great if made properly but it can be really bad if made poorly. There are many great options besides tofu: vegeburgers (one million great brands), vege chicken, vege ribs, vege beef, vege chicken strips, vege beef strips. The list really goes on and on.  I’m really into pretty normal food, food that the ingredients can be purchased at a regular grocery store.  A lot of the cookbooks out there can be really wierd. One thing you can do is make your normal meals and substitute “fake meat” for the real thing. For example, make spaghetti and put fake ground beef or fake meatballs in place of the real thing. Experiment but I would really recommend having several vegetarian meals a week, it will be good for you and your family as well as the planet and the animals.

Being busy and eating right really don’t mix. It takes more planning and effort to eat well and oftentimes, our healthy eating is put on a back burner because we are just to busy to deal with it.  It’s a catch 22 because you don’t make the extra effort to eat right and then you have less energy to take care of your responsibilities. In the long run, your health declines and consequently your quality of life declines.

What are some things a busy mom can do to eat right and help her family to eat better? One of the main things is to plan ahead. Plan your dinners for a week in advance and make some things up ahead to have in the refrigerator and freeze.

If you need to go somewhere and will be gone for awhile, take a small cooler with some healthy snacks in it. If you need to, put a frozen bottle in it to keep your snacks cool and fresh. I regularly take things like apples, carrots, dried apricots and almonds. Dried apricots and almonds (get the raw ones, they are healthier) go together really well, pop a few almonds and an apricot in your mouth…yummy! Take food so you don’t end up hungry and looking for whatever junk you can find!

I will do some regular posts on the topic of healthy eating tips for busy moms so sign up so you can be made aware when new things post and send me your comments so I know what you need to find out more about.

Anytime you are bored just looking through cabinets and the refrigerator looking for something to eat, grab a glass of water. Water will often satisfy you without making you fat. I find that at the times in my life when I had trouble with my weight, I would aimlessly wander around looking for something to eat when I wasn’t hungry. I was feeling some other emotion such as boredom, stress and so on…

If you have trouble maintaining your ideal weight, when you are aimlessly walking around looking for something anything to eat, grab a glass of water instead! Try it because it really works! 

I think I have found the absolute best pedometer on the market, The Omron HJ112..although it is a bit bigger than some of them, I can wear it comfortably everyday and it is highly accurate. I have tried lots of them and I LOVE this one! Any comments on this one or any others?

I find the pedometer to really enhance my exercise experience. It is one of the best things I have ever purchased!

 I would love to hear others’ thoughts on what you have found works for you with regards to exercise and what are the roadblocks to exercising? What do you need to know more about with re to exercise?