Amen to Easter Eggs!

Not to get too religious on you, but ever wonder what the Easter Bunny and eggs have to do with the Christian's belief in the resurrection of Christ?

Well in the beginning, Pagans were more common than Christians. The Pagans celebrated the Spring and the regrowth of all living things with the eggs as a symbol of fertility and the rabbit, known for it's ability to rapidly populate. This was called Easter ( from the goddess Ishtar or another theory from the Saxon's Mother goddess Eostre or from the Latin word for spring "eastre".)

The Christians wanted to find a way to encourage the Pagans to sign up so they melded Easter with the resurrection of Christ, as it too was a celebration of new life and rebirth of all things.

And what better way to celebrate anything but with chocolate? Someone even suggested it was because Christ's last dessert was chocolate.( You can find ANYthing on the Internet). Who am I to disagree? I LOVE that part. If it was all about hard-boiled eggs I don't think we could count as many kids in on the celebrating.

For me it's all about spreading the joy of the beginning of Spring and all that it means to our surroundings. It's the start of mating season for many species, as seen by the squirrels chasing each other in pairs across the snow. The first poke of green noticed in the dry flower bed in the front yard. The deer trying to nibble off any sign of vegetation on the tips of our lilac bush. And the excuse to cram my maw full of candy Easter eggs.

My hunt starts in the stores, trying to find eggs made of a high percentage of dark chocolate. Not an easy task. But after finding some, I put them around the house. Then I enjoy finding them for weeks to come after forgetting where they are.


But the BEST part about my Easter is when my gal pal Sandi and I dress up as ski bunnies and hit the slopes with our baskets of goodies for everyone. Giving is so way much more fun than receiving! The looks on the kid's faces as we bend down to hand them a treat. Priceless. Picture it: Sandi's bunny ears tilting backwards from the wind as we shoosh down the slopes, chocolate eggs bouncing from our baskets as we hunt down the deserving and the undeserving alike. It's Easter. EVERYone deserves a bite of heaven.

Amen to that!

• 
  

• symbols of new life and rebirth, and the Christian celebration of Easter is all

GaGa For Butterscotch? You'll Love Baobab!

Mmmmmm. Just smell it! And I do each and every morning  when I pour a teaspoon of Burt's Bees shampoo with Baobab into my palm and inhale deeply. The soothing scent whirls throughout my brain and runs like butterscotch ripple inside my body straight through the rest of me to settle in my feet. It's instant calm. I take a second sniff and feel like I'm floating. WHAT a way to start a day!

So what is it?

ba·o·bab

ˈbāōˌbab,ˈbä-ō-/

noun

1. 1.

   a short tree with an enormously thick trunk and large edible fruit. It can live to a great age.

Hmmmm. But what IS it?

Okay, so I went to http://whatisbaobab.com

LOOK! They grow like dangly earrings for Giants...

Baobab trees grow in Africa and  have been

 feeding people for 200-500 

years, thus the nickname 

"trees of life."

• Contain six times as much vitamin C as oranges
• Contain twice as much calcium as milk
• Baobab Fruit is packed with B vitamins
• Excellent source of magnesium, iron, phosphorous, and antioxidants

But it's that smell! You gotta try it! Next time you hear I'm doing another "Prevent Your Cancer" demo come by and stick your nose into the bottle. Because it's Burt's Bees, it's also a 99.6% natural product. In the old days, this feeling was only had after smoking a cigarette with a latte in hand. Mellow for five minutes before WHAM!!!!!!!!!!! At least this fruit won't have me spinning like a toy top for a few hours. I wish Mom had found it when I was younger. My butt may have been spared a few spankings. And I might have slowed down long enough to learn that I didn't know everything.

HMmm. Baobab.Maybe It could change your life!

Having a bad day? Go sniff some Baobab shampoo and live longer. Because looking for a real baobab on a grocery shelf around here is right up there with finding a young, fresh coconut with juicy flesh you can spoon out like butter. Or winning a lottery.

 It's not going to happen anytime soon.

Three Months To Lose The Tire: You CAN Do It Too!

And no...I'm not sucking my stomach in! That was bonafide hard work of 40 minutes a day for six days a week, every week since starting this January first. Three months and my pants are feeling nice and loose for a change.

We're talking Aqua Fit two days a week which is fabulous core work on those stomach muscles. Then a class of run spurts mixed with weights called Circuit Training with Jenny at 6 a:m Tuesday and Thursdays followed by a 20 minute slow jog to the Industrial area and back to the Leisure Facility.Friday and saturday is skiing on Hudson bay Mountain. Burn those buns!!

Diet Change was substituting all oils (butter, mayo, olive oil, fats) to coconut oil- the type for cooking which is unscented and tasteless. All cheese was LOW fat and scarce. Any carbs were Quinoa, quinoa flour, brown rice or brown rice flour, brown rice pastas or sprouted grains. Only organic red meats like moose and deer and only in small quantities. More salmon and trout, some chicken and beans.

Vegis included yams instead of potatoes, lots of leafy greens including Kale chips when a salty craving hit. A variety of colours with yellow and red peppers, green zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, parsnips, asparagus, always trying something different to get the unique nutrients each variety offers.

Fruits- well an apple a day with a Tbsp of natural peanut butter for dipping for a snack at 3 p.m.

The snack at 10 a.m is usually the same or another fruit with no fat yogurt as a dip. Papya is known to keep you healthy, so I used plenty of it as well as red grapes, oranges, kiwis, bananas, again a mix.

Breakfast is always the same- oatmeal with fruit puree, no-fat yogurt, pumpkin and sunflower seeds with ground flax seed and almond milk. Lunch is a bowl of soup, never cream soup when on a diet, and dinner is less meat based than plant based. One quarter meat, one quarter a carb mentioned above and half the plate in vegis. It's not uncommon for us to have 5-6 vegi options for dinner. I'm quite fond of one pot meals where I cook things separate and throw them together into a casserole. Hamburger with onions, zucchini, mushroom, peppers, whatever needs to be used up, mixed with a can of diced, no-salt-added tomatoes and pre-cooked brown rice pasta. 

Dessert? I cook my famous chocolate macaroon recipe that has no flour or sugar and is sweetened with pureed dates. Top that with no fat yogurt, seeds of choice and fruit and you have a royal treat happening. Keep that up for one month at a time and see what happens. I bet you'll have your own success story like I had. If I can do it, you can too. It takes a few more feet being raised instead of more "treats." Treats are for people that have lost weight. Not for those trying to lose it. There will be a time and a place for spoiling your slimmer half once you get there.

Now, what else shall we work on inspiring you to do? Want to learn to play the piano? Naw, me either. There will be an app out soon enough for that.Now if we could only get an app that pipes up when the urge to consume your body weight in chocolate arises??

the Luck of the Irish

Okay, so I'm not Irish. Just plain old British with a smat of American in there, but being raised an Easterner in New Brunswick straightened all that out to leave me with a friendly, kind, open disposition. But WHY am I so lucky? Could it possibly be because I believe in Karma? Didn't you watch those Oprah shows that talked about positive energy perpetuating more positive energy? Opening yourself to good and like a magnet, good will come back to you?

All I know is that the more I donate, the more I seem to receive.

For Example:

Last weekend I attended three fundraisers within 24 hours. It began with our team of five women determined to hike up Hudson Bay Mountain'sMount Everest Challenge where we had to hike on our skinned skis up the run named Ptarmigan 18 times collectively over 24 hours. It was to collect money for spinal cord injuries so we pooled our money, entered our team and started the climb. After the first walk up with my skinned skis, I skied down and got in our vehicle and drove to Houston where I changed into my "power outfit" and attended the International Women's Day at the Senior's Hall as their guest speaker of the evening. I left my purse with my make-up and drivers license and everything else I can think of back on the ski hill at our cabin. No worries. There was a spare tube of lipstick in the car.

The smell of their Chinese buffet was delightful and my stomach growled as I gave my talk about how women can change anything they want if they only put themselves to the task. From chastity belts to mini skirts and from maids to Presidents. Life is for the inspired who accept challenge and grow as they age.
I was presented with a beautiful necklace of rare stones made locally. Surprise! Their applause and thanks lifted me high enough to virtually float to my third event of the evening: the Hospice Society's Ties and Tiarras.

OOPs, my tickets to the event are in my purse on the ski hill. No matter, I am given another ticket which is cut in half for the draws. So, yes, I do own a tiarra I received for my fiftieth birthday, which I donned and sauntered around the room with, noticing the items we had personally donated for the silent auction. Over the course of the night my number was drawn for a Tupperware set, a free ski pass and then two tickets to Vancouver compliments of Hawkair. Perfect as there is another fundraiser in May in Vancouver I had been planning on attending but not sure how I was going to justify the expense to get to it.

I got back into my car and returned to the ski hill at midnight where I got ready to climb back up the mountain in the snowy dark three more times for our team. I slept well from 7-11 a:m, before the wind-up party where my name was pulled for a trip to the prize table. I picked a much needed pair of graphite, telescopic ski poles for touring. I LOVE them.

Two days later I got an incredible review about my fiction book from a super influentially respected author who is trying to open another door for me. I will keep you posted, but still, the good keeps coming.

Then today, I needed bananas for a recipe and wasn't there one bag left of over-ripe bananas for sale. Oh you know that HAD to be Karma happening there!

Okay, so when I got to the truck, my keys WERE locked inside of it. BUT on the good side, a great friend  went to my home and picked up the spare before delivering them a 10 minute drive to town. I'm telling you, it's Karma that he was even available in the middle of the day!.

So, I say, "Luck of the Irish" be darned. If you want some good in your life, put some out there and see what comes back to YOU! What can it hurt?

Happy St. Patrick's day Everyone and may a bit of luck come to those that go after it!

Cancer is a Bully

Wearing pink this week is two-fold for me. I stand up for anti-bullying and I also stand up against cancer.
Put that together like a peanut butter sandwich and you have the fact that cancer IS a bully as well. Like a big kid that pushes you down when you least expect it, cancer pops it's ugly head when we are sure that indigestion is only that and not pancreatic cancer. That the shadow in your normal looking breast is only a cyst, right? Not with a bully. That's possibly breast cancer and when the bully enters into your life, you can bet it's an aggressive one that is already in a lymph node heading into your body.

Bully's try many tactics. The ones I had in grade school would surround me and warn me I wasn't to try and hang out with their friend Duska. At our 30th high school reunion, Duska was amazed to hear that her friends had threatened me.She had wanted to be my friend and wondered at my distance. And like the little bullies, your resistance to the possibility
that you might have cancer probably works the same way. You are surrounded by denial and so you snub your doctor's office with that new pain or lasting headache. You put off the colonoscopy because it costs you a day off work. You have to fast. Well I think you are only avoiding the bully. Going a different way home from school so he won't catch up to you.
HEY. We don't tolerate bullying anymore, haven't you heard?

Don't let cancer push YOU around. Do what you can to get tough and stand up to it. Knock it down with a daily dose of a 1,000 mg of vitamin D. Get some exercise, feed the oxygen into your lungs. That will take cancer down a peg or two. Knock the wind out of it with some fresh fruit and vegetables ten times a day. Pin it down by eating omega 3's found in salmon and anchovies.

And wear your pink proudly. Because bullies, whether inside or outside of us CAN be licked.

A One Star Review

Careful what you wish for they say and they (whoever they are) were right. Sort of. After 1500 downloads of my two books during the free Kindle promo, I received a whole eleven reviews- the very first one being a ONE star for Running From Cancer.

"This is yet another predictable tale by a woman diagnosed with early breast cancer who has had, thus far, an effective cure. The chirpy, ever so perk writing style reads like a self published romance novel. The author, while seeking traditional treatment, has a dangerous penchant for quackery which is why I can't be more charitable. She also assigns bogus rationales for cancerous growths which probably stem from ignorance and her inability to digest technical information."


Ouch!

Amid the procession of fan mail, ravings and hugs from people thinking the book was well written, interesting, inspirational and food for thought came the slash of a typewriter from this Chris (male...female???) Cennedy who said s/he had to give me a one star after my "dangerous penchant for quackery" and "bogus rationales for cancerous growths..."

My son said, "what, you didn't list your references, Mom?" Hmm. He might have a point.

My penchant for quackery? Well I am going through the book trying to decide what this reviewer meant by that as I don't actually promote anything without disclaimers- I did talk to a Naturopath at the suggestion of a doctor friend  and I do say a glass of lemon juice a day might help but calling that quackery instead of a possible minimal hope for some is a bit much.Quackery to me is promoting snake oil- I do propose through the book you do your own research and find out what you are comfortable with. I do list where I found some material in the websites mentioned in the appendixes.

As for the" bogus rationales for cancerous growth" as I explain in the MEMOIR, I am a neurotic ADDer full of  anxiety at all times.Every chocolate bar or glass of wine frightened me as I did research about too much alcohol and sugar being detrimental to your health. This can be found on the Canadian Cancer or Breast cancer sites as well as American health sites.It's no secret and it's no joke. It's also not a dangerous penchant for quackery or bogus rationale for cancerous growths. As stated in the book NO ONE knows what starts a cancer cell growing, but it IS known what can promote and accelerate cancer cell growth and that includes too much alcohol and refined sugar.

As I state on the amazon.com website where this all began...

If you check out this Chris Cennedy's review site, my cancer book actually fared pretty well. I have references to back my "quackery" up, so if that's what made Running From Cancer a "poor read" which Chris admits is why I received such a low grade, then I figure it's not as bad as I first thought. Besides, who doesn't like a romance novel in the middle of a non-fiction book? She admits it's perky and upbeat so I find her attempt conflicted at discouraging others to read this inspirational eye-opener about why you should try and prevent YOUR cancer today.A bit personal lashing out with the words "which probably stem from ignorance and her inability to digest technical information."But hey, everyone is welcome to their opinion and I welcome them all! Thanks Chris for sharing your solicitous view.



If you want to help, then like we did for Tinkerbell to keep her alive, we need to clap if we believe. If you think Running From Cancer should be read by others, then please click on Amazon.com or .ca and leave your review for my books today! If that doesn't work, there's always my website at www.debilynsmith.com where you can also leave your opinion. And if I get more one stars, so be it. Maybe that will make me take even a harder look at Chris's side of things.That's why we need reviews.

Thanks everyone.

Stop the Slide (I think I'm going to be sick)

Another Monday with a confession following. My initial hope was to be an inspirational blogger on weight loss strategy for the new year.But things haven't gone as planned. For three weeks now. In fact, with two big bags of red licorice and one of potato chips (which I rarely eat) under my belt and an evening of full fat cheese, incredibly delightful East Indian fare with creamy paneer, fried samosas and doughnut balls soaked in sugar, I think I gained weight this week. My scales are broken, but my ski pants never lie. They're tighter!

No, I didn't touch a drop of alcohol so I saved some calories there. I worked out six of the seven days and ate wisely all week except for Friday and Saturday evening when I figure my idea of "letting loose" got in my way. (Hey, I'm still a reckless Party Girl!Watch me eat this ENTIRE bag of potato chips!)( and...what is a movie night out without licorice? I had to buy two big bags because my husband wanted me to share. Then he only ate three ropes. The rest simply disappeared electric pencil-sharpener style down my throat).

This decline from healthy habits seems to be ALL about attitude and  a post breast cancer "I don't care...I WANT TO FEEL ALIVE AGAIN" coming out of my pores.It's that kind of attitude that gets us overweight, into ruts, disease-laden and headed for an early retirement of the more permanent kind. If I keep this behaviour up, it will become harder and harder to stench the flow. Now that I've opened that tap again I'm finding it ridiculously hard to turn off.But it has to.It's a slippery slope with the bottom, the end of the path, being death by over-indulgence. That's where it ultimately leads; to obesity, heart disease, cancers,diabetes and on and on.I'm a far cry from that, but like an avalanche ...

Actually, it doesn't matter how far down the slope you've slipped. There will be a reckoning between you and your mirror or your ski pants where you decide to climb up instead of continuing the slide. The amount of determination has to equal the amount of your wanting to succeed. To be what you visualize yourself being. The only way to do that is to stop the process. To stand up to yourself right now and say "drop those treats." Then go stand in front of the mirror naked for ten minutes and see if you still want to eat them. No, I didn't think so.At least that's what I do.And need to do more often. Because I'm sliding on that slippery slope and instead of slowing down, the sliding is speeding up.

I have learned from experience that the longer I leave facing the trek back up, the harder it becomes.

So a few tips for us to remember:

Water is your best friend. Not only will it help flush the cravings away, it will get rid of toxins from the bad food, keep you full and plump up your skin.

Hungry? Make a pot of tea. If that doesn't work, have something ready and sensible to follow up with. An apple and a tablespoon of peanut butter. Celery and carrot sticks. Pop some cherry tomatoes. Crunch up ten natural almonds.

Tempted by a sweet tooth? I sweeten things with dates, natural stevia and honey or fruit juices sparingly. I found a Stevia in a hazelnut cream flavour and between that, Chai green tea bags and almond milk, my Chai tea lattes are once again back on my menu.

Crave salt? I overcome this by eating dulse, a dried ocean food better known as seaweed.

Need something sour? Eat cherries or make a sugarless fruit compote. Simply simmer apples, berries, chopped dates and a shot of any type of juice until thickened. Top with fat free, low sugar plain yogurt and a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds.

Want a chocolate fix? Try the Sinless Chocolate Macaroons in my book Running From Cancer.

There is an answer to anything you're craving. Pizza? Buy the brown rice crust by Bob Miller packaging, plain tomato sauce with spices, toppings and low fat cheese. Lasagne? Use brown rice pasta noodles, no fat cottage cheese and skip the meat.Ice cream? Eat no fat yogurt with fresh fruit. It's all do-able.

As for a substitute for red licorice, there is fruit leather but I think I might simply skip the movie going for another six months.

Of course, if you can wear all the excessive calories off by exercising for hours, then there isn't an issue other than the lack of nutrition you would have received from eating healthier
.

It's a scale of balance and I'm GOING to tip things the other way. The first thing I'm going to do  is lessen my stress about it all and promise to stop talking about it on these blogs. There! I feel lighter already.

We all know what we have to do. Now lets get to it.