Life: Uncomplicated

Taking accountability for actions, or rather the lack of actions in my life has always been my biggest problem. Accepting that something has not been completed because I did not complete it has always been my downfall.  We can say that as a child my parents did not really make me accountable for my actions,  but we would have to understand their reasons for raisin me with a big sense of entitlement, and in the end, they cannot be judge, but just understood. 

It was not until in my adult life, that I got married and had children when in an argument with my husband I reflected on my actions. I had lived a whole life blaming the world and each one of its inhabitants for my problems, my disappointments, my sadness, even my inappropriate actions, everything was everyone’s fault, except mine. 

The moment this clicked in my head, I started to change that negative attitude for one that would lead me to be accountable for my actions, especially my lack of actions. Froma accepting the reasons I did not lose weight to the reasons why I kept on failing on keeping track of the family budget, I had always had an excuse …pointing fingers at my work (including bosses and coworkers), my children, my husband, my parents, the lack of time,  the lack of money, the house chores… oh my! the list is endless.

I believe that accepting our lack of accountability is an achievement, committing with oneself to learn to accept our failures, our mistakes to correct them and through kindness and gratitude, take responsibility for our actions, our mistakes, and even more important our victories.

I still have a lot to learn, I still fall into the trap of pointing my index finger at the culprit of these extra pounds, or putting my hands up asking the heavens above for more time to finish this or that, when I know very well that there are pieces of my time wasted on things that do not help in the mission of my goals … but I keep trying. I keep meditating, I keep searching inside myself for my doubts, my fears, my uncertainties, and I try to scare them away with kindness, faith, organization, and love for my family and myself.

Recently I was asked what color of food I gravitate towards when I do our grocery shopping.  I thought about it for a while, going back and forth between yellow and green, green to red, red to orange, and back to yellow.  The truth is that I like my food to be colorful. I consciously cook our meals thinking about the colors they will have at the end.  We, as a family, love veggies in our meals, so I will do vegetarian rice bake (recipe is at the end) and purposely make sure that we have broccoli for green, squash for yellow, red peppers for red, and so on, and after thinking about this I realize that colors become more important when cooking meats which are usually colorless…

I grew up eating veggies, my father, who is Panamanian and where being vegetarian is now something more or less acceptable, have consistently make sure that there is no meat in his lunch meals.  So eating vegetarian sandwiches, or soups, or just plain salads, was something I was used to early on.  We will go to restaurants and when everybody was ordering sweet and sour chicken, my father was ordering tofu stir fry… it was lunch… no meat allowed.

Then I married my Korean husband, which grew up eating an even wider array of veggies in each and every form from fermented to fried, and for whom eating veggies in every meal was the norm.

Fast forward 20 years together, we have changed our diets  A LOT from the old Atkins to vegetarian, to vegan, to keto, to fasting… you name it… we have tried.  But the constant has always been the veggies and we wanted our kids to feel that eating a bowl of brussels sprouts is as good as eating chicken wings… and for years we have incorporated different veggies in different styles, from fried to baked to teriyaki veggies stir fry or vegetarian curry. 

One Sunday I did breakfast which included scrambled eggs, when I served I realized I forgot the spinach… it looks yummy but all yellow… no greens. I quickly cooked some spinach and put it right on top… we were all happy.  We needed the veggies, we needed the color.

I consciously make sure that 4 out of the 7 meals (dinners) we eat are vegetarian based, the other three meals are meat-based.  We enjoyed it and I feel good to know that the kiddos, genuinely smile when I come back from the supermarket with the biggest brussel sprout bag ever…  We know we will eat good… and green.

Vegetarian Rice Bake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of cook white rice
• 1 bell pepper (red, yellow, or orange)
• 1 cup of green beans cut into 2” 
• 1 large onion (or 2 medium ones)
• 2 medium carrots cut into bite sizes
• 1 can of chickpeas (optional)
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp sumac
• 1 tsp paprika
• Salt and pepper
• Mozzarella cheese (about 1 cup)
• Feta cheese (about 1 cup)

In a baking dish put the white rice (this can be basmati, jasmine, even quinoa and other grains like farro or barley or a mix of grains). Spread the white rice in the baking dish.

Cook the veggies, first the onions and bell peppers (and chickpeas if using) together with one tablespoon of the oil and add the cumin and coriander, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until soft and then add it on top of the rice. 

Then do the green beans and carrots with the other tablespoon of oil, paprika, sumac, and salt and pepper to taste and cook until soft again and put it on top of the rice too.

Mix all together until the veggies are distributed.  Top with the mozzarella (I used about a cup) and on top of the mozzarella at the feta cheese (about 1 cup).  Cover with foil paper and put it in the oven for about 15 minutes, then take the foil off and bake for another 10 minutes, then put the broil on and broil for 5 minutes (or until the feta cheese is brown/melted) 

Enjoy!

You can use any veggie you like, we have used corn, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cherry tomatoes, zucchini (really good), and yellow squash. 

My mindfulness journal tasked me today with being mindful in the morning.  This took a bit of thinking from my side… like many of us I wake up when “I need to” which is right before everything starts moving.  I wake up, I go straight to the bathroom get myself semi-ready and start working on the kid’s lunches and breakfast and all while having some fun family talk. Then I finish my makeup and tidy up my bedroom and kitchen and leave right after to go to work with my oldest son who has early cross country practices.

So you see, taking a few minutes to be mindful put me in a pickle… So I tried a different approach to my morning.  I woke up EARLIER and allowed myself to have a me-time without interruption. Of course, for this to happen, I had to go to bed EARLIER too! No caffeine after 4:00 pm and did my best to be in bed earlier than usual.

So I woke up at 4:25 gave myself a pep talk and got out of bed. I worked out for 45 minutes and after I was done, I dedicated time to do my journal.  I did my best to be mindful in the morning while waking up, working out, journaling, and writing…

I liked the way I felt, more in-tune with the morning routine, more in-tune with myself. I did not like the fact that I felt that in order to achieve that I need to move my schedule (go to bed earlier, wake up earlier) instead of having the freedom to take a chunk of time of the day just for me… but I am learning with time that to be responsible of my actions and choices do make a different and I chose to have a house, a husband, two kiddos, and a full time job, so I think that being grateful for those choices is better than feeling grumpy because of needing to wake up earlier…

I have plans of doing this again, at least 3 times a week and for the other days, I plan to move the mindful moment for the night incorporating it in my night routine… we will see how that goes.

We will see with time how the new routine works, and looking forward to more challenges my new mindful journaling adventure may bring.

This post is brought to you by our sponsor, “Always Eat After 7 PM”. The opinions expressed below are my own

Having a hectic life with little room to take the time to do elaborate diet plan meals or extensive work out hours was the main reason to choose Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion as my way to go to accomplish my weight loss goals, specially when my 40th birthday is around the corner. I am a mother and a wife with a full time job as an marine engineer, with a Life Coaching growing business, and although we condition ourselves to be ok being the last one in line… I wanted to put me first and treat myself to a healthier me.

For my first post please see link:

https://themariparklife.com/2020/06/12/the-road-to-a-healthy-lifestyle-when-you-are-turning-40/

The book opened the opportunity to shift how I diet. Instead of watching my family eat dinner while I had a shake or a cup of tea or coffee (as part of a diet), I am now actively participating and eating during dinner time. This alone was for me a big motivation to go ahead and sign up on this program and follow the book. Additionally, I found myself reflecting on my previous beliefs of food, nutrition, calorie intake, and health. I truly enjoyed how all those previous concepts are being replaced by “smarter” ones that are allowing me to reach my weight loss goal while keeping my sanity.

The more I read the book the more I realized the great impact of the knowledge this book was provided to me. From breaking away from the notion that in order to lose weight I needed to starve myself to the new concept of intermittent fasting and eating late at night. This book impacted me health-wise way more than I expected it. It opened my eyes to a new way of looking at nutrition, weight loss, and a healthy lifestyle. Based on surprising science, Always Eat After 7 PM debunks popular diet myths and offers an easy-to-follow diet that accelerates fat-burning and allows you to indulge in your most intense food cravings: Eating the majority of your calories at night. 

In this post, I wanted to provide more info on the author Joel Marion. Bestselling author, Joel Marion, is a fitness expert and nutritionist debunking the myths underlying traditional dieting and offers a simple, highly effective weight loss program. I believe that a great book is the result of a great author and this is no exception. Below is a quick interview with the author that allows us to understand his background, vision, and passion for achieving optimal nutrition.

1. What was the inspiration behind writing this book? 

Joel Marion: After authoring 6 best selling books it was glaringly obvious there were 2 huge misconceptions about dieting that needed to be exposed. The first is that you can’t eat late at night or before bed, which science now shows is NOT true. And second, you can’t eat large portions that satisfy your natural instinct. This book solves both these problems by providing an evidence-based, enjoyable approach to dieting that can be used by any person to quickly achieve their weight loss goals.

 2.  How long did it take for you to develop and perfect this diet?

Joel Marion: It actually took several years of researching for me to discover the real science of eating late at night. After a few years of tweaking and refining, I finally came up with a rapid fat loss solution that overcomes all the pitfalls of traditional diets. 

3. You are the author of six bestselling books, what is different about this book compared to your others?

Joel Marion: Although many of the concepts are similar, the biggest difference is that you don’t have to deprive yourself of your favorite foods. You don’t have to deal with the burden of eating every few hours. And you don’t have to skip the carbs at dinnertime or avoid eating before bed.

The more I get to know about Joel and his approach to this new exciting diet, it is clear to me that experience and acknowledges are clearly backing up Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion which is now available to purchase. It is truly inspiring when you are following a proven diet that is backed up by scientific facts, personal training experience, and in-depth research. 

I invite you learn more about the book and how to purchase here http://bit.ly/2TefhPs where additional information on this new revolutionary dieting concept can be found.

This post is brought to you by our sponsor, “Always Eat After 7 PM”. The opinions expressed below are my own