Grandma L. smoked like a chimney and lived until the ripe old age of ‎‎95. My cousin refuses to eat fruit and vegetables and yet he is as ‎healthy as a horse. Did you notice that stunning woman over there? ‎She seeks her solace in carbs, cola and ketchup …‎

To what extent does concern for our children set us up for failure?‎

Eat your vegetables or no ice cream for you!‎

You may not leave the table until your plate is clean!‎

I do not care if all of your friends eat this: I will not allow it in my ‎house!

Desperate, despondent and willing to put anything in a bag: just let ‎my child eat something…‎

Weighed down by guilt, buy ME prevails: taste appeal lost to colorful ‎sweet talk in a package.‎

Don’t see. Don’t hear. Don’t speak…‎

If I could turn back time, I would do things differently.

I would choose ‎pleasure, abundance and happiness. My parenting mindset would ‎embrace education as a tool to empowerment. I would seek to expose ‎my children to a rich rainbow of food choices: each offering color, ‎excitement, pleasure and nourishment. The power of choice would be ‎theirs.‎

It is interesting how a blog comes to life.

I wander delicately on a ‎tightrope between my thoughts, memories and feelings until I ‎discover a compelling meeting point between the trio and a looming ‎thought. The acrobatics begin here. My thoughts they twist and they ‎turn: I zoom in on my idea and then zoom way out, seeking allies all ‎the way. Finally, the choreography clicks. I am ready to transcribe the ‎steps into words. It is needless to point out that any resemblance to ‎my initial thoughts is purely coincidental at best! ‎

Such began my quest to spotlight glorious greens…‎

The first order of the day was to understand the love story between ‎Popeye The Sailor Man and the infamous can of spinach… It appears ‎that while a German scientist transcribed his results to print, the ‎decimal point wandered to the power of 10. Thus instead of recording ‎that spinach had an iron content of 3.5 milligrams per 100 grams of ‎spinach, suddenly it was awarded with an iron content of a whopping ‎‎35 milligrams! This print typo remained uncorrected for close to 70 ‎years. Popeye came to life in 1929 and soon became the hero of the ‎day. He can even be held indirectly responsible for the surge in the ‎popularity of spinach during the years of The Great Depression.‎

In the not so distant past, memories full of stored materials were of ‎value. Today’s Age of Information has created a new reality. Suddenly ‎how to learn has become far more important than what to learn.‎

Doctor Google knows all.

Any and all information is butt a mouse click ‎away. Of course, the weight of responsibility lies within us. We must ‎double check and cross check all information. The ability to wade ‎through the sea of error, mistruths and falsehoods online is integral to ‎our success.‎

Fast forward… No more glorious greens: merely green. Glorious is lost ‎in the search of the “big picture”. ‎

Embracing Green

Green is natural: less adornment more natural allure.‎

Green is nature: grown in the ground and not manufactured in a plant.‎

Green is inquisitive. No shame to be found in not knowing: nobility ‎the ability to ask the right questions.‎

Green signals go. Don’t just stand there. Throw caution to the wind: be ‎better than yesterday and tomorrow be better than today.‎

Green is a combination (of yellow and blue). Just as green is a ‎combination of colors, our health is a unity of behaviors, some ‎conscious and others not. Look to expand this unity: there is always ‎room for more color.‎

Green is a new bike.

Hubby encouraged me to treat myself to a new ‎steed. Today was my first time out. Despite the fact that I rode a ‎similar demo bike numerous times, I felt a huge difference in our (me ‎and my bike) performance. We smoothly climbed and twisted all of ‎the challenging turns with ease where as previously speed had been ‎the ace to conquer every challenge. I was puzzled; why this was so? ‎Why did everything feel so markedly different?‎

I discovered that the demo bike was a large frame which had been ‎adapted to a medium fit where as my bike was a medium frame from ‎the start and all the accessories were a perfect custom fit to my frame.‎

Eureka! Health is not a one size fits all. ‎
One way or another color your life green.‎