Welcome to 2012

 Posted by on January 3, 2012  Thrive  6 Responses »
Jan 032012
 

 

Source: flickr.com via Barbara on Pinterest

 

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful time ringing in the new year! I spent New Year’s Eve with my husband and my new family (in-laws). I love the holidays, and was so happy when I got the chance to implement a new family tradition of hosting a NYE Dinner Party at our home. I decorated, cooked, and baked and counted down the hours until the family arrived. We enjoyed a delicious dinner that was both festive and fun! We watched movies, played video games, and had a heartfelt champagne toast at midnight. I honestly can’t wait to host it again next year – bigger and better!

While 2011 was a very good year for me, I’ve opted to not post my reflections on this blog and to actually just meditate on the year in the privacy of my own thoughts. As with any year, and any day for that matter, it had its moments of ups and downs many of which I am very grateful for. And I as prepare for much of the same in the wonderful year to come, I am very excited about where this new year will take me.

Several years ago I dropped the habit of making new year’s resolutions and instead adopted the lovely idea of simply making 1-5 goals and working very hard to accomplish them. So with that being said, I have a few creative projects that I started in 2011 that I will see through in the next month or so and many other random ideas that I would love to bring to fruition this year. How is this any different than making resolutions? Well, first, goals are not sweeping declarations and proclamations such as “I will not curse in the new year!” and “I will lose 50 lbs and get into a purple polka dot bikini!” My goals are reasonable such as launching my new website and painting more often. See?

So in line with those ideas, I’ve also decided to switch up Simply Harmony a bit to reflect more of my passions – my art and writing – and to use it to document more of my creative journey as a writer & artist. I’ve already started to make some small changes here and there, and I plan to make several more and update the design in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

Speaking of changes, I’ve also made a few regarding how I spend my time on the internet. The fact is that blogging, Facebooking, and Tweeting are very time consuming! The more time I spent online doing all of those things, the less time I had for my “real life” and goals. So in October, I shut down my personal Facebook page, because to be frank it was a waste of my time and not helping me at all with my personal and professional goals. (I still have the blog fan page.) I’ve also started to get annoyed with my Twitter feed towards the end of the year so I decided that this year I will clean up my feed so it is a true reflection of my interests and not some random person that I followed back out of courtesy. And the last change is how much time I plan to spend online this year, and to be honest, I plan to scale it way back!

So as I busy myself with my new centered way of living – painting and writing my heart out – I will continue to make the time to share the things that inspire me and all of the fabulous ways that I’ve found to live my life in a chic, healthy, and blissful way.

Cheers to 2012!

My Winding Road to Veganville (Part II)

 Posted by on April 8, 2011  Savor  1 Response »
Apr 082011
 

Turning Off the Red Meat & Dairy Highways

In my late twenties I stopped eating red meat. I heard all the horror stories about undigested meat in the body, and I didn’t want that to be a part of me. I decided to replace the ground beef with lean ground turkey when cooking my favorite meals such as spaghetti, burgers, and tacos. I immediately saw that there was very little fat to drain after frying the ground turkey. I felt much healthier and not as “weighted down” as when I was eating the red meat. I also noticed that the change from ground beef to ground turkey allowed the full flavor of the seasonings and sauces to come through.

Around this time I also gave up dairy after chatting with a part-time vegan friend who oh so casually mentioned to me that “dairy fat is the hardest fast to burn from your body.” That short conversation resulted in me quickly tossing all of the butter, milk, cheese into the trash can and running to the grocery store to buy the alternatives.

I was never a big fan of eggs and milk, even as a child. I couldn’t stand the smell of milk, and cracking an egg open and watching the contents run out repulsed me. The scent of butter melting in a hot pan turned my stomach and caused me to gag. (I should have listened to my body back then!)

I gave up both red meat and dairy for periods of time, but somehow I found myself back on those dangerous highways that lead to serious health problems.

Entering the Problem Zone

Allergies, Dermotographism, and a skin disease; in 2008 at the age of 31 I was diagnosed with all three. Having never had any serious health conditions or problems, and being the internet junkie that I am, I scoured the web to learn more about the latter two issues. I ended up contacting a good friend of mine who was heavily into holistic health to find out what I could do to help alleviate some of the symptoms and prevent future inflammations. I was told to steer clear of acidic foods such as tomatoes and red sauce and to eat more alkaline foods such as green leafy vegetables. I followed his advice and though I didn’t see results right away, I did eventually see them.

During my annual physical exam in early 2009 (and just weeks before I relocated to Southern California) I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids and nodules on my thyroid. My doctor wanted to keep a watchful eye over my fibroids but admitted to being seriously concerned about the thyroid nodules since they could be cancerous. (Did he say the “c” word?)

Admittedly, I was scared out of my mind and had an immediate case of anxiety. I’ve never even heard of a thyroid. What is a thyroid anyway? What does it do? And how could I possibly have thyroid cancer? (Yes, I was that ignorant about my body. I believe that most of us who have been healthy the majority of our lives are health-ignorant until we are forced not to be.)

Once again, I grabbed my trusty laptop and started a long and deep search of the possible causes of uterine fibroids and thyroid nodules. And what I found scared me: birth control pills, high stress, too much estrogen, being overweight, hormone filled foods, and so on.

For me, it all started to click.

I remembered that in 2008, after almost a 10-year reprieve of taking birth control pills, I started taking them again. I had a horrible reaction to the pills. My breasts swelled and were so sore that it was painful to give and receive hugs. So painful that I actually yelped when a colleague gave me a hug. I was also nauseous most of the time and I gained a significant amount of weight.

Could it all be a coincidence? It’s quite possible, but after doing the research, not so much.

Arriving at Veganville

After all the twists, turns, detours, and curvy roads I traveled, I arrived in Veganville on October 24, 2009. Since I relocated here it has not been easy. I’m not going to fool you into thinking that it’s as simple as deciding to be vegan, because it takes more than making a choice between tofu and steak or soy ice cream and regular ice cream.

Being a vegan takes education, determination, patience, strength, and a strong desire to be healthy. It means standing by your convictions and your beliefs. It means not being persuaded into thinking that you’re just going through a phase. It also means being passionate about your body and doing the best you can to protect it from unnecessary harmful foods that we’ve been falsely educated are good for us.

Being vegan is a lifestyle. It requires constantly reading food labels to ensure that what you’re about to buy does not contain animal products. For some being vegan even goes as far as not using animal products in any part of life, such as not wearing leather and fur and/or not purchasing health and beauty items that use animal products or have been tested on animals.

Being vegan is fun. I enjoy exploring the wonders of veganville. I love going to the online stores and checking out all the cool stuff that is vegan that I can splurge on. I like reading all of the awesome vegan blogs by all the fabulous vegans out there in cyberworld. I have a field day discovering the myriad of vegan cookbooks and documentaries out there to educated the masses about the wonders and benefits of living  a vegan life as well as what we can do to protect these animals.

Make no mistake about it; I wouldn’t have made the move to Veganville without having gone on that long and arduous journey. Though it was no picnic, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve learned and grown so much, and I’m excited to have shared my story with you.

Veganville is not an exclusive community; you are welcome to move in at any time.

Welcome! (Or A Call for Harmony)

 Posted by on April 2, 2011  Dazzle, Nest, Nurture, Savor, Thrive  6 Responses »
Apr 022011
 

Harmony, photo by Vantage Photography

Simply Harmony is a lifestyle blog for women who want to live their life harmoniously.  A lot of women I know have a strong desire to live a more peaceful, balanced, creative, healthy, and happy life. This desire is overheard while in the line at the grocery store, read while perusing status messages on Facebook, and it’s there in the multitude of tweets on Twitter.  This call for a simpler less harried, and more fulfilling life is in heart of the many women in our lives: our friends, our colleagues, our neighbors, our sisters, our aunts, our mothers – and if we are totally honest – ourselves.

I, like the many women I speak of and know, have this urging to create a life that I can truly sit back, grab a glass of champagne and smile about. And that is what inspired me to create Simply Harmony.

Simply Harmony, in essence, is my public pledge to myself to live the rest of my days as festive, creative and as love-filled as possible. Over the past few months, I’ve discovered that if I immerse myself in the present and put my energy into the things that I love – spending the day writing, throwing dinner parties, cooking a romantic dinner for my husband, browsing bookstores and art galleries, mailing surprise cards and gifts to friends and family – I am more than well on my way to a harmonious living. Don’t you want to be too?

As exciting as all of this may seem, Simply Harmony is not about creating the perfect life. It’s not about finding the ideal formula for an immaculate life. Simply Harmony is about being messy, adventurous, and experimenting with life and grabbing hold of a sensational idea or two that will inspire you to design a chic, healthy, and blissful life for yourself and those you love.

Here at Simply Harmony we are dynamic women who celebrate life in all of its beauty. We want to add more balance to our appointment-riddled lives. We want to take more walks along the beach, shop at our favorite boutiques, and take that spin class that we’ve been peaking into for the past month. We want to write that book, dabble in a vegetarian lifestyle, and plan that romantic weekend away with our significant other.  We want to turn off the TV, plant a tree, and make that green smoothie we keep hearing about on talk shows. We are doers. We are positive energy givers. We are nurtures. We, at Simply Harmony, are women who are enthusiastic about living … simply and harmoniously!

I welcome you all and invite you to sit back, enjoy, and chat it up in the comment section. Cheers!

- Harmony

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