Joy In The Journey

Life is certainly a journey and years ago I made the decision to live this journey with joy in my heart. It's not always easy for me to find joy, especially in the midst of grief, sadness, loss, anxiety, stress, pain and all the busyness ........you get the point.   My faith in God has a lot to do with it.  But it's also my passion for personal and spiritual growth that is enriching my heart and my mind and helping me to put in to practice things that I am learning.   And this path to deeper self knowledge is not only helping me to get to know myself better its helping me to better identify and deal with the challenges that that come my way without turning to food for comfort and picking up or staying stuck in old unhealthy habits.   Growing up food was family, it was abondanza, love and familia cooking and gathering around the table.  It was comfort but it was not the emotional crutch that I turned to for comfort during a difficult ti...

“ For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise thee, for thou art fearful and wonderful. Wonderful are thy works! Thou knowest me right well; my frame was not hidden from thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth” Psalm 139: 13 - 15 My mother loved to make this dish of penne pasta tossed with broccoli, garlic, crushed red pepper and olive oil topped with pecorino Romano cheese. She got the recipe from my sister Anna and she made it Mama style. It is versatile and my mother often made it using her electric skillet to prepare the sauce. At one point my mom was confined to a wheel chair and unable to access the stove very easily so using the electric skillet worked perfectly. My dad would prepare the penne and the broccoli on the stove. And she would do the rest and put it all together in the skillet. One of my favorite pictures with my mom was just before we were about to s...

I am passionate about my journey to live a healthier lifestyle and the mission to help others who want the same. It's not always easy to do and it takes intention, purpose, commitment and effort but it is worth every second to live the life I am living today. And the journey for me is progress not perfection. It has been a challenge coming out of vacations and the celebrations, parties and event s of summer and early fall and staying on track with nutrition, working out and a healthy lifestyle?   John and I have for the most part done well this summer and fall so far, but by no means perfect, we have indulged much more than we should, veered a bit off track and on occasions blurred the lines of balance and moderation.  We have committed 100% to finish this year strong before we head into the temptations of the holidays and another year is over and we have been kicking that into high gear with a few changes in our routine and its workign wonders! We are not intere...