The world outside of myself...

The past three weeks I have been very much inside my own little world. I have been consumed in my own issues, decisions, emotions, and thoughts. And I'm OVER IT. While I recognize the necessity of taking time to check in with yourself and make sure you are headed in the direction you want to go, I am realizing (rather gradually) that the reason I have been feeling a little blank and uninspired is because I need to be a part of something BIGGER than myself. Something more than promoting wellness and helping individuals lead healthier lives (which I know is an important and noble thing), but something GLOBAL, something separate from what I do to earn money. Something that is selfless and truly making a difference for people who are in great NEED.

Last night we watched a movie called "War Child". It is a documentary about Emmanuel Jal, a native of Southern Sudan and a former child soldier during the civil war in the 80's and 90's until he was rescued by a British aid worker named Emma McCune. He now lives in the UK and has become a rap artist; he speaks and sings about his story and this is how he is healing from his unbelievable experience. He is only one of millions of people who have similar stories, and he is doing good by helping rebuild the lives of other young people like himself. He started a non-profit foundation called Gua Africa, Gua means Peace in Nuer, a tribal language of Southern Sudan (see above picture). Gua Africa is an effort to raise money in order to build a school in Leer, Emmanuel Jal's home village. Because of the 20 year civil war in Sudan, the children in this village and many others, no longer have a way to become educated. As an up and coming music artist, he has been able to support, not only his own family in Leer, but also young people in Kenya and Sudan who have been affected by the war.

I am going to become a part of this starting with setting up a monthly donation to the "Survivors of War" group of Gua Africa. I am also going to think of a fund raiser that I can organize and put on in Portland, similar to how people run a race for certain causes, but something more creative and fun than just running (although I did realize that although I have no desire to ever run a marathon, I would do it for something other than myself).

With all of that said, I have been thinking about my blog a lot lately: I am going to take it in a whole new direction. From here on out, this blog is not just about me in MY world, it's about me in OUR world. Stay tuned...

More Gluten-Free Goodness

As most of you (all 3 of you- 2 of whom are my sisters- who read my blog) know, I am an AVID follower of Elena Amsterdam and her gluten-free cooking website and cookbook. I think she is a wizard because she creates some of the most delicious recipes, so delicious in fact, that I no longer crave their gluten counterparts. Well, I have found another amazing woman and her extensive blog about gluten free cooking. She is the Gluten-Free Goddess and I am so excited to try some of her recipes. She is not Paleo like Elana, so not all of her recipes will work for me, but a lot of them will, and the ones that won't can be easily modified. I was on a search for some good soups and stews since it is getting cold here and we are experiencing an abundance of root vegetables like sweet potatoes and squash. Plus I am craving some good quality beef. So stew sounds perfect. Like this one:

I have just begun looking through her recipes and I can tell I could spend hours oohing and aahing at most of them while I try to decide what to make first.

I have been spending a lot of time recently focusing my energy on manifesting financial abundance. With all of that energy going out, some is coming back to me in the form of opportunities to make some cash. Most recently one of my clients asked me to be his personal chef, to that I said YES!!! immediately. How cool is that? I am not "qualified" by traditional standards, but I can cook and I cook healthy food, so it makes sense that one of my clients would hire me to cook for him. It's funny, because as a personal trainer, the hardest part is to get people to eat the right food because I'm not making those decisions for them, but now I am- muah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa! Well, at least for one person...

I am working up a new idea- A BIG IDEA- that I don't want to go into yet because this one is super special. I have a lot of ideas, and it seems like I bounce back and forth from one to the next quite often, so this one- this one I am keeping close to me for a while until I am sure that I can make it happen. I will tell you one thing though: I am more excited about this idea than any other.