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This week’s My Way feature comes to us from health and wellness practitioner Lori Painter. Lori is the author of the very educational and extremely entertaining blog, Inspire 2 Act. In addition to her health enthusiasm, Lori is passionate about the eco living, working out and raising her two lovely kids, Alex and Megan. Lori and her family live in Southern California.

My Way: Lori Painter

Just my luck that Dhrumil asked my to be featured in “My Way” when it
is winter, rainy and cold (which is rare) in Southern California. It
only makes eating 100% raw more of a challenge. However, instead of
eating totally raw, I have decided in the winter months to focus on
hydration, greens and eating fruits and veggies versus too many gourmet
recipes. I’m still working on using food to feed my emotional needs.
Since I belong to an organic produce buying club, my meals tend to be
very simple and repetitive. It depends on what is in season. Each week
it is a little different. This is how I do things My Way.

Monday
Off to the gym to earn my breakfast. I shower from the
inside out in the sauna and visualize my dream day! Today’s menu
consists of simple monofoods: breakfast is 2 apples and a banana, Lunch
is a green salad with an avocado based dressing. I am sure to get my
daily 4 quarts of water in too. I check online messages and correspond
accordingly, watch some YouTube subscriptions and post a little twitter.

Tuesday
It’s cold & raining. I opt to make a homemade veggie soup and green salad to munch on all day.

After
gymnastics, the kids and I all write blogs and take video footage for
upcoming posts to our websites. I have a great chat with my web
designer and act like I know what she is talking about when she uses
technical jargon. I realize I have so much to learn when it comes to
creating a business online. I feel inspired to get my kids going now
with an online presence. They are never to young to get in on the
online world and share their perspective. We play and set up twitter
accounts for them as well as blogspots. After dinner consisting of a
massaged green salad I head out to take a Latin dance class.

Wednesday
It’s raining & cold outside and I don’t hit the
gym first thing. Instead I eat a steamed yam for breakfast and cuddle
up in bed with my kids for some home school lessons. My kids are
brilliant without all the social conditioning. I feel that I am here to
recognize their passions and support them in their life. Of course I
emphasize on entrepreneurship and finances along with healthy living.
Part of their curriculum is to visualize and keep a gratitude journal.
I want them to be self reliant and have a healthy perspective on life.
Actually, they are great reminders to have more fun in life! Lunch is
another massaged greens salad while dinner is a steamed yam. After
dinner is kickboxing. I am drenched! Mission accomplished!

Thursday
My day starts at the gym. Today’s menu 3 quarts of
water, clementines and apples, a banana. Dinner is veggie soup and a
salad. My kids and I set it up an herb garden. Snowboarding season is
here so I write up a workout plan including lots of balance, ankle and
leg strength for myself and my kids so we can be ready for the slopes.
I am noticing a huge success with drinking tons of water between meals.
If I require that I finish 1 1/2 qts of water between meals I tend to
have less cravings & more energy. After dinner I catch myself
eating steamed veggies and 2 yams (made the same way as yesterday) I
ate this and I wasn’t even hungry! This is another emotional eating
episode.

Friday
First thing is my workout at a boot camp circuit
conditioning and cycling class. My diet consists of 3 quarts of
water, a green smoothie, guacamole with crudités such as cucumber,
cherry tomato, celery, carrots, and a massaged green salad. My kids
and I make homemade toothpaste & mouth rinse, it was awesome.
However, I tried apple cider vinegar “shampoo”… YIKES, I must have
done something wrong there. My eyes are burning and it smells awful.
Never again! It’s dinner time & I am out of greens. The sugar
cravings come rolling in. I didn’t have much fat earlier in the day
either. UGH!!!! I binged on a brownie sundae. I really notice a
difference in my cravings when I don’t eat my greens. So, I go through
a down period because, “I know better!” I remember that guilt is very
low calibrating and so decide to forgive myself and love myself.
Practice not perfection. I still am doing better than I was a year or
so ago.

Saturday
Wake up about 5 am. I grab my 48 oz of water, fresh
fruit and I am on the road to pick up wholesale organic produce for the
participants of the IEOPBC. I feel a little lazy considering it is my “off” day from
working out, but seriously, my body is feeling the impact of this weeks
workouts. Most Saturdays I have a raw potluck, demo class or other
health lecture that I attend, but this week is different. We went to
see “Wicked” - Freaking awesome!

Lori Painter is a mom, blogger and health and wellness practitioner based in Southern California.

I’m very interested to know what you plan on doing (or not doing) for the holidays. Drop us a comment and give us a little peak into your lives.

Here are some questions I have:

• Do you spend this time of year with family and friends?
• Do you celebrate any sort of tradition?
• How does food play into it all?
• Does this time of year feel like a chore for you or does it feel good?
• Any meetups scheduled?
• Any personal favorite healthy holiday recipes?
• Things you ‘look forward to and don’t’ this time of year?

Come on, share some love!

For a different twist on Broccoli Cheese Soup, try this recipe that uses Swiss Cheese. Great soup!

Slow cookers are fabulous and they can cook an entire meal for you and save you lots of time in the kitchen. They’re especially convenient if you work outside the home…or even if you work at home. Just prepare your main dish early in the day, toss in all your ingredients, select the appropriate setting, and you’re good to go. You can even use two slow cookers if you are preparing a side dish.

One of my favorite kitchen appliances is the Crockpot. There is nothing like dedicating a day to slow cooking and lounging around the house. My crock pot is one of those that is an ugly orange, with a cheap 1960 flower pattern around the edge, and stains from who knows when (which my children always eye suspiciously).

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Is a vegetarian diet really healthier than a meat based diet Good question. The answer is It depends. What are the foods you re choosing to include in your diet If you re a vegetarian who consumes large quantities of soda meat free packaged foods and trans fat laden potato chips corn chips muffins and cookies then your diet may be vegetarian but it isn t healthy.Eat as described above and …..More on Tarla Vegetarian Cooking