Edible School Garden

Oh I Love this idea! I am hoping to do something like this with my youth group!


(Go to ParentEarth.Com for more inspiring videos)

Toned vs Skinny - Why you should Tone It Up for your Health!

I liked this article about getting toned and healthy versus skinny, which has been

the overwhelming goal for so many. Let me know what you think.

A lot of you tell us you work so hard to be healthy, but we've begun to notice that when we open our favorite magazines, all we see is skinny; when we turn on the television, all we see is skinny; when we go out for our holiday shopping, all we see is skinny marketing, everywhere! What gives then? Why would we ever want to be anything but skinny?! Simply Put, Skinny doesn’t necessarily mean healthy; and in most cases, if you are ‘skinny’ you may not be healthy at all! A lot of us focus way too much effort on the number below our feet.. That’s right, the scale. This number may be important in the grand scheme of things, but there is a number that is much more accurate than this at providing a measurement of health…

Body Fat Percentage, three little words that can change your entire attitude towards wellness. Your BF% is a number that provides you with the amount of stored fatty tissue compared to the amount of lean tissue (bones, muscle, organs etc..) in/on/and around your body. This number can be high or low; regardless if you are skinny, fat, or anywhere in between. Just because you have FINALLY dropped below 120 lbs, your BF% may still be above 25, which can create a lot of problems in the long term, especially if you have to cut out a lot of calories to keep yourself at what has been marketed as a ‘healthy weight’. Even the term ‘Healthy Weight’ needs to be updated, it should always be referred to as ‘Healthy BF%’, which can be found as defined by below:

From the American Council on Exercise

As you can see, if you are 140lbs, and at 18% BF you are still considered healthy! This means that you may be technically heavier than what you would like, but what you ‘like’ is based on an error in education! We want you to be as educated as possible, and this means understanding why a ‘healthy BF%’ is so much more accurate of a goal than a ‘healthy weight’.

One~ Body Fat isn’t just on the outside, it’s on the inside too. Visceral Fat is the tissue found inside the body, between the organs; and if it builds up it can restrict the heart from beating properly when stressed, it can prevent the lungs from fully expanding to provide oxygen, and it requires more blood which takes away from the nutrient delivery to organs that require energy to operate! Having a Toned Body means your organs are able to operate freely without being cramped for space.

Two~ Restricting Calories to Lessen Body Weight will diminish the body’s ability to fight illness and disease! Having a Toned body means you are fueling it properly, and each of the body’s processes are operating to their maximum ability.

Three~ Working on being ‘Skinny’ requires a sever deficit of calories, and Bone Density will begin to diminish right away; which if left over time can create issues with Osteoporosis – a condition where your bones are left brittle and easily breakable, and since you aren’t able to combat illness or disease as well, your chances of a full recovery are slighted. Having a Toned Body means your bone density will remain in the healthy zone, which will be resistant to breaks during most falls or collisions.

Four~ With less lean muscle-tone, your metabolism is going to be moving much slower, and since your metabolism slows naturally as we age, each day your body will be more prone to easily put on weight, and less able to take it off. Having a Toned Body means the added muscle-tone provides for an increased metabolism 24/7, and it means that more of the foods you eat are used as fuel, while the extra is passed and not stored! Also, continuing to exercise will aid in keeping your metabolism boosted so that you continue to feel younger, and look your best; Remember that we love Family & Friends, and that they are usually accompanied by copious amounts of great food & drink! Being Toned also means you are able to bounce back quicker from a weekend full of your Aunts Famous lasagna, or your Dad's award winning Burgers!

Five~ With all of the above considered, you must understand that your chances of becoming Obese (which is a medical classification, not a judgmental adjective) are much higher when you only focus on being ‘skinny’; where when you work on Toning, you will continue to ward off obesity, and all the diseases associated with it!

Now this isn’t meant to say that we don’t think people shouldn’t lose weight.. If you look at the obesity epidemic in the US, you’ll see that weight loss is as important as ever, but we need to be cautious about how we approach that goal. Cutting calories, Diet Pills, and ‘weekend juice cleanses’ aren’t the right answer; the right answer is a life of fitness – daily activities, a Nutrition Program rich in natural & healthy food choices, proper amounts of hydration.. all these things add up quickly to provide for a proper picture of wellness in the long term! And that’s what Tone It Up is all about, proper wellness for the long-term

Check out more of the Tone It Up Girls on Toneitup.com!

(this article:http://toneitup.com/blog.php?Toned-vs-Skinny---Why-you-should-Tone-It-Up-for-your-Health-5303)

In yo' face: The Media vs. Women's Self Esteem

When I saw this, I was like, YES that is so what it feels like...being BOMBARDED with the same messages of inadequecy! I know the deal, (and even I suffer from the effect), but who I really worry about are the Young girls that are getting these messages from everywhere and believing they are less than and are in need of some kind of improvement due to our media relentlessly bombarding them with that very message. Body Image is always one of my main topics I discuss when working with girl groups. I think this is a really good, short video to illustrate exactly what I'm talking about. We need to Take Action and be talking to our young girls and boys about the difference between fantasy, make believe and consumer machine versus reality, healthy, self worth and the value of being comfortable in your own skin! What are your thoughts on body image, beauty and the media's potrayal?

Sparkle Dust

Thinking different thoughts than you have ever thought before, DUST SPARKLES, is the only path to answers, healing, new epiphanies, or anything that glitters.

And you know how FANTASTICAL GLITTER is…

The Universe

(via http://tarahsmith.wordpress.com/)

Live the Life You Love With JCov!

We all have a destiny we fill pulled to fulfill. We all have a mission that springs us into action. For me it’s motivating people and encouraging them to walk in their purpose. I truly believe we can create the lives we want to live if we are just willing to Believe we can. I am reminded of that as I sit on my balcony in front of the Pacific Ocean with the crashing of the waves as the soundtrack of the evening. I NEVER though in a million years I would leave on the beach. I didn’t see how it would be possible. Still, I put it on my vision board as a challenge, as if it say, “I can have ANYthing I want? Let’s see if you can pull THIS off!”. Less than a year later there I was on the beach.For a LONG time after that I didn’t even HAVE a vision board up, which was So unheard of for me. I felt with contentment no longer came the need for one. However, what was really happening was that I was scared to dream a bigger dream.

Anytime we visualize something for ourselves and it comes to manifest, it’s our jobs to dream a bigger dream! One aspect of my dream is to be involved in youth programming. I have no formal experience working with youth, but yet I feel strongly compelled to do this work. When I was in LA, I prayed and prayed about having the opportunity to realize such a dream. God put all the people and circumstances right into order and I, with a team of great people, was able to hold a workshop for girls that was absolutely magical! It was the start of something beautiful right?

Wrong. I was SO terrified by the success, by the possibility, I never did anything else! Sure I planned things out in my head, wrote them down and maybe even half heartedly pursued some things, but I was operating out of fear, and so the magic from before didn’t happen again. When this happens that is usually the Ego getting in the way. The Ego asks, “how are you going to top that?”, “what else you got?”, “Sure you can do this one, but if this is successful you’ll have years of material to come up with, where is that going to come from?”. Well a Spiritually grounded person knows Exactly where it comes from; The Unlimited Source of Love and Knowledge of course, God. To not trust yourself is to not trust the God in you, it’s to ignore that fact that you are an important necessary component in the Universal web we are all intertwined in. To think it’s about ‘you’ is all wrong, it’s about serving a higher purpose. Why is that so hard to remember some days and why is it so hard to act on even when we know better?

Well this year, like every year J I’m acting out. Going for it. Living out loud and I encourage you to do the same. That was the point of this blog to begin with. To encourage people to live out their dreams by writing anecdotal stories, testimonies and theories that push you closer to living the life that you love. This blog is meant to be a meeting of the minds and a community. It’s supposed to be fun and at the same time informative. I have shied away from writing as an effort to not “be seen” which is ridiculous because I’m here to

serve a higher purpose to which I am being called to. I hope that I can be a living example of the fact that you can create the life you love and continue to dream bigger dreams.

Like I said before, when I whittled down to what my dream life would look like, it was living on the beach and working with kids. I’m doing that now and I’m loving it. I’m learning so much and the necessary situations and circumstances are happening around me and teaching me so that I will be ready to take the next step when I am ready to expand even more.

This month, even though it feels scary to me, I am continuing to pray and meditate and ask the Universe where do I go next? What are we going to Co-Create together? What will the next year look like for me? It’s Vision Board making time!!

New Year, New You: 2012 Edition

Is it that time already! It feels like just yesterday I was writing this , I barely even realized December is here and that means the year is coming to an end once again.

I started thinking to myself, “Uh-oh I need a New Years Resolution”, and then in that same moment I thought “wait, do people even have resolutions anymore or is that so 80’s?” Haha. The point is, people after a couple of years of forgetting ALL about their resolutions by February stop making them year after year. I get that, but as a person who is always trying to evolve and grow (and shouldn’t we all?), I love a good excuse to make some positive declarations and changes. It’s also a great way to celebrate what you HAVE accomplished in the past year. Maybe you didn’t go to the gym five times a week like you were so gung ho to do January 1^st, but you certainly made some strides in other areas that you maybe didn’t even realize. It would be a great idea to reflect on those accomplishments this month and reward yourself, even if it’s a simple mental pat on the bag. Acknowledge yourself; it’s the best way to ensure more success in the future.

I haven’t prayed and meditated completely on what my official New Year’s Resolutions are going to be but one thing came up for me just as a casual thought about it and kind of took my by surprise. When I asked myself (and God) what do I need to work on this next coming year, I heard:

Be seen.

What? What does that even mean? But then I realized, it’s so relevant. This may sound strange to some, but I realize a lot in my life right now I hide and try my best not to be seen. Now my Ego/Rational/Logical Mind says it’s probably because you live in a foreign country where the men can be over the top with the cat calling and your obligated to talk to your neighbors for at least 30 minutes if you pass by them. These things are a 100% TRUE. However, I think it’s gotten out of hand. I don’t go run on the beach (which was a dream of mine I totally manifested) because I don’t want the men to bother me, when really they are used to me now AND I could put on headphones if I REALLY wanted to go run. If and when I don’t have time to stop and talk to my neighbors I do feel guilty (and we know how far guilt takes us…) however when I have some speed in my step and I give a big warm wave and greeting, that is also sufficient and does not warrant me hiding out at times when I should be out and about.

It has also manifested in my demeanor, I find I hold my shoulders slumped over and I’m now even experience back pain. Are you kidding me! See how far this has gone? Subconsciously, I’m saying, I’m small, don’t see me, don’t bother me. Well I know that anyone that looks like that is a Target for anyone looking to bother someone, so why not straighten up and look like the girl you Don’t want to mess with! Lastly, blogging, guest blogging, writing and sharing all things creative, are things I have NOT been doing even though I have been asked to or know I want to do, just in the name of “not being seen”. I have so many writings that I think of everyday for this blog, but then I think, “oh you’ll sound preachy”, or “that is just silly”, or “that is too syrupy sweet and no one is gonna wanna read that”. Well the Truth is that it’s MY blog! I write what I want. Don’t like it? Don’t read it. Simple. If I KNOW that, why do hesistate? Why if someone asks me to contribute to their website I all of a sudden get shy?

Be Seen.

Two words, but they have a huge impact on my life right now. I have to break out of it. I have told myself once I go back to the USA I’ll be more in my element, but the truth is a) things like Writing have nothing to do with where I am geographically. b) Anytime you start a statement with “I’ll start tomorrow” you might as well hang it up now, because you’re head is in the wrong spot.

Man, I didn’t even know how much I felt and knew about this issue in my life until right now! I almost didn’t write this post because I was thinking I should have something organized, but in the spirit of just going for it I sat down and wrote, and I’m glad I did. I now have a clearer understanding of where I am and what I need to work on.

What have you found stirring in your Spirit as something that has GOT to change in this coming year?

Dec 1st- World AIDS Day

In Observance and Service...