Natural Living

I have always been interested in exercise and nutrition. This is probably why I have a Bachelor's Degree in Exercise Science and why I am a Certified Personal Trainer. I've always been passionate about learning how our body reacts to different foods and exercises. I have always thought about "natural" living but I never really put it into practice until the last couple of months. I decided that my family and I need to eat whole natural foods free from additives and chemicals. So i've slowly been changing the way we eat and live. I was having a hard time with this because I didn't know all of the things that I needed to know, luckily a friend from high school (Kami) posted on her blog about this wonderful book. It is called Nourishing Traditions and it by far my new favorite book. That may sound kind of lame but I have learned so much from this book and it has some wonderful recipes. I made the carob chip cookies the other day and they are now my favorite cookies. All natural and wonderful. Anyway, I recommend this book to anyone who feels they want to change the way they eat. Sometimes when you read things that you find on the internet you wonder how true it is but when I read this book I honestly believe that it is true and they aren't trying to sell a product or anything else like that. There is so much research that has gone into this book that it is amazing.

The next thing I want to talk about is this wonderful organization named Bountiful Baskets. It is a food co-op in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington. It was started by two ladies who wanted to find local fruits and vegetables at a great price. How it works: you pay $15 for a basket and then you go to the site you choice and you pick up the basket. The "baskets" are 50% fruit, 50% vegetables and if you were to buy the same products in the grocery store it would cost about $50. The above picture shows what I got last week, it included:
1 bunch each of spinach, swiss chard, and romaine lettuce
1 Bunch of celery
1- 1 lb. bag of baby carrots
8 bananas
1 honeydew
1 pineapple
1 6 oz container of blackberries
6 tomatoes
11 apples
20 red potatoes

They also have "extra" products you can buy for great prices. For example they had a tortilla pack that I didn't buy but after seeing them at the sight I wish I had. This week you can buy a gallon of organic olive oil for $23 (a great deal). It's also neat because you never know what you are going to get so it sort of forces you to try new things and the website has a message board where you and fellow buyers can share recipes for the items you may not know how to cook with. Anyway, I love this program and I recommend it to anyone who loves fruits and vegetables but doesn't like paying huge prices for them. Check out there website at bountifulbaskets.org and if you live in the Marsh Valley area and like the idea of this let me know cuz I'm thinking about volunteering to open up a site here in Arimo so we don't have to travel as far to get our baskets.