February Wellness Newsletter

Slow Cook Away the Winter Freeze with 6 Crockpot Pasta Recipes

 

Click Here for Recipes!  

 

When Life Gets Hard: Keep Moving Forward, One Step at a Time

 

1. Confront your struggles head on.

We want to bury our heads in the sand and pretend everything is fine, as if these bad things aren't happening to us. We try to numb ourselves from the pain and reality of the situation. I know I do this. But eventually, you have to face it head on. There is no other way.

 

2. Realize it's a process, and the process takes time.

Nothing will happen right away. It will take time, and you will travel from one emotion to another and then back again. And it takes as long as it takes. These things cannot be rushed.

 

3. Kick, scream, get your groove on, and then get spiritual with it.

Realize that it's okay to be angry. Find constructive, creative ways to let your feelings flow out of you.

Climb a hill and once you get to the top, scream until your heart is content. Paint something. Beat up your bedding. It'll only make it more comfortable. Get in some serious cardio, if you can-try dance. Make yourself really sweat. Then try yoga and/or meditation to even you out.

 

4. Play out your fears about a situation.

With any given situation, play out the scenarios and then ask yourself, "and then what?" What will I do if this happens next? Keep asking what you'll do next, how you'll continue moving forward. This will move you from a fearful, stuck mindset into a more active, productive mindset.

 

5. Accept that not everyone will have your back.

This may be the hardest lesson to learn. I found out, most painfully, that some people kept their distance; or better yet, were willing to take advantage and kick me when I was down.

Surprisingly, these are often people you thought you could count on the most. Still, others will not only step up, but they will hold you up through the worst of it.

 

6. Change your perspective.

I now choose to believe that adversity is meant to knock us on course, not the other way round. Focus on looking at the situation differently. I can say from my experience as a cancer patient, you often have to find humor in the small things. This helps get you through each day.

 

7. Look forward to the sunshine.

After every storm there is calm, and then the sun shines. If you keep remembering that, you will make it through.

 


"Be the type of person who leaves a mark, not a scar."- Unknown

 

 

Race to Protect Children 5k Walk/Run, Kids Run, and Children's Festival

 

 

 

 

 

Join us for the Race to Protect Children, held at West Broad Village on Saturday May 2, 2015, for a family friendly community event benefiting Greater Richmond SCAN.

 

 

Click Here for More Information!

 

 

 

 

 

The 1 mile Kids Run will begin at 8:30am, followed by the 5K Run/Walk at 9:00am. The race is flat and walker friendly! The Children's Festival will begin at 9am, and offer fun activities and performances for children and families.

 

For questions, and more information on how you can get involved, please email Kristen Read at [email protected] or call 804-257-7226 x106.

 

 


"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
- Marcel Proust   

 

 

Wintertime Blahs?  

We Have More for Your Kids to Do

snow-shovel.jpg 

Suffering from  

snow day fatigue?  

While the mittens are drying out on the radiator and before you turn to the Disney Channel to keep your kids occupied for another hour, take a page from the playbook of Moley Evans and Pam London, founders and directors of  EverWonder Camps. These former teachers and moms of kids who range in age from 3rd to 7th grade are experts at creating play-based, hands-on activities to keep little ones engaged without a screen.  

 

Bake up a storm. Pick a new or favorite recipe, but double it or reduce it by half (or one-third, for kids working on fractions) and get your kids to help you do the math. Their reward? Twice as many cookies-even if you only made a half-batch.

 

Magic Treasure Mountains. Steal some of dad's shaving cream and collect a handful of tiny tchotchkes from around the house. On a play table or in the tub, squirt concentrically smaller layers of shaving cream to create a mountain, tucking some of the "treasures" between each layer. Kids can roll up their sleeves and excavate until they've found all the pieces; when they're done looking for treasure, they can practice writing their names in the leftover shaving cream (an easy way to learn how to form letters without the stress of holding a pencil). Evans points out that it's also a great way to clean up stray marker and crayon on tabletops.

 

Read More Ideas Here!

 

 

7 Scientifically-Backed Ways to Boost Your Metabolism

 

Your metabolism keeps your heart beating, your blood flowing, your brain thinking, and your muscles moving. Is it any wonder it doesn't want to be rushed? Here's the skinny on how you might be able to speed it up-in spite of itself.

  1. Skip the 6 A.M. workout and sleep in instead.Your resting metabolic rate is lowest when you are, well, resting and drops about 15 percent overnight, reaching its slowest point in the early morning.
  2. Get your exercise in through short bursts throughout the day...Break your exercise into smaller, more frequent periods of activity. This will increase your active metabolism without causing a spike in appetite.
  3. ...except on days you splurge.Went overboard at the buffet? In that case, you'll need to up the ante on that day's regimen.
  4. Put protein on almost every plate.Digesting protein requires more energy than any other type of calorie, which makes it great for boosting metabolism.
  5. Go easy on fried foods and sweets.When you consistently take in too many high-carb and high-fat foods, your metabolism gets into a habit of storing the extra as fat.
  6. Don't forget to snack.Just say no to long waits between meals, as well as cleanses and detoxes. All of these can trigger that thrifty metabolic instinct to protect you against apparent famine.
  7. Swap diet soda for seltzer.For every diet soda you drink on a daily basis, your risk of becoming overweight within the next decade may increase by 65 percent. One possible reason: New research on artificial sweeteners suggests that drinking diet soda may blunt your body's ability to process sugar, and that in turn throws off your metabolism.

Read More!

 

 

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