Kale, Affirmations, and Everything.

When I first thought about a blog update this morning, I thought about writing about things that I have been exploring, but haven't talked about here.

I realized that my shopping and dietary habits really have (mostly) changed when I was in the supermarket the other day and got really excited about some "really beautiful kale!"

But hey, I'm not kidding! This kale looked ready to pose for a magazine shoot - so fresh, so curly, so green!

And I realized that the American diet may really be changing for the better when I got to the register and the cashier, a guy in his 20s, admired the kale and asked what I was going to do with it. I said I wasn't sure yet, but I had to get it because it was so pretty! He said that he'd never eaten kale until he'd gotten into juicing, and now he loves it. I said I hadn't eaten it until 3 years ago, and now it's one of my go-to veggies. We bonded over the amazing nutritional powers of greens.

I don't have a juicer; I've heard mixed opinions about the benefits of juicing, and right now I tend to agree with the idea that it's better to eat the vegetable than juice it. I did experiment today with a kale/pinepple/banana/coconut milk smoothie, and I think I used too much kale.  I didn't measure, and one giant leaf I used was probably two cups of "loosely packed" all by itself.  Even for a kale fan, it was a little too much kale for a smoothie.  It was just eh.  I think I'll stick to baby spinach as my "greens" in a smoothie.  I'll probably use the rest of the gorgeous kale in a salad.

Anyway, I just had to share my epiphany about discovering new green vegetables (Swiss chard is another I'd ignored all my life) at over 50.  Going veggie has been a growth experience.

Affirmations.  Last week I had the opportunity to hear the founder of our very large real estate company speak.  He's a real character; he can, and did, go on for nearly 2 hours, just speaking off the top of his head on a wide variety of subjects, from diet and health to business to life, the universe, and everything.

He is a big proponent of writing affirmations every day. He said that he has done it for decades, and all of the top executives in the company do it daily as well.  I had heard him mention this before, but this time he pulled out a wad of yellow legal sized paper to show us how many he does each morning.  He didn't share them, saying they were personal, but the concept of writing affirmations had already turned up in various places in my life, so I found his absolute belief in their power very interesting.

There are a number of books out there on the subject. I really love Louise Hay, and she has some good stuff about the hows and whys of using affirmations.  I have a few of her books in audio format, and I love her warm, soothing voice when I am falling asleep. 

This is one of those things that I dismissed as too "woo-woo" for me a few years ago, but that's because I had a very superficial understanding of the concepts. Like the Law of Attraction, it's NOT about just sitting around wishing for something, but a way of focusing your direction into a single-minded pursuit of your goals.  I think I'm just now starting to understand how it works, and put it to use in my own life. 

So that's where I am right now - in the world of kale and affirmations.  I am disappointed in myself for being such a slacker blogger in the last few months, and I will kick up the blogging content going forward.  I feel some rants coming on - not really rants, exactly, but ruminations on keeping a positive mindset when "good friends" want to offer "sympathy" when you actually weren't looking for any.  Sample topic: Gee, thanks, I didn't realize how much my life sucked until you went out of your way to tell me how sorry you are for me, over and over! 

Maybe all the kale is making me feisty. 

My "bad" haircut has now grown into something I don't quite totally adore because it's not quite as easy to style as it looks, but it has grown in just enough to make me happy, and it gets compliments.  So do I take back my vow to never darken the door of the opinionated asshole who doesn't listen, but damn he does the most technically perfect cuts EVAR! or gamble on a new stylist?  Time will tell.  I haven't decided.