Tag Archives: health

Boys, Family, health & fitness, Parenting, Uncategorized

Be Sharing Green Tea Hawaii Love

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My story with Green Tea Hawaii started even before I knew that Green Tea Hawaii existed. green tea logo In the summer of 2013, my mom was in profound pain. She had a distended stomach. We thought it was a bladder infection. It was cancer. She journeyed through six months with cancer, living in tremendous pain. We shared many moments shaving her head, watching the boys, cutting her toenails, living each moment. Very unexpectantly the cancer continued to multiply and mom became an angel in heaven on Boxing Day 2013.

Back in mid-October, Mom went to see a Physician at an Integrative Cancer Clinic that supports each patient’s emotional, physical and spiritual health. At this appointment, they doctor covered many topics from eating, exercise, supplements, meditation and encouraged mom on her overall cancer journey. One moment that made her laugh, was when he suggested that she drink ten cups of green tea per day. It has shown that drinking green tea slows down and even stops cancer cell’s from multiplying. My mom was barely eating nor drinking at this point, so the thought of drinking ten cups of green tea made us giggle. If I only knew…

Fast forward now to March, where our family had been given a great gift from a University friend and teammate, their house for ten days in Hawaii. We were also given free access to this amazing product that they own called Green Tea Hawaii. They had samples all over their kitchen counter and we helped ourselves.  Green Tea Hawaii changed our lives.

Everyone I know that has tried Green Tea Hawaii talks about the benefit of the extra energy. I now ride my bike at 6:00am, just because I want to and can. (And I ain’t no morning person!) I enjoy doing Jillian Michaels DVD’s in the afternoon and evenings because I have the energy to. Plus I still have lots left in me to be a present and loving mom to my three boys under seven. Before Green Tea Hawaii, I was struggling.

I love the L-theanine in the Green Tea Hawaii as it gives me a great sense of peace. The combination of the Noni and green tea is absolutely delicious. This is a sweet tea, but contains less than one gram of stevia and sugar. (One teaspoon of sugar is about four to five grams for those visual people.)

Hot or cold.

Shaken not stirred.

Mixed with about a cup of pure water

I have finally found my drink!

The health benefits of the Green Tea Hawaii take me back to the appointment with my mom. Each sleeve of the Green Tea Hawaii equal around 45 cups of Green Tea. Yup, you read that correctly. My mom could have drank just one sleeve and had more than the benefits of the 10 cups of tea that were recommended. satchet

 

The other benefit of Green Tea Hawaii is weight loss. This is an added bonus for me as I already love the health benefits of this product. If you take one sleeve fifteen minutes before breakfast and again before lunch, it revs up your metabolism. I am not entirely sure how this works, but as of today, I have lost fifteen pounds. But nothing compares to the taste, cancer fighting and energy that Green Tea Hawaii brings me.

My dad now uses Green Tea Hawaii to help with his arthritis from his hockey playing days. My husband doesn’t drink pop or energy drinks anymore and he has more energy than before. In one weekend, he planted twenty-two cedars and fifteen HUNDRED square feet of new grass. He had a Green Tea Hawaii in the afternoon and early evening which gave him what he needed to work hard. IMG_4165IMG_4172 Lastly, I have to tell you that after I discovered Green Tea Hawaii, I went to my Naturopathic Physician. Anything that I eat or drink on a daily basis, I like to check out with her. She looked at the ingredients and loved the product for me. She only cautioned the caffeine in Green Tea can disrupt your sleep cycle, so don’t have it after five o’clock in the evening. One sleeve of Green Tea Hawaii is the same amount of caffeine in one cup of Java. She loved the calming affect of the L-theanine as well as the health benefits of the high quality Green Tea from Japan and the Noni from the Polynesian Island. I am very excited and full of gratitude that I can share this product with anyone that would like to try it. Can you tell? IMG_4654IMG_4664
Off to ECity to learn more about Green Tea Hawaii.

Full of gratitude.

Full of energy.

Full of cancer fighting Green Tea.

Feeling the Hawaiian Noni love.

Sweet and cool on a hot day.

Warm and comforting on a cold day.

Healthy.

Green Tea Hawaii.

Love!

 

Sidenote: You can leave me a comment,  text or call me if you are interested in trying a sample.  I have had many people ask since this post.

 

Boys, Family, health & fitness

Be Having Our First Ski of the Season 2013

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We had an absolutely stellar morning on Sunday. It is incredible to be skiing together as a family. JC leading the way. CC skiing on his own and being pulled behind the Chariot. OC enjoy his snacks and watching his brothers under his blankies wearing a pair of snow boots he wasn’t too sure about.

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Spontaneous pictures before we started off:

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Zipping down the hills:

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Going down the Jungle Trail. CC’s first time. He was wondering if the tiger was real. Nope they are all painted cardboard sweetie!

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JC and I even ventured through the fresh powder to hit the animal trails. We even saw some tracks. Does this look like rabbit?

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One last look at the ski:

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After the ski, we went to visit mom and dad. Here’s what I wrote after visiting them.

Life is about sun and darkness, health and illness, and living life with every privilege, challenge and blessing we are given.

Boys, health & fitness, men, Parenting

Be Doing A Seven Minute Workout

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Last night Sexy Neck and I started a twelve week challenge to try to get a tad more healthy and “move or lose it”.

I have gained thirty pounds in the last five months. Sexy Neck has been nursing a sore back and trying to recover from Achilles surgery. Here is the story. It is time. The clock is ticking.

Back in May, the New York Times picked up a story from a health journal talking about the benefits of a structured seven minute workout. You do each exercise for thirty seconds, you don’t needs any fancy equipment and after seven minutes of pain um hard work, you are done!

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Sounds good? I will let you know.

Here we are last night after day one:

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Summary: There was a lot of groaning, sweat and muscular fatigue. Today, I am having difficulty lifting my tea mug and walking up stairs. It was incredible to workout with my man, like the ‘olden’ days. It was worth every one of those seven minutes.

*We decided to do it twice! Who’s idea was that? We also included a warm-up, stretching and some kegels and Achilles exercises for each of our individual programs.

Here’s the boys working out with dada doing squats. CC exclaimed: “Look at my muscles I just got!”

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Boys, Christianity, Family, health & fitness

Be ‘Moving’ Backwards to go Forward

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My counsellor has been working with me to let go of the Western ideal that we move from point A to point B never to return to ‘old stuff’.

When I continue to go over this old ground in my mind, I feel like a failure, I feel shame and I feel mad.

My inner dialogue goes something like this:
“What this again? Seriously Joanna. Are you really going to have this same conversation again? Are we really going down this path? How could this happen again?”

Thanks to my counsellor, I have shifted this A to B mentally to be more of a deepening spiral. Like a tornado funnel.

Oh I like this analogy because sometimes I have me some wind blowing around me!

Yes, I am going to go over the same road again but I am going to be in a different place on my path, a deeper place. (I am almost 40 you know!).

Last night, was a huge mental shift downward into my deepening spiral.

For weeks I have looked for a once per week hockey program that we could do in Ktown. Do you think I could find one? Nope! Minor hockey, that wants to devour families lives with their three times per week practices/games, is the show in this town.

Sooo….
We decided to take JC out of Grade One forty-five minutes early and drive the boys sixty kilometres back to the town we just moved from so that the boys could play hockey.

They are back at the rink they know.

CC has the same coach he had last year.
Papa was on the ice with CC.
JC got to move up a level.
He gets his own jersey this year.
I get to see old friends each week.
AND THE VERY BEST PART, NANA CAME TO WATCH. Can you see me up and jumping around?

It was amazing night of going backwards. JC’s teacher was supportive of our idea, dad laced up his skates and even went for a morning skate to get ready, lastly mom looked me square in the eyes and said, “I am really glad that you are coming here for hockey!”

Anything for you Mama! Now if only I could meet your request for a new body!

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JC waiting to give his brother a high five before his turn on the ice.

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Papa and CC working together.

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OC watching the action.

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Nana is on the right in the toque.

Sometimes you need to go backwards to move forward. Lesson learned. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Deeper. Deeper. Deeper.

Boys, Christianity, Family, Goals, Jesus Christ

Be Epic (my 200th post)

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Usually I look for these large moments to propel me forward. I have large emotions, lofty thoughts to go with my tall six foot frame and strong personality.

I have been mulling over my 200th post for awhile now as I knew it was coming soon. The purpose of this blog has always been to help me stay in the moment with my boys. Motherhood can be a tad bit overwhelming at times.

Today is the day for my 200th post and I have to say that we had a giant day today, maybe even epic as some people would describe.

It is the profoundness of the little things that describe epic to me.

Fourteen stairs.
Fourteen hurdles.
Fourteen opportunities for triumph. Fourteen steps I wondered if my mom would take fourteen days ago.

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She did it!

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Be epic today.

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My mom is.

Christianity, Family, Jesus Christ, Parenting

Be Not Knowing

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Hmpppff, we are two months and ten days into a six week renovation project.  We bought a “smokers” house.  Here and here are the sordid details.   It has been a difficult process for me.  More of the groaning and moaning here.  But nothing compares to the constant not knowing of the “mass” that lays in my mama’s abdomen.

Here’s my mom!

As we have been renovating, we have been living with my parents in their basement.  (No we don’t play video games!)

I have been completely baffled watching my mom in pain, on the couch or in her bed.

MY MOM RODE HER BIKE IN SPAIN IN APRIL WITH PEOPLE TRAINING FOR THE TOUR DE FRANCE!  MY MOM WAS RIDING 90KMS PER DAY.  MY MOM EVEN FELL OFF HER BIKE THREE TIMES!  HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING? Now my yelling will stop, sorry about that.

Anyways, the ebb and flow of my parents lives has changed into this every day living of “unknowing”.  Unknowing of whether my mom will get out of bed or will be able to fall asleep.  Not knowing what she will want to eat that day.  Unknowing of how to help or not to help depending on what she needs.   When to sit beside her and when to step aside.

I am living between two words right now, the one we are trying to create in our new home 60kms down the lake and my life here living with my parents and trying to support my mom and dad through their pain and grief.

Every day though, I have hope.  Hope knowing that God does know.  Hope knowing that He has placed people around me who can empathize, who really listen and hear what I am trying to convey.  I have hope that God wants to prosper us all, not by the words standards, but by His!

Glory to God alone.  It’s okay that I don’t know.  It is going to be very interesting to see how everything works out.

(This post has been percolating for awhile in my hamster wheel brain and I pray that it conveys the strength of my parents, the shock of this illness and the hope we place in God. )

health & fitness, Uncategorized

Be a Walker

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Yesterday, I attempted to drive my son to Elementary School because it was cold (-8 degrees Celsius) and to be truthful, I was feeling lazy.   He goes to school about ten blocks away, down a hill, in the centre of our town.  The school has approximately 750 students from Kindergarten to Grade seven.

Now here is the kicker: The school drop-off was absolutely insane.  I was seriously shaking my head at how many cars there were.  I couldn’t even get into the school parking lot.

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(View of parking lot from the top of hill I had to traverse!)

I ended up parking on a busy side road, hauling all three kids out of their car seats, walking around the very busy parking lot, over a huge snow pile, and then down the other side clinging onto the chainlink fence.

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We made it into the line-up just as the bell rang.

I think we will go back to walking to school!

But this brings up my next point: Why don’t we walk more?  Why don’t more people get out of their cars and walk into the restaurant?  I understand if you have children to tote or a wheelchair to unfold, but if you are able-bodied and alone in your car, why do you go through the drive thru?

Our fifteen month old just started walking on the weekend.  What a joy it is to see his smiling faces as he “cowboy” walks across the living room!

Last point for today, when my husband was teaching grade six/seven, a city planner came in and asked the students to draw their neighbourhood.  Those children that walked to school had more awareness of the environment around them and perhaps more of an appreciation.  Do children notice how crunchy chestnuts are when you step on them or learn how to walk along a concrete barrier when they are zooming down the road in a car?

Yup, I think that walking is a pretty important skill to utilize, something we shouldn’t take for granted!

Thanks baby OC for reminding me of this lesson – now just remember to watch out for the table!

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