Soooo... Yeah...

Hey! So I totally failed at updating this for awhile. To be fair, I got a little busy with the end of school. But I'm DONE! I officially have a BA in Theatre Arts Studies (emphases in Playwriting and Directing). Woohoo! I've also finished all of my Teaching Assistant responsibilities, so guess what that means? I am finished with school! And that means I get to be a stay at home wife and mother. Hot dang it's been awesome!

Now back to health. I'm going to put a bunch of stuff on this post, so hang in there with me. Or not. You don't have to. But I want you to. So hang on to your keyboard (or mouse... or phone... or tablet... or whatever) and read on!

Last month the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints held its semi annual General Conference. I've mentioned that healthy is more than just physically. I want to be healthy physically, emotionally, mentally, and also spiritually. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (as I'm sure most of you know), and I absolutely love General Conference! We get to listen to modern-day, living Prophets and Apostles of Jesus Christ. What a wonderful way to get spiritually uplifted and add to your spiritual health. During one of the sessions of conference, I decided to also indulge and help my mental and emotional health by painting my toe-nails. Now I know some of you may think, how on earth does painting your toe-nails help you emotionally or mentally? It just does. It's something that I can do for me. I don't do it for anyone else. I do it because I like to choose the color of nail polish I use-it's just fun deciding on a color. And it makes me feel better about myself. Simple, I know, but having my toe-nails painted cute honestly makes me feel a little better (especially when I'm wearing sandals!)
I guess what I'm saying with this is, do something for yourself. It doesn't have to be anything huge. Just do something simple-an extra long shower, a face mask, painting your nails, whatever it may be. Just do something nice for yourself.

Now skipping ahead. I am so proud of myself this week. I got myself back on track and have been doing so well this week. I did yoga and started alternating working out my upper body and lower body. I splurged (a small splurge) on two five-pound weights. That lets you know how much of a wuss I am right now, but I needed to start with something small to tone my arms. And that's the thing. I want to tone my arms, not bulk them up, so I wanted to have a small weight so I could do lots of reps.

About the yoga though. Wow! If you've never done yoga before, I highly recommend it. I mentioned before that I was doing the 30 days of yoga. I kinda stopped but was doing it off and on. This week I picked back up where I'd left off and I feel so good. Yoga is all about being kind to your body and accepting yourself. At least that's what I take away from it. I have absolutely been loving the yoga videos I've been doing. It's on youtube and totally free! I've been doing Yoga with Adriene, and I love it. I like her personality that shines through. I highly, highly encourage everyone to try yoga. If you want one that is super calm and relaxing, try this one. I have actually gone back and done this one a couple times because it makes me feel so amazing.

But moving right along. Getting healthy takes time. I know that one thing that really helps is just being more active and moving more. I have really taken that to heart this week. Since I have the opportunity to stay home with my almost fifteen month old son, I decided I wanted to be active with him. So I have made it a goal to take him out every day and do something. It's been a little difficult because it's been raining so much this week. He played in the rain, though, and didn't seem to mind at all! I haven't been spending money doing things, I've done things that just get me moving, and let me do something with him. My number one choice is to take him to the park, which I did a lot. But when it was really raining hard, I just took him with me to run errands and then we walked around the mall. I know that is small, but just getting moving is so important and so helpful.

Another thing that I have found that has been wonderful for me this week is getting back to my cleaning schedule. This may not sound like it has anything to do with health, but I can promise you it does. Physically: it gets me moving around the apartment. Mentally: I actually somewhat enjoy cleaning and organizing, so once I get started, I usually enjoy it. Emotionally and spiritually: you just feel so much better when you are in a clean space. The atmosphere in our apartment has changed remarkably just by me keeping to the cleaning schedule and keeping it cleaner and tidier. If you want ideas on how to make a schedule, go here. You can customize it to fit your needs, which is what I did. The reason I love having a cleaning schedule is because it keeps me from getting overwhelmed. Sometimes that is what keeps me from cleaning. I don't know where to start. With a schedule, you break it down so you do a little every day, so you're never overwhelmed.

Anywho! Something else I did recently was try a new bread recipe. I have been trying so hard to eat better, and I have noticed a huge difference. It's amazing how much of a difference just eating right can do for you! One thing that I try to do is make home-made bread. It's so much better for you because you know what you're putting into it, and you can customize it to fit your likes. So I looked at a few different recipes and basically made up my own, new recipe. I will post that recipe in a new post, so as not to bog you down too much! And that way, if you like it, it's easier to get back to! Here's the Hearty Wheat Bread recipe!

Well, I have much more that I'd like to say, but I am having a hard time keeping my eyes open and my fingers typing. It's time for my bedtime routine. My bed is calling for me...

Hearty Wheat Bread

So I looked at a few different bread recipes, decided I liked bits and pieces of all of them, and then proceeded to basically make up my own recipe. I was very pleased with how well this turned out! Unfortunately we don't have a wheat grinder, because grinding your own wheat for this could only make it better!

The Ingredients:
1/2 cup of 9-grain cereal
1.5 tsp yeast and 1/2 cup of warm water
2 Tbs flax seeds
2 Tbs chia seeds
2 cups bread flour
2 cups wheat flour
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbs honey
1/2 cup-ish ofquick-oats

What I did:
Soak the 9-grain cereal is warm water about 30 minutes
Soak the flax seeds and chia seeds together in water for about 30 minutes
Put the yeast in the 1/2 cup of warm (hottish) water and allow to proof about 15 minutes
Combine the bread flour, wheat flour, and salt and mix together.
(I did this in my kitchen-aid, and it was super easy!)
Make a well in the mixture of dry ingredients and add in the eggs, olive oil, yeast mixture, flax and chia seed mixture, 9-grain cereal, and the honey. Mix all of this well and knead until the dough starts to form a bowl and doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl.
(P.S. The chia and flax seed mixture will be a little slimy and thick. It's totally fine, that's just the seeds soaking up the water!)
As the dough was kneading I ended up adding about 1/3 cup extra of wheat flour, so if you need more flour, just add as much as you need.
Once it has come together, form a ball with the dough. Oil and large bowl and place the dough ball in. Cover and let rise for an hour in a WARM place! (This is very important. My apartment was too cold and it didn't rise properly for the first hour. I got it warmer for the second rising and it was totally fine.)
After rising, take dough out and divide it into two equal parts. Shape into loaves and put in oiled bread pans. Allow to rise for an hour in a warm place.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.
Brush loaves with olive oil. (You could brush them with butter, a mixture of butter and olive oil, if you want something sweeter, you could brush them with honey butter. Lots of choices here. I personally would do butter olive oil if you can get your hands on it. It's absolutely amazing!)
Sprinkle quick-oats on the outside of the loaf.
Bake for 25-35 minutes.

There you have it! This turned out really well for me. It's made great sandwich bread! Let me know what you think, though. If you have any suggestions for improvement, please let me know that as well!