1010Zen with Sandy Jamieson

Remember a few weeks back, when I declared, “All in!”? If you’re new to my podcast, I’m talking about my recent decision to follow the Plant Paradox Diet for two months with the aim to heal myself from eczema, which I’ve had now for 8 years.

Well, the day before Halloween we carved a pumpkin. And I roasted and salted the seeds, as I always do, and enjoyed them with my girls the following morning. After quite a few it hit me. I can’t have squash so I probably can’t have pumpkin seeds! And sure enough they’re on the no list.

Well that incident opened the door for me. And by that I mean...

Positive affirmations are positive statements that we can say to ourselves to help us feel connected. They uplift and empower us and they can eventually replace most of the negative thoughts that run through our brains, if we say them enough. 

And they are SUCH an important part of my life. I highly recommend you consider adding this life changing practice to your life, also. 

The first step, is...

One morning this past week, one of the 4am mornings, I woke up exhausted. And when I wake up feeling this way, I’ll usually put a show on for the girls while I try and get another hour of sleep on the sofa. This particular morning I woke up to my youngest Quinn going through daddy’s wallet. I recall seeing it on the coffee table before lying down but didn’t really think anything of it. (In retrospect I don’t know why I didn’t move it. She’s pretty sneaky like I was at her age!)

So, as you can probably imagine...

I honestly had no idea that parenting could be this exhausting. These little humans ask sooo many questions and they ask the same question like 4 times and they constantly do things that we ask them not to.  And the way they speak to us? I’m constantly redirecting the conversation with my girls. 

Here’s a conversation I had with my three year old daughter Quinn, just the other day when I gave her an apple with her breakfast. 

“You left the skin on here!” ...

Okay. So I know normally people keep their guilty pleasures to themselves. You know, the things they like to do that maybe they don’t want anyone to know about, or maybe feel ashamed of. Or they think others will think they’re weird if they find out.

Well, I have two guilty pleasures and I want to proudly share them with you...

I often feel like a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to the topic of healthy eating. I talk the talk but lately I haven’t been walking the walk.

Being mindful of what I’m eating has been a focus of mine for many years. It was way back in 2003 when I had a sensitivity test that showed my slight intolerance to sugar and wheat. I would always get bloated. And at the time I was able to make the shift and I switched to everything gluten free and no longer used white sugar or white flour. Actually I still can’t bake with either. Anyways that continued for many years, although...

There’s a quote I love and I’ve shared before by Tony Robbins that goes like this. “Trade your expectations for appreciation and your world changes instantly." Think about it for a moment while I tell you a little anecdote about my relationship.

Deryk and I work opposite shifts. He’s a high school music teacher, so he works days, and I’m a server at a restaurant and work 4 nights a week plus Sunday's. We both love what we do and there’s a lot of overlapping time together and we spend it together as happily as possible.

But sometimes, I’ll get in my head about what I’m doing around the house compared to what he’s doing around the house...

I recently hired a meal prep and delivery service to help me create healthy dinners for my family. It was an area that I’ve always struggled with, even though I love to cook.

I think part of the reason is because I’ve been in the restaurant industry for so long, I’ve never been used to planning nightly meals.

And the other, of course, because while I don’t ever say “I don’t have the time” the reality is, we do only have so many hours in a day.

I had a revelation before starting this podcast that I should be sharing more personal stories. Like some pretty intimate stuff. So that you may relate AND come to know for certain that you’re not the only one having these experiences. Please know that you are not alone.

And I also realized that I need to be more intentional with my message. So I’ve been spending more time in preparation for my recordings starting this week. I think it’s important to be vulnerable. So thanks in advance for listening. What I’m about to share isn’t easy...

Yesterday my partner Deryk and I took the girls and our dog Pax to the park. We were heading out for a family fishing adventure and we wanted to tire our puppy out before we left. And for some reason the girls were whining like crazy and even the dog was pulling more than usual, so it could’ve been a stressful walk. But I decided to shift the focus and started...