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Category: Physical Health and Body

God Winks Encouragement

God winks appear all the time and in front of us if we’re paying attention.

God often speaks in nature like in bright sunflower blooms 🌻 and occasional rainbow skies 🌈 And in science like the rare total eclipse 🌘 and even in a pair of daily ducks.

God winks in nature like these common pair of ducks. They are the many wonders that keep us wondering!

We also sometimes forget that God winks in our food where nature provides plant-based foods.

Like these authentic whole wheat zucchini fettuccine getting drying-ready for cooking (recipe below 🧡).

I believe everyone needs encouragement in this life. It’s part of the healthy and happy journey. And one special form of encouragement that you may already turn to is the God winks that are specific to your life…

The daily favors, blessings, miracles… whatever you want to call it… like driving by a surprising display of flowers instead of the usual path to radiate the day 🌷

When something special, small or not happens in your day, you’re reminded that you’re watched over.

You know that you were given luck in some way by the Universe if you allow your beliefs to take you there and you push your ego aside that can thwart your efforts in your mind.

God is love and the ego is fear. And how you noodle yourself out of those times where it’s hard to see the love, will get you to more God winks sooner because you’ll see them. 👀

You see favor in life, whether you bypass a long line that was just there seconds before you got there. …Or, you’re lucky with your online submission that comes back favorable.

Your timing is perfect and the opportunity is for you. And that was no coincidence. That is meant to be encouraging to your day if you don’t miss it.

These can be a part of your every day, if you pay attention to the discernment message that the Universe sends. As you live longer and practice deciphering more you will get better at this!

In Christian living, it’s the Holy Spirit helping us out or the spirit in you.

There’s no mystery or woo-woo, it’s just the way it is on our planet and was established, all documented during Biblical times.

And we can this live out daily in our version of modern Biblical living if we choose.

An interesting thought: the book that made it in every hotel room (I worked in hotels) is full of good daily instruction.

Most of us don’t give it daily thought.

I know I didn’t for the first quarter of my life until the words came to life when I learned the content that helped align my life.

And in your life, the more wondering and connect the dots to the wonders and little miracles, the more you’ll see them and get God wink favors. Not everyone sees a rainbow in front of them. 🌈

And whether you do or don’t think you receive favor, your life will have ups and downs.

But if you know in the end that all will be well, that provides a sense of peace. And we all can use more of that if we want to live a life of meaning. Or when we feel discouraged.

So when things aren’t exactly working out the way you thought they would or you feel stuck, look up for the God winks. They will keep you going.

Align your prayerful thoughts and whether you speak them aloud or just think the thoughts especially while in public or around people.

When we stay on the channel of our daily, small thoughts that are mostly negative because it’s on the worldly level of this limited life, then we lose time with negative moods or emotions.

We keep ourselves from growing and getting to the next level. If we think and reach higher, we’re better off.

And we gain more then in the time it takes for us to try and do it by ourselves. If we plan about the future, that may not happen the way we thought if we don’t check in first with our heart and soul.

This is a simple exercise you can try.

Find something in your situations that has given you some tension or hasn’t worked out. You have several productive options. You can try again or look for a new solution.

An example is a tool that has broken. You can try to fix it. If you look at it from another angle, sometimes you figure it out.

But if you get upset or frustrated, then nothing gets accomplished. If you spend the same time praying, the solution comes to you.

It’s the same way you can pray off your worry, as Norman Vincent Peale taught in The Power of Positive Thinking.

It works because of your productive mindset and calm mood, but is also because of the higher-reaching power working in your life.

Another example, and one that was recent for me is new baking challenges. As someone who likes to experiment, not all bakes turn out. And when I wondered what happened, I use the bake as a lesson. It reminds me of what can go wrong. So instead of being disappointed, I see it as a way to grow.

Because in order to grow, there is always a struggle or sacrifice of sorts to varying degrees. You have to give up perfection or success in order to get better. You let go (or let God and reject ego).

Or you spend more time invested in learning than you thought.  And this is how you get good and skilled at anything… by the failures and challenges. You don’t learn as much from the ones that turn out and where you get a few minutes of joy from right away. Never judge a book by its cover. Give things a second chance.

But joy does keep us encouraged and engaged in the balance of everything in life.

And these joyful pasta-ccines are very balanced with whole wheat and zucchini. 😋

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Zucchini Fettuccine Whole Wheat Pasta

This is a great homemade pasta making recipe to get your veggies in (or for picky eaters) or if you have a leftover zucchini you don't want to go bad. Homemade pasta is easy to make once you get the hang of it and you can enjoy same day! And as grocery prices rise on pasta, this is an economical way to get fresh pasta with ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen!
Course dinner, lunch
Cuisine American, Italian
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

  • blender or mortar and pestle (optional)
  • cup measuring cup (optional)
  • pasta machine or dough roller

Ingredients

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour (can use gluten-free flours) per serving
  • 1 egg per serving
  • generous pinch of salt
  • 1 zucchini, cooked and mashed

Instructions

  • Make a flour mound. Make a deep well with a spoon or the measuring cup you used. Add egg and salt.
  • Knead. Add blended zucchini to the pasta dough.
  • Make a dough disc. Let rest for at least 20 minutes.
  • Divide the disc into two halves. Roll out pasta as thin as you can without getting holes. If using a pasta machine, start on a medium/wide setting such as "5" and then run through thinner setting such as "3." That may be the thinnest setting.
    If rolling by hand and dough roller, roll evenly to about 1/16".
  • Let strands dry out enough so you can still make a curled nest or can break (like packaged processed pasta). These took about 2 hours.
  • Cook like you would packaged pasta for about 20 minutes on medium heat for "al dente" pasta. Whole wheat pasta will take longer than other plain flour homemade pasta. You can store uncooked pasta in fridge for 2-3 days. Buon appetito!

When Dental Worry Is Healthy For You

 

Onions are good for teeth as they’re antibacterial and spinach has teeth remineralizing properties, so chomping on a few leaves is a good thing! 🥬

Have you ever thought about the worse that could happen in a situation like dental worry, but it didn’t end up so bad?… Or end up at all?

…And that’s usually because your worry prevented a bad outcome. Some worry is healthy… it’s built into our DNA human-ness.

But in society, we tend to demonize all worry when it can help us to magnify an area we should focus more on, and then put the thoughts to rest.

Worry is healthy when it prevents growing problems. And worry is healthy when it helps us come up with better solutions.

When it falls healthy short and is outta balance, is when the scales need to tip back to peace and calm.

Don’t let your worry take over your Vata mind and from living life… because long-term stress is an inflammation cause in the mind-body connection that shows up in or on the body as a warning.

When you’re conscious knowing what you’re doing and thinking, you activate your subconscious to help you out in the back of your mind.

…EVEN when you can’t connect the dots.

Your subconscious mind is like your passenger seat helper who’s providing directions even when you’re focused on what’s in front of you.

…So, when I didn’t get to the dentist because of the pandemic and several moves later, I thought I would have a bad report.

A month before I could get into the busy dentist’s office, I did everything to keep my teeth and healthy smile at their maintained best… flossing with multiple flosser types, brushing, rinsing, and even scraping. And if you have teeth and dental worry about your teeth, then you may floss more often.

These days, it’s so much more easy… we have much better dental supplies from convenience stores than we did as kids… or imagine what they did back in the Stone Ages?  

And those memories and dental worry kept me magnifying on healthy habits leading up to the Big D-Day…

At that dentist chair moment, time stood still and I was pleasantly surprised with the assessment. I had nothing to dental worry about.

It was a compliment when I heard the word “good” from my new dentist, and was even asked about how I take care of my teeth.

She asked me what I did. And my response was, “I do everything!”

I shared my routine and healthy daily teeth habits that make up for the food and coffee acid, and sugar buildup. Really the best tip is to brush more often softly or with an electric toothbrush. 🪥

…There’s nothing new under the sun. ☀️

But I also told the dentist about teeth healthy foods I ate to fortify the good and diminish the bad. We add back healthy for a more neutral effect.

So often we forget that foods act as secondary toothbrushes when we can’t get to our toothbrush.

You don’t need to dental worry if you brush after eating sugary foods.

And with acidic sources… you can soften the blow. For ACV, use an eyedropper or a straw where you drop the liquid to the back of your throat.

And certain foods are teeth helpers that have Vitamin D, calcium, and other minerals that re-mineralize natural teeth enamel.

That’s double bonus points for bones and teeth. 🎯

Stronger teeth enamel helps prevent common inflammation or an infection spreading inflammation.

Because inflammation or worsened infections in the mouth can cause problems just like inflammation in other parts of the body.

To counteract, they say that flossing can add 4 years and so can eating beans. (They these days are healthy social media sources that’s common knowledge). But at worst, you won’t lose 4 years, so it’s worth the effort gamble. 😉

And if you’re wanting to be more anti-inflammatory and hang onto any wisdom teeth, check out this anti-inflammatory food guide for your easy grocery shopping essentials.

Healthy Habits Today Matter Big-Time for Tomorrow

Healthy habits matter today big time for results tomorrow. And we can get a good dose of influence from the Blue Zones (discovered by Dan Buettner), where their habits feel like worlds apart from our modern, Western world.

But we can adopt their healthy ways. And I share a few of mine below along my journey including a healthy potato habit I have. 🥔

blue zones healthy habits.

As for healthy habits, I’ve been eating whole-wheat bread and foods since I was young. I don’t think I ever had a slice of white sandwich bread. It was wheat, rye, or pumpernickel… but never white.

Whole wheat cherry glace pancakes with frozen Greek yogurt for Sunday brunch! 🥞

I’m so glad I didn’t let those past years of dissatisfied field trip bag lunches hold me back. Those and other healthy habits are happy keepers.

Below you’ll learn about some Sunday brunch inspo that came from healthy habits and endings too.

And what you create as eating healthy habits today becomes your tomorrow’s habits. And can be part of happy memories.

Some of them stick around from when you were younger, and still work. They need no replacement.

When I was younger, working smart was en vogue. Why?… je ne sais quoi. 

…Maybe we were trying to learn how to cut corners? But working hard never went outta-style. Work was (and is) what made the world go round but talking about grunt work especially would be like going rogue.

And today, in a sharing society, we learned that there are no shortcuts. The good stuff is in the work and comes from the working hard process. So glad we kept the healthy habits. 🌱

And even the tough work proved useful for growth and experience.

Especially when we’re young, we need all the experience we can get…

In those years, I walked everywhere. I had no wheels. I walked to the bus, to the dentist, to school, on the paper route, and to my friends’ houses.

And when my high school friend got a new set of wheels, a brand spanking new red Cabriolet convertible for her 16th birthday, she offered to pick me up in the mornings to take me to school. It surprised me when I turned down that exciting offer.

My young mind told me that I shouldn’t count on that routine. Our young intellects were at work even when we weren’t fully conscious. 😉

And in a higher gear, I knew I made the right choice. 

At that moment I solidified the habit of counting on myself… and not taking shortcuts that breed laziness. 

No lazy (Kapha) mind is a better mantra…

And a good way to break out of that mold is to exercise even when we don’t feel like doing it. You always feel better after the burn.

An easier way is to step outside. Because there you don’t feel the sting. You don’t count calories burned. Your wristband does it automatically for you.

And you breathe in new air and let your senses do the rest.

And when you naturally go up and down steps, you’re doing exercise without having to convince your brain to work. It’s automatic to your mind and legs.

Simply, if you want to get to where you’re going, you need to take steps… or even better, the stairs.  Fair, right?

Too often we automatically think of exercise as cardio and keeping up our heart rates. That’s just one type.

And the kind that makes a difference will be the exercises and moves you do.

Another habit area is consistently showing up.

Your presence becomes known. And you’re seen as someone who’s accountable and takes the time to be available. We all like to know people like this.

It’s a form of welcomed dependability. 

And there are ways we all can be consistent whether it’s online or in-person. And where we can be part of our community.

For some years, I was part of organizing a regular brunch group. It fit what I was doing. I was helping others plan their hosted events, so why not host my own? It was volunteer mixed with fun healthy habits.

What made the group special was that we (I had a co-lead with me) opened the event to everyone. There were always newcomers to the group and the DC metro area. And the restaurant of choice had to set up several tables.

It was fun to try out new local restaurants including swanky Michelin Blue Duck Tavern places, historic National Press Room restaurants, and mod-deco fare ones on the Potomac River. Many celebrated Cherry Blossoms 🌸 like this one (speaking of en vogue): 

And we met restaurateurs like this distinguished chef who put foodie restaurants on the maps in the 90s before Jose Andres.

Restaurant lunch time for brunch isn’t usually busy like dinner so that was a good fit for all. And being plugged in that way became part of healthy habits that season.

And during those years, as a theme, I was also inviting my own bunch to the restaurants where I ran the group events.

Similarly, if you take a look at your healthy habits, you’ll notice some repeats. Your regular habits that stick become what sticks out in your life tomorrow and years later.

Taking inventory of your healthy habits will help show you the gaps so you can have a fulfilling life.

You can consider:

Where are you spending most of your time?

What do you wish you were doing more of?

Are you plugged into your local community in some way?

How are you helping the world?

Just some food for thought as you go about your week.

For anti-inflammatory food shopping inspo, check out this 200 anti-inflammatory food grocery guide/list. 🛒

And these spuds could be part of your healthy habit start.

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Healthy Loaded Baked Potato Skins

This used to be one of my favorite lunch meals when they had a loaded potato fixins' bar at my work. The skins are often tossed out and are loaded with fiber and vitamins that can be cooked, baked and enjoyed in our daily meal healthy habits!
Course Side Dish, vegetables
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • Russet potatoes (or favorite potatoes)
  • Greek yogurt
  • Herbs (chives, thyme, and/or tarragon recommended)
  • Alliums (scallions or minced onions)
  • olive oil (optional)

Instructions

  • Cook your potatoes until soft on the stove.
  • Cut each potato in half and face down halves on baking sheet drizzled with a little EVOO if you like.
  • Bake on 350°F until browning occurs.
  • Let potato cool sligthtly and then add your healthy Greek yogurt topping and herbs to garnish and enjoy!

Healthy Smile Matters

Healthy smile matters. And these are some tips you can use to preserve your choppers.

Homemade cold brew with plant-based milks for a healthy coffee smile 🦷

When you have a healthy smile, you gain confidence. I didn’t realize how much of an effect it has on a person until the first time I got my teeth whitened.

The next day others around me scratched their heads noticing something different about the way I looked, but couldn’t pinpoint what changed. That’s what healthy looking teeth can do, AND then you want to keep it up!

Looking back, one thing I’m grateful for is I have stayed relatively consistent looking over the years. For me, I KNOW how you look on the outside is not as important as the inside.

But what’s on the outside often reflects what’s going on inside… similar to the mind-body connection, in its bi-directional healthy signaling that radiates in and through our Beings.

And in my being and doing life’s journey, I’ve done a lot of blogging on blogs (like this one)… typing enough published words to cover the country if miles were measured in words 😉

One interesting place I blogged at was at a dentist’s office. It was meant to be. Personally, I would rather visit a dentist over the hospital any day, but that’s diff’rent for each person.

And in those health research days sitting in an office just a few feet away from dental chairs, I was constantly reminded that preventative dental care is how to keep your teeth healthy plus save a ton of money. And especially if going to the dentist does not bring up good memories or at least a neutral feeling.

Plus, when we pay the dental bills, we know that any reparative dental work can be off-the-charts, breaking any smart budget planning. Dipping into rainy-day funds can be harder than a consistent daily maintenance alternative.

…And an encouraging reminder like this can be a new wake-up call to healthy teeth habits again.

Especially if any have slid off the radar or you picked up a new food or beverage habit that you didn’t think twice about… where even a healthy addition like apple cider vinegar for food-as-medicine does daily damage to teeth enamel… esp. if teeth care is second fiddle in our healthy body thoughts.

Being mindful of a healthy smile makes you feel good. When I was at the dentist working and as an inquisitive patient, I learned that healthy choppers go hand-in-hand with healthy nutrition. It’s not just about avoiding cavities that I learned as a child.

Today we know there’s a teeth-gut connection. Foods impact us from the moment they enter our mouths. Like our bones, our porcelain teeth thrive off calcium and Vit-D.

It’s smart to keep a lot of healthy foods containing minerals and probiotics like teeth superfood, Greek yogurt.

Here are some other examples 😊

Wild salmon rich in Omega-3s, Vitamin D, and fiber-rich anti-inflammatory asparagus and anti-bacterial onion (alliums) are good for our health, gut, and teeth.

Anti-inflammatory foods are good for teeth and your healthy smile. They stave off bacteria that can bleed into gums.

And gum infections are body inflammations similar to other chronic inflammations that can lead to chronic diseases. That’s why flossing daily can add years to your life, and is probably more impactful than even adding weekly calcium/Vitamin-D-rich longevity beans and lentils. 🫘

And, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” is good for our body and applies to our teeth because apples help clean teeth, especially when a toothbrush isn’t convenient. Apple pectin is an anti-bacterial fiber that helps flush out toxins starting in the mouth.

And so if it’s a “bad” food that’s not helping your body out, it’s probably hurting your teeth too. Sugar is a perfect example.

In my younger days, I was a bad example being a kid loving the candy shop.  You get a grace period before your baby teeth fall out. But then good habits save you no matter what age. And this is for most of us.

…I mean, couldn’t Halloween just be a fun costume day without the candy?

Anyway…

We have a say in the matter and a chance to change those ways as we grow up.

Even as a Vata, I grew up knowing I had a natural sweet tooth. And I realized not all of us do. It’s definitely a choice though, and when you change your ways and your reasons WHY you change, you can get back to the healthy ways that nature intended.

As someone who bakes weekly today, cutting out all sweets could be robbing joy and celebration good for mind health. So the sweet spot for me and maybe others like me, is sweet moderation and mostly sweet natural sources.

…As with everything else healthy and happy in life, it always comes back to the balance. ⚖️

Consider a ball attached to an elastic string that you wrap around a finger that comes back every time enjoyably and effortlessly. That’s the optimal balance effect.

…Compare that to a yo-yo ball that takes practice to master… or else it just leaves a trail of string that takes work to wrap back into the yo-yo.

Finding your right ball and rhythm and letting healthy balance be easy and fun is a life game-changer. 🧶

So you can get it done by building easy habits and habit stacking.

Because once you get the hang of it, you’ll want to continue doing the better way… until something better comes along.

And in awareness, you have a chance to think twice about going back to old ways.

We especially want a healthy inside to reflect on the outside so we stay sensitive to changes in us and outside of us.

Our healthy bodies are good at signaling to us. But when something gets off-balance, it’s to our benefit and our healthy job to stay aware using good judgment. Even when our cues or how we feel is off.

Often our hormones can drive the bus in our behaviors, but we don’t have to accept that as the only way or the new normal. No way!

…Just like we don’t have to accept anything but a healthy smile, no matter what our genes provided. Taking care of your teeth is something to smile about. 😃

Balance Yoga Poses For Longevity and Core

Balance is at the core of ballet and impressive yoga poses. And we all need balance in our core.

Because when we grow older, our muscles and bones weaken and the more core stability we have, the less likely we’ll fall and the stronger we are.

When I was in my early 30s, I sprained my ankle on one foot and that led me to get a bone scan. I learned my ankle was healing but my bones were aging (and that happens to all of us).

Before then, I didn’t catch onto the thinning bones effect, especially common with natural Vatas. And none of us know what we don’t know… and back then, I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

So from that point on, I started taking more calcium. I added back the plant-based milk sources and selective dairy choices to my diet.

Just so you know what decade that was, soy was the up-and-comer. And seeds weren’t popular add-ons back then, but Chia-pet plants were 😉

Chia seeds today are everywhere and also are a good calcium source.

And you can make your own chia seed jam if you’re looking for easy (but effective) creative food inspo…  especially if Overnight Oats is not your favorite jam and you want to find other ways to add in your chia.

Most commercial or grocery store jams have added sugar when natural fruit juices are all you need to enjoy:

And since most of us don’t eat off the foraging land like our ancestors did, it’s a smart move to continue to look at packaged ingredient lists regularly as formulas change (and even when the carton or outside appears to be the same as the one you ordered last time).

…Next time could be slightly different and missing the nutrients your body especially needs. Or the reason why you added those foods to your list.

So taking those extra seconds to glance at the nutritional profile is smart.

Our bodies thrive on nutrient balance and synergy. Examples: calcium complements magnesium…  or all the B-vitamins work together.

…Pretty amazing how our bodies run if you think about it. We often don’t when it’s running optimally. So lifestyle prevention and protection are easy compared to the alternatives.

And living balanced is moving in the right direction.

When you start a balance (in everything) practice early on in your life that your body sings to in harmony, then your body adopts to those healthy habits.

One day can creep up on you, so you want to be protected to some degree. Plus, yoga balance is such a good metaphor for finding purposeful balance in our lives where our joy is.

One easy move you can practice is getting up from the floor in one fell swoop. In Japan’s Blue Zones (with the longest living people on the planet), they do this proudly as Centenarians.

…You could start with something as simple as that. We started as children sitting Indian-style in our classrooms, and we can use our youth as inspiration.

Also, an easier, no-struggle way if you can’t do it without hands is to take your closed fists and knuckles faced down to the floor, and push straight up. Using other parts of your body as tools does a body good!

And then when you’ve peeled yourself off the floor, then you can work on your balance yoga poses.

Four great ones that are top of mind are: Tree, Dancer, Warrior 3, and Bird of Paradise. They all are standing poses and have balancing on one foot in common so they help improve your balance. You can add a centering meditation move in between if you try them all.

You can hurt yourself in yoga just like with exercises so be careful. In yoga, your body weight are your weights for your balance exercises.

Tree pose is the easiest to start with and if you want to be a bit more advanced, add prayer hands behind your back and bend backward a little like a swaying palm. This helps your equilibrium from your core..

We spend most of our day hunched forward in some way reaching for things or typing on the computer. It does your body good when you reverse your posture from inner to outer, and from down to up.

One balance trick to work on is developing your leg and quad muscle strength (that are part of your largest muscle groups). You can do that pretty quickly in a regular Chair pose. Not in your chair but with the invisible chair where you are the chair. If that’s too hard to do, you can use a wall to rest back on.

So then when you think you have Tree pose down (and up!), Dancer pose is another great balance practice. With Dancer, you may find one side is stronger or less wobbly than the other.

…When you fully tilt forward into your Dancer pose, you get a good head-to-toe stretch. And if that doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will. 😊

For me, Dancer is a joy pose (…and maybe you too). A good day outlook could be the metaphor and mantra to strive for if you’re trying to make healthy changes in areas of your life.

From Dancer, you can easily flow into Warrior 3 (or you can go through the traditional Warrior 1, 2, 3 yoga pose sequence). I included this in my 100 Best Yoga Poses that I can’t believe I wrote around Easter a year ago!

Most things in this Life change, but gratefully yoga stays constant!

In Warrior 3, your neck is aligned with your back, so you’re looking slightly down and both arms are aimed parallel straight ahead, like you’re on a mission forward. …maybe you are? 

Warrior 3 can represent a determined, protective strength pose that can be a good metaphor for warding off unproductive moods that don’t serve you.

And finally, if you really want to get your better balance practice-on, Bird of Paradise (B.O.P.) is a fun bird pose. Getting into the pose is like playing a game… and you’re the object.

If you’ve never tried (or it has been a while), I recommend B.O.P. in an open space as it’s a ‘lil more involved than some of the other poses. You want to feel free (to fly, lol).

When you’re standing up and your shoulder is underneath the same side leg, then clasp your hands together. From there, you have better control on your placements and can get into your showy Bird of Paradise that you fancy.

You can also use Bird of Paradise 🦩as a fun assessment of what areas of your beloved body need a ‘lil more TLC handle 😘 …but not love handles.

Or sometimes you can stumble on your imbalances and what life is trying to show you (like my sprained ankle that served as the canary in the coal mine).

Sometimes you can feel your joints and maybe hear a few snaps the first few times. Those will smooth out and you can stretch even more.

Yoga is I think the BEST and easiest way to open up the tightness and bring us back to balance (that again we need especially as we age).

So glad our modern, Western world has caught on… and in looking up and out, keep on keepin’ on! 🌱