5 Fingers, or toes

On Thursday, Sam, Lacey, and I attended the Trampled by Turtles concert at The Clyde Iron Works in Duluth. It was a good concert, but much too late for us old (young) 23-35 year olds! We left early because we were sick of getting spit on, pushed, and not being able to always see. Before we went to the concert, we had some tasty food at Fitger's Brewhouse. Fitger's is a great place for locally brewed beer and in-season food, including many vegetarian options.

While waiting for our table at Fitger's, we stopped by a store in the Fitger's Complex called Trail Fitters. I had briefly stopped in this store on Tuesday night (I ate at Fitger's that night too!). I noticed they had Vibram Five Fingers on Tuesday, and although, I didn't plan on looking at them on Thursday night, I walked away with a pair within 20 minutes!

I don't plan on running in them...although I would love to! Whenever I am barefoot, my arthritic joints seem to hurt less. It seems like an odd concept, especially with my high arches, and even more weird since I had an invasive foot surgery 3.5 years ago to help my high arch and arthritic midfoot out. I have only worn these shoes a few times, but if I were to describe them in one word: dreamy! I could just call them McDreamy...but that reminds me of nasty McDonald's and not Grey's Anatomy. My goal is that when the weather is decent (which my opportunity of that happening is declining faster than the wind is blowing the leaves off the trees) is to wear these out and about. I wore them on Friday night for 5 hours straight and felt super comfortable.

Everything I do, I do because I strive for less painful days. Arthritis is not fun at any age, but when you are 23 and wake up feeling older and older everyday, you long for a day of no pain. I can't remember what it feels like to NOT be in pain! That is a bizarre thought for someone who doesn't suffer from this dreaded disease. On this health journey, I constantly look forward to what the future holds for me. I hope someday to not have this pain (or diseases!), and to get there, I continue to make steps forward (pun!) by eating healthy, local, and organic, and doing what is best for my body.

Please continue to follow us on our health journeys with the ups and downs of being young, poor college students (not for long!), and living in a small town with limited resources! We want to show you that despite the negatives, we are able to find the positives out of every situation and "make do" in one way or another.

Peace and Love!

Too busy to blog!

Okay, I admit, (well really both Sam and I) that we have been terrible at this whole blogging thing! We went from enjoying our summer vacation right back into being busy with school and work. So I will list some things that I/we have been doing lately on the green side of life...

Smoothies!! Sam got me into making smoothies with fruits, veggies, and sometimes even nuts. I really have enjoyed how many fruits and veggies you can get in your day in just one meal. Some of my smoothies have included: rice milk, almond milk, peanut butter, almonds, flax, seaweed, oats, apples, bananas, oranges, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, plums, apricots, acai berry, pluots, spinach, cucumber, grapes, spirulina, echinacea, water, ice cubes, etc.

I raid the fridge and cabinets and add whatever I can find!

We also have been cooking things from Mama Pea's new cookbook Peas and Thank You. We love it! Our goal was to try to win it off one of Mama Pea's contests, but Sam gave in and bought it instead. I am sure glad she did. One of our favorites is the Dough Balls. They are a drier cookie than usual, but delicious. And if you let them sit out for three days (not recommended) in the summer humidity, they really get a lot more moist.

Another thing Sam caved in and bought is a juicer...I'm glad she did this too! She is a great friend...she makes me dinner once in a while, and I get to go over to her and Troy's house and use all their fun and nerdy (As Seen On TV) gadgets. We are young 20-somethings and overly nerdy about nutrition. So our new thing is creating new and exciting juices, oh, and sneaking cucumbers into Troy's juice.

Documentaries! Once again, I wanted something, and then Sam and Troy caved and bought me it! They are such good friends...buying me all these things I want, like Netflix (or is is "Qwikster" now? That sounds like a cleaning product)! Kidding aside (kinda), we have watched lots of foodie documentaries that make you want to barf, run away, and piss on the government, sometimes all at the same time.

So since we have been hitting the books, working, and living our lives, we have continued to work on being green all throughout our lives. One of the best compliments I have continued to receive is how nice my skin looks! It is amazing what eating well, eating mostly organic, cutting out some meat and dairy, and attempting to exercise can do to your health. Now if my arthritis and Lyme Disease would catch on and start feeling better, life would be much better! Life is pretty good!

Greetings From Yellowstone!!

I am currently enjoying a nice long vacation in the beautiful Yellowstone National park. Me, the fiance and two of our friends made the journey out here last Wednesday. My what beautiful sights to see!

I will certainly post more pictures as soon as I can. Not much for cell or WiFi in the area. Currently sitting in McDonalds parking lot.. Ugh.. I guess it is good for something!

I hope you are having a fantastic summer and enjoying this beautiful world as much as we are!
- Britta thanks for tending to our garden!

We are still here!!

Hello all!

Sorry to have left you hanging! Obviously summer has kept both Sam and I busy, and that is a good thing considering we have had less than 7 full days of sunshine!

We have both set goals to get at least one blog up per week. Most of our time has been spent watching the rain continue to fall and the gardens weeping for more rays!

The weather in Northern Minnesota has definitely been a downer the past month, but it looks like the sun may be out more often starting next week.

I just enjoyed some Annie's Organic Chile with tofu at Sam's house. We also made our own smoothies. Today I made mine with everything you can see in the picture below!

I have been busy these past couple of weeks at my internship and dealing with an arthritis flare. While I have been trying to keep active, my body just isn't wanting me to have so much fun I guess. I am going to a speciality physical therapy center on August 1, so I hope that helps alleviate some of this unnecessary pain.

Have a great Fourth of July and be safe!

Global Wristband Project

Sometimes I find myself searching the vast web just clicking away at anything that looks interesting. 20 some articles, 10 blogs later I came across a really amazing blog that I just had to share.

http://www.globalwristbandproject.blogspot.com/

and here is the website to order!
http://www.globalwristbandproject.com/about.html

Photo Source



Here you can purchase a really nice bracelet to raise awareness to disaster relief projects. Each year this organization contributes their proceeds to a different "disaster relief location."

I was really happy of the idea of donating money to this organization knowing that it would help someone way less fortunate than myself but most off all I like the message. These bracelets are woven together so tightly representing the idea that when we work together beautiful things can happen.

"Banded together, we help each other help one another."

Mine should arrive in 1-2 weeks! :-)

Namaste

-Sam

Summer is Here!

What a beautiful day in Northern Minnesota! Britta came over for some tofu stir-fry and corn on the cob! It was delicious-o!

And for dessert we had this gem...

And so it begins...

Sam and I had been envisioning this blog for the past month and a half, after we attended Iron Range Earth Fest, which inspired us to get the word out around our communities to be more health conscious.  Today, we spent over two hours coming up with a blog name.  We look forward to inspiring you to also get out in your community and explore the world around you!  Here we go!!!