The BEST Banana Smoothie

I love how random recipes happen when you're hungry. I started making this when I was nine and have changed it over the years. This is my favorite, not to mention healthiest, version.

1 Banana
1/4 - 1/2 cup whole coconut milk (up to you, depending on how creamy you want it)
1/2-1 cup crushed ice (again, up to you on how much you want)

Combine all in blender and blend to desired texture.
Drink and enjoy!

Additionally, you can always add other yummy things like raspberries, to make this your own special blend of yumminess. That may not be a word, but I like it anyway.

A little side note on the coconut...

When I was studying nutrition in school my teacher informed of us a research program going on in regards to coconut curing aids. Yes, curing aids. A gentleman was given three months to live and decided he would go live it up in the tropics. Everything he ate and drank while there contained coconut. Three months later he was alive and well and went back home. When his doctors checked his vitals they discovered no signs of the HIV virus in his system. After questioning him thoroughly they came to the conclusion that the anti-viral properties of the coconut, having been consumed in large amounts, must have somehow healed him. There is research being done on this, but it is a very quiet topic. If I am recalling this correctly, the article should be on pubmed.gov.

Additionally, you may have heard over the years that coconut has a bad rap for the fat content due to a study that was done ages ago making it out to be the bad guy. Later a new study was done finding that the prior research was faulty and that coconut is in fact ridiculously good for you. I can attest to this personally. Coconut milk is anti-viral and anti-bacterial. It kills canker sores, kills tummy bugs, and is a safe fat to add to creamy recipes. Coconut oil is fantastic for dry hair and skin, not to mention wonderful for cooking with at higher temperatures. Coconut water helps maintain pH balances in the body and is a natural isotonic. I prefer the C2O brand and am very seriously considering taking stock in it. I may have a little coconut addiction actually, but I'm willing to admit that.

I Can't Live with the Lies

I Can't Live With the Lies

Every day I'm breaking, breaking,
In each moment waiting, wasting,
I have broken. I have shattered.
I am nothing.
Nothing matters.

All I feel is icy coldness,
Shivers run throughout me, soulless,
Darkness falls. The sun has set.
I am nothing.
Nothing yet.

I can't take the hollow moments,
Dullness takes the place of wholeness,
I am numb throughout, within.
I feel nothing.
Nothing wins.

I can't handle myself breaking,
No more fakeness, no more faking,
Take a breath, try to breathe.
I feel nothing.
Nothings me.

I can't live a life with lies,
When emptiness is by my side,
Where nothings right, all is wrong.
I have nothing.
Nothing's gone.

Strangers...are kind of awesome sometimes

I saw this on a random internet page and thought it was beautiful. The world needs more things like this.

From one stranger to another,

I hope you're doing more than just barely surviving because you deserve better than that. I want you to know that I care about you. Not for any special reason, but rather just because you're human. You are a human being and as such you deserve the utmost respect, care, attention, value, appreciation and admiration from every other human being. I want you to know that I hope everything works out. Above all, I just want you to have a good night and sleep well. I want all of this not for any special reason, but rather because there isn't a reason not to.

Sincerely,

A stranger


Has a stranger ever done anything to make your day better?

Pooped with a capital P

Whew! Back from India and my sleep schedule is all kinds of jacked up. I will have to let my brain unwind before I can begin to put into words what I experienced there.

If you're reading this...

...then I sincerely thank you. You found one of my notes and decided to be daring, to be courageous, to step outside the box and see what this crazy sticky note girl was all about. Bravo!

In short, I myself am being daring. I am opening up to the world. I am taking a chance on life, people, and the belief that there is goodness in everything. I invite you to get to know me, one blog at a time. Here I will share my travel adventures, my yoga and nutrition tips, my poetry, my venting of crazy days and my more embarrassing moments in life. I am opening my life to you.

Thank you for letting me.

India...Here I come!

I'm off to India tomorrow morning. I should be sleeping right now but I just can't. I have that familiar travel energy zipping through my veins. That energy that screams, "Tomorrow you are going on an adventure! Tomorrow you will challenge all that you've known and all that you are and you will see life through other people's eyes!"

Fat America

Last night on TV I was watching a show about Fat Admirers, or people who prefer overweight people. While the show itself was interesting, that portion of it is not what caught my attention. What caught my attention was a comment made by a larger woman who said she finally loves herself, even if she is fat, but she FINALLY loves herself. Followed by that was a doctor saying that, while it's great she loves herself, she's destroying her body and the rest of America is headed that way as 2/3 of Americans are obese. He then went on to say, basically, how horrible it's going to be when we're all fat.

Being a holistic nutrition specialist I understand and agree with the fact that it does hurt the body to be overweight. Is it definitely not the optimal state for the body to be in. I get it, I do.

However, he's missing the bigger picture here. She loves herself. Finally. As did all of the other overweight people, not to mention their fat admirers. So here's my point, and my outlook on this...

Very few people can say they love themselves, or even like themselves, and mean it. How many of us can look at ourselves and not care that we aren't a certain size or shape? How many of us look at other people and compare, criticize, judge? Where does all of that come from? The lack of self love and appreciation of how fantastic our bodies really are. That is what leads to Fatland. We don't just wake up and find out the fat fairy has paid us a visit. No. We eat. Not to fill our hungry bellies, but to feel our empty hearts, to ward off our fears, to deal with stress, to fill an emotional void.

What if, now work with me here, what if we all did get fat? Yes, we would be unhealthy. Yes, we would all be the thing we desperately try to avoid but possibly, just possibly, what if being fat lead us to appreciating ourselves? Or the selves we formerly were? What if we have to "lose" ourselves to find ourselves?

Maybe, in my crazy mind that came up with this last night at midnight, we would all be large and in love...with ourselves. That self love would then ultimately lead to thinness, or at least a healthy weight, since we would no longer be eating for any of the wrong reasons. What if we came out of this as better people? A better world of human beings who finally learned to appreciate the real person within the body. How bad can that be if we turn it all around and come out a more caring, respectful, loving group?

Now, I'm not saying we should all run out right now and buy as many donuts as our bank accounts can handle and then eat prior mentioned donuts until we burst. No. What I'm saying is if we have the awareness now we can avoid the predicted Fat America. And if we don't, if we need to learn through lessons, maybe when that day comes we will all tackle it together and come out of it as a happier, kinder, and even thinner group, once we've all learned how fabulous we really are.

The Invitation

I live for words. For poems, phrases, quotes. Words so perfectly mingled together that they reach me somewhere far below the surface of my skin. Simply put, I am in love with words.

This poem caught me from the first second I heard it. With this, I welcome you to my blog. I invite you to be yourself. To laugh with me, cry with me, live with me, feel with me, yell with me, vent with me, and simply be with me. The world isn't as random and lonely as we think it is.

The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
	It doesn't interest me what you do for a living I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing. It doesn't interest me how old you are I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for your dreams for the adventure of being alive. It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon... I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain mine or your own without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy mine or your own if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful be realistic to remember the limitations of being human. It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure yours and mine and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes." It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children. It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back. It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Let Me Explain...

When I was growing up my mom told me repeatedly that she had almost named me Chantelle. She loved the name so much she had even debated on adding it in as a second first name, like Tiffany-Amber Thiessen had until she recently decided it was lame.

Anyway, right up until I was 18 I was pretty sure she might actually legally get it changed and I would randomly find out one day when I needed something like a passport.

Since my mom never got the chance to use the name she loved so dearly, I figured I could honor her and use it this way.

Besides, Chantelle Says flows way better than Melia Says and it was practically my name anyway. Although for the record, I always wanted to name myself Veronica, especially since Veronica was the cool millionaire brunette in the Archie comics.

Oh well.