Let’s talk about the ALL OR NOTHING mentality with wellness habits. This all or nothing mentality can be pervasive in the wellness space.

We see this a lot when it comes to weight loss. We see this a lot when it comes to lowering blood pressure. And other wellness habits. There’s this idea that you have to cut out all the salt, all the sugar, all the pleasure, out of your life. And one of the things that I’ve found is that is just not true.

There is a lot of shame around how we treat our bodies. I’m not talking about physical body shaming, which is a whole other realm of psychology. I’m talking about the actions we take, assigning a good or a bad moniker to them, so that when we perform those actions, we get to feel good or bad about ourselves, depending on the action. For example. Going to the gym. We see that as a good wellness habit. As something good for our bodies, something healthy, so we get to feel good, mentally, when we perform that action. But then, we skip a day at the gym, and we feel guilty. We are ashamed that we did not get up and hit that goal. 

The opposite is true for things we deem unhealthy. For example, having a bowl of ice cream and binging your favorite show on Netflix. We deem these things unworthy because they aren’t pushing us toward our health goals, and then we feel shame for them. We can compound that shame if we skipped the gym that morning.

And I’m going to hypothesize something radical. What if we didn’t assign these things good or bad monikers> What if we felt good about going to the gym AND we felt good about having a bowl of ice cream and watching Netflix? I’m actually going to suggest both of those things are good for you. 

Balance is healthy in wellness habits

Not shaming yourself is healthy. Not allowing yourself to fall into a programmed idea of what it means to be healthy and perfect is healthy.

Allowing yourself that space, forgiving yourself for perceived slights or setbacks, is healthy.

This is also an attitude that can help you adapt to change. When things don’t go as planned, you have the choice to freak out because things are not as they SHOULD be, or you can go with whatever happens and try to be cool with that.

Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has effectively taught us all this lesson in one way or another. You’ve either learned that you can adapt to the unexpected changes that are shaping our world right now, or you’ve learned that you can’t handle it.

And trust me when I say, not being able to handle those moments is okay too. In fact, if you haven’t lost it at some point in the past two years, you might be a robot. You should check on that.

Today I made my coffee and went into my office to write, as I do every day. Writing fiction has always been a release for me. I’ve never been good at art, photography, or painting. Everyone else in my family had some sort of art they are good at. But nothing ever fit for me, until I started writing. The great thing about art is you can get lost in it, like meditation. That’s how it feels to me to write fiction. 

I wanted to talk about the ALL OR NOTHING mentality because today was supposed to be a day of celebration. My parents and my brother were coming over today to celebrate my brother and my oldest son, who have both had birthdays in the past few weeks. Also, my brother just retired, at a very young age, he’s only 50. So we had a lot to celebrate in the family.

We planned a big meal, we bought gifts, and everyone was going to get together and eat and laugh and possibly play some board games.

But then, my brother tested positive for COVID.

Because he’s retiring, is moving from Houston where he’s lived for years, back here to the Austin area, to be closer to the rest of us. So he’s staying with my parents right now as he’s searching for a home to buy. The Austin home market blew up recently, so it’s difficult to find a good quality affordable home in the area right now. So. He’s taking a moment to regroup at my parent’s house.

So he was moving on Wednesday. My father, who is a young strapping 70-year-old man, was helping him move. And my brother got a call from a friend he’d had dinner with on Monday night. And she told him she just tested positive for COVID. So, Wednesday night, both my brother, and my dad, who had been with my brother all day, took an at-home rapid test and the results were negative. Which is great. However. They decided to all of them, my mom included because she had now been exposed to them, to take another test on Friday, before they joined us to party on Saturday, just in case. 

And my brother tested positive. He is vaccinated, but he did not have the booster. My parents, who both did have the booster, because again, they are 70 and have some health vulnerabilities, tested negative. So my brother immediately went into quarantine in one of the back bedrooms of the house. And of course, the party was off.

Which is fine. But we decided to go ahead and make the food we were planning to make, and enjoy, and try not to worry too much about my brother. He is having some mild symptoms, but I took over the pulse oximeter and some herbs and they are all taking their own vitamins as a precautionary measure. 

So, if I had an all or nothing attitude about my blood pressure health, I would forget about all the healthy foods I had in my fridge, I would stress eat and think about my family all day and worry. That’s sort of in my blood, actually. We’re very intense people, we feel our emotions strongly, we react strongly, and we worry a lot. That’s the makeup of my DNA.

This can lead to some stress eating. It can lead to an ALL OR NOTHING attitude. And the only reason I feel qualified to speak on this is because I’ve had that attitude in the past. I’ve experienced the spiraling emotions and the feeling of ALL IS LOST.

Which is possibly why I’m dealing with these blood pressure issues in the first place.

But I’m here to suggest that when things go wrong, you feel your feelings, you don’t judge yourself or your actions in that moment. If you need to binge watch some Netflix and eat some ice cream, then BY GOD you listen to your body. Give yourself a break, and allow yourself to just be.

Breakfast

For breakfast this morning I had some avocado toast. I’m using sourdough bread, avocado, I’m frying an egg to put on top. I’m also adding some Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel seasoning. And then, to spice things I’m adding some Frank’s hot sauce and to balance out that spice, I’m also adding some balsamic vinegar glaze that I buy from Thrive Market. 

I am wearing my fluffiest robe that my husband bought me for Christmas. This thing is so comfortable and so soft and perfect on days like today, when I need a little extra comfort. 

Speaking of adapting to things that go wrong, I tried two different avocados for this. One that was from last week, and one that was brand new and both had those unappetizing brown spots on the inside. But I decided to pick around the oxidized fruit and pick out the good parts. And eat that. So that’s what I did. Another example of adapting to the imperfections of life.

I also had some blueberries on the side, to beef up the meal and add an extra shot of vitamins to start my day.

Lunch

For lunch I decided to make the viral TikTok Green Goddess dip. I’m not gonna lie, this dish is a LOT of work. But it definitely delivers on the nutritional impact. This has cabbage, lemons, green onions, and cucumbers. Usually there’s garlic but I was all out. Also, shallot, basil, chives, all I had was dried chives. Nutritional yeast, mine is a taco spice flavor because I like to use it on my kale chips. Rice vinegar and olive oil and walnuts or cashews. I used walnuts. Spinach.

So in this meal, you are getting all kinds of plant based antioxidants and vitamins and it also packs a punch in the volume department because you can eat a whole bowl of this dip and fill yourself up on the cabbage. I don’t know the calorie content of the meal, but I’ll link to the TikTok video below so you can explore that if you’d like to.

If you are a big fan of chips and queso or chips and salsa or chips and guacamole, this is a great dish for you to try. There’s a lot of prep work involved, so this is the perfect weekend meal when you have some extra time and feel like sinking into a healthy meal.

My kids did not enjoy this dish. I could not convince them to eat more than a few bites, but my husband and I really enjoyed it.

So you cut up the cabbage and the cucumber into very small bites, then you put everything else into the blender to make the dressing. I didn’t add any salt because the nutritional yeast already has salt in it. 

As is typical for me, I didn’t really measure anything. But I get the feeling it’s really hard to screw this one up.

You just pour the dressing over the cabbage and cucumber and mix it up and then you dip tortilla chips into the dip. I would recommend you try it if you’re looking for a healthy meal that feels a little more relaxed. This is something you can eat while watching TV and I’ll probably keep it in mind for future Netflix binging.

How I Reuse My Lemon Rinds

I have a mason jar full of vinegar I keep under the counter. And I add lemon rinds to it every time I use lemons in a recipe. I used to buy lemon essential oil from young living and I would use make my own kitchen cleaner with the lemon oil, some vinegar and some water. But then I realized that I could just soak the lemons in the vinegar and allow the vinegar to extract the lemon essential oil and save some money in the process. Then, whenever I run out cleaner, I refill my bottle with the lemon oil infused vinegar from the mason jar and I start the process all over again. It’s a great system and it’s such an inexpensive way to do this. And lemon oil keeps pests away from your home as well.

After lunch I filmed a little of my husband making his pretzel buns. This was something my son requested for today. We call it Turkey O’Briens, which is a spin on the Turkey O’Tooles that used to be served at Bennigans. If you ever went to that restaurant chain before it closed down, they made these great turkey sandwiches with pretzel buns, and my husband makes those.

Then, while those buns were rising we cleaned our master bathroom. I like to clean when I’m feeling worried or stressed because it expends some energy and also helps distract my mind for a while. I find cleaning to be one of those instant gratification things that really helps boost your mood for a while after you’re done.

After cleaning I did some reading and then…

Dinner

Here’s the finished pretzel buns. They are filled with grilled turkey and provolone. And we dip them in some honey mustard. Such a special, yummy treat and I enjoyed every moment of it. 

Snack

Later that evening, I wanted something to snack on so I had some granola. This is a great treat to have on a cold day. It really warms up the house because it has to cook for an hour. And it’s a healthy treat everyone in the house enjoys. And it stores well for about a week in a mason jar.

So, that’s what I ate today. I hope you liked this video. On this channel I make one video a week on heart healthy food, wellness habits and joyful living. See you next week.