Life Doesn't Stop Friendship

While this weekend was extremely busy visiting with family, I also made time to see some of my good friends. As the holiday season is in full swing, I realize how lucky I am to have certain people in my life. Even more so this year, my friends have felt like family to me.

When life makes it hard to live, it's nice to know you always have someone to lean on. While juggling being primary caretaker of my father, I am reassured by these friends that though life isn't always easy, no life worth living, comes without some struggles. I firmly believe part of your heart health and overall emotional health, comes with taking time to be with people you can de-stress with and even just taking a moment to yourself. Lets face it, holiday's make life a bit stressful, and it's nice to have a time to kick back and relax.

Grab that glass of red wine and take a moment to yourself. Your heart and head will thank you.

Now for some heart healthy food!
I made chickpea masala for a low sodium diet and considering I've just been gaining my cooking skills, this was a pretty good meal!

It has:
- 1 can of chickpeas
- 1 can of string beans
- onion
- sugar
- olive oil
- low sodium diced tomatoes
- curry powder
- coconut milk
- cumin seeds
- turmeric

While I didn't think this meal would be filling, it surprisingly was. For being heart healthy, it was pretty good. I'm glad the more my dad and I are cooking, the more we're finding some good recipes and altering them to our needs. We're getting creative in the kitchen and I never even thought I'd be in the kitchen! Being healthy isn't easy, but I think the trick is to just start buying the right stuff from the start. After going to the supermarket about four times in the same week, mind you not even for thanksgiving food items, it's become apparent to me that everything in the fridge has suddenly turned healthy. Get rid of that junk food and replace it with healthy snacks.

Yes, that yoplait commercial about swapping comes to mind and it really is true! Not about tricking your mom into liking one boyfriend over the other, rather, switching out what you normally eat. I find when I'm not surrounded by twenty different pies of choice to eat, I make the healthy decision to have the fruit, nuts, and milk as a snack. Get RID OF THAT JUNK FOOD! (Harder to do when I don't have full control over the shopping list but, by not having it in the house, the desire for it isn't there nearly as much) That really does have to be step one in healthy eating habits.

And while you're at it, take your heart healthy exercise to an extreme. No, I don't mean shopping in the mall on black Friday (though that will certainly give your cardio for like a month) or any evening in December, I'd suggest visiting New York City. While it's chaotic as hell, no other city does Christmas quite like New York. I visited over the weekend and even though it was still November, it really put me in the mood for starting to celebrate and decorate for Christmas.

 
I'll leave you with this.

Some see the Glass as half full, some as half empty. Some of us just grab the thing and Drink.

A healthy heart and healthy lifestyle can start at any point. Why not start today no matter the circumstances?

<3

Jess