LIFE CHANGES fosho

I guess everybody has to do it sometime... I have made some significant changes to my every-day life. Here's the list.

1.I am now part of the "fixie kid" epidemic because I finally finished building my fixed-gear bike. Sorry guys.

2. I have completely changed how I eat. As of February:
-there are ABSOLUTLY NO refined (table or other) sugar in my diet.
-there are ABSOLUTLY NO foods in my diet with sweeteners of any kind including natural sugars, artificial sweeteners, and honey. (this includes anything canned that contains any form of the word "sugar" in it's ingredients- even soup)
-I eat NO bleached white flour or white flour in general no matter how little of it is in whatever food has it.
-I eat NO yeast
-I consume no products with any caffeine
-I consume absolutely no alcohol
-I consume absolutely no vinegar
-there are no traces of potatoes or white rice in my diet at all


Will this diet last forever? Hopefully not. It does seem a little excessive, but, from everything I read it is exactly what I should be doing right now in order to start moving forward in this whole healing process. You can thank Hypoglycemia for this diet-change. Thank you.

3. I have totally changed how I LOOK at food. This can be attributed to the book

"The Omnivore's Dilemma" and the book
"In Defense of Food"

both by Michael Pollan. I am so greatfull for these two books and I recommend them to every single person on this planet. Start with the first then dive into the second. It really gives you hope for your health in the future through education about our eating habits and, well, good story-telling!
-note: my diet restrictions in #2 are NOT because of these books- they are because of an illness BUT these books have helped me find balance through it all.

4. I have gone and gotten myself a job outside the art-world!
-As of yesterday I've officially started my new job at Oakley School. The boarding school is for kids finishing up their treatment from all sorts of life's problems. I'm taking a position as a "House Coach" which means I'll be a mentor of sorts for them living with them for half a week at a time. There are so many perks of this job that I couldn't begin to list them. Best of all I'll be able to work with girls my little sister's age and help them love the life God's given them and live it to the fullest. I figure I can help them be the best that they can be and, all the while, LOVE doing it. I'm super excited.

-note: I will be able to continue all of the art stuff that I am into here as well as keep a moderately free schedule because I get in a whole weeks worth of work plus a TON of overtime over at the school during just one of my shifts since I sleep over. I'll be working 3 days at the school and 3 days off, then 4 days on and 4 days off. Perfect because I won't have to stop my current art stuff here in SLC yet I'll still be making a steady pay-check. It will be nice to not always be in search of freelance work I think.

5. My sleeping schedule (thanks to this new job) has and is still in the process of changing from: 4am-11:30am to 11pm-6:30am (ug... it's like I moved to Hawaii or something. I have jet lag from staying home. haha)

and

6. I've decided to start bringing my OWN grocery bags with me to the grocery shop. (I know this is like so minor but I thought it'd be worth adding haha) I started this today and was very successful except for the part where I wasn't thinking and used like 5 plastic bags when buying fruit and veggies. When I got home I was like ughhh... that was so counter productive seeing that the whole point of bringing my own bags was to reduce my use of plastic. I'll probably just re-use those plastic bags now that I have them. haha. I know this isn't a HUGE life change but it was nice walking the (exactly) 1/2 mile to the grocery store today instead of zooming on my bike. It enabled me to carry more AND I got a chance to break in my new running shoes. I feel nature-friendly.

Remember- Health=Farm Shelf=Harm I"M SO EXCITED for the farmer's market to start. I think it starts next month? Not sure. It will be nice to buy everything local again.
I'm proud to be part of SLC.

Anyway, talk about a serious Lenton season. I always DID get a lot out of Lent I guess.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

SLC has been lovely

So I'm all pumped about this new bike I've built up and how bling it is (see previous post and picture of it almost finished) and I'm cruising down the street and what do I see? This thing:




I was like oh my gosh seriously now I've got NOTHING. As it turns out, this kid had no idea about any of the SLC bicycle community as I know it- he just liked building fun bicycles. I've seen bikes like this before in magazines or online but not in Salt Lake. Pretty rad. He says there are plenty more where this came from (meaning he built more). Note the re-upholstered bananna seat that is now like purple zebra or whatever. How fun is this kid? The best part is that he actually rides this thing everywhere. I told him all about the U-bomb and other SLC rides that would be perfect for him. Hopefully we'll see him again soon.

It's getting warmer and it's lovely here! It is supposed to be 50 on Saturday :)
Just like Utah, the warm usually holds pretty well through the night so if it's 50 during the day it's usually in the 40's at night which is still nice. Spring is here?
There will still be few snows I'm sure but.... it looks like it!

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea