This past summer I found a Bragg book at a rummage sale. I had heard of the Bragg's and their healthy lifestyle. We had their apple cider vinegar in our pantry. But, neither my husband or I really got "into it", not until a couple of weeks ago.
Paul Bragg and his daughter Patricia have been self-proclaimed "health pioneers" for several decades. In a nutshell, they believe that a healthy lifestyle along with a diet full of "live foods" and plenty of water, will not only extend your life, but improve the quality of that life as well.
My husband, usually being the harder one to prod of the two of us, instantly read the book from cover to cover. He gave up his "sometime habit" of drinking soda pop, and filled it instead with drinking (distilled) water. I, too, began to get into the habit of drinking more (distilled) water and upping my intake of green tea, as well. Our diets also include lots of "raw" (not cooked) veggies and plenty of fresh fruit. The kids, too, have being downing more water and slowly getting on the healthier eating band wagon. I will admit, ditching the processed foods is tough! When shopping at the grocery store it is a real challenge to avoid the "middle aisles" and stick to "live" foods. But, going on a couple of weeks now, it is becoming easier.
I pulled out the dehydrator and started to dry tons of apples. Amazingly, the kids all love their condensed sweetness! They gobble them up in no time. I basically wash, peel, and core enough apples to fit on all the shelves of my dehydrator. I have found that golden delicious apples are amazing dried! I cut the apples into rings and in about 24 hours they are ready to eat!
Now that apple season is in full swing it is fun to try all sorts of apple recipes. Apple sauce is an easy treat as well. I wash, core, and slice apples. Put into a saucepan with a touch of water. Cover and let a low heat soften the apples into a yummy sauce. I sprinkle a bit of cinnamon and sugar over it and it is so tasty!
Back to Bragg. I have started TODAY, to try giving up coffee, again! I tried last week, cold turkey, but I forgot to add something else containing mild caffeine, so I got that dreaded "caffeine headache". After talking with my uncle who gave up coffee, he claims that he has much more energy and less aches and pains. So, I am giving it another shot! I have switched to drinking hot tea (which I love), so I will hope for the best and report back on how it is going.
Another part of my new healthy lifestyle is a glass of water with apple cider vinegar mixed in. I use the Bragg apple cider vinegar. I only mix in a tablespoon or so. The taste is bitter, but the health benefits claim to be extraordinary. I usually have a glass a day, but now that cold and flu season are here, I may up it to 2 a day.
So, there you have it. I would love to share my books ( I have recently ordered two other Bragg books) with my friends and family who would like to see what Bragg is all about. Just let me know!
The other day my husband and I were talking, and the subject of home economics class, in school, came up. I have absolutely NO idea as to how we came to this topic. I find it rather odd now, but it prompted several memories (some better than others!) Suddenly I was taken back to Albright Middle School in the mid 1980's, and a very pink, and a very LARGE, sweatshirt popped into my mind!
When I entered middle school I had to welcome home economics (home ec.) class into my schedule. I didn't think much of it. It was simply the class known for baking cookies, sewing toss pillows, and all those things related to preparing oneself for the harsh reality of the world of "real life!" For the obvious reasons the girls got more giddy about home ec. than the boys did. There were a few exceptions though. The world of home ec. opened my eyes to how to bake, prepare a meal for my teacher, hand-sew, a rather groovy, patch-work toss pillow, and... AND...the dreaded pink sweatshirt! Let me just dive into the sorted details.
The class assignment was learning the "basics" on the sewing machine. Our job was to go out and purchase a pattern for a sweatshirt, buy fabric, bring it all back and get to work on it. Well, I purchased a pattern for a common crew neck sweatshirt. One important key detail that I seemed to overlook, however, was the size! I managed to get a very-off size, leaning heavily on the large size. Next mission, find fabric. After much debate, a nice bubble gum pink was settled on. Mission complete, I brought it all back to school and the process began. Yards of pink thread, several broken needles, and a whole heck of anxiety thrown in, a sweatshirt was produced. The finished product was a nice, bubble gum pink, sweatshirt dress that exceeded the length of my hands and pushed the limits, almost touching my knees! The other children surfaced withe basic gray, white, and blue sweatshirts that were "normal" sized and able to be proudly worn. No. Not me. My sweatshirt stood out about as badly as Chuck Shnerfiels blaze orange job. Luckily the teacher did not grade on correct size (she must have felt really bad for me as well). I got a decent grade and was able to tug along those bubble gum memories even to this day!
While on the subject of home ec., do schools still offer this very worthwhile class anymore? Do schools still dabble with plugging in those irons, revving up those sewing machines, and cranking up the oven temperatures? If not, why? Sure my kids learn some of those skills at our home, but many kids are not as fortunate to. Sure it is important too know how to divide fractions and properly form a sentence. But, in REAL life ( the one you and I are currently living in) it also requires one to know how to cook a simple egg, mend a fallen off button on that dress shirt, and learn that an iron is REALLY hot!!
If I thinking back, really hard, I can still smell those burnt brownies and feel the endless pin-pricks from those darn straight pins as I pinned my "quilt pillow" (which I still have, by the way!)
My gi-normous bubble gum sweatshirt may have drifted off to never-never land, but those skills and real "life lessons" that I acquired along with all the pink thread, have seen me through my entire life.
