Something Better than Therapy

I grew up in a nature loving family.  There were walks in nature preserves, gardens (both a regular garden and a shade garden), flowers and photographs of flowers. As amazing as this sounds, it didn’t click with me. I don’t think I’m a naturally visual person. As a child if I went on the walk, my thoughts would wander and I’d be less likely to notice anything around me. And when it came to the garden or plants, while I don’t remember much I do recall the stress of having to take care of them when my parents were not there. It didn’t come naturally.

A lot of this has changed. I still find it easy to get so “in my head” on a run that I tune everything out; however,  I am appreciative of the trees and the flowers even if I don’t really know one from the other with the exception of the obvious ones.

I adapted a post for Fitbit’s blog. While it’s no surprise that time spent outdoors is nice. It’s remarkable what it can do for both our mental and physical health. I also recently discovered the work of Louie Schwartzberg. Do you know of him? He’s a photographer and I guess you can say filmmaker. In a discussion on getting people to care about climate change and the Earth he said something that caught my attention. He said people don’t respond to lists of things they should do. “We protect what we love.”

Here is a glimpse of what Schwartzberg does, I watch this video almost daily and encourage you to check it out.  With Earth Day tomorrow, spend time outside today. See what it does to the trajectory of your day and then tomorrow we’ll be back with some actionable steps but I need you to fall in love first.

How much time do you spend outside each day? Would you consider yourself a nature lover? Were you always? What do you think is the best way to get people to care about the planet?

Foodtrainers' Find

Yesterday was a great day. I finished in the office a little early because I had 2 fun activities planned. At 4:00, I picked my boys up and went to my friend Micheline’s apartment. Four moms gathered, each with our 2 children for an Easter Egg Hunt which was to be outside if not for the rain. The moms munched on crudite and sushi and drank white wine with peach slices (yum) and the kids did arts and crafts and searched for Easter eggs. These are not friends I see every day but we’re all good planners and get together every couple of months at a museum or one of our apartments, with the kids, to catch up. And we catch up and laugh and tell stories; I always look forward to these “play dates”.


I had to leave a little early to get to the second activity. My friend Aidan  was hosting something she called Happier Hour. Happier Hour was aptly named as the guest of honor was Gretchen Rubin the author of the Happiness Project. Gretchen spoke a bit about the book and her blog and made me think about happiness and of course it’s intersection with food and fitness (all of which I will discuss in a later post). I mingled a little and then left with my friend Wendy. I arrived home feeling good and inspired and hungry!

I have an assortment of Food Should Taste Good Chips in my pantry. I have written about these chips before in both Ski Lessons and A Day in the Life of Lauren. I have sampled many of their great flavors and love both the jalapeno and the chocolate (sounds strange but very good). I had never had the Lime. I opened the bag not really expecting anything vastly different than the other varieties. I was so wrong. However elusive and hard to define happiness is, I swear I found it in these chips. There was something about this flavor (and I’m sure the 2+ glasses of wine didn’t hurt) that was interesting and refreshing and so incredibly delicious. I counted out 12 (one serving) and sat down to enjoy them.

In case you’re not familiar with these chips. They are gluten free, lactose free, Kosher and have a good amount of fiber. A serving is 140 calories and was the perfect ending to my day.

Any foods or snacks that make you happy? Do you think food can make you happy? Is this a good thing?