Positively Weightless

 Happy Sunday all! Wow I honestly cannot believe yet another week has passed us by. I am sitting here and my meal prep is done, laundry is going to be going in the washer soon, and a loaf of bread is in the oven. As I have said so many times before in the past, preparing for the week ahead, especially with food, is so very important. It is a lot easier to stick to your meal plan when everything is ready to go. I planned on doing this post a few weeks ago, but when all the craziness ensued in the US I just did not have it in me to write a post that seemed so unimportant in comparison, but it is about time for something lighter today! Today I want to do a review on a meal kit delivery service, Green Chef.

I have to start this review with a shoutout to Danielle who gave me the code in order to get these kits for completely free which was great. It gave me the ability to try out a kit I might not otherwise and doubled as an idea for a new review for my blog, so thanks Danielle! If you are not sure what Green Chef is, it is a meal kit delivery service. You pick the number of meals, servings, and select what meals you want out of a good number of new ones each week. Basically they ship everything to you and it is all pre-portioned and put together for you with an easy recipe. The biggest thing these kits do is eliminate your trip to the grocery store, or at least it cuts it in half. Most of the kits have a little prep work to do before cooking, but nothing excessive, and everything is portioned out exactly. I am sure you have seen a million of these kits before, it is similar to all of those. Pictured in this paragraph is the ingredients for the taco bowl I ordered. everything is portioned out, and most of it was already chopped and ready to go. Every kit comes just like this.

So what are some perks with Green Fresh? As I mentioned before everything comes portioned and a lot of the prep is done for you already when you get in. Pictured here was a salmon with kale, beets, and a nice lemon caper sauce on top. In that whole kit the only real prep work I had to do was to chop the kale and capers, everything else was chopped and ready to go. On a long day after work and especially if I go to the gym the last thing I want to do is make a dinner that is a million steps. I am usually tired and hungry at that point so the quicker the better. A lot of the time that means I grab something already made, or I make something really simple like a pan fried piece of fish and microwavable steamed vegetables. Those are fine choices sure, but being able to have a meal like this with just as much effort is awesome on a busy week night! I honestly loved having some variety during the week because I have been incredibly bored with food lately eating the same old things.

A weekly kit sent right to your door every week with pre portioned meals prepped for you to cook, so what are the cons? Well I would say overall it was a great experience. One place people may have an issue with is the price in my opinion. Depending on your financial situation spending that much money may just be out of your budget. The kit I ordered was 4 meals, each for 2 servings and that would cost around $105 per week. Honestly that is around how much I spend on groceries for the entire week and that includes food for all 3 meals and snacks of the week. So overall it is a bit more expensive than I am used to. I can see that being a problem for some people, me included when my expenses go up in a couple of months. Honestly though that is really the only negative thing I have to say. Out of all the recipes I tried I liked every single one of them and I tried brand new thing I have never tried before. For example in this picture is Barramundi fish with a mango salsa, lime slaw, and carrot fries. I had never heard of this kind of fish before and I ended up loving it! Especially paired with that bright citrussy slaw and salsa. 

Overall I loved this meal kit! It was great to just be able to pull the kit from the fridge, do a bit of prep, and have dinner ready after 30 minutes. The selection was great as well. From burgers to pasta to vegetarian dishes. I am sure out of all the options they give you every week you will be able to find something that caters to you and your family as well. The meals have a great variety, usually healthy options as well. Sure one week I got a pork burger recipe (which I pictured here) but it only called for a little oil on the potato wedges and in the pan the burger was fried in, and a little cheese was on the burger. Still a much better option than a greasy fast food combo meal I am sure! Overall my experience with Green Chef has been a very positive one and I have been loving the recipes I have tried. Great food, fast, easy, and it eliminates time at the grocery store, I say that is a great experience!

 Happy Sunday all! I am back after taking a little break last week. With so much uncertainty in the air I was finding it really hard to focus on writing a post, so I figured instead of forcing it I would just take the week off to recharge and get back to it this week. I have a review coming up that I was going to do this week, but I am going to push it off one more week because I felt this topic is an important one, and I write a poem recently that would be perfect to end this with. I broke with my norms last post and talked about American politics, which is something I absolutely never do, and I do not regret that. Unless something huge happens in the future again I probably will not do that again. We all have differing views and opinions, and I have always wanted to keep this blog a neutral space for everyone. No matter what your views on anything are, I think one thing we all have in common is hope.

Now I am sure I have talked about hope on this page many times before. Hope and love in a lot of ways go hand in hand, and I know I am always preaching how important it is to have love in our lives. Hope and love both make the world the place we want it to be. Without either of those things, imagine how scary, dark, and cold the world would be. Hope keeps us going. If you did not have any hope within yourself at all you truly would never work towards any goal in your life at all. If you are not hopeful for those new beginnings and end results of anything you put your mind to, why would you even be working to achieve them at all? Hope is genuinely so important to keep in your hearts. Hope pulls us through the darkest of times, even if we are not even aware that it is lurking in our hearts. Hope is always there waiting to be called upon.

I want you to take a moment and think about what a world without any hope at all might look like. If it wasn't for hope any of the previous big wars in history may have been fought in vain. If there was no hope in those times they very likely could have ended human civilization as we have come to know it. You and I may never have been brought into this world. A very striking example would be Anne Frank. I think we all know her story, she was in hiding from the Nazis during the Holocaust and kept he now famous diary documenting this time. Despite their conditions and circumstances her diary was full of messages of hope. Her story unfortunately came to a horrible end, despite that hope, but her message of hope was not lost on the rest of the world. She lives on through that message. She lives on because of her hope. Even someone living through one of the darkest times of history had hope in her heart.

I know times get hard for everyone. As I said I took last week off because my anxiety was at an all time high from everything going on and the worry of things to come. It is only human to worry sometimes. Even in those times, however, hope is there waiting for us to see it. Even when we want to ignore it and sulk in our sorrows. Even when we just want to be angry at the world. Even when the storm clouds just do not want to dissipate. It is still there lying dormant until the spark comes to ignite it. All of this hope in my heart inspired me to write a poem on the topic yesterday, and I figured it would be nice to share here too:

Hope Will Always Pull Us Through

When you are scared and feeling alone, always remember that hope will always pull you through. No one was ever hurt or damaged because they had hope. Sure sometimes things do not work out the way you hoped they would, but in the end hope is what gets us through those times. Stay hopeful that things will work out in the end just the way they are supposed to, because they will. It is so incredibly cliché but I genuinely believe that everything happens for a reason, and hope is what pushed us through to find out just what that reason is, especially in the times where there is pain and confusion. Maybe things did not work out how you wanted. Maybe life is just not how you imagined it would be at this moment. Hope will keep us fighting to get to the ultimate destination in our hearts.

 I have tried to sit down and write my blog a few times now and am having a hard time focusing. I am sure I am not alone in that. This past week as pretty much everyone in the world knows was a very dark one for the United States. I try to keep politics off of my page as I believe this is a space for everyone, that everyone can use positivity in their lives no matter their views, and overall I like to think of this page as a place to escape rather than be reminded of the news. I can't do that this week though. I had a review of a meal service planned for this week but it just is not in me to sit and pretend that I am mentally okay after the events that took place this week and talk about something that is pretty meaningless in comparison. I am going to do what I always do on this page and discuss, while also shedding a positive light.

Before anyone tries to defend or fight against me on what I am about to say I want to tell you to save your breath. The events that took place this week were vile and disgusting. Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Liberal, etc. No matter what your views on things are, I think any rational and sane person can agree on that. This is no longer about opposing views. This is no longer a fight between conservative and liberal. What we saw Wednesday in this country was an act of pure hatred and selfishness. It was not about anyone's rights. It was not about anyone's finances. It was not a statement or a protest. It was an attempted coup. There is no sugarcoating that at all. Everyone has the right to be upset with the outcome of the election, but that was not just one step too far, it was twenty, and it was, and continues to be, encouraged by someone who is supposed to be leading this country. There is absolutely no defending that.

Now enough about it, quite frankly I am sick of even thinking about it and worrying about what else the future is holding. My point in writing this today is to tell you that is is okay to be not okay. It is okay to be scared and worried. It is okay if you, like myself, sat and watched the news when these events were unfolding and were literally shaking in fear with a pit in your stomach. I know that if you are a parent with small kids you need to act strong in front of them so they are not fearful, but it is also okay for you to be upset or scared. You are not considered weak or less than for letting something so horrible and big occurring filling you with fear.

My best advice to give my readers is to take care of your mental health. I have been saying this for months now during the pandemic, but this is something that was like a giant explosion that occurred, rather than a small wound festering like the pandemic. With the pandemic we could gradually get used to things, where this happened all at once. If the news is upsetting you, turn it off and read a fantasy book. Take a break from the world and make yourself a cup of coffee or tea and drink it looking out of your window at nature. Appreciate the beauty of the world as you do because even when things get dark, it is still there. Drink your water! Do a workout. Play a video game, preferably one without violence, to further distract yourself. Do whatever you need to do to distract yourself from everything and move through life as best you can.

Again I want you all to know it is okay to not be okay. The past year was physically and mentally exhausting and of course 2021 was not to be outdone. If you live in this country it is perfectly understandable to be scared and worried. I am myself as I am sure this is not over. I am fearful for what could happen in the next few weeks, and that is a natural human reaction. You are only human and none of us are strong all of the time. Keep looking forward, even if what is ahead seems so completely uncertain, and if you need to take a break to sit on an old tree stump along the path, that is okay too.

Happy 2021 all! It seemed like the longest and shortest year all rolled into one, but we made it! Now as I said last week, just because it is a new year on paper, that does not mean that certain things about 2020 just go away. Humanity as a whole is still fighting against some things that, although there is an end in sight that does not mean that we let our guard down and pretend life is completely normal again. But hey, I am not here to harp on that bad aspects of 2020, I am here to put a positive spin on 2021. Now last week a did talk all about 2021looking towards the new year in a positive way, and I wanted to elaborate on that a bit further and talk all about planning on the new year.

Overall my best advice to you and myself is to make sure you are as ready as possible for every week ahead of you. Get your gum bag packed as much as possible. Make sure you have socks, hand sanitizer, and face masks if your state requires them or you make the choice to wear one. No need to not be able to workout because you forgot something so small. As I have said make sure your meals are as planned out and prepped as possible to make things a lot easier on yourself during the week. The more you set yourself up for success the more likely you will be to achieve it. Keep up with these things until they become habits, or in my case until they become habits again. So many of us coped with the dumpster fire that was 2020 by falling out of a lot of our routines and good habits, now is the time to stop making excuses and get back to it!