Happy Valentine's Day: Love Yourself and Stay Healthy

Today is Valentine's Day and the focus on everyone's mind is loving someone else. I think that's great, don't get me wrong, but one of my core values that I share with my husband is loving yourself. I've stated this many times in many different ways, that part of loving yourself is staying healthy and focusing on wellness. Preventing illness is more effective if you have a solid base of health. And in this life, we have ONE body and a tremendous opportunity to make healthy choices today that effect us tomorrow.

Yesterday, my mother-in-law shared her latest health assessment results with me. We talked about her lifestyle changes that she wants to make. She's only 55 yrs old and with three kids, one grandchild, and another one the way (4 wks!). She knows that making health differences will improve her quality of life so she can enjoy her family for decades to come. However, she is looking for resources to help her. I think she represents so many Americans out there. When I made the decision to change my lifestyle for clean living, I went searching for resources and the purpose of this blog is to share my tips, recipes, practical resources to help with clean living.

The results are really clear to me. I prepared my body for the journey of motherhood and it's paid off with a healthy pregnancy, free of complications. Check out my post for details. I know many complications are preventable and there is no question in my mind that my holistic wellness lifestyle has helped me maintain strong and healthy.

Even more proof. Check out this quote and blog post from Mercola.com about "Why People Really Get Sick." Dr. Mercola says in his interview he got into medicine with a mindset to prevent illness, while his colleagues were there to help sick people. To me this is the dramatic difference of approach. Wellness is your most powerful weapon to prevent illness!

"One of the key reasons why many people are getting sick with “modern-day” diseases like heart disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes is relying on processed food as their primary form of nutrition.

Ninety percent of foods Americans purchase every year are processed foods, and food marketers do a masterful job at making it seem like fast foods and junk foods are the obvious choice.

But these processed foods, are dead and devoid of any natural nutrition. The fact that they taste good is the culmination of a profitable science of artificial flavors and additives, without which most processed food would taste and look like cardboard." - Dr. Joseph Mercola, medical doctor and health researcher based in Chicago.

Eating a clean (unprocessed) foods helps you with higher quality nutrition found in nature, not from a manufacturing plant. That's always my inspiration to cook our meals and pack our snacks and lunches. I feel so much better. In the comments below, tell us your top blogs and health resources that help you.