Family Time with Popcorn Balls

    It's that time of year again when the Stanko side of my family gets together to have Grandma's traditional dishes and epic popcorn ball making. I love getting to see all of our family members together in one place, since it's quite rare at the moment that we get to take time and see anyone individually right now- too much school, work, life... Horrible excuses not to see family, but I'm looking forward to being done with school so that we can take more time out to spend quality time with family and friends! Anyhow! 

    Last Sunday, just in time for the Broncos game, of course, everybody got together at our 'cousin' Nicol's house. I'd been spending a majority of the day with my mother-in-law, Chris, making a really cool skin salve chock full of anti-inflammatory, healing, and rejuvenating herbs. So much fun! But we weren't quite finished with our project, so we brought it with us for the 3 minute drive over to Nicol's to finish cooling it and putting it into jars. Now that I think about it, I should have taken photos of the process- grinding up all sorts of herbs, simmering them in grapeseed oil, incorporating some usnea tincture Chris had already made, vitamin E, beeswax, and peppermint oil for a pleasant scent. We ended up with nearly a dozen jars of the salve! I researched each individual ingredient we incorporated in our concoction to make it suited to exactly what we wanted. I've been wary of using commercial products more and more recently, trying to stay away from potentially harmful chemicals, so this is exactly what I needed to make to put my mind at ease when trying to hydrate my skin. 

    So, once we'd arrived at Nicol's, we let everything finish up and canned it all. This was just in time to start the popcorn balls. This requires a serious amount of time cooking karo syrup, sugar, food coloring, and probably more sugar :) to the right temperature before pouring it on the popcorn and getting the kiddos ready for rolling the popcorn into balls. At half-time, everybody had their turn choosing which color popcorn balls they'd make. There were little balls, big balls, purple balls, orange balls, and even some green balls I believe- hahaha. So much fun though to see everybody laughing and having a great time together. After the game, we had a lovely dinner with the family before heading home.

    It's so important to make the most of the time we have with our families and friends. All of our lives continue to move forward with buying houses, having babies, changing jobs- it's a good reminder to take the time, when you're able, to make those special moments happen.

Chris, me, Uncle Dave, Johnny, Madaline, and Uncle Bud

Camilla, Ashley, and Lauren

Joey, Vince, and my most-awesome-brother-in-law Scott

Love family time!

Workout Wednesday!

    Holy moly! This week has flown by so far and I've forgotten (again!) to update my Monday Motivation! So today we have our "Workout Wednesday" motivation courtesy of Jillian Michaels:

Hope you're enjoying a warmer climate today that we're experiencing here in Colorado!

Happy Wednesday!

Monday Motivation!

I came across this visual this morning and absolutely loved the message (and the fruity visual)!

Have a great Monday!

Working on a Commercial

    A couple weeks ago, a client of mine mentioned a 'model' search she'd seen for an athletic clothing company, Sturdy Girl Sports. They were looking for someone to model sports bras, compression shorts, capris, and pants for a short commercial for the website and marketing of their brand. I met with Hilary Heath, the founder and Owner of Sturdy Girl Sports, and was given the opportunity for the job! This is something I'd never tried before that was way outside my comfort zone, but I had a lot of fun and got some really cool gear from it. Here are a couple stills from the day we headed outside for the running segment- of course it turned out to be a cloudy and cool day, heating up to a lovely 42 degrees. BRR!!

I'm excited to see how the video turns out and will be sure to link it to a post on my blog!

Have a great Sunday!

The Gut Brain Connection

    Stress happens to everyone, whether we like it or not. There are healthy levels of stress, and then, of course, there are unhealthy levels of stress. With the mounting load of school work, work-work, and house and overall life work, I feel as though my own personal level of stress is hitting a high point at the moment. I feel that the ebbs and flows of life make for getting through the highs of stress possible, because I know deep down that this too shall pass. In case anyone else out there is on the upswing of stress at the moment, what with the now ended government shut-down, worry about economy and rising national debt, etc. I thought it might be helpful to bring to light the gut-brain connection that exists and how stress has such a profound effect on the health and wellbeing of our gastrointestinal health, in addition to our overall health. The plethora of bacteria living in each of our guts at this precise moment not only has an impact on how we digest our meals and snacks, but also how we think, feel, and react to situations and stress.

     Harvard Health Publications published an excellent, albeit short, article on the gut-brain connection in which they go on to list common physical, behavioral, and emotional symptoms associated with high stress:

Physical symptoms:
-stiff or tense muscles, especially in the neck and shoulders
-headaches
-sleep problems
-shakiness or tremors
-recent loss of interest in sex
-weight loss or gain
-restlessness

Behavioral symptoms:
-procrastinating
-grinding teeth
-difficulty completing work assignments-changes in the amount of alcohol or food you consume
-taking up smoking, or smoking more than usual
-increased desire to be with or withdraw from others
-rumination

Emotional symptoms:
-crying
-overwhelming sense of tension or pressure
-trouble relaxing
-nervousness
-quick temper
-depression
-poor concentration
-trouble remembering things
-loss of sense of humor
-indecisiveness

    How many of these can you check off on your own personal list? It's almost startling to see the resemblance in my current state of being to some of the symptoms in this list, however, it brings about a bit of relief in knowing the cause of these problems. Knowing is half the battle, as they say, so now we're left with how we choose to react to this recognition. It appears the best known method of managing your symptoms is by learning the strategies to help you deal with stressors in life, then following through with utilizing those strategies. Again, knowing is only half the battle. As easy as it is to sit back and say, "Okay, I know the problem. I know what I have to do to fix it. Maybe I'll think about following through with what I need to do to help myself out when I have more time," more often than not I think people will choose not to follow through on practicing those stress managing strategies (least that's the game I know I'm playing in my head). When and if time ever allows for stress management is clearly not the answer- I need to make time for stress management. Make it happen, or the vicious cycle will continue on with no end in sight.
    Now, there is also the thought that providing your body with probiotics to support your gut bacteria could help. You can do a bit of reading about the "probiotic promise" here . It's possible, but the research has yet to be proven to a extent indicative of significant benefit. Perhaps it's worth a shot, but I can tell you with tried and true proof, it has been shown that finding time to de-stress, relax, and recover a non-stress related state-of-mind will help in dealing with overall stress and it's affects on your life. Give it a go- I will too. Make the time to de-stress when you need to. It will do you a world of good.




Read the rest of the Harvard article here: http://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/the-gut-brain-connection

Workout Wednesday!

Health and happiness: what more could you ask for?

Happy Wednesday!