I've spent a lot of time thinking about the past lately - past achievements, past activities, past interactions...

Have you ever noticed how time often wipes away the bad aspects of a situation and leaves you only with that wonderful reminiscence. If you spend too much time dwelling on the past though, it causes you to stagnate and not move forward.

Likewise, if you spend too much time dwelling on poor food choices in the past it can cause your digestive system to stagnate. While I think we can use more focus on good food choices, if you do happen to give in to a craving or get peer pressured into eating some potato chips the best thing you can do is embrace it as a treat and move forward.

I trained as a figure skater when I was young, and you never think about the falls, you just have to keep going. Watching the ladies' competition at the Olympics this past week shows how that mindset can pay off. Those girls have fallen more times than they can count on their way to being able to land those jumps.

This morning on our walk, Phil was telling me that he felt a bit off. He figured it might be that he had needed a treat before going to bed so he ate an apple. He was feeling guilty.

We laughed because most people would think that an apple is a pretty good dessert. Most people might feel guilty after half a box of Oreo cookies or something, but not an apple, right?

An apple is a good dessert, as long as you leave enough time after dinner so that the sugar doesn't hit the food in your stomach and start to ferment and cause digestion problems. In terms of eating late at night, it isn't so much a problem for your stomach, but it does cause issues in the later stages of digestion. I make my healthy vegan recipes to be good for your digestive system, but when you eat them is important, too.

Phil and I like to go for a long walk in the morning. We have a big glass of water - probably the best way to start your day - and then head down to the ocean.

I used to think that a 'morning constitutional' was a walk, but apparently that's a different kind of movement (i.e. it's a gentleman's way of saying you are going to go have a morning poo). Walks, on the other hand, help wake us up, give us a chance to chat and get our bodies moving. I find by the end of a walk, my stomach is grumbling and ready to find a healthy vegan recipe and make breakfast.

Hunger is something that a lot of people don't feel very often in our society.

Don't you just love getting mail? I don't mean email - I mean 'mail' mail. I picked up the mail a couple weeks ago and pulled out a small box shipped from Amazon. I had no idea what it was, because I hadn't ordered anything. I opened it in the elevator on the way up to my apartment because I get pretty excited about packages in the mail.

I pulled out a book, with a note from my friend. She said that she thought it would be perfect for me. It was the 2^nd Edition of How to shit in the woods: An environmentally sound approach to a lost art, by Kathleen Meyer. Have you read it?

The funny thing was, I had actually started reading this book four long years ago at another friend's place and thought to myself that I really should get a copy. It's a very informative book that takes you through the realities of how to facilitate digestive processes when you're out in the woods, taking the environmental impact of our waste on the natural environment into account. So yes, it is the perfect book for me on many levels...