365 Inspirations—100: One Hundred Tins of Tea on the Wall

"The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares and go
Downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown, no finer place for sure, Downtown, everything's waiting for you."—Petula Clark

I made it to post 100. As soon as I finished my class at 9:40pm, I headed STRAIGHT for the BRIGHT LIGHTS of the grocery store to celebrate. I needed a transition from 5 solid hours of teaching. Good thing Central Market is opened until 11pm!

To treat myself for making it this far, I allowed myself to choose a few of my favorite items for my little celebration. Not only is my class over, but my week of teaching is over. I teach a full load on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and have Thursday and Friday off.

I headed over to the refrigerated drink section and picked out a D.T. Dave's Kombucha. Have you ever had Kombucha? I think I could make an entire post on Kombucha and its health benefits. It's live, fermented tea and has loads of naturally occurring probiotics and antioxidants. My friends who live out in the countryside make it. Fermented anything is so good for digestion. The Kombucha I drink tastes great too. My favorite is Cosmic Cranberry. It contains organic, raw Kombucha tea and pure, unsweetened cranberry juice. It's not sour, because natural sugars form during the fermentation process. I LOVE it. Makes me feel so GREAT!

I also picked up a few Amy's Samosa wraps for later and a few sushi rolls. I love Futomaki and Inari sushi. I lived in Japan for two years, so, needless to say, Japanese cuisine is one of my favorites. I couldn't help myself, I also bought some 72% dark chocolate. What's a celebration without a little dessert?

I browsed through the health and body section of the grocery store. Let me tell you, this isn't really your typical grocery store, it's a LIFESTYLE. They have meditation cushions, incense, soaps, shampoos, vitamins, candles, essential oils, bubble bath—you name it!

Finally, as I headed towards the check-out line, I paused in the tea section. This isn't any ordinary grocery store tea section either. This store has 100 tins of tea on the wall (or more). And since I'm on post 100, I thought the title was fitting! Not only do they have teas, but they have all kinds of gadgets to make the very best pot of tea.

Since our home is full of tea, I passed on buying any. It's amazing what one trip to the BRIGHT LIGHTS of our local grocery store can do for me. Just walking in there makes me feel rejuvenated. 

I had my little celebratory snack and now I'm going to go read a book and sink into the bathtub!

Do you have a favorite store or shop that you love to go to?

365 Inspirations—31: Healthy Take Out Food

"I have some weird habits. For instance, I love beets. Show me a salad bar and I will clean them out of their beets."—Chris Pratt

Between prepping for classes, teaching classes, grading papers, keeping up a blog and writing a book, I don't always have time to cook home-cooked meals, so sometimes I do have take out food or go out to eat. I like going out to eat with my husband on the weekends. If I haven't had time to prepare anything, I try not to eat "fast food" that is devoid of any nutrition whatsoever.

I'm on the Paleo diet (no grains or sugar), so my options can be limited, but I've already identified take out food that works for me. One of my favorite places to go when I need a quick bite to eat is Central Market near my house in Seattle. They have the freshest salad bar I've ever seen. The lettuce and veggies look like they've just been plucked from the garden. The best part is they use compostable containers, so everything goes back to the earth.

My habit before, when I was in a hurry, was just to grab anything. The worst place to grab something, I've realized, is the staff table at work. It's so tempting when I'm hungry, but it's full of things that I know are not good for me (i.e. chocolate, candy, chips, coke, etc.). I used to just grab a cookie from the table and not think about it, but now I pause, think about it and turn away. I've been down that road already.

The great thing about healthy take out, is that it doesn't just give me a quick pick-me-up, it gives me nutrition that sustains me throughout my day and does not leaving me feeling hungry or crashed out from sugar.

I start with mixed greens and spinach, then I add veggies like broccoli, tomatoes, etc. and I always make sure I have protein on my salad. There is an excellent turkey salad (turkey, celery, mayo and cranberries) that I like to add for the protein or they also have hard-boiled eggs. There's also a very nice bean salad and a greek salad. I like to throw in a little fruit, like pineapple and put some nuts or seeds on top. I usually skip the salad dressing or I just add oil and vinegar. I top all this off with a Kombucha.

Have you heard of Kombucha? It's a natural, fermented drink with lots of naturally occurring vitamins and probiotics. These delicious drinks are very helpful for those with digestive issues. My favorite Kombucha is Gingerade by Synergy (G.T. Dave's).

So that's my favorite take out food.

Do you ever order take out? Do you like to go out to dinner or lunch? What do you eat when you need a quick meal?