Joining the CSA – Dare to be Adventurous

I have been thinking about joining a CSA for a while now but just couldn’t get myself to sign up. Since this year my life is focusing around the one Word CHANGE, I decided this summer it was time to take the leap of faith and give it a try. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. A farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a "membership" or a "subscription") and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.

 Here are the reasons I wanted to give it a try:

Fresh Produce
Let’s face it, it doesn’t get much fresher then right from the farm. Since I was born with a black thumb and lack of patience to grow my own garden this seems to be a good answer. I also have found it very confusing to find the right from the farm products at grocery stores and produce stands now. You really have to ask questions to make sure it is right from the farm or if it was trucked in from somewhere else.

Food Adventure
With a CSA you have an idea of what is going to be available that week but you don’t know exactly what you get until you get it. It sounded like a great way to force me to try some new veggies and ways to cook up my old favorites since I will be eating them a lot.

Forced to Eat my Veggies
Because I am also super cheap I am hoping that instead of letting my veggies go bad each week I will be forced to eat them. Eating more veggies can only be a good thing.

For my CSA this year I have loved what I have gotten so far. I am making a lot of salads, omelets and smoothies to use up the amble supplies of vegetables I am given each week. It has given a little more structure to my weekly meal plans because I plan our meals around what we are given.

Ideally you want to start a CSA at the beginning of a growing season (Spring, Summer or Winter) but many farms let you sign up during the season for a prorated fee. I encourage you to give it a try for one season and see if it changes your eating and shopping habits. 

Raise Your Glass to Good Health with Water

There are a lot of diet or lifestyle eating choices out there. Sometimes it is hard to tell what will work or not.  I would challenge you to find one healthy way of eating that does not center around drinking water. It sounds so simple but drinking water has so many benefits to making you feel great. Here are some of my favorite benefits:

• Lose weight: Drinking water helps you lose weight because it flushes down the by-products of fat breakdown. Drinking water reduces hunger, it’s an effective appetite suppressant so you’ll eat less. Plus, water has zero calories and it is FREE!

• Healthy Skin: Water helps to replenish skin tissues, moisturizes skin and increases skin elasticity.

• Better Exercise: Drinking water regulates your body temperature. That means you’ll feel more energetic when doing exercises. Water also helps to fuel your muscle.

• Better Digestion and Constipation: Fiber and water goes hand in hand so that you can have your daily bowel movement.

• Relieves Fatigue: Water is used by the body to help flush out toxins and waste products from the body. If your body lacks of water, your heart, for instance, needs to work harder to pump out the oxygenated blood to all cells, so are the rest of the vital organs, your organs will be exhausted and so will you.

Staying Hydrated is KEY to a great day. For most people that is drinking ½ of your body weight each day in water. A good way to check is to make sure your urine is pale yellow or clear in color. You can get creative with your water and flavor it with fruit or vegetables (raspberries and cucumbers are my favorite) or make it fun with special water bottles (I have some with photos of my kids). You can also set up a challenge with family and friends or join the Lifestyle Forward Drink Water challenge in July (Check www.facebook.com/lifestyleforward for details)

Start today and raise your glass of water to toast a great summer!