Weekend Reading

Welcome to this week’s Weekend Reading! Here are a handful of things I think are worth sharing.

Weekend Reading : June 11, 2021

My mother was diagnosed with vascular dementia in early 2020, fell twice resulting in two back fractures, and has been in a nursing home since November. With truly divine timing, I became her trustee and power of attorney before the falls, and have been taking care of everything for her – paying bills, managing her care, speaking with doctors, etc. This has been the most stressful time in my entire life and I work overtime trying to manage my tension and anxiety. My essential oils have literally saved me from completely losing it, and I’ve found these two techniques to be the most helpful – this essential oil massage on the lymph node and Vagus nerve in the neck (I use my Frankincense Touch for this) and this “aromatic cue” practice that I created (forgive the funny voice and filter – I got the video just right while messing around on Snapchat 🤪).

Speaking of tension and anxiety…I’m holding so much stress in my body that some days, I can hardly move. I’ve returned to my Rodney Yee A.M. Yoga for Your Week DVD for relief. My favorite is the Monday Standing Poses sequence, but they’re all really good for stretching the body and mind.

This “Ancestral Healing” diffuser blend I created is heaven. In your diffuser, put 2 drops Douglas Fir + 2 drops Black Spruce + 2 drops Frankincense + 2 drops Wild Orange. (Need essential oils? Email me at heather [at] heatherallard [dot] com and I’ll hook you up!)

If there’s an uptick in kohlrabi sales, it might be because of me. I got an organic farm share from What’s Good and just had kohlrabi for the first time. I’ve been telling everyone I know about it since! I roasted it at 450 degrees for about 35 minutes, and it was SO good! Check out What’s Good and see if they’re in your area.

While we’re on the subject of vegetables, try this “super Caesar”. Add thinly sliced kale and cole slaw mix (Whole Foods has an organic one!) to your regular romaine Caesar salad recipe for a super food boost! Shhhh…your kids will never know!

This Spelling Bee game is my favorite way to spend some down time and do something good for my brain. Each day, you’re given a “hive” containing seven letters and you have to create as many words as possible using those letters. The words have to be a minimum of four letters and every word has to contain the center letter. You score more points with longer words and can progress all the way to Genius Level, my personal daily goal. :)

As a longtime online entrepreneur and mother of three kids who did a ton of Zoom-ing over the past year, I loved these tips for setting digital boundaries from Laura Jane Jones.

At 52 years old, I can really appreciate this saying from Teddy Roosevelt: “Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.”

Have a great weekend!

Welcome to this week’s Weekend Reading! Here are a handful of things I think are worth sharing.

I love this quote from Mark Twain, especially now at week seven of the pandemic:

“History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” –Mark Twain

On Facebook, a friend asked for everyone’s favorite books of 2019. I read more books in 2019 than I have in years, and these were my top picks:

• Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
• The Plant Paradox by Dr. Steven Gundry
• Live Your Truth by Kamal Ravikant
• The Manual: A Philosopher’s Guide to Life (Epictetus) by Sam Torode
• Super Attractor by Gabrielle Bernstein

Speaking of books, this blog post from Tim Ferriss was intriguing. In it, he references Peter Drucker’s suggestion to look for single decisions that eliminate hundreds or thousands of other decisions. In my own life, I’ve made a few of those decisions (see 1, 2, and 3 in this post), and I’m always looking for more.

Last summer, I discovered What’s Good, an online marketplace that brings farmer’s market fare to your doorstep.

Since then, I’ve been ordering organic eggs, green juice, bakery cookies, fresh seafood and more. I especially appreciate them now when food can be scarce and we’re supposed to limit our trips outside the house.

I switched to Brave for my web browser, and really dig it. I was tired of the countless ads that followed me from site to site to site, the strain on my CPU when I had a few tabs open (pretty much always), and having my privacy compromised.

Next, I’m going to check out Duck Duck Go search engine. Also, here’s an awesome checklist of ways to protect yourself and your information online.

Exit the warrior…

It’s been so long since I’ve written a blog post that I haven’t expressed how sad I was when I learned that Neil Peart, my all-time favorite drummer and lyricist (from Rush, my favorite band) passed away in January after a battle with brain cancer.

My love of Rush, and particularly Neil’s lyrics, has spanned four decades. My brother was a drummer in a band, and I grew up listening to them play Rush songs down in our basement. Years later, my son Brendan started drumming and became obsessed with Neil Peart, and I smiled ear-to-ear hearing him play Rush songs too.

I saw Rush in concert many times, beginning with the Hold Your Fire tour in 1987 when I was a freshman at Providence College. In 2013, my husband and I were fortunate enough to take Brendan to the Clockwork Angels tour when he was only 6, and we took all three of our kids to Rush’s final R40 tour in 2015.

I am forever grateful that Rush was such a big part of my life, and I will always cherish my memories of them. Thank you for sharing your gifts with the world, Neil. Rest in peace.

[Photo by Adrien Delforge on Unsplash]

Welcome to this week’s Weekend Reading! Here are a handful of things I think are worth sharing.

In June, I read The Plant Paradox by Dr. Steven Gundry and it changed my life.

Last September, I started eating pumpkin seeds every day as a snack and in my daily lunch salad. Around the same time, I developed what looked like rosacea on my cheeks and nose, as well as chronic sinus issues. For the life of me, I could NOT figure out what was causing my skin and sinuses!

My sinus issues got so bad, that I was treated with antibiotics for not one, not two, but THREE sinus infections between October and January! (Coincidentally, that’s when I started experiencing bad panic attacks and anxiety.)

When I read The Plant Paradox and discovered that pumpkin seeds were likely the cause of my skin and sinus problems, I stopped eating them immediately. Within a week, both my skin and sinuses cleared!

Leslie, my oldest sister, has multiple health issues, including psoriatic arthritis, and she’s in a tremendous amount of pain. I sent the book to her and she texted me a few days into reading it saying that her mind was absolutely blown. She started the eating “protocol” right away and within two weeks, was able to come off four of the eight medications she takes ! And for the first time in five years, she was able to work in her garden for hours – until she followed The Plant Paradox protocol, she couldn’t even hold a garden tool because the arthritis was so bad!

She found two farms near her in Connecticut that sell organic vegetables and pasture-raised meat, eggs, and milk, which prompted me to see what was available here in Rhode Island…

After some googling, I found What’s Good, an online marketplace that connects customers with local farmers. Basically, they bring farmer’s markets to your doorstep.

Last week, I placed my first What’s Good order (pastured eggs, swordfish, and scallops) and was highly impressed with the process from start-to-finish. They’re in 20+ states now, so if you want to eat local easily…check out What’s Good!

I saw this quote on the back of Inward by Yung Peublo and believe it 100%.

I’ve been listening to this Flow State Spoken Word with Elena Brower every morning for the past two weeks and it’s sooooo beautifully healing and powerful. Set aside some quiet time and give it a listen.

My husband, kids, and I saw Bohemian Rhapsody in the theater last winter and we have watched it nearly a dozen times since HBO aired it this summer.

Every time I see it, I get chills and am so inspired by Freddie Mercury. He was no doubt one of the greatest entertainers of our time, but more than that, he was unabashedly himself despite the challenges of being an immigrant, having extra teeth that he was embarrassed about, and struggling with his sexuality.

One of my favorite quotes is when he tells his Queen bandmates that he has AIDS. He says:

“If any of you fuss about it or frown about it, or worst of all, if you bore me with your sympathy, that’s just seconds wasted. Seconds that could be used making music, which is all I want to do with the time I have left. I don’t have time to be anybody’s victim, AIDS poster boy or cautionary tale. No, I decide who I am. I’m going to be what I was born to be: a performer that gives the people what they want: a touch of the heavens! Freddie f***ing Mercury.”

On that note…I wish you the courage to be whatever YOU were born to be!

XO,
Heather