Along with being a wife, mother and grandmother, being active and eating healthy is what I am passionate about. Over the past 7 years, I have taught my signature class, “Feed a Family of Four on $160 a month” to hundreds of adult students in Salt Lake City, Utah.
This course has helped my own extended family abundantly along with every student who applied the principles that were taught.
As a member of the Salt Lake Tribune Newspaper “Money Matters Panel”, I have received opportunities to share my healthy eating, money-saving tips with people. It all began early in our marriage, when my husband, Dave, got me hooked on eating more whole grains and legumes and encouraged me to make more healthy choices for our home cooked meals.
Besides eating healthier I am very enthusiastic to show off the financial benefits of this program, especially in today's economy! It's a VERY inexpensive way to eat, which is why I call my “healthy eating” class “Feed a Family of Four on $160/month”. Our economy is forcing everyone to be more concerned about spending money rather than eating healthy, but the great news is... you can enjoy both in my New Healthy Home Cooking Service!
In 2007, I also organized a local community Garden Group with plenty of local, fresh, organic, home grown fruits and vegetables! It has now expanded into multiple private backyard properties that my neighbors have allowed me to use for gardening. Our city mayor, Dennis Webb, loves what I'm doing and is helping me find new creative ways to help more citizens in our community eat fresh local organic food.
During 30 years of marriage and raising four children, I have become very familiar with financial challenges due to layoffs. I've been through THREE of them as my husband has been laid off in the Computer Software field due to outsourcing and downsizing. We are currently unemployed again (our 3rd layoff), but LIFE IS GOOD due to following the principles and lessons of my own Feed a Family Class while living a more frugal lifestyle that I've been teaching about for so many years.
Because I know how to prepare and cook whole grains and legumes and supplement them with meat, fruits and veggies, I rarely have to go to a grocery store, which has saved our family a TON of money! I am eager to show others what I am doing and how it works for my family and me!
I personally know how just ONE layoff can financially devastate a person or family, but I've taken our own financial challenges and turned them into huge blessings and strengths, which has not only benefited my own family but has helped hundreds of other people in my community.
In addition to teaching classes, during the past 11 years I have been involved in distributing food to those in need, from stores that provided me with day old baked goods. Besides giving people food for the rest of my life, I want to teach people how to help themselves, and how they can start today, helping their own families who experience similar difficulties in feeding their family.
I teach students how they have more power than they realize to feed their families’ nutritious, inexpensive meals from scratch EVERY day of the year, with very little time and money invested. I have recently organized my new “Healthy Home Cooking Service” which has been a major project in the making! It is designed to "jump start" individuals who are overwhelmed with the thought of preparing and eating whole grains and legumes. I am anxious to help ease them into a whole new way of eating and living!
I was born and raised in Holladay, Utah with my wonderful parents, a great brother and two beautiful sisters. I have lived in Utah and Colorado most of my life. I have a kind, loving husband, four fantastic grown up children that don't give me any grief, a wonderful son in law and TWO of the most precious grandsons in the whole world! As you can see I have a lot to be grateful for.
Since I lived at the foot of the mountains all my life, I often wondered where the trailheads were and how difficult they were to climb. Unfortunately, for many years I just wondered about it but never did anything.
In February 2003, I got hooked on hiking. I was dealing with some very difficult and stressful relationships in my life. I wanted to run away from home or go eat a ton of food at my favorite restaurant—which ever would relieve my pain the quickest!
Luckily, my favorite restaurant wasn't open and I had important obligations later that day that I couldn't get out of so running away from home wasn't really an option. However, I knew I had to get away from all mankind, at least for a few hours to decompress.
Feeling full of despair and hopelessness and not knowing where to go or what to do, I sat in my car and started praying to God while I was crying. I looked up at the mountains, specifically Mt. Olympus, a popular 9000 ft. mountain that I lived at the foot of. I suddenly felt a clear impression in my mind and in my heart that I needed to go hike that mountain!
"Why didn't I think of that", I thought to myself. I immediately drove straight to the Mt. Olympus trailhead and started hiking! It was the only trailhead I was familiar with. I didn't have the best shoes on OR a water bottle or food, (like I tell all my hikers to bring.) I felt like Forrest Gump. I just wanted to hike until I could hike no more, until my legs fell off.
Fortunately for me I didn't have to go too far since I hadn't been hiking before and my leg muscles got sore quickly.
That experience on the mountain was one of the best things I ever did for myself in a time of crisis. And, as they say, the rest is history!
Because it was a drought year, I was able to climb about 1 - 2 miles up Mt. Olympus without any snow on the ground. It's a 4000 ft. climb to the peak in about 3.8 miles. I never hiked anywhere near the peak but I hiked up that same trail four times during the months of February and March of 2003. I went by myself since I didn't know who else would go with me. It felt so good to be hiking, even with all the muscle pain, but it was uncomfortable since I wasn't fond of hiking by myself and I knew it wasn't really safe.
It's a challenging mountain to climb but it was just what I needed to help me deal with my crisis. I don't recommend people hiking by themselves. In Utah, because of the rugged, isolated terrain and wildlife concerns, just minutes from the busy city, it can be dangerous and risky. There really is safety in numbers. (At the time, I wasn't very familiar with the trail or how difficult it was. I know better now and encourage people NOT to hike by themselves or with people who aren't familiar with the Wasatch Mountains.)
When I got home after that first hike, I could barely walk! It felt SO good to have pain in my legs, instead of my heart. I was able to release a lot of negative energy. While on the mountain, I spent a lot of time meditating and praying while I hiked.
After hiking four times by myself, I decided it was such a GREAT experience that I started my own hiking group!
That's how I my mind works. I don't think to join another hiking group, which is the most logical thing to do, I just decided to be a hiking guide, effective immediately, and start my own hiking group.
Since then, one person after another person has joined my hiking group. I currently have over 800+ people in my Hiking Group. I have met hundreds of incredible outdoor enthusiasts who not only hike but they do lots of other things with me i.e. bike, snowshoe, camp, ski, travel, kayak and come to my Dutch Oven Dinners that I cook! I have learned about the safety factors, risks and dangers of being in the mountains and how to prepare for each outdoor adventure. I find great satisfaction in teaching these same skills to others who join me.
I have SO many cherished friends who are outdoor enthusiasts. I have learned so much from so many awesome people. Sometimes we have nothing else in common except for our love to be active in the outdoors, and that's all that is needed!
Much of the past several years of my life has been spent in outdoor adventures/recreation of all kinds. I continue to meet many new people weekly who join us in our local outdoor adventures as well as our international outdoor adventures.
I highly recommend people getting involved in outdoor recreation. It's a great way to decompress or just be reminded of what a beautiful world we live in. It is one of the most healthy and inexpensive things you can do for yourself.
By the way, the crisis with the relationships, that got this whole thing started in the first place, resolved themselves soon after I started hiking. It was all a great blessing in disguise! Good feelings replaced bitter feelings. I was able to forgive, forget and replace all the bad feelings with the miracles that come from adversity!
I'm extremely grateful that I chose to "head for the hills" instead of having an ugly confrontation that would result in saying or doing something I know I would later regret.
