Bananarama

I left a couple of bananas on my kitchen counter the other day and the current heat and humidity in Washington, DC ripened them so fast that in two days they were too mushy for my cereal.  I'm not one to throw food away, so I found my trusty banana bread recipe and baked them into golden goodness!

 

This banana bread recipe below is from Martha Stewart's best-selling book, Entertaining, and I highly recommend making it and having it on hand for a quick breakfast.  I once tried the recipe as muffins and they were okay but the recipe is more delicious cooked in a loaf pan as bread.

 

 

 

When you are grieving, or under a lot of stress, it is so important for you to begin the day with breakfast.  Even if you find you have temporarily lost your appetite, this banana bread, perhaps with some yogurt, is easy to digest.  Bananas are high in potassium which is important in regulating blood pressure and keeping your muscles healthy.  Plus bananas are low in calories.

We can't stop life from handing us tough emotional times but we can control what we do for ourselves.

 

You may be having trouble sleeping or finding it hard to concentrate for long periods of times.  A balanced diet, rest, and moderate exercise could help to give you some structure and guide you towards slowly processing your raw emotions.  It is not a small thing to take care of yourself and learn how to keep yourself on a healthy track.

 

I hope you like this bread as much as my son and I do:

 

Martha Stewart's Banana Bread

 

1 large loaf or 4 small loaves

 

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar (I use less sugar, sometimes almost halving the amount)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (usually 2)

1/2 cup sour cream (I use low fat)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup pecans or walnuts (these are optional; I leave them out)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Cream butter, sugar and eggs.

 

Sift the dry ingredients and combine with the butter mixture.

Blend well.  Add the bananas, sour cream and vanilla; stir well.

Stir in the nuts if you wish and pour into a well buttered 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan or several smaller pans.

 

Bake 1 hour.  Turn out onto a rack to cool.

 

Needing Sleep

Lots of great things happen to you while you are asleep.

 

Your skin repairs itself, your mind relaxes and resets itself and your body strengthens its immune system and reduces levels of stress.

But you have to do it to reap the benefits.

 

These days people like to brag about how little sleep they need.  I remember reading somewhere that Martha Stewart only sleeps four hours a night.  I thought to myself, "You've got to be kidding!  I could never last very long if I only got four hours of sleep a night!"

Even Charlie Brown & Lucy Need To Sleep

One of the key elements of a healthy life and healthy grieving is allowing your emotions to surface in order to work through them.  You can put off dealing with your emotions but sooner or later they will come back at you, even stronger than before.  Unfortunately, you have to come face-to-face with your pain.  Oherwise you block the grieving process.  If you continue to ignore these emotions, then you end up holding them inside yourself and eventually you will affect your ability to sleep and other areas of your life.

 

Do you feel tired all the time?  Part of grieving is feeling fatigued.  I was exhausted after my husband's death and I found that dealing with my husband's death made my sleeping patterns change in a way that had never happened before.  After working all day, I would fall asleep sometime around 7:30 pm or 8 pm and then sleep until 4am.  On the weekends, I would fall alseep during the day.  This went on for a number of months and then my sleeping pattern finally changed again.  It felt weird but it was okay. 

 

Even if you can't sleep because you are upset or anxious about a loved one's death, I also found you can sometimes sit still and breathe quietly and find a focal point in which to loose yourself.  It might not work the first few times you try this but it is worth the effort.

 

Sleep is critical to our well-being and resting your body will help your emotional recovery.

 

Listen to this great TED talk that Arianna Huffington gave on the value of getting a good night's rest and how sleep is essential to our creativity and recovery.  She makes some great points!