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Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #119, and the twist is “start.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch, then create something and link it up! 🙂

Here’s my Design Team layout inspired by the sketch. It’s about how we just started juicing and are really enjoying it.

This bunch of vegetables and fruit that was ready to be juiced was so pretty that I had to take a few photos!

I want to explain a little more about my layout than just the surface facts. The truth is that when I was designing this layout I was thinking about fear and how we all deal with it. This was on my mind because we personally faced a really big fear recently.

Matt began noticing some physical changes that concerned him and made a doctor’s appointment to look into it. Before having even one test run on Matt, the doctor plied him with stories about cancer in men his age. So while we awaited the day that Matt could have the test the doctor ordered, we talked about…everything. The possibilities. The probabilities. What we would do if we received bad news. How we should change our lives if we received good news. I honestly believe that Matt started making lists of things he wanted to do to prepare me to be without him. Gulp…it was a hard week.

So, with this palpable fear orbiting us, we started looking at actionable ways to live with a daily commitment to good health. The truth is that we are like so many people: we know that we’re supposed to make healthy choices, but we’re not always sure how to make that a daily priority. For instance, how do you eat good foods when you’re on the road making customer visits all day like Matt does? How can you get anything resembling a balanced day of nutrition if you eat out? The choices out there are so bad! Think about the portion sizes, the saturated fats, the additives. It makes your head spin when you really focus on how unhealthy our food supply has become.

Then, on the night before Matt’s test we watched a documentary called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.” Sounds gruesome, doesn’t it? But it wasn’t. In fact, it was quite inspiring. It was the story of a man who was overweight and suffering from an auto-immune disease who turned to radically changing his diet as a way of getting control of his physical problems. He started making his own juice combinations (mostly vegetables and some fruits) and barraged his body with great nutrients. He drank juice only for 60 days and lost the weight as well as the need for his medications (all under the care of his physician)!

Now, I’m not trying to convince anyone reading this to juice. Really. I just want to tell you how Matt and I have dealt with the health scare that we underwent. We used the fear as motivation to take a hard look at our habits. And making a positive change in our diets (by adding fresh juice to our day) makes us feel more in control of our healthy futures. Knowing you’re making good choices lessens fear about your own future. At least it’s working that way for us!