theadaptive.org

Hello,

Did you know you can take some college courses for free or a small fee depending on if you want to be able to put it on your resume?

Since April 2012, Computer Science Professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University have been busy so that the rest of us could have access to some of the best educational courses out there. There are other options out there, but I tested out Coursera first.

Naturally, I was curious, after I heard about Coursera for the first time in mid 2015 from my 60 year old mother (She’s not your typical 60 year old) I knew I had to take a few courses for myself… for free!

Being a mother of three boys who know how to eat, eat, eat. I started all of my children off on fully organic, homegrown, homemade, home cooked, vegetables because don’t we all know by now that if you start them out on fruit that they are more likely to crave sweet over other more nutritious foods and that those pre made baby food jars aren’t the healthiest option?

I am an Entrepreneur, having once run a successful blog for a few years back in the early 2010’s, and I am currently studying at my own pace to become a Yoga instructor, while starting a non-profit.

Who knows how true it is, but I once heard it takes 10 years to master anything, so I’m in the year of mastering this be-otch… called nutrition!

If you’ve read my post on how I kicked a few health issues then you understand that it had been a love/hate relationship. Why can’t I eat chocolate covered cherries all day and feel like a billion bucks? Well, it turns out not all food is created equal and that our bodies can be screaming at us and if we don’t know what to listen for (say, if no one taught us or maybe we are too stubborn to listen).

I realized late in life that I knew nothing about nutrition. I was 6 months pregnant with my first son and I wanted whatever I wanted and had been told by most every passer-bye-er that I was so lucky I would get to eat whatever I wanted.

Those ARE the words every pregnant women wants to hear. Because all of a sudden your sexy, sleek, curves, are bulgy and swollen and you can’t tell if you want to laugh, cry, or throw up. I call that time in my life my own version of the Wonder Years.

I think back and wonder why I thought the things I did. I understand that I had never learned what kind of foods were really good for me. I knew to eat vegetables, but I didn’t know how to make them delicious yet and the phrase “I can eat whatever I want.” Kept creeping in my head.

Eating whatever I wanted at the time was hindered by our bank account at the time so my go-to consisted of, some of you may want to close your eyes, but McDonalds and a Coke. I was totally hooked. I needed that Big Mac and caffeine.

Now, knowing what I know, it was the MSG, corn syrup, salt, partially hydrogenated oils, etc. that kept me coming back for more. I wasn’t just hooked. I was addicted. Mostly to the coke I found out later. Interestingly enough, when I wanted to know why I had this addiction, I asked my family I found out my oldest sister takes the cake.

Back in the days of siblings being the only baby sitters available, my 11 years my senior sister, was too tired to get me the water I was begging for. So, she handed her baby sister her coke to quiet her.

Now, you have to understand that I don’t blame anyone else for my problems (at least when they can hear me ; ) so I bucked up and was bound and determined to find out more about our food system. This started in 2006 and I have been studying everyday since and now have plans to potentially become a Holistic Health Practitioner. If I do this it will be AFTER I raise my triplets (No, they’re not really triplets).

So you want to know what I learned from my Free Stanford course? Not much, But that was the best part! The instructor was so impressive! She knew what I already knew… But I expected it to be a food pyramid, laughable nutrition course because that has been my experience my whole life.

I was delighted to find out I was wrong on my expectations. Realizing that I would never have had access to this amazing course if it wasn’t for Cousera, I told as many people as I could about it. I didn’t need to know the info in the course, but I needed to know that the course was worthy, I guess. It is worthy.

I had spent the last 10 years gathering a lot of the info she laid out in 5 weeks. So if your looking for some learning short cuts, you can look on Coursera or one of the many other online schools popping up.
I don’t think it should be so difficult to obtain a job that pays a very generous wage. It should fully be expected and the norm that everyone be healthy, happy, kind, motivated, friendly, generous. I understand that the biggest problem starts with the Giant wealth gap between the 1% and the rest of us. Let’s not forget we’re all in this together.

Hope you make your day amazing,

-Holly

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera]