Eat This Not That

Do you ever get overwhelmed by all of the voices directing you to which diet is best.  Food can be downright confusing at times.

Recently I reached a place where I was just tired of it all.  Tired of trying to get it all figured out.  It started with this paranoia that I had done something wrong.  I was doing some research on baby food when I came across countless articles, testimonials etc. about how vegan fed babies really suffer and lack key nutrients only found in meat, dairy and eggs.  Some even died because of it!  Luckily we were just getting into the whole solid food stage, which is pretty much a vegan diet, but where were we to go from here?

I was reading everything I could, doing countless hours of research and feeling quite overwhelmed.  I was just tired of food in general.  Why was it the cause of so many problems?  Why do people get so passionate about it?  And who was I supposed to believe?

And then all of the sudden I became very aware of a fact that had been there all along...Food was never going to be perfect no matter what I ate, what diet I followed to a T or how strict I became.  And it all goes back to an incident that happened oh so long ago.  I don't think Eve would have ever had to worry about her figure or calories had in not been for that very wrong bite she took.  Food has always been to sustain us, and I think even to be enjoyed.  But in that one moment - it changed everything.

But just as we can find freedom from any sin that so easily insnares us, we can be liberated from the restraints that food has on us as well. It saddens me that so many people are suffering because of food.  It's no lie that it is one of the biggest factors actually killing Americans.  I come from a family riddled by obesity.  But that's not the only side of it.  In fact I think there are many sides to it.  People dealing with all kinds of eating disorders, and even being obsessed with all things healthy can be damaging.  But there is a choice in the matter.  A better way.  And that's what I'm choosing.

To continually trying to seek balance.  To fuel my body in the right way.  A balanced way.  For me it's a matter of keeping myself in check and not letting food become the place of my contentment, where I run to seek comfort.  Nor is it to be obsessive over health and become so fixated on it that it rules me.  I feel like I've always tried to be gracious towards others and the way they eat, but I wasn't being gracious with myself.

Just some food for thought.

Just Give It Time

Measurements:
Dominant Arm: 12 1/4 in.
Chest: 36 in.
Neck: 12 1/2 in.
Waist: 33 in.
1" Below Belly Button: 35 1/2 in.
Hips: 44 3/4 in.
Dominant Thigh: 25 in.
Dominant Calf: 15 1/2 in.

Pretty pumped to see a whole inch lost from my thighs, and an inch and quarter dropped from my hips! I thought they would never shrink back down, so Praise the Lord! HA!  Yes things have been slow but I know that I'm not where I used to be.  If only I had taken pictures right after I had Desmond...

I still feel like I have weight to lose.  I'm right around my "usual weight" pre-Desmond, but I still feel like I can keep going.  My measurements just aren't what they were.  So who knows...we'll see where things go.  I guess I have some new goals to dream up.  I'm just happy to say that I will have my baby weight off and have gotten back in shape by Desmond's 9th month of life and that feels really good.

The Cookbook Project

I'm not cool enough to have an offer from a publisher to adapt my own cookbook, but it doesn't mean I can't make one!  I saw a Pinterest post, of course, a while back about a woman who made a family cookbook and I instantly loved it!  (And here's the link if your interested too.)  Food has always been a passion of mine and though for a long time that was a bad thing in my life, I still love it, but this time in a different way.  A healthy way.  I just love what food does.  And mostly that's bring people together.  Nothing satisfies my soul more than to cook something for someone and see how much they enjoy it.  Sounds a little creepy, but I mean it in the best way possible.  haha

Pinterest has been both a good thing and a bad thing for me.  It's helped me to organize all of the recipes I had bookmarked or saved somewhere randomly on my browser, but it has also opened up a whole new world of finding recipes.  I love trying new things.  Sometimes they turn out ok, and some times they are out of this world crazy good.  Unfortunately I never remember them down the road.  And thus it comes time to plan out our weekly menu and I find myself at a loss of what to cook.  I hit Pinterest.  Browse for an hour.  Feel overwhelmed.  Whine to my husband.  And then I give up.  We regroup and I finally write down a few things and then we head to the store.  During the week I later find that I have written down too many complicated, time consuming recipes and I don't know which to cook!  It's no fun.  For anyone.  And we're all left frustrated and hungry.

So it's time to make some changes.  And there have been a few things I have done in the past month to make things better.  I'll talk about them more in depth in some following posts, but for now let's just get to a recipe.  We'll start simple.  My favorite cheezy topping.

Vegan Parmesan

Ingredients:
3/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup macadamia nuts
1/4 nutritional yeast
scant 1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
Throw all of the ingredients in your food processor and blend just enough to resemble a fine parmesan cheese.  Don't want things to go too far or you may have a cheesy nut butter...though that may not be an idea.  Just let it go for a bit and then pulse it a few times to get the right consistency.  It won't take long.

Use in place of parmesan cheese.  That means as a topping, in recipes, etc...it's a versatile staple in our house.

I looked at a lot of recipes, but I really like the combination of this one.  The macadamia nuts add a little somethin' somethin' to it that I'm quite fond of.

Yummy cheezy goodness!

Getting Back

I saw this poster on Angela's blog one day and instantly loved it.  Comparison robs us of so much of who we are.  Of who we were created to be.  That for sure can be said on so many levels of our lives, but sense this blog is mostly about health, let's talk about the physical.

While I think we should strive to be our best selves...there's a certain make-up to everyone that just can't be changed.  And even sometimes that make-up changes on its own whether we want it to or not, like with age...or having a baby.  Now I'm not one to preach self esteem.  I've come to the conclusion we really think too much of ourselves, but I do think we have to come to a place of accepting ourselves as God intended us to be.  And that comes by not focusing on ourselves, but focusing on Him and others.  But just like cars need frequent maintenance and tune-ups, we must treat our bodies the same if we want to keep them running and taking us where want to go.

I hit another set back this last week but in a different form.  I was doing awesome all week long. I made some diet changes, that I'll eventually get to, rocked out my Insanity workouts, and then boom!  Thursday I got a bad case of food poisoning.  I don't know if you've ever had it...but trust me, you don't want it.

As I lay in bed all weekend long, at first I was mad I couldn't work out.  I was doing so well.  Why did something have to come in the way again!?  And then something really tragic happened in our church, that totally crushed us and reshifted my focus.  All in all...it caused me to do a lot of thinking.  Since weight gain, and food can all be a real struggle for me, sometimes it can swing in the opposite direction and become an obsession.  Over the past few weeks I kept seeing all these programs promising "Bikini Body" results, and who wouldn't want that!?  I even talked to Jordan about looking into them to get even better results than I was seeing on my own.  I wanted to do more.  I wanted to be more.  But after this weekend I realized none of that really ultimate matters.  Yeah it makes me look good.  But there are people with deeper issues that could care less if I look good in a bikini.  That's not a requirement to helping them in their needs.

I'm not quitting, like I said above I think it's important, but I also think it's ok if I don't go Insane everyday because something happened that prevented a workout, or my kid woke up at 3am and I couldn't go back to sleep until 4:30 only to have him playing in his crib at 5:30 demanding to get up.  Life happens.  And through every season I think it takes evaluating where you are and what your current situation allows you to be capable of.

Weekly Weigh In: 164.2

I'm actually where I was when I went in for my first doctor's visit at 10 weeks with Desmond.  It was a few pounds up for me at the time, but I tend to yo-yo 5 pounds here and there.  

Overall I'm feeling really good at the present moment, but just know...I just couldn't commit to the time and energy Insanity required and I won't be posting any progress reports any time soon.  I'm still trying to figure out what a daily schedule looks like and with the ever roaming Desmond...it's hard.

I just gotta keep moving!

I Might Be the Worst Blogger

But there's someone who takes a lot of my attention and I love him for it.

I say this all the time...but I seriously don't know how some people do it!  I feel like I get done what I need to for the most part, but it's the "want to do" stuff that has been placed on the back burner a lot, which includes blogging, and I'm ok with that, most days.  I know this is just a season and I don't want to miss what's happening in my life because I was too busy writing about what's already done.  I'm still here though.  Still working hard.  And still committing to checking in when I can.

Weekly Weigh In: 167

I hope this is the last week that I'm reporting at a stand still or set back.  I would say life has been crazy lately...but even that doesn't seem like long enough!  Ha!  The past few years have definitely had their ups and downs and with all of the changes that have taken place, life has definitely been interesting.  But who wants boring?  Not me!  I will keep forging on.  Here's to a better week!    

The Days Are Not Always Victorious...

In fact sometimes they're just the pits.  Jordan and I have worked hard to write up a schedule for our family so we're all aware of what's going on and stick to it.  However, just like everyone, we have our bad days.  Life at the moment just seems tough.  No there is nothing majorly wrong.  And we don't really have much to complain about, but that doesn't mean it's all a cake walk either.

But I didn't come here to just air my dirty laundry.  Really I feel blessed to be in the position that I'm in.

Not that long ago, I felt God prodding me to step it up in my spiritual walk, just as I was doing in my physical workouts.  Around the time I started doing Insanity, I also took on the challenge to read my Bible in 90 days.  Cover to cover.

I didn't realize just how tough either one of these challenges was going to be.  I mean I knew they would be hard.  Require Commitment.  Discipline.  But being in week 2 of both tasks...I feel like I'm at the breaking point.  That point where you keep putting in the work even though it's hard and you wonder what in the world you got yourself into.  The point where you can feel the changes coming, but they're still a ways off.  The point where you know change is hard and requires staying power.

Talk about getting whipped into shape!

I haven't been perfect at either one.  I've missed days.  Lost my form.  And maybe even shed a tear or two.  But I'm not giving up, because I know what's ahead as long as I keep moving forward.

Things don't always come easy.  And we all require pruning.  I'm just gonna keep running the race.

Two Months In

Measurements:
Dominant arm: 12 1/2 in.
Chest: 36 1/2 in.
Neck: 12 1/2 in.
Waist: 33 1/2 in.
1" Below Belly Button: 36 in.
Hips: 46 in.
Dominant Thigh: 26 in.
Dominant Calf: 15 1/2 in.

Since I started back to blogging two months ago now, I've lost a total of 10.6 pounds.  Though according to my measurements I have lost nothing in my hips and thighs I do see a difference.  I know that I'm getting more toned and back in shape.  Unfortunately it remains to be true that where you gain weight first, is where it will take longer to get off.  But I'm not giving up.  And I'm happy for the progress because I'm better off than where I was.  Things may be slow going, but it's progress!