Racing Yellow Lights

I’ve developed a bad habit lately that I’m going to admit to you all, and that is racing the yellow lights. Instead of stopping like I should, I “go for it”. I think the city driving does it to me, but excuses aside, it’s still my fault.

I honestly didn’t stop and think too much about it until my husband and I were going out for supper one night, and a flash went off in an intersection. The light was yellow when I crossed the line, but turned red before I crossed through the other side. I wasn’t speeding, but I’m 50/50 whether it was me that got the ticket. Talk about reality check!

Yesterday, when I was running late for church (read previous post), I kept saying to myself that I would be a huge hypocrite if I were to arrive at church on time, but broke the law to do it, whether it be through speeding or running yellow lights. So I didn’t speed, and I watched the lights.

One light specifically was at the point that I may have made it through on the yellow, but I also may not have. I was just about to “go for it” but decided I should do what is right and stop. I kid you not, I don’t know if the other direction got a chance to go or not before the light had already switched to green again. I’d like to think God was rewarding me for my good decision. Even better was that this type of thing happened twice! Usually, I sit and sit waiting for lights to change, but to have them change that quickly? It was a miracle.

I need to be a good citizen, of both Heaven and earth. There are things I need to work on, and this happens to be one of them. Even if I don’t think cops or cameras are looking, God still sees everything and I need to hold myself accountable.

Do you have any little bad habits you need to fix? I’d love to hear what they are below!

Day 12 – An Unplanned Write-Off

This morning I woke up so dehydrated! So right away, knowing I caused damage last night, I drank some water.

But problems started right at breakfast. I actually tried to sit down and eat this red papaya I had. I noticed it smelled a little funny when I cut it open, but went on to eat it anyways. The very first bite, I spit out within two seconds. I don’t know what happened to this papaya, so of course I went looking for something else. I didn’t really feel like eating after the awfulness of last night, but of course, I want that stuff out of my house, then rationalized that I couldn’t waste all that money, so I finished last night’s leftovers. Awful, terrible, don’t even want to talk about it. The biggest key to success is to not even bring it in the house. I’ve gotta learn!

At the gym, I went for a gruelling 35 minute stationary bike ride. I kept raising the difficulty every two minutes and it took so much work. I was so happy when I was finally finished the last 10 minutes. I was beginning to think I should lower the level, but I managed to stick it out! I was so thirsty and drank a ton of water when I was done. But I was happy.

I finished my workout with some lunge stretches, walking high kicks, and my chiropractor’s exercises. It felt good to get things done in the morning for sure.

I don’t even want to speak about my lunch, but to be accountable, I must. Remember those brownies from last night? Well, let’s just say they got finished, topped with some vegan coconut milk yogurt. I should have just eaten the yogurt, but I can officially say all the junk is out of my house again. I just feel awful and need to get to the point of throwing stuff out rather than risking my health, and not ordering it in the first place. It’s back on the proper mental train.

Or… let’s just add fuel to the fire. My husband and I eventually got ready and headed into town. We’re due for our weekly groceries, and he had no food to really eat left. So we stopped to get him food. Instead of not getting anything like I should have, I did make a vegan decision, but a bad decision as far as eating when I wasn’t hungry. I had a green onion cake, and I would have been just fine if I hadn’t had it. Ugh… The moral of all of this is just stop. Just don’t indulge in things you KNOW are going to make you feel awful. It starts a huge train wreck that you have to try and reset yourself from. Learn from my terrible, bloating, sick-feeling, stomach-turning mistakes. I have not done my job in taking care of my body.

So, I’d like to say the rest of the day finally went better. To some minor extent, it did. But honestly, I snacked on Veggie Chips, organic limeade, and that’s about it. I was going to make baked bananas, but found out I had forgotten I was out of tin foil.

Today was a bad day, and a prime example of why the avoidance of eating junk is so important. Because I ate so badly all day, I had huge cravings for candy tonight. That’s a sure sign that I did not eat enough fruit today (or any) and it’s just a wreck. I’m thinking of doing a completely raw couple of days to help flush out my system. Let’s see if I have the mental power to do it!

Why Go Vegan?

Hello everyone!

This is a huge decision, as you can imagine. I want to explain myself as to why I’m choosing this venue. Let me explain my history.

My father was very young when his family went from Quebec to New Brunswick. Speaking little to no English, they struggled for awhile to because accustom to the new province. My grandfather was a woodsmen complete with a team of horses and later big machinery. My father quit school after grade 9 to work with my grandfather. And so the lifestyle of “meat and potatoes” began. Whatever they shot was their meat, and whatever my grandmother grew in the garden was their produce. A very simple, carnivorous life.

Naturally, I grew up eating A LOT of meat. Not because we didn’t go shopping, but I was still a hunter’s daughter, and meat was a regular, every-meal thing. When I was young, it would be no big deal for me to sit down to a pound of bacon myself. It’s a miracle I wasn’t obese!

When I met my first vegetarians in grade 8, I was amazed. This concept that I believed to only belong to celebrities belonged to real life people! I was the only vegetarian in my area, and the lack of knowledge was evident in a quick trip to a hospital with extensive stomach pains. The doctor then informed me of some vital nutrition I was missing, and instead of telling me to eat meat again, told me some vital vegetables I needed to be sure I ate daily.

I was vegetarian for around 10 years. I quit meat cold turkey. My grandfather of course was convinced I was going to die, and was continuously trying to feed me meat. My only family was shocked, but my grandmother on my mother’s side, who has always had an interest in health, was happy. She basically went vegetarian with me! (She never was much of a meat eater).

When I met my husband, he was vegetarian and had been his whole life. My university graduation had led my brother to convince my future husband to try the “real stuff”. From then on, he was hooked.

Eventually, it was the smell of beef jerky that won me back. That smell in my very house all over again won me in. In fact, it opened up the whole new realm of macro counting with my interest in fitness peaking too. With the high levels of protein “needed”, it seemed as if I couldn’t survive without meat. And so I ate meat again for roughly 4 years.

Now, I’ve done so much research. And to keep it short, there is so much evidence that a plant-based diet is the way to go. I would like to think of myself as “getting back to the basics”, naturally. The world of fitness and diet will continuously battle itself. All information can be conflicting. But nothing can deny the way you feel both mentally, physically, and spiritually. Mentally, I’m not hating my food, I’m not worried about going over my “macros”, and I’m not worried about having to stop myself from eating while still feeling like I’m starving. Physically, I feel better. I don’t have to worry about eliminating things to figure out what’s wrong with my body, I get to look forward to younger, more flawless skin. And spiritually, I can feel good about being accountable for selecting the best foods that I can. I can also feel good about my choice not to inflict pain on animals that I myself could not kill. If I couldn’t do it, why do I take part in the process at all?

Some things I’m going to be doing are:
-Trying to buy as much organic as I can
-Continuing my workouts
-Drinking 3L of water a day
-Learning more about, and sticking to food combining rules
-Cutting processed sugar 95%
-Eating mostly fruit until supper
-Eating raw 90% of the time
-Eating until I’m full!

I will keep you posted on my journey! I’m excited for this new phase 🙂

Week 12 Day 4

Today was one of those days I kind of wish I hadn’t gotten out of bed. The school day seemed to be going alright, until the afternoon hit and it seemed like I was dealing with discipline problems left and right, and not just the kind that can be given consequences and be done with, the kind that require higher input. It’s days like this that I feel like a failure of a teacher. I can honestly say that I suffer along with them. But I know I must do what I can to help them become accountable and responsible, and sometimes that means learning the hard way. I pray for only good things to be the outcome.

After being stressed all day, we had our third tutoring session after school. Today seemed to go pretty smoothly. The principal came down to see how the program was running and she seemed to be impressed. So that was a good thing.

After tutoring concluded, I was finally able to talk to the principal about the things that happened today, and finally able to go home. I was frazzled and not really wanting to do anything. I simply laid on the bed for quite awhile, until my husband came upstairs and we were able to just talk. That helped immensely.

We finally mustered up all the energy we had left, and went to the gym. My mind was not in this workout at all. And to top it off, it was a leg workout, the one that requires the most energy. I somehow made it through because I knew I needed to. But I simply was not mentally there. There are too many thoughts and too many bad feelings right now. And with that, I didn’t even think about cardio, and simply went home, ready to eat and go to bed.

3-Day Refresh: Day 2 Review

Well, day 2 was hard. It’s hard to watch the people you live with eat things that you crave… ugh.

However, there is no denying the amazing feeling your body has. It’s so difficult to describe other than it just feels right! Like there are no digestion problems, your body is acting properly, my workouts were still solid, and veggies are super appreciated. 

I still haven’t come up with that magical flavouring to make the Vanilla Fresh taste good, so I’m just chugging to get it down. (Can’t wait to be done drinking those!!)

At this point, my biggest advice is to get your mind set right! If you’re not holding yourself accountable, you won’t make it. Get that brain out of your tastebuds and into your body’s feelings. You’ll feel amazing, but those tastebuds will scream. So tell them to back off, and drink tonnes of water.

Fight those bad cravings!

Day 3, here I go!

3-Day Refresh: Day 1

How many of you have heard about the 3-day Refresh by Beachbody? Well, I checked it out, and was happy with what I saw. Yes, it can be used as a kickstart weight loss, but that’s not why I’m interested. I’m interested because it’s all natural, helps your digestion, super healthy, and helps kick and end bad habits. And what have I been doing the past 2 weeks? Vacationing and eating mostly what I wanted. Time to kick that out!

So today is day 1 of the Refresh. So far, I had a bottle of water upon wakening, and now just finished my vegan chocolate Shakeology package (really not bad in terms of flavour and excellent texture), and about to eat my 12 strawberries (you have your choice of fruit).

Incase you don’t know a ton about it, the 3-Day Refresh is a regimented plan of veggies, fruit and healthy fats, also aided with a fibre drink, Shakeology and Vanilla Fresh shakes. It’s a plan where you can still get your protein, but flush out some of those nasty toxins in your body and reset your body closer to optimum function. It is a low calorie meal plan of approximately 900 calories per day, but again, I don’t recommend using it just for weight loss. The nutrition punch you get, especially from the Shakeology each day is phenomenal.

The amount of focus on feeling the changes in your body and the focus on drinking water is also incredibly important for me as I’m not a natural water drinker. I basically have to tell myself to drink water, and essentially forget it or neglect it most days. So for a plan that holds me accountable, and a focus on drinking water when you’re hungry, this plan is great for me.

I’m going to keep you posted on how I feel, what changes I’ve noticed, and what I conclude about this Refresh. Stay posted!