Why God?

I wish I could accurately describe what my life has been like the past while. However, no matter how hard I try, I cannot come up with a truly accurate description. The best I can do is tell you that …

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!

Fat Loss Pills – Let’s Get Serious!

Ok. I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about this before, but that doesn’t stop the convincing ads you see in magazines and on tv, and that surely doesn’t stop people from buying them. So I’m going to talk about them one more time, and explain my experience with the last weight loss pills I tried.

Why am I against weight loss pills? Simply because they don’t work. Diuretics may work, but that is simply causing you to lose water weight, not actual fat. There are some carb blocking pills and hunger reducing pills, but why are you starving your body of the nutrients it needs? People end up spending way too much money on these “miracle pills” only to end up wasting their money because they simply don’t work.

Now, there are also very expensive, powerful weight loss pills that can work, but I will tell you one thing for certain: it is going to be very hard on your body!

My sister bought one of these very powerful weight loss pills, and she ended up having consistent nightmares and barely being able to sleep. The pills were just short of giving her hallucinations. Definitely not a good sign.

I bought a weight loss pill from the states (I’ve tried many brands before), but these were supposed to be powerful enough that you can only take one capsule a day. You know what the pills did? I didn’t lose weight. Instead, my throat burned like a hole was forming in it. It didn’t matter if I took the pill with food, or what I drank with it, this one simple pill a day was strong enough to burn my throat and irritate me for the full day. I even tried taking it every other day. But same results. I didn’t even finish the bottle.

So ladies and gentlemen, before you go out and buy all of these weight loss supplements and fat loss pills, please just consider that healthy and balanced eating mixed with some type of exercise each day is the healthiest way to go. No pill is going to be healthy for you, and it’s definitely not going to do the job that healthy eating and exercise can do. Put in the work and be proud of the body you create. Don’t harm it out of desperation to look a certain way. There are enough things in this world that harm us already.

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 🙂

From a Walker to Being Energetic??

I know this has been a big thing for me lately, but the more I encounter people who have amazing, almost miracle stories, all from the same product, it grabs my attention.

My grandfather suffered from a type of Leukemia a few years ago. He went from being an energetic, very talkative man to a weak, frail body. Although his cancer went into remission, it left his body extremely weak with barely an immune system at all.

A year ago he was in the hospital. My father never cries, and yet when he called, I could tell he was crying. It wasn’t that my grandfather was in the hospital, but the news from the doctors was not good. He had received a simple cold from someone, and it had developed into pneumonia (lack of immune system), and as he was in his 70s, his body was getting hit hard. At one point, they transferred him to the cardiac unit. Hope was running low.

With much daily prayer, and trying to contact him each day in the hospital, my grandfather managed to bring about his willpower and beat the pneumonia and ended up going home. I will never cease thanking God for his recovery. My grandfather is an amazing man.

This winter (Canadian winters are so bad), my grandfather ended up walking with a walker. Tired, energy-less and weak are words that pretty much describe his state. A man that LOVES to sit a visitor down and talk their ear off could barely manage to hold a whole conversation for lack of energy. And in a walker? Simply not good.

This coffee infused with ganoderma extract was introduced to my grandfather only a couple months ago. My grandfather quit drinking his normal coffee and completely switched to this. And this is the part that amazes me.

My father called me a few days ago excited and just spilling out the story to me. They had gone to visit a cousin that hadn’t seen in years. My dad was shocked at the size of her house (nobody in our family has particularly had a lot of money). He was describing how it was on a hill, had 10 steps alone to the front door, was a split level meaning there were stairs to the upstairs and down, and another floor on top. My Dad was worried about my grandfather feeling left out not being able to explore the house for lack of energy.

But not only did my grandfather come without his walker, but he also walked EVERY INCH of that house! My dad couldn’t believe his eyes. I couldn’t believe my ears. My dad was even still skeptical about the change, even though he’s the one that gave the coffee to him. And my grandfather and grandmother simply told him that the only thing they had changed was the coffee they drank. That was the ONLY thing.

Can you imagine. One simple change. Really, it’s just an exchange. Healthy coffee instead of the other. And yet so many health benefits and boosts that it’s just unbelievable.

And the best part is, this is just one story, one story that hits me close to home because it’s someone I know and love. Someone that means the world to me. And if this one change can cause such a huge difference in this 70+ year old man, what might it do for someone you know?

I know we’re all scared to try new things, but this is something so amazing, something like I’ve never seen before. And yet it’s something so simple, a change you don’t have to remember because you do it already.

Seriously, let me know if you’re interested. The damage from life is bad enough, why not do the best you can to stay your youngest as long as possible.

And… A Sudden Twist!

Ok, so after the car failure the last time, I have not wanted to drive the car. Unfortunately, that has grounded me to my house and not allowed me to really do the workouts I liked doing at the gym.

Tonight, I came home from work, only to find that my husband had checked the vehicle and it had started with no problems! He let it run a bit, turned it off, and repeated the cycle a couple of times. Not a problem. It’s as if I didn’t have to fear my whole “plane is going to crash” episode.

So after settling the fact that the car was fine in my mind, we decided to test it out by going to the gym (10-15 minute drive max.). I felt like the car was “lagging” a little, but after sitting for a week, I figured this could be normal. And aside from the car telling me we were low on windshield washer fluid, nothing was flashing or “dinging” at me from the dash. It was so nice.

And let me tell you, I instantly felt rejuvenated with energy, happiness, and almost a sense of power when I got in the gym. Oh it felt so good to be back in the gym after almost a week! I put on my ipod, put on some motivating tunes, and hit the assisted pull-up machine. Wide grip, struggled through 50 pull-ups at a much higher assisted weight than I would have liked, but it felt so good to conquer them! Then on to 2 sets of v-bar pulldowns, 2 sets of barbell rows, 2 sets of barbell wrist curls and 2 sets of dumbbell wrist curls. Oh I felt so good! And then doing 15 minutes of HIIT on the treadmill was absolutely amazing.

I can remember when I started working out, I could not run for the life of me! Aside from the short bursts of running the one year I played on a basketball team, and the little bit of running we had to do in physical education class, I never ran… ever! So when I found out how good HIIT was for weight loss, I groaned and complained quite a bit. It was so hard on me! I felt like puking, like falling over, and like my lungs were completely dried out and busted up. And that was only after 10 minutes! Now I’m running faster, doing it for 15 minutes, and loving it! It’s amazing how you can train your own body to go farther than you ever imagined!

This is how I felt leaving the gym. Reunited with a passion, conquering it, and loving every minute of it!

So here I am, getting my post-workout shake as I’m leaving the gym, with the biggest smile on my face! I felt empowered and so excited and even fulfilled to be back in the gym. My “miracle” car was working again, I could start going to the gym again, I felt amazing after working out in the gym again, life was good.

However… enter the twist.

Driving home, car was pretty good… until… the ever too familiar battery light came on again. Ugh… Instead of like last time where everything came on one at a time and gave me time to freak out about each new light and each new “ding”, everything came at once! As soon as I noticed the lights starting to dim, just like last time, everything started going at once. And before I know it, there was no time to freak out. The lights were pretty much gone, my car was slowing despite how much I pushed on the gas pedal, and I had no break lights let alone emergency lights. Oh how I hate living in the city for this reason. Cars were flying by me, one almost hitting me. Luckily, after the one vehicle almost hit me while passing me, the road was clear for a distance behind me, and I was able to pull off of the main road onto a very quiet side road. I parked right beside an Apple Auto Glass. Now the funny thing is, I could see our usual car repair shop from where I was. We were literally one road too early. Of course the car could not wait until then.

I tried to recall the amount of towing calls I had placed with my current AMA card (due in September), and let’s just say, this was my second last one. After that, each tow would be regular fees. Well, guess that’s the end of me driving this car. Who knows how many times it would need a tow. After some thought, since we bought this car, less than a year ago, we have towed it 3 times. Unbelievable.

So the AMA tow truck came within 10ish minutes, loaded the car up, and upon our request, drove us and the car home. We’re pretty sure the problem is the alternator, aside from the other things we know are wrong with the car, add to that the price increase of it being an Audi, and the ever famous cost of mechanics. I just am not sure I can put another penny into this car right now. So the decision to bring it home at least meant that it was out of the way, more or less, and we wouldn’t have to pay for a tow or use the last tow to drag it home after finding the costly amount of the car from the mechanic.

This is basically what our car looks like. Top of the line when it came out in 1999…

*sigh* What a night. Sometimes I feel as if life is most certainly a roller coaster. Maybe that is how it was invented. People talked about the “highs” and the “lows” of life: the anticipation of what will happen on the upward climb, and the screaming and fear on the downward slide. Of course people are usually happy by the end, have another experience under their belt, and are all the wiser to give advice to others who may be considering that same ride. That’s what I’m choosing to do about this situation. Buying this car was a ridiculous choice, but honestly, I am so thankful it has gotten us through the winter with its AWD, and was such a good car for the horrible roads. I do not regret having it, I just wish so badly it would hold together a little better. There comes a point in time when you just have to decide to let some things go and go to the better things that are waiting. I have no car in mind, but I know the search begins for a cheap but reliable vehicle just to get by for awhile.

No one can ever say that life has a dull moment. You just have to choose to make the best of each moment you’re given, and learn as many lessons as you can. Keep the lessons, and walk forward with hopes of a better future. You never know what may be in store for you!