Be The Example!

This past weekend, I was invited to a little girl’s birthday party. This little girl is the daughter of a very good friend of mine, so I was invited to the family dinner party as an honourable “Aunty.” Of course …

Smoothie Day – Healing Journey Day 29

Journal:
This morning started out well. I was able to sleep in and even upon waking up, didn’t have to rush to go anywhere. We had until 2:00 to check out of our hotel room which – even though we didn’t stay that long – was really nice.

After showering, packing up, and leaving the hotel, we went and got some breakfast/lunch. We went back to the smoothie place we had yesterday and I got the same Marathon Smoothie but with a bit of a tweak: I asked for less ice and added pineapple juice. It was so much better today.

After driving to my mother-in-law’s house, we stopped at a local supplement store that also sells smoothies in house. So I ordered a custom smoothie that was simply water, frozen bananas, and frozen berries. This one did not taste so great, but I ate it anyway.

For a few hours in the afternoon, I visited with my mother-in-law and took a nap. I woke up in time to get ready for church and make a small smoothie before we left. This time I made a smoothie with two bananas and about a cup of raspberries. This one was pretty good.

Church was ok. The sermon was good, but the music beforehand involved a mini-rock concert that I felt was definitely not the time nor place; I actually felt like it took away from the service. The praise team leader was jumping all around the stage with his guitar, head banging the whole time, and encouraging the drummer to always play louder. Sometimes, the drumming took over the whole music so that if it wasn’t for the words on the screens, I wouldn’t have had any idea what they were singing. It honestly was a bit much.

After church, we had a bit of a surprise: My mother-in-law took us out for a late supper. When she asked where I would like to go, instead of saying my usual, “Oh it doesn’t matter to me at all.”, I requested Chilli’s right away. The reason being, is that this small town that she lives in does not have a “restaurant” that serves smoothies. Not one at all. And instead of completely blowing this smoothie day again, I knew that Chilli’s has a salad that they put a lot of fruit in. And out of all the restaurants in town, it’s the only one I know I could still eat raw at and eat fairly light. Guys, I told you… it’s back to being dedicated!! I know it wasn’t a smoothie, but it was the best case situation. And even though I knew it wouldn’t fill me up, I was sticking with my game plan.

So at Chilli’s, I ordered the Caribbean salad. It contains greens (including spinach), pineapple, mandarin oranges, dried cranberries, red bell peppers, green onions, cilantro and sesame seeds topped with some lime. I then added some slices of avocado to it. Oh it was so good! I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though, as I predicted, it did not fill me up.

Following supper, my husband and his mother stopped at Cold Stone for ice cream. Did I fall for this stop? Nope. I waited until I got home to make a smoothie.

For the smoothie that ended off my day of eating, I blended two bananas, a cup of raspberries and five deglet dates. The deglet noor dates are actually my favourite, though they seemed less sweeter than the ones I usually get in Canada which is surprising. But, I am happy to say that I stuck with raw foods today, primarily being smoothies. I am getting back on track!

Review of Symptoms:
-Tongue still clean in the morning (surprising!).
-Didn’t feel so well after eating all of those salted chips last night and such high fat.
-Was nice to eat out with family and still stick to raw foods.
-Smoothies are not so sweet without added sugar so definitely looking forward to moving past the smoothie stage though I think I’m going to be doing smoothies for a little longer as my full smoothie days hasn’t really been a “thing” lately.
-Digestion is top notch when I’m NOT eating cooked foods. There is definitely a difference.

Weight at the end of the day = 178 lbs (down 0.6 lbs from two days ago)

Total Calories = approx. 1719 (85% carbs, 12% fat, 3% protein)

Dry Fasting – Healing Journey Day 1

Journal:
Today was the first day and let me tell you, it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be! I have never dry fasted before, so this was a completely new experience.

For those who don’t know what dry fasting is, it’s abstaining from the consumption of food and liquids, including water. There is absolutely nothing but the air you breathe entering your body. Yes, it can be quite intense and no, it is not something that you can do for a long time.

There are some dry fasting extremists who even avoid brushing their teeth and showering, but I have chosen not to go that route as I use a very natural, clay toothpaste and shower with only water so I believe that is all apart of the cleansing state I’m trying to be in.

I quit eating around 7:00 last night. I was full from supper – a root veggie burger with corn – and though I planned on stuffing myself before falling asleep, I was so tired from my first week back to work that I crashed and didn’t get around to eating anything else.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty normal. I walked the dog, was on the computer for a bit, then got up and got ready to go to church.

Church went well; I always enjoy singing worship songs and the sermon was excellent as well.

After church, they had a fellowship meal in the hall. Yes, there was lots of good food, but just by going around and talking with different people that I knew, I was able to stay away from the food fairly easily. Thirst had not yet set in either so this didn’t really seem like a big deal to me.

After talking with almost everyone I was happy to see, I came home to the smell of garlic bread and lasagna – two of my favourite foods. Although I knew I wouldn’t be bothered to eat them because they were not made vegan, the thought of food did enter my mind. However, I must say that it wasn’t too hard to continue battling food at this moment. I was even offered vegan food to be made for me, but thankfully, my housemates have a baby so I was able to trade off by saying that I would take care of the baby while they ate and to not worry about a thing. There was even pumpkin pie and homemade peach sorbet but I managed to keep busy with the baby while only starting to notice hunger creeping in.

After a couple hours when the food was put away, I was invited to a church corn boil and potato roast. I was encouraged to come out to get to know some of the younger adults in the church so I took the opportunity to socialize, but knew I’d be confronted with food that would be perfectly delicious in a hungry state. However, I was determined to not allow the fasting to ruin my life and to get rid of the hold of food, so I still decided to go.

I had a good time overall. I got to meet some awesome new people and connect with people I haven’t seen in a long time. The corn was freshly harvested the day before as well as the potatoes. There was a cucumber salad, juices, lemon water, and cookies for dessert. Many times I was eyeing the food, but again, kept myself busy socializing with other people. By the time the sun began to set and we had a beautiful Vespers service, I knew I had gotten through without food or water successfully.

After I finally got home for the evening, I was hungry but not so bad that I was going crazy. Before too long, I came to bed and went to sleep.

Review of day and symptoms:
Overall, this honestly was a fairly easy day. I managed to dodge 3 food-related social situations by keeping myself busy talking with other people and taking care of the baby. I don’t feel bad at all besides the minor hunger and have been surprised that my energy has kept up all day. I consider this day an absolute success.

Weight at the end of day 1 = 188.8 lbs.

Total Calories = 0

When You Know You’re In The Right Place

I had an amazing experience yesterday and I thought I’d share it with you all as some of you may be blessed by something similar to what I was.

I went to a church that I’m definitely not a stranger to. I went there all the time as a youth, knew the senior pastor well, and have been teaching for a few years with the pastor’s wife. There are two churches in my city that I consider “home”, and this is one of them. I still go there every so often. But yesterday seemed so different.

When everything was going against me, and the devil truly was trying to distract me as much as possible so I wouldn’t make it to church, I was embarrassed  to find out I was almost 10 minutes late. I hate being late. And so naturally, I was down on myself for not making it there on time. But when I went through the front doors, the greeter who was trying to pay attention to the song service, raced right over, gave me such a welcoming greeting, and offered me a bulletin. I know the greeters are normally nice, but it seemed a little extra today.

I then went over to the doors to enter the sanctuary and a man raced over saying, “Let me get the doors for you.” Wow! Talk about such friendly service today.

I then went and sat down by myself. The row in front of me was full. I was thankful I hadn’t missed all of song service because it’s my favourite part. I seem to connect with Christ the best with worship music. There’s just something about a whole congregation of people coming together to sing praises to God.

Worship service concluded, the sermon proceeded, and everything went well. But it was after closing prayer, as everyone was getting up to leave, that the man directly in front of me turned around and told me what a beautiful voice I had. He waited throughout the entire sermon to tell me that! But to make matters even more special, let me give you a little background.

Someone very close to me used to love hearing me sing. I am definitely a person who needs encouraging words, and so when someone says that kind of thing to me, it means a lot. The past couple years, this person has gone so far as to tell me to stop singing and that I ruin music when I sing along to it. There’s been a lot of hurt over it, but as per everything else, I just learn to deal with it.

Now fast forward to the first person in years, a complete stranger, who took the time and effort to tell me I had a beautiful singing voice. Can you imagine how refreshing that was for me to hear? I almost cried. But instead all I could do is say the biggest thank you. Truly, despite being late, despite the devil trying to prevent me from going to church, church was truly the right place for me to be. ❤

Day 4

We slept for as long as we wanted; it was so nice! I love the weekends where we don’t have to wake up according to an alarm clock. They’re so nice!

This morning was bad. My husband hadn’t put away the stuff from pizza last night, and I had a sip of Coke Zero, and the rest of the cinnamon sticks. I felt awful, the sugar in my throat (or cinnamon, or both) was actually choking me (hence the drink of Coke Zero), and it was just a mess. I wished I hadn’t done it as soon as I had done it.

For a pre-workout snack, I had a vegetarian wrap and a fresh juice made from beets, carrots and apples. If you’ve never juiced beets before, you need to. I love the flavour and texture it gives the juice. Yum! However, it is recommended that you don’t drink liquids and eat food together. I think I felt this a bit. I felt extremely full and slightly uncomfortable.

My workout went well. I did some squats, lunges, push-ups, lateral raises, and of course my chiropractor exercises.

For a late lunch, I ate 4 mangos. I really don’t know why I was feeling so full today, but that junk food really didn’t help. My body was “off”!

I had to rush to leave for a presentation that my students were doing for a crowd of 1800 people! They sang in the choir and gave an awesome concert. What I didn’t expect was the concert to take an hour, (we were there already an hour early to practice), the sermon to take about an hour and a bit, and the baptisms to be quite so many, but praise God! It was all amazing! I love seeing people give their hearts to God, and to praise with all of their hearts for God. A spectacular night, all 4 1/2 hours of it! Can you imagine how much I was starving?

I had promised my husband a date night, and since I was in a rush to get home, I actually ended up taking two detours, one out of our own city! Needless to say I was later than I said I was going to be. I even called ahead and have him get ready and meet me outside. Somehow, we made it in time and even had a fairly empty theatre. But that of course meant my supper was some popcorn, candy, and some Fanta Orange Pop. Not a supper I recommend. But by the time we got home (1:00 a.m.), I was too tired, and still full so I got ready and went to bed.

Tomorrow needs to be a better day…

Week 11 Day 3

I battled between being mentally happy and mentally unhappy in regards to missing my workout last night. However, I decided to remember my body needed some rest to recover. There was just no way I was going to miss the gym tonight!

School went well. We started watching one of my favourite video sermon series by Louie Giglio, where he shows the grandeur of God in comparison to astronomy. It’s absolutely amazing and I highly recommend it!

We were supposed to finish our Planets presentations today, but instead only completed 5. Unfortunately, these were students that did not put as much time into their presentations as others, and we had to have a conversation about plagiarism, as most of the students were stumbling over the words on their presentations, some words more sophisticated than I would use in our Science study. This unfortunately made for a long end of the day.

Following the end of school, the teachers quickly dismissed and met at Moxie’s to celebrate one of our coworker’s upcoming wedding. It was a great time of just getting away from work, being able to socialize and celebrate. As usual, I looked up the food before I went. I couldn’t believe how much fat was in EVERYTHING at the restaurant! I did find a side menu they had to give healthy hints. So I followed one of the healthy hints, and ordered the fish tacos with grilled fish instead of fried, and had a small green salad as my side. This restaurant did seem to be pretty compliant with anything you requested of them, so in that way it was very nice.

After quite a bit of extra time (oops), we came back to the school, and I waited for my husband to come get me. He hadn’t had time to finish my car because he was putting his new mirrors on his truck! It’s so exciting to have mirrors again, and not just new mirrors, but brand new tow mirrors that he got for a third of the price since they were considered new after someone had purchased them and then exchanged them. It is my suspicion that God knew ahead of time our mirror would be broken, and provided these incredible mirrors just for us. I love a God that can see ahead.

I don’t know if it was the rush of trying to get some things caught up at work or what, but my eyes bothered me really badly today. They were watering, painful, almost doing that blurry thing they sometimes do, and I had to resort to wearing my glasses for the first time in two months. So when I went home, and could sit and be mentally awake, but physically had to close my eyes, my husband told me to go rest in bed while he made his food, ate, and changed the battery in my car. He didn’t have to tell me twice today. My eyes had said enough.

When he woke me up, I did not want to get up. In fact, it was the last thing I wanted to do. But I knew I had to workout. I couldn’t miss again. So somehow, with my husband’s persistence, I made it out of bed and got changed to go to the gym.

I had a coffee, which helped some. But I was just plain tired.

I had a back workout tonight, and I cannot contain how happy I am. My weights keep rising every week, my strength is increasing all the time. I’m so in love with my body’s reaction right now. No, I’m not seeing the fat necessarily disappear like I’d like. No, my clothes don’t fit me as loose as I’d like. But the number on the scale is not rising either! In fact, it has been in the exact same place for at least two weeks. And for someone who hasn’t been counting macros, and instead have just been listening to my body’s needs, that’s amazing!

Someday I will cut again to get rid of the fat, but for now, I will go to bed content that my body is the strongest it has ever been, and perhaps the healthiest as well. My mental state is in one of the best places it has ever been and my relationship with food is one where food no longer controls me (for the most part). And that’s much better to me in this moment. I’m happy.

Week 9 Day 7

Man, today I feel good! I woke up feeling amazing. In fact, I jumped right out of bed, walked the dogs, did some laundry, picked up some things around the house, was even going to dishes after I ate a hearty breakfast, but my husband woke up and so we got ready to go to church first.

At church, we had such an amazing sermon about true villains and heros, comparing the story of Ahab, Jezebel, Naboth and Elijah. It was about how we so easily pick out every else’s problems, yet we have enough of our own to fix. He mentioned how if you look throughout history, God did not keep people from making their own choices, but He did warn them about choices they made; that they would have to face the consequences of their choice. And yet, how truly in the end, we are the villains, the ones who do not deserve to live, the ones who are almost drawn to the bad things of this world, and how Jesus is the only true hero. It was so well presented. This pastor is still in training, not quite done his university career and yet he is so talented, so gifted. I’m so glad we went!

After church, we came home and took a nap. Yes, I know. My body felt so good, but I know I did damage this week, so if it wanted sleep, it got it!

Following our nap, we got up and went to the gym. I did not have near enough time to do the workout I was behind on, plus the workout I didn’t finish the day before, and so for this week, I’m a workout and two cardio sessions behind. It’s ok, it just means that this week, I’ll have 6 training sessions and 6 cardio sessions to do. Basically, I’ll be at the gym everyday. But hey, I love the gym, so that’s ok with me!

After we worked out, we came home, changed our clothing, and went out for a nice supper. Supper was absolutely delicious, but our night was semi-ruined when we came out to find someone had smashed the driver side mirror out of my husband’s truck, only to find it laying on the ground. We parked in a large parking space, beside a tiny car. It was obviously done by human contact. And the glass does not have any cracks in it, so it’s almost like someone pried it out. I don’t get it. I really don’t understand why people have to do these things. So now we need to see how much it will cost to replace and how much of the whole mirror area that we need to replace. My dreams of flying home for Christmas are going further and further away.

Following this, as you can assume, we went straight home and didn’t do much of anything for the rest of the night. We just took it easy, calmed down and tried to find something positive to think/talk about.

Week 5 Day 7

Today, I’m not hungry again. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Someday my appetite has to come back… I already went to bed without fulfilling all of my macros yesterday, I’m not going to do that today!

This was my rest day, but we had a morning full of drama with family issues. And yet, somehow, we still managed to get ready and make it to church on time. I’m really not sure how we pulled this off, but I was so happy we did. It was a great service about opening our spiritual eyes. Excellent sermon!

We then came home and basically did nothing for a few hours. We did take a nap, so that was nice.

Later, we decided to go out after sunset (when Sabbath ends). We got ready, made sure our animals were taken care of, and left. We stopped at Mac’s for my husband to get energy drinks (to get out of his sleepy slump), and I made a stop at Tim Horton’s for a quick pumpkin spiced ice coffee. I love pumpkin everything!

We then went to Bulk Barn where my husband picked up some candy and treats. Oh how I used to love picking stuff up at Bulk Barn too, but I fought the desire better knowing I had a snack in my purse that I had packed to fill me later. Planning ahead is a great idea!

We then went to Chapters. Oh how we both love books! We actually had to stop going to bookstores for awhile because we were spending way too much money on books. It was honestly like an addiction. Obviously it’s not a bad addiction other than it was taking our finances, so tonight was a real treat. We allowed ourselves to go through the entire store and pick a couple books. We probably won’t be back at the book store for at least another month or more so this was budgeted and allowed.

After some time at the bookstore, we sat in the car while I ate my snack (picture of it later). It really helped when we went to the theatre, and my husband got popcorn and chocolate for the movie. I wanted some of that stuff so badly. But I kept telling myself that one piece would break me so I needed to stand strong against even the smallest piece. And I did it! Yahoo!

When we came home, we basically had enough time to eat and go to bed. I wasn’t hungry, but the food was good and I managed to shove it in. So here was my food for the day:

Meal 1

I didn’t take a picture because we were in a rush to church. But this was the protein muffin I had several days ago, just chocolate flavoured instead of oatmeal. They are really good!

Meal 2

Tuna Salad Snack with celery, tomatoes and rice crackers.

Meal 3

Spaghetti Bolognese using lean ground beef.

Meal 4

Oatmeal Bake with Strawberries.

Meal 5

Cinnamon Cottage Cheese with finely chopped honeydew and cantaloupe. Took this with me and ate it before the movie.

Meal 6

(I normally don’t eat 6, but I had to make-up for the previous day and it all fit my macros.)

Sirloin Steak (I finished cooking to well done), potato mash and veggies. This was really delicious.

A Splendid Sabbath

Good morning everyone!

Yesterday was Sabbath. And for those that are unfamiliar with the word Sabbath, it simply means a day of rest. Now the Sabbath is also the day that I go to church and a day where work, workouts, and doing things that cause other people to work are avoided. A lot of people think the Sabbath is BORING. But I find it refreshing as you can work so hard all of the other days of the week, and then you have a day where you’re reminded to rest. And for those who don’t always like to rest, it’s a day to enjoy God’s nature around you! Sabbath should never be boring!

So yesterday, the family went to church. Our cousin (mine through marriage) had the sermon yesterday, and it was a phenomenal sermon. He used the sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ first big public sermon, to remind the church to stop being so political, to stop forcing rules upon everyone, but to instead work on the relationship that we have with Christ and to share that relationship with others. 

Fortunately, he still has one year of university left. He’s completing a degree called “Adventure-Based Youth Counselling” where you take half-time pastoring classes and half-time outdoor classes, learning to survive in the wilderness, rock climb, kayak, canoeing, snowshoeing, skiing, camping, etc. It’s a truly perfect degree for him. And so he used the examples of his friends that question church rules, that see hypocrisy in some things that people enforce. 

He gave a very good example, one that I never thought of. Quite often, youth are told not to wear jewelry to church, and yet men are required to wear a tie. Now youth often relate a tie to a type of jewelry in a way. Doesn’t that make sense? You don’t have to wear a tie to be “clothed”, yet quite often you’re expected to. The reason behind this is that years ago, jewelry was a sign of being wealthy, it was a sign of separation from those that were unwealthy. Today, almost everyone has some piece of jewelry. It is definitely no longer a sign of separation. So what’s the big difference today?

Anyways, it was a superb sermon. I love sermons that are strong and to the point. I enjoy “wake-up” calls sermons. So I had a wonderful time at church.

Following church, we left and came home for lunch. We had an amazing lunch of potato salad, corn, homemade mac-n-cheese, and dinner roast. Yum, yum!

Following lunch, my husband and his brother were “hanging out”, so I took advantage of my day of rest, and had a nap. It’s amazing how tired you can get!

I woke up, and shortly after, we left for a place called the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Now for those of you who have never been there nor heard of it before, the Black Canyon is one of the three most well-known canyons in the states. There is the Grand Canyon, the Yosemite, and the Black Canyon. The Black Canyon is the skinniest, causing the many dark shadows making it known as the Black Canyon. 

This canyon is a whopping 2000 ft. deep! And let me just say, it was hard to take it all in. I almost felt like my eyes could not adjust to all the depths and widths of the canyon causing me to feel slightly air-headed while looking at it. But what a beautiful sight! Sheer rocks, cliffs, a roaring green river running through it, simply beautiful!

We were at the top of the canyon, driving around, stopping and taking pictures, and just spending time in this beautiful, unexpected split in the earth. At one point, we were walking and I watched a lizard jump! Now this surprised me, because in Canada, we don’t have free-roaming lizards. But here in Colorado (hot and dry parts), they have tons of free-roaming lizards. And this one jumped from branch to branch of a fallen tree! That was like my little circus-act of the day. It amazed me to say the least.

When we had finished looking down from the top, we drove to the bottom. The road is pretty wind-y and fairly steep as you can imagine, but at the bottom is a river dam and campground where you can explore (well, not the dam because they have it fenced off). And here, it is so beautiful to be part of the shadow and looking up at the sun hitting parts of the sheer rock sides in the canyon. We walked along, sat and took pictures, and got into a goofy mood where we took turns posing and taking ridiculously fun pictures. 

What a day. Of course we came home in the evening, after sunset when Sabbath was finished, and tried to find something on t.v. (do you have as much trouble as I do finding things?) and retiring to bed. A beautiful day. A day filled of exploring one of God’s hidden beauties. I love the Sabbath, I love my God, and I’m falling in love with Colorado.