The Scale

I saw this above picture on a friend's facebook page and it really hit a cord with me.  I guess because I know so many women that really seem in bondage to the scale.  I for one, do not own a scale and rarely ever weigh myself and this is why.  I realized in my late 20's that my happiness or how I felt about myself was greatly dependent on what the number on the scale said.  If I weighed within what I thought was good for me, then I was so happy but if I weighed more than I wanted to, then I was pretty much depressed the whole day.  That is just plain wrong!  Nothing should have that much control over our emotions or how we feel about ourselves, if it does then it is an idol.  I grew-up with a father that weighed himself every day and wrote it down.  He didn't seem to stress over it, but he's a man and his daughters and wife sure were stressed if they felt fat at all.  A few years ago when I was loosing baby weight, I was looking at buying a scale at Target.  My husband quickly said, "no way!"  He did not want me weighing myself regularly and getting into bondage and passing that on to my daughters.  I never talk about weight to my girls.  I talk nutrition, being healthy and fit to do what God has called them to do but I never talk weight or fat.  I also try to never down-talk myself or my body.  That is also a really bad example that your children pick-up even if you don't want them to.  Now, if a person has over 30 pounds to loose or has been told by a health professional that they should loose weight, then they should weigh regularly to make sure the scale is going down.  I still would shy away from owning one though.  It seems that most women I know that are bondage to the scale are already thin.  They weigh daily and get upset when it's up and they have been "eating basically nothing but vegetables."  I do not think God wants us obsessing with the scale or numbers.  I really do only weigh when I have to go to the doctor.  Instead of weighing, I just go by how my clothes are fitting.  Once I got to the size I wanted to be when I was doing THM after my last baby, then I just decided to maintain by exercising daily and eating healthy. And for the record, I didn't really weigh when I was doing THM either.  I lost a good amount of weight and when my husband and daughter told me not to loose anymore, then I relaxed and was not so strict.  Anyway, I think we as women need to walk in freedom and just say "good-bye" to the silly scale (which can fluctuate by the minute for us women anyway!)  Just like this saying above, we are valued by our love for others and the love they have for us.  What makes us truly beautiful is the love of Jesus shining from our eyes and our lives, not how thin we are. 

You Don't Need a Gym......A Fast, Effective Work-Out

This past year I really changed my work-out routine and it's really for the better.  I mean, who doesn't want a work-out that takes about half the time of going to the gym, gets better results and doesn't require paying for a gym membership.  I'll tell you my secret, it's Kettlebells!

See these 3 guys I have stashed in my garage?  These really do the trick.  I bought 2 to begin with, the 15# and 10#.  I bought a cheap kettle bell DVD (which you really don't need to do) just to get the idea of how to do some exercises. I also checked-out a kettle bell book out at the library and did a youtube search for some exercises.  Now I absolutely love it!  And the best part, it's takes only 15-20 minutes to get a major workout.  I instantly started seeing and feeling results.  So now I go in my garage 3 mornings a week and turn on my music on my phone and really push it.  It takes half the time that it used to take me to drive to the gym and do a weight work-out there.  It's amazing!  I won't post any exercises on here because I don't have any pics and I wouldn't want to tell anybody wrong.  But there are plenty of resources out there.  My husband got a kettlebell app on his phone that he really likes.  A trainer talks him through all the exercises.
I also already had some hand weights and an exercise ball.  I do sit-ups and push-ups with the ball, plus a few leg exercises.  Then I add some upper body training with the weights.  So now my total work-out time is 25 minutes which includes some good stretching too.
Now, on the days that I don't do kettle bells, I do pure cardio.  Mostly I jog and occasionally bike.  But I've found that also I can cut my 60 minutes of power walking down to 30 minutes of more intense jogging and get better results as well.  I just thought I would encourage y'all that you really do not need a gym membership and a lot of time to stay in shape or get in shape.  I'm living proof! : )

"Trim Healthy Mama" Shopping

My husband snapped this pic of me last week leaving the grocery store.....this is basically the story of my life.

So I thought in the spirit of grocery shopping and the spirit of the Trim Healthy Mom book, I would give y'all some shopping tidbits that have helped me.  Again, if you haven't read the book, I would highly recommend it. If you've started the book or want to just eat healthy in general, here is a list of things I would suggest getting right off.  Some foods are truly super foods, meaning that they pack a lot of punch for a little amount of calories and carbs.  Also, some foods are available only at certain stores and are considerably cheaper at other stores.  Of course if you don't have these stores near you or just can't find what I'm talking about, there is always ordering online.  Here goes your basic list to get started on a trim healthy mom lifestyle.........

1. Whey Protein.  This must be whey protein isolate, not concentrate. The best brand is Swanson's Premium that you can get online.  Also Jay Robb is easy to find at Kroger and Whole Foods if you don't want to order online.  It is just as good, but a good bit more expensive.

2.  Coconut Oil.  For cooking, Louana Brand that you can get a Walmart is good, but for eating, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have an organic that is great.

3.  Stevia.  Nunaturals has changed their formula, but I still like it and it's basically pure stevia.  Truvia is good as well and easy to find.  It may take awhile to get used to the taste, but don't give up.

4.  Raw almonds.  Great to snack on and making almond flour and almond butter is so easy if you have a good food processor or high end blender.

5. Cocoa powder and 85% dark chocolate bars.

6.  Oolong Tea.   Kind of hard to find if you don't have an Asian store near you.  I order mine from Swansons when I get my protein powder. It has great health benefits and ups metabolism.

7.  Omega 3 eggs.  These are full of protein and pack a lot of nutrients in their shells. Walmart has the best price on these. 

8.  O% fat Greek plain yogurt.  Just don't buy anything but plain Greek yogurt anymore. You can add all fruit jam (Polaner) or berries and nuts.  So much less sugar and Greek has twice as much protein.

9.  Frozen and fresh berries.  This are the best fruits because of they are low on the glycemic index and pack tons of antioxidants. 

10. Hemp and Chia seeds.  These are so good for you and can be added to just about anything to up the nutrient content.  I get both of these from Whole Foods.

Well, this should get you started!  Anyone want to add to my must have THM list? : )

Summer Recipes

Super Green Low Sugar Smoothie 
This is yummy, super healthy and low sugar/low carb.  Yes, natural sugar in juices increase your blood sugar too and cause your insulin to spike therefore causing you to store fat.  Most green smoothie recipes I see are full of natural sugar and carbs.  This one I created myself and it's so full of antioxidants but low on the natural sugar scale as well.  My kids even love it!

1 cup ice cubes
2 cups frozen strawberries or raspberries
2 cups fresh, preferably organic, kale
2 cups green tea sweetened to taste with stevia (if the tea is still warm, that is fine, just add a bit more ice)
I sliced, cored green apple 

Blend in Vitamix or other high quaility blender and enjoy! This makes a large batch to share.  And don't worry if you don't have kale, really any healthy greens will do. 

High Protein Peanut Butter Cookies

Cream 1/2 cup coconut oil and 1/2 cup softened butter
Add 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup coconut sugar
After creaming together, add 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
Beat in 2 eggs
In a medium bowl mix 1 cup high protein defatted peanut butter flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup white flour with 2 teas. baking soda and 1 teas. salt
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
Blend well but not for too long and then add 2 cups dark chocolate chips.
Bake at 350 F for 8-10 minutes

These are so delicious!  If you don't have coconut sugar, then just add more brown or white sugar to bring it to 1 1/2 cups total of sugar.  Also, to make these really high protein and extra yummy, you need the PB flour, which is hard to find.  Trader Joe's no longer carries it and I couldn't find it at Whole Foods, so I order it from Netrition (they carry coconut sugar too but so does my Walmart.) 

Easy Barbecue Brisket

Grass fed brisket
Put in crock pot and turn on low
Add one bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce and 1/4 cup of Texas Pete
Cook slow all day and you're done!!!

THM Easy Plan

For those of you who have not read the above book, this post will probably not make much sense.  But I've gotten a good many questions on how I've lost the last 15 pounds of baby weight in about 3 months and this book gave me a great plan and awesome health and exercise tips.  This is the way I did the plan initially and now I just follow it loosely.  Like I said in a post last year, this book is totally worth the money and even though I've always loved nutrition and exercising, it's given me a lot of new knowledge and all from a Biblical perspective.  So, here is what I told all of y'all on the FB group that I would post.  
Here is how I did it to get started........

First of all, exercise 6 days a week for at least 20 minutes (you have to push yourself and really sweat, not just a leisurely walk.)

Secondly, I didn't worry too much about S day or E day, I just picked from my list of snacks and meals and made sure that I was eating at least 2 1/2 hours apart.  Usually this means breakfast at 8, snack at 10:30, lunch at 1, snack at 3:30, dinner at 6, and bedtime snack (dessert) at 8:30.  This way I didn't get all confused and complicated with the S, E, FP, etc.  Cutting out almost all sugar and dropping carbs considerably, plus adding more protein really helped me drop my extra pounds.

So, here are my meals and snacks that I picked from. I just picked one from each category everyday. So, I was basically on a 4 day schedule (except for snacks.)    I love a nightly dessert and since every 4 days I did a more "normal" dessert, I had to rotate that for sure to keep loosing. The other meals and snacks I may not of rotated perfectly, but this gave me a plan.  This made  it easy for me and now that I'm at my goal weight, I am more flexible and creative and lenient :)

Breakfast choices:

S-Muffin in a mug (I rotate between chocolate and cinnamon.)
FP- Greek yogurt or FP Bigboy smoothie.
S-2 eggs cooked in butter or 1 egg with bacon.
E-Oatmeal with berries or Trim Healthy pancakes.
(BTW, I always have coffee with a little heavy cream after I exercise when I'm having my quiet time)

Mid morning snack choices:

Green tea with nuts.
Green tea with Laughing Cow cheese and planned approved 
crackers.

Lunch choices:

S-Green salad (loaded with whatever veggies I have) with grilled chicken, salmon or canned tuna, dressed with balsamic vinaigrette. 
E-Lunch meat sandwich or PB sandwich on plan approved bread.
FP-smoothie
S or E-Left over soup (one of the ones in the book)

Afternoon Snack choices:

FP-Fat Stripping Frappa.
FP-Greek Treat.
S-Coffee with  whey protein in it and skinny chocolate.

Dinner choices:

I rotated dinners in book or tweaked my dinners so that they were plan friendly and went beef, chicken, seafood, legumes.

Dessert choices:

One of the desserts in book.
Bryers low-carb, no sugar ice-cream with nuts.
Glass of wine.
One of my desserts tweaked to make low sugar and somewhat healthy :) (this was my extra treat that looked forward to every 4 days and my kids looked forward to as well)

Anyway, hope this helps.  I picked recipes out of the book that I liked and that were doable for my family.  I think dropping sweet tea really helped me too.  I make it with stevia now and lots of lemon. Let me know if you have any questions. I lost steadily doing it this way, about 1-2 pounds a week without feeling deprived. I think it's a good way to at least start the plan and then get more strict if you are not loosing. 

A recent picture my husband took of me on our weekend away for my birthday at a historic resort.  

Books I'm Really Enjoying at the Moment

This book has been such a blessing to me over the past month, I just had to share. And no, I'm not getting any sort of kick back from these promotions :). The book is above is by a homeschooling Mom of 6 and its such a lesson in thankfulness, contentment and finding joy in the ordinary. It has really taught me how to see everything in our lives as a gift from The Lord, who is a loving Father that wants to bless us immeasurably! The book in the picture is the devotional version and has a journaling section. The regular book is awesome too but I'm loving this in my quiet time.

This above book is a life changing nutritional book.  It is chock full of wisdom, insight, recipes and health information.  I would recommend this to any mom who wants to eat more healthy, loose weight or has hormonal issues.  Serene and Pearl truly do give down to earth advice and recipes.  Everything is practical and played out in their own lives and they are both very budget conscious as well.  I have loved this book and feel so much healthier!  It's over 600 pages so that is why it's about $30.  You can purchase it from the Above Rubies website or amazon.

Well, happy reading everyone!  Start off the year with a good book!