No such thing as Will Power

I came to the realization, yesterday, that there is no such thing as will power. If there was, I would be a size six, exercise everyday for two hours, eat only 1500 calories a day, maintain my cleaning/organization program, etc.

My will says, “I want all of those things.” It says, “I want to feel good about myself, I want to be healthy, I don’t want to be stressed.” But there is this thing called flesh. I shudder at the word. I hates it precious (sorry…meaningless Lord of the Rings reference). The flesh overrules our so called will power.

Okay, I am going to get a little Christian on you all. When one becomes a believer, they receive the Holy Spirit. Side note: I believe we get the Holy Spirit at the time of our “new birth,” not after we’ve spoken in tongues, which is what I used to believe. The Holy Spirit dwells inside of us and around us. The Holy Spirit is a real person, who has equal status with the Father and Son. Why is this important? Because that means he is powerful! So we have our own will, and the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us.

However, because we are NOT PERFECT like Christ, and because we are bound by our flesh and fleshly desires, we will never be able to use the Holy Spirit to His full potential. Christ also had to deal with flesh, the Bible says he was tempted. But, he was also God, who would be practiced in the Fruit of the Spirit. One of the fruits being “Self Control,” or discipline.
What does that have to do with weight loss/being lazy? Well, I realized that in order to change, a person needs DISCIPLINE! The person needs to just get off the couch or out of bed and exercise. Even if they don’t feel like it, even if their left big toe hurts or whatever. Nike has it right, “Just Do It.” You do need some sort of will. I won’t discredit will. But, you’re never going to accomplish what you want if you try to base your whole life on will.

Of course, all this preaching is really for myself.
So how do we gain discipline or self control? I don’t know. For a Christian it probably looks like reading God’s word, studying passages on discipline and self control, meditating on those verses, pray to God, depend on the Holy Spirit, flee from things that make you stumble, etc. For the non Christian, sorry. I got nothing. I am so glad I have the Lord to turn to when I am lost and need guidance. I don’t know where I would be without him.

Disneyland

I had a great trip with the youth group. I ate rather well. I did splurge a few times, but I did better than I usually do on youth events. Bringing all my own food really helped. My stomach barely hurt the whole time too.

On the agenda for today:

Exercise, only eat a smoothie for lunch, and an orange, banana, and almonds for a snack, clean my house, do some research and relax.

Salt: My Arch Enemy

We're leaving for Disneyland tomorrow! I will be gone for 9 days. I am going to try to post while I am down there, but it's come to my attention that I am going to have to do work during our breaks everyday. I will totally try though.

Salt: My Arch Enemy

The last couple days I have been craving salt like none other. This is not a good thing, since salt makes us retain water, which makes us bloat. I have a pair of shorts that I can fit into, but are just the tiniest bit snug. It would be fabulous if I wasn't bloated. :P

I know why I have been craving salt so much. It started on Tuesday when I found out something was terribly wrong with one of my closest friends. I was so stressed out and worried about her that I just felt like eating. I thought maybe it was hormonal, but I checked my hormone calendar, and the cravings are not supposed to start until next week. It's definitely emotional eating.

Then yesterday I was just stressed out with needing to finish last minute things at work, and I also I got some news, which is good, but intimidating. This news is what is going to make me work during my trip.

Anyway, I am just trying to curb my salt addiction today. I probably won't post tonight. Maybe Friday???

Enchilada Burgers

Tonight I thought I would share with you all my little creation...Muahahaha.

I call this recipe: Enchilada Burgers.

This delicious dish is basically a black bean veggie burger, cheese, salsa, and enchilada sauce in a whole wheat bun. YUMO. Hey Kelly, I guess this is one of those recipes that could go in my book ;P. LOL. Though the veggie burger part is not my own.

Ingredients:

• Black Bean Veggie Burgers (see the recipe at: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Black-Bean-Veggie-Burgers/Detail.aspx)
• Salsa
• Cheddar Cheese
• Whole Wheat Buns
• Enchilada Sauce

After you've made the veggie burgers, fry your veggie burger. I already had a batch on hand in the freezer. While the veggie burger cooks either make homemade enchilada sauce (which is what I did) or open a can of enchilada sauce and warm in the microwave.

After your veggie burger cooks, place the burger on the bottom half of the bun. Place the bottom half of the bun and the veggie burger back in the frying pan. Put a couple of spoonfuls of salsa directly on the burger. On top of the salsa place one serving of shredded or sliced cheddar cheese. Cover the frying pan and allow the cheese to melt.

Next, pour desired amount of enchilada sauce over the top of the bun, veggie burger, salsa and cheese. Place the top of the bun on the veggie burger. Cover the pan and allow the enchilada sauce to warm up. Serve with a little of the enchilada sauce on top of the bun.

OMGoodness this is one of the best recipes I have come up with thus far! LOL. Oh, eat with a fork! As you can see, I served mine with raw carrots, cucumbers and one celery stalk with a bit of peanut butter for desert.

Disneyland: 3 days left

Last night I went grocery shopping for my food for Disneyland.

I got a good assortment of healthy foods. I did get some fruit and veggies, they should last until then. Oh Safeway had a great deal on organic blueberries, buy one get one free, so I got two packs and put them in my freezer. They'll be good on my cereals.

For some of my main course meals, I bought Amy's Organic Raviolis, Amy's Bernie O's (Spaghetti Os), Organic Minestrone, and Amy Chang's Japanese Chicken and Noodles. I also bought all my sandwich and cereal stuff. :) It was expensive buying all this organic packaged stuff, but you can't put a price on health!

Exercise Woes

I did wake up and exercise this morning. I did 21 minutes on the Wii Fit. I am proud of myself for waking up early, but not so proud of myself cause I didn't exercise last nights. *hangs head low*

I am getting ready to publish this post, then I'm off to exercise. I really don't want to, but I don't want to be lazy. I also need to pack, do the dishes, and pick up a little more around the house.

Tomorrow, I hope to get back on track with posting my meals. It really helps with keeping myself accountable.

Blessings All,

Shawnee

P.S. I edited this post to add that tonight I jogged for 20 minutes and walked for 13!! Woohoo. That's a total of 54 minutes of exercise! :) I'm proud.

How Shawnee got her Groove back

I had every intention of posting the other night, but I fear the blogging bug fluttered away for a time. Not to mention my whole routine is shot. I need to find it again.

Speaking of routines, my cleaning and exercising routines are dissolving into a state of nothingness. Ever since having two weekend mini vacations in a row, I really lost my groove. My home isn't a complete disaster, but I haven't been picking up after myself every day.

As for exercising, I think that groove danced its way out of my life a long time ago. I've only been exercising about 3 times a week lately, and that's to do my Couch to 5k running program.

*sighs* How the heck did Stella get her groove back? I never saw the movie. Any suggestions for me?

Goals for the next 5 days

For the next 5 days, my goal is to get rid of any additional water weight I have gained in the last two weeks, so I can better fit into my shorts.

I didn't want to do another full-out detox, so I opted for eating some of the detoxing foods, while still enjoying life. :P

Everyday I will have organic cereal or oatmeal with fruit for breakfast. For lunch everyday I'll be having a Sweet Spinach Smoothie. For dinner I'll be having vegetarian meals, with one serving of grains/carbs. For example, tonight I'll probably have vegetarian spaghetti with steamed broccoli and carrots.

Another one of my goals is to exercise every day leading up to Disneyland. I am trying to wake up early every morning to do it. Today, all I did was 12 minutes on the Wii, but it's more than I usually do in the mornings! I still plan to do my couch to 5k workout this evening.

Also, I have a goal of getting back into my cleaning routine, even if just for this week.

Disney Dos and Don'ts (Goals)

My goal for my upcoming Disneyland trip is to eat healthy. I am going to assume that walking around the park every day for 8+ hours is going to be exercise enough.

I usually end up gaining a couple pounds on theme park vacations. The culprit? Food! Well this year, I have planned out all my meals according to what the teenagers (we're taking our youth group) will be eating.

For example the first day of driving, I will eat cereal and fruit for breakfast. For lunch I'll have an almond butter/honey sandwich with fruit and fresh veggies. For dinner, since they're all going to be having fast food, I am just going to stick to a salad. I'll also have a granola bar for a snack.

The teens will be eating some sort of sugary cereal everyday for breakfast. So I will be having either have organic cereal or an organic pop tart, with fruit and soy milk. The teens will also be eating sandwiches every day for lunch (and sometimes dinner too). Since I am not supposed to eat lunch meat, I'll be rotating between Amy's canned raviolis, organic soup, almond butter sandwiches and tuna fish sandwiches.

One night for dinner, the kids will be eating pizza, and I'll be having a vegetarian personal pizza with no cheese. Other nights we'll be doing Subway or eating in the park. Those days I will go ahead and have a 6 inch sub and/or a chicken sandwich/salad in the park.

You should see my food schedule. It's planned out to the very last meal. I still need to go grocery shopping. :/

Tonight's Blog

Tonight I plan on sharing a couple recipes I tried/created this past week.

Have a good day everyone!

Internet back on!

I have internet again. I'll post tonight.

I'm off to go buy shoes and a purse for Disneyland! :P

My Weight Loss Novel

I am hanging out at work for a few extra minutes, so I can do a quick post. My husband canceled our internet, and we’re probably going to wait until after we get back from Disneyland to get a new service provider.

GUESS WHAT?

I have not went up on the scale, in fact I am down to 169.4! That’s .4 less than I last weighed in. This is so encouraging for me. It’s seems like every time I have lost weight in the last couple months, it just comes back on in the next day or so.

My Weight Loss Story:

I thought I would take a little time to share my Weight Loss/Gain story with you. In 10th grade I was living at my heaviest : 189 lbs. I hated being thick. People called me names, made fun of me…you name it. I was definitely a victim of bullying.

At that point in my high school career, I decided to lose weight. My extra baggage slowly came off. By the end of my Junior year I lost about 19 or 20 pounds. At that point I had a boyfriend. Some things happened over the summer, while my boyfriend was visiting his dad in California. Because of those events I decided I was going to lose even more weight during the last month of my summer vacation. I was determined to look hot for my senior pictures and for my boyfriend.
I lost 30 pounds in a month and a half. I could fit into a size 7 jeans, sometimes a 5. Everyone thought I was hot. I joined the swim team, and swam about 3 to 5 miles a day. Because of that I could eat whatever I wanted. It was glorious!

College comes around, I break up with my boyfriend, go on a missions trip to Mexico, date a new guy (now my hubby) and the weight slowly starts to come back on. My husband is a fast food junkie, and while I am not completely blaming this one him. He didn’t help! LOL. By the Thanksgiving of our first year of marriage, I had but on 25 pounds. I was 20 years old at this point, so this would be 4 years after I lost all the weight.

For the last five years I have been fluctuating between 150 and 175 pounds. I am really disgusted with letting myself gain this much weight.

Things that lead to weight loss:

• Overeating
• Stress of school
• Not exercising
• Gallbladder not digesting fat
• A pregnancy/miscarriage in February (I gained 10 pounds from this)
  

Notice that much of this is just me being lazy. I am ready to attempt to lose this weight.

The weight I have currently lost is just such a blessing for my self esteem.

Recap of healthy choices this week

I’ve done really well for eating. For example, I made myself Quinoa stuffed Zucchinis for dinner on Monday and I made my husband Sloppy Joes. I did have a small side of the meat, but I didn’t want to overdo it on the carbs. (I’ll share my stuffed Zucchini recipe when I get the chance). Last night for dinner I decided just to have one of my Sweet Spinach Smoothies and a whole wheat bun (no high fructose!) with a drizzle of honey. Those are just a few of the healthy choices I have made the last couple of days.

Today I had a small bowl of Kashi cereal with two large strawberries, a serving of raisins and a ½ a cup of vanilla soy milk for breakfast.

I was starving at lunch time, so I had a small red baked potato with salsa. I was still hungry so I had two small corn tortillas (only 100 calories) a serving of cheese, and a spoonful of left over sloppy joe meat (I shouldn’t have had that, made my gallbladder hurt), then on the way back to work I grabbed a granola bar.

For a snack I had half a cup of cucumbers, 6 Ritz crackers and two cups of tea. I had way too many carbs L. For dinner tonight I am going to make myself a veggie stir-fry (with no meat or noodles) and I’ll probably have a Spinach Smoothie for desert.

For exercise, I didn’t exercise yesterday, but I did do my couch to 5K running on Monday. I went ahead and jumped to week 4 and let me tell you, it’s intense! I haven’t sweated so hard in a while! I plan to exercise tonight.

On the Blog Agenda for Tomorrow

A blog about my goals for Disneyland!

Blessings,
Shawnee

Internet Down

Just a quick post to tell you all that my internet has been down. I hope to be able to post this evening, but my husband is going to switch service providers, so I am not really sure what is going on.
Blessings,
Shawnee