Healthy Journey

     A journey is defined as “going from one place to another and usually taking a rather long time to get there”. (Thank you, http://www.dictionary.com)

     This is what I’m on and what I’ve been on for a long, long time. I’ve been on a journey and I have learned a great deal by learning what NOT to do or what DOESN’T work.  I’m learning that we just keep on learning the entire trip. The JOY comes, I believe – when we realize that we WILL get to our victory line as long as we don’t abandon it.

     I haven’t been as consistent in habit or success as others shining with stardust at their heels.  I’ve lost balance and fallen off the sides, stood up long enough to dive off for a wedge of cheese and consumed far more coffee than water. 

     The thing I am really glad with ANYWAY is that I have not given up. It has been beyond embarrassing (FAR more often than not) to even talk about health, wellness, and weight loss. Most of the time, someone gets the nerve up to post where they are, what their plan for change is and where they want to be at the winning line of their goal. They either do it or don’t. Me? I get to that point once and then again a few weeks or months later… share again… and go weeks or months and well, you get the point. Even so, I have not given up and have made some form of effort toward what I’m working for every day. So, one of the strongest consistencies in the world for me may be that I consistently don’t give up. 

     There. We can always find a silver lining – or something brilliant to offset the grey skies in our journey.

     Online journal entry for yesterday: 

     I completed my second time (two days apart) of Yoga! 20  minutes and didn’t fall once! It is the most beginning, beginning yoga work out ever and that is precisely what I needed. Go, Yoga with Adriene on youtube! That was yesterday and it is on my written list of things to do today. 

     In the past two days, I have eaten eggs with turmeric, black pepper and salt flakes and an avocado with a piece of somewhat healthier bread. I also had:

* Homemade granola made by my daughter, Lauren. I drizzled Natural Jif over it (melted), some extra cinnamon and 1/4 a sliced bananas and poured in a splash of almond milk
* Italian soup (mainly, onions, garlic, carrots and lentils) with cheese
* Dave’s organic raisin bread, heated in a skillet with a small amount of butter and with Natural JIF spread on the top. 
* Leftover Italian soup (it is very, very thick now) heated with a lot of extra spices and topped with a softly friend egg. 

     Beyond those, I’ve just had the same repeated or varied them with seasonings and such. I haven’t had enough water AT ALL, so I will start back with that and hope to add at least a five minute walk today. 

     “The body is designed to produce all needed energy over an amazingly long period of time. If the individual takes reasonable care of his body from the standpoint of proper diet, exercise, sleep, no physical abuse, the body will produce and maintain astonishing energy and sustain itself in good health.” 
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale {Reading this again because it is one of my favorite books of all time!}

 

 

I love you.

affection appreciation decoration design
Photo by Carl Attard on Pexels.com

I love you for loving me in spite of myself.

I love you for making me a mother and changing my entire life from that very moment until this one.

I love you for learning life with me, honoring our bond and linking arms with me to get through.

I love you for making me a grandmother and opening my world in ways I couldn’t have imagined beforehand.

I love you for appreciating me and being beautifully patient when I didn’t do the same for myself.

I love you for fighting for me and to me no matter what it has taken to be there.

I love you for making every time with you a shining one and always, always being over joyed to run into my arms.

I love you for putting God first… even if it means climbing through blood, sweat and tears to keep doing so.

I love you for the immediate defense in you when you see me wounded in any way.

I love you for being a heart reader and a truth teller and one of the deepest humans on earth.

I love you for rushing madly into my arms and singing out my name like it is a song.

I love you for smiling so dearly into my heart that I can’t look away until you do.

I love you for being dear, kind and truly authentic every day of your life.

I love you for showing up and staying put no matter how hard the storm hits.

I love you for remembering the little things that so many miss … and how you hold those little-but-huge things in your heart.

I love you for expressions and gazes that transform my day into something extraordinary… every single  time.

I love you for being fierce, touched to your very soul, and shining all at once, all the time.

I love you for being and appearing stronger than just about anyone in this world,  even when you don’t feel very strong at all.

I love you for all these things and in all these ways. This collection of words doesn’t even touch the oceans and oceans worth of affection in my heart.

What I want you to know MORE than any of these things though? I want you to know that I love you when we are arguing and when I think you are being ridiculous. I love you when you aren’t making the decisions I want you to make and when your priorities are wrong. I love you when you hurt me and even when the wounds knock me out of breath. I love you when you are guilty, mean, failing, sinning, and falling short.

I love you through it all because Jesus Christ has loved me through it all. How can I look at His relentless love for me and not hope and pray to love you the same way? He loved you, me and He loves all so  much that He gave His most beloved gift possible to save us. He loves so much that He did this in the midst of  great sin. He loved and He loves in the worst of times and in the middle of our most horrible messes. His love is our love. He loves us and shows us how to love each other.

Our love won’t always be easy to give and maybe harder to feel. Our love will not be perfect because we are not perfect but His love is. We can take in His love and serve from hearts overflowing. May we love beyond our selves, our pain, and our suffering from the love He loves us with.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. I Corinthians 13:4-7

He is…

The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon.

Planted in the house of the Lord , they thrive in the courts of our God.

They will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green, to declare:

“The Lord is just; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”
Psalms 92:12‭-‬15

32. Plant Based Diet Restores Her Eyesight And Gets Her Off The Lung Transplant List

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via 32. Plant Based Diet Restores Her Eyesight And Gets Her Off The Lung Transplant List

This is such an awesome read! I have drastically cut my sugar and meat consumption with a goal to completely do so. Now, to work on white flour and cheese! Oh, and exercise. I love exercise when I know it is over but I have started and stopped for more years than I care to calculate.

As for food/nutrition, I’m going plant-based. I used to think totally removing food groups wasn’t wise in the long run but for me, that line of thinking has changed.

I really should weigh far less than I do. Years ago, I realized that my bread eating from freshly ground flours with sourdough starters were not being burned off by my level of exercise! I kept making them for family for a while but stopped it altogether for myself.

Since then, I’ve fallen into eating way too many carbs and they are the bad guys. Honey wheat is not much more than white bread and that is flour, water and air for the most part.

Anyway, I was eating chocolate almost, if not daily. I had sugar in my coffee and sucanat or honey sweetened baked goods on a very regular basis.

Dairy? Milk, huge wedges of parmesan cheese shaved or shredded onto any dish I could force it upon! Huge packages of different cheeses were on every Sam’s trip and butter was spread, melted, and/or drizzled liberally.

I was eating beef, chicken, turkey, salmon, tuna and so on. Olive oil and eventually, coconut oil were generously used in just about every food we ate.

Through the many years since that diet style, I have made huge changes. I don’t consume any of those things on a regular basis and most, not at all. I’ve replaced some of them with far less nutritional choices but eat a fraction of the calories I was taking in before.

At the same time, I have cut out so much I didn’t need and added in a very plant strong plan. 2-3 fruit servings a day. AT LEAST 6-11 servings of vegetables a day most days. I’m cooking with almost no oils or fats and have learned to water sauté instead. I make my own salad dressings, add garlic, onions, celery, carrots and mushrooms to as many recipes as I can AND stay very busy throughout the day.

And yet… I am sporting (not the most relevant word by any means of the imagination) a hefty BMI of 38 and back to not wanting to buy yet another size up in clothing.

So, I am going to “freestyle” my eating plan a bit less and follow a beautiful blend of Dr. Joel Fuhrman and Dr. John McDougall. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I had an appointment with my doctor recently and he encouraged me to get steps when and where I can. So, I am back to parking at the far end of the parking lot to walk more and the plan is to start walking each day and doing a Yoga DVD I ordered a long time ago and never opened. I did lose it and just recently found it, so….

I have a perfect planner (thank-you to my sister, Donna for the gift!) that I am writing down what I eat, keeping track of my supplements, water intake and so on. This is another place I will update on. Say a pray for me or send a positive thought out for me. 🙂 Speaking of prayers, if you are struggling with taking care of yourself, need to lose weight, need more nutrition or just need a prayer, let me know. I will be blessed to pray for you!

 

 

 

 

 

Healing Gardens

Yesterday, I made sure all my lavender, bee balm, sage, basil, thyme, mints and peppers were well watered. It amazes me how much simple gardening tasks calm me. The weight of the world may seem heavy on my shoulders and the heartbreak of wounded hearts may have brought me to my knees and then I step outside. I lift my face to the sky and breathe in the fresh air as deeply as I can.

When I see living plants doing the same and I set about caring for each one… a shift happens in my spirit and peace greets me and meets my footpath. Watering, pulling weeds, and touching leaves becomes a dance. Now, my dance partners are three dogs and a black cat. I am working to train them away from my beauty beds and from our little chicken coop.

From the first time I didn’t kill a potted plant, (and there were many casualties before this happened!) plants, herbs, seedlings, and so on’s gave me some gladness. There is just something about watching a growing, living thing change and survive, I guess.

It makes me go a little overboard sometimes. Now, I’m picking up my gardening journal and scribbling out what seeds to seek out, wondering what plants are available locally and brain storming on how to propagate for getting and giving from and with others.  I love thinking about Mamaw when the yellow bell bushes grow at the old house along with the old roses my FIL brought me in a bucket of sand around 20 years ago. They are now huge rose bushes with beautiful blooms. My massive confederate rose-bush blooms with the memory of my heart sister, Debby and I. We went to the Market on Main when it was a new Saturday morning event in our town. In the middle of the vendors selling fresh eggs, produce, baked breads and homemade soaps was someone selling plants. They were only a couple of feet tall and the guy selling them for a few dollars told us to just plant, water and watch grow. Mine grew as tall as the house!

    I watered everything so well yesterday and last night, we had rain for a few hours! The good thing is, water from heaven causes more growth than I ever get from the hose or water cans. This morning, I will do a check over everything and see what the storm left us. The birds are singing and calling us to rise and shine!

“He who believes in him, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’ ” John 7:38

 

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Lessons I’ve learned since yesterday:

  1. Melamine serving platters may be the best sleds ever used. I can’t say for sure since it is summer time in GA but I am curious to see if it works on snow. Here is why:  I was walking through my bedroom yesterday morning while it was still dark. My automatic night light didn’t come to life quickly because a stack of things in need of being put away blocked the sensor. Instead of searching for the light switch to use instead, I kept walking. Well, if you want to call it that. I took three steps and slipped faster and harder than I think I ever have. I have fallen a lot but this was like something superhuman. The speed that took me from standing to flying up and sliding a few feet away was impressive. When I assessed the situation to make sure my kneecaps were still here and such, I had to see WHAT in the world I had stepped on. Not one melamine serving platter was apparently enough. A rectangle and a large circle platter were somehow working together to make sure if one didn’t succeed, surely the other would. These were purchased a long time ago for eating outside on the deck so why were they in my bedroom floor in the first place? It is likely my own fault. I did my routine – clean and organize pantry shelves, cabinets, fridge, and freezer shelves all at once deal. They were in all of that

Typing my way to healthier life spiritually, emotionally, relationship-wise, physically and more!