Trying to get healthy is often a scary endeavor for many because we don't really know where to start. If you have ever talked to someone about getting healthy you are bombarded with so many things you need to do; eat better, work out, change your attitude, clean out your kitchen to make it a healthy place, just to name a few. As soon as we hear these things we get discouraged and quit. I understand!
So what should be the first things you do? Before you can change something you need to really understand where you are, where is your starting point. The first thing you need to do is take an assessment of where you really are, and that might mean something as simple as taking your weight. Do you know how many people really don't know how much they weight because they have been hiding from the scale? It's a mental thing, if we don't know we believe we can deny the truth. The best thing is to start there, weight yourself.
Then after you do that for a few days (I suggest at least a week) journal everything you eat, everything you do to get as accurate an assessment of yourself as you can. Don't cheat, be honest. Don't leave off the extra cookies you had or the fact that you eat seconds. Write it all down. This will be helpful to you as you begin the journey. As a matter of fact, if you are not really ready to be honest with yourself, then don't start because you will continue to sabotage yourself.
Also remember as you are journaling to write down how you where feeling. Did you eat because you were bored? Did you eat because you were craving something sweet? What was the reason, where you upset, watching television? Put all those details down to help you later.
So after you have gone through the process of journaling it is now time to look at the results. What do you notice from what you have written? Do you find you eat often when you are lonely? Or do you eat out of habit? Did you eat when you were upset a lot? What were some common behaviors you noticed in yourself? This path of discovery is important if you want to deal with the emotional and behavioral aspect of why you eat. This process helped me to see I ate sweets often because there were some "bitter" places in my life. I still had some hurts and disappointments from different times in my life, stemming as far back as from my youth and some of the sexual assaults that happened to me.
This week make this your first step to your new life to W.I.N. in health. If you never want to go on a diet every again, then it is time to really begin the step by step journey of discovering why you are in the place you now stand. Join us next week as we discuss what to do with the information you gathered from your time of journaling.
So what should be the first things you do? Before you can change something you need to really understand where you are, where is your starting point. The first thing you need to do is take an assessment of where you really are, and that might mean something as simple as taking your weight. Do you know how many people really don't know how much they weight because they have been hiding from the scale? It's a mental thing, if we don't know we believe we can deny the truth. The best thing is to start there, weight yourself.
Then after you do that for a few days (I suggest at least a week) journal everything you eat, everything you do to get as accurate an assessment of yourself as you can. Don't cheat, be honest. Don't leave off the extra cookies you had or the fact that you eat seconds. Write it all down. This will be helpful to you as you begin the journey. As a matter of fact, if you are not really ready to be honest with yourself, then don't start because you will continue to sabotage yourself.
Also remember as you are journaling to write down how you where feeling. Did you eat because you were bored? Did you eat because you were craving something sweet? What was the reason, where you upset, watching television? Put all those details down to help you later.
So after you have gone through the process of journaling it is now time to look at the results. What do you notice from what you have written? Do you find you eat often when you are lonely? Or do you eat out of habit? Did you eat when you were upset a lot? What were some common behaviors you noticed in yourself? This path of discovery is important if you want to deal with the emotional and behavioral aspect of why you eat. This process helped me to see I ate sweets often because there were some "bitter" places in my life. I still had some hurts and disappointments from different times in my life, stemming as far back as from my youth and some of the sexual assaults that happened to me.
This week make this your first step to your new life to W.I.N. in health. If you never want to go on a diet every again, then it is time to really begin the step by step journey of discovering why you are in the place you now stand. Join us next week as we discuss what to do with the information you gathered from your time of journaling.
Healthy Start to the School year (part 2)
My kids got off to a great start to the school year. My kids were just telling me thank you this morning for preparing them healthy lunches. I know they were trying to "butter me up," but that's okay, I am thankful that I have been getting up with them in the morning to make sure their start to the day is a successful one. Not only do we have breakfast together each member of the family shares a scripture and an encouragement to help us through the day. I wanted to share some of my healthy choices this week.
Chicken Wrap:
1 - tortilla shell
1 - baked chicken breast strip
1 - tablespoon of sauce (either hummus, avocado, dressing of choice)
fixings - (placed in a small sandwich bag for one wrap) 1 mushroom diced, carrots shredded, lettuce, diced tomatoes
Preparation: The chicken was prepared previously. I cooked the chicken breast on Sunday. Season however you like, pepper, herbs, etc. I took out one strip per family member and diced it. I took the shell and spread the sauce. You can use hummus; I took a avocado and smashed it and added a few drops of hummus dressing that I purchased at Trader Joe. This helps the wrap not to be dry. Spread about a tablespoon on the shell and place the chicken on top. You can add a little cheese if you like. I wrapped them in foil and placed them in a sandwich container. I didn't put the fixings on the wrap so that the veggies would be fresh, in case the kids wanted to heat the wraps up. The kids loved it. You can change this up. You can do it as an all veggie wrap if you don't want meat.
Breakfast egg cupcake:
1 egg per person (or you can use egg whites only)
spinach
mushrooms
asparagus
(or you can use peppers or any other veggies you want)
Preparation: Saute your veggies in a little olive oil (a tablespoon or less should work). I like to saute the veggies first because if you put them in fresh in the egg mix, it can make it watery. Once you saute the veggies add them to your egg mix after the veggies have cooled. Add a little pepper (you can add salt as well, I don't). Once you have the mixture mixed, pour it into a mini cupcake pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until the egg is firm. Make sure you spray the pan for easy removal of the mini egg cupcakes. The pan I used was small so we each had 3 small cupcakes. We served this with fruit salad.
Fruit salad:
Several cuties/small oranges
strawberries
blue berries
Agave Nectar (raw)
Preparation: Dice your fruit into bite size pieces. Separate your cuties or small oranges into slices. Mix together with about a tablespoon of agave nectar for sweetening. This is better than using sugar. Agave nectar is a low glycemic food that keeps your blood sugars from spiking. Also make sure you get the agave that is raw. After mixing serve.
Chocolate cashew candy:
2 - tablespoons coconut oil (I use the Trader Joe organic brand)
2 - tablespoons cocao powder
1 - tablespoon of sunflower seed butter (I use the Trader Joe brand)
1 or 1/2 tablespoons of Organic Raw Blue Agave Sweetener (Trader Joe brand, but you can use any raw brand)
pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt Crystals (grinder)
handful of cashews
handful of raisins
Preparation: Mel the coconut oil,after melting remove from heat. Add the cocao powder and mix it until it is blended. Then add in the sunflower seed butter and the agave sweetener. Put in the sweetener slowly. Add more to your own taste. Add the pinch of salt. Then add your ingredients, cashews and raisins (if you like you can use almonds instead). (Note: I adapted a recipe from Doreen Germany who has an e-book available with other great recipes to use while detoxing your body. You can find her information mywellnessmylife.com) Once you mix your ingredients, place the mix in small cupcake holders and freeze until ready to eat. I take them out of the freeze and put them in ziploc bags. So when I want something sweet, I have my own candy that actually has something good inside for me. Makes great snacks.
See pictures above for how the recipes look.
Chicken Wrap:
1 - tortilla shell
1 - baked chicken breast strip
1 - tablespoon of sauce (either hummus, avocado, dressing of choice)
fixings - (placed in a small sandwich bag for one wrap) 1 mushroom diced, carrots shredded, lettuce, diced tomatoes
Preparation: The chicken was prepared previously. I cooked the chicken breast on Sunday. Season however you like, pepper, herbs, etc. I took out one strip per family member and diced it. I took the shell and spread the sauce. You can use hummus; I took a avocado and smashed it and added a few drops of hummus dressing that I purchased at Trader Joe. This helps the wrap not to be dry. Spread about a tablespoon on the shell and place the chicken on top. You can add a little cheese if you like. I wrapped them in foil and placed them in a sandwich container. I didn't put the fixings on the wrap so that the veggies would be fresh, in case the kids wanted to heat the wraps up. The kids loved it. You can change this up. You can do it as an all veggie wrap if you don't want meat.
Breakfast egg cupcake:
1 egg per person (or you can use egg whites only)
spinach
mushrooms
asparagus
(or you can use peppers or any other veggies you want)
Preparation: Saute your veggies in a little olive oil (a tablespoon or less should work). I like to saute the veggies first because if you put them in fresh in the egg mix, it can make it watery. Once you saute the veggies add them to your egg mix after the veggies have cooled. Add a little pepper (you can add salt as well, I don't). Once you have the mixture mixed, pour it into a mini cupcake pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until the egg is firm. Make sure you spray the pan for easy removal of the mini egg cupcakes. The pan I used was small so we each had 3 small cupcakes. We served this with fruit salad.
Fruit salad:
Several cuties/small oranges
strawberries
blue berries
Agave Nectar (raw)
Preparation: Dice your fruit into bite size pieces. Separate your cuties or small oranges into slices. Mix together with about a tablespoon of agave nectar for sweetening. This is better than using sugar. Agave nectar is a low glycemic food that keeps your blood sugars from spiking. Also make sure you get the agave that is raw. After mixing serve.
Chocolate cashew candy:
2 - tablespoons coconut oil (I use the Trader Joe organic brand)
2 - tablespoons cocao powder
1 - tablespoon of sunflower seed butter (I use the Trader Joe brand)
1 or 1/2 tablespoons of Organic Raw Blue Agave Sweetener (Trader Joe brand, but you can use any raw brand)
pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt Crystals (grinder)
handful of cashews
handful of raisins
Preparation: Mel the coconut oil,after melting remove from heat. Add the cocao powder and mix it until it is blended. Then add in the sunflower seed butter and the agave sweetener. Put in the sweetener slowly. Add more to your own taste. Add the pinch of salt. Then add your ingredients, cashews and raisins (if you like you can use almonds instead). (Note: I adapted a recipe from Doreen Germany who has an e-book available with other great recipes to use while detoxing your body. You can find her information mywellnessmylife.com) Once you mix your ingredients, place the mix in small cupcake holders and freeze until ready to eat. I take them out of the freeze and put them in ziploc bags. So when I want something sweet, I have my own candy that actually has something good inside for me. Makes great snacks.
See pictures above for how the recipes look.
