Healthy Living

I made the mistake of doing a 3-day cleanse. I got what I paid for, I lost some weight and I stuck to the strict diet for 72 hours. I also got more than I paid for: lessons. Some good. Some bad. Overall, I will not be putting myself through another cleanse. I learned that sleep is important and I will commit to giving myself a nap 3 days a week while my kiddos nap. I am an early riser and have not been prioritizing sleep for myself as well as I do for my littles. I learned that I do  enjoy vegetables and I will spend more time making creative sides and snacks of them instead of reaching for packaged items first (or primarily). I learned that I do not like celery or cucumbers. I can tolerate celery in smoothies, but I do not like eating it by itself or with almond butter. I do not really like almond butter. It's peanut butter or nothing! HA! I am far too dependent upon coffee. Prior to said cleanse, I was consuming somewhere between 150 and 350mg of caffeine per day. Since...

I like food. Whew, I'm glad I could get that out there. Has anyone who LOVES food (probably more than we should), and being "health conscious," ever fasted? It is very difficult. Sometimes, I confess, I have fasted for the most wrong of reasons (is that a phrase? Let's say that it is): because I over -indulged and I am "effectively" punishing myself for not staying on plan. Because depriving myself of EVERYTHING will get me back on plan, right? No. Here's the thing, last week, I fasted with my church for a very right reason. However, I knew that in the past (and was heading toward this again), I had the wrong mindset around food. So, I fasted from social media and main meals. This meant that I had breakfast (6:30am) and snacks (the fast was 24 hours 8am-8am). It meant that I would not deprive myself of anything, I was just going to limit my time frames and was aware of my intake. There was still an evening struggle at small group with the snack table, ...

Knowledge is just information, unless it is paired with action, at which point, we may call it Wisdom. Did you know that proper rest and sleep are absolutely necessary for weight loss? We all know that under-nourishing our bodies (aka - not eating enough) will cause our bodies to go into survival mode, storing fat for nourishment, uncertain as to when it will receive more of the necessary nutrients to keep it going (if you didn't, then there you are). Anyway, when we deplete our energies and deny our body sufficient time to fuel up from rest, it does the same. Storing up nutrition for energy reserves until it is able to relax after a decent amount of sleep. Now, I am by no means a medical or nutritional professional. So, please feel free to take my thoughts with a grain of salt, I am merely forwarding my experiences and recalling information from my college nutrition class. However, let me share my week with you. After several weeks of operating on an average high of 6 hour...