Finding Hope in Darkness

 Many of you don't know my full medical story. It's okay. You don't have to. To fully understand me, probably. To fully understand my thrive for life, most definitely. To completely understand my gratefulness for each breath, abso-FREAKING-lutely. But I won't bore you with the details.

What I will briefly tell you is that I am plagued with a disease that will eventually take my life. Eventually, my body will not be able to handle simple tasks, and it will begin to shutdown. I had a bad period of time last summer where everything I was trying to do to keep myself healthy was not working. I completely turned my diet around. I was exercising every single day. I was on top of taking my medication. I was doing everything bright, and my doctor even told me so. Yet nothing was budging. Instead I got diagnosed with two more medical issues, for a total of four illnesses that battle against each other on a daily basis. Did I want to give up? HELL YEAH!! I cried. For DAYS. Stopped taking my medicine. Ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and I stopped working out. Because I figured if I was gonna go, I was going on my terms. Then one day a friend posted a phrase about her illness that spoke to me. It said, "Maybe God gave me this disease so I could understand how important loving life is." I cried. And then I started all over again.

Many of you will never know the full struggles I face, and I pray you will never have to face them yourselves. I was in a dark place with no hope, thinking everything was lost. It took one little phrase to turn life around. So today I offer you this photo. And I pray that if you are in the depths of your darkness, and finding it hard to move on, that you fight, you keep on working, and that you find your purpose to continue. Put your hand on your heart. Do you feel that? That means you aren't dead yet. There's still hope. And if you still can't find your fight, message me. We'll work through it together. I've been there. It's dark. But I promise you, there is a light.

Time to Get Picky!

I found this on Infinite Life Fitness today as I was searching for a little Monday motivation. How many times have you told yourself that you're just getting older and your body doesn't respond like it used to? I'm sure that phrase, along with many others, have seeped through your lips on a regular basis as you continue to try to lose the weight that took you weeks, months, or years to put on. Am I right? If you're anything like me, you might even play around with your workouts, try to adapt to the newest fad diet out on the market, or even try those magic pills that everyone swears works. I've been there. I know. It's not easy. The choices you make today will affect your life tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. So what kind of choices are you going to make for YOU today?

I was that fat kid growing up that loved food. It didn't matter what you put in front of me, I would eat it. Fill my plate with three times as much food as I should be eating, and I would eat it. My small 5' 7" frame when from a large 163 lbs. in 8th grade to an obese 295 lbs. in 2000, 4 years after graduating high school. I dropped to 250 lbs. by my June wedding in 2003, 235 lbs. by June 2004, and am now at 212 lbs., moving lower and lower every week. I am plagued with 4 different medical issues that all impede my ability to lose weight in one way or another. But it is all about choices, and which ones you are willing to make for a healthier you.

In January, 2011, I read Jillian Michaels' book, Master Your Metabolism. I was SHOCKED at the information that I read, the poisons that were in the foods that I had grown to love so much. What these ingredients were doing to my body over time, and what they were hindering now. I never knew how much food would ever play a role in my life. Granted I love food, I love cooking, baking, discovering new recipes and creating my own. But I never thought that the choices I made as far as the foods I cooked with, or the ingredients I used would ever make such an impact on me or my body. So immediately after reading the book, I took her advice. I grabbed a trash bag, and I pulled everything off my shelves, out of my fridge, and from my freezer than contained any of the "bad" food items listed in her book. I resolved to eat healthier, to eat cleaner. I chose to fill my pantry, fridge, and freezer with whole foods, organic foods, natural foods, foods without the bad ingredients. That changed my life.

I am now 19 months into eating whole foods, and I am still shocked at how far I have come. While, yes, I have yo-yoed with my weight, I don't give myself a hard time when I'm eating right, and doing what I'm supposed to for my health conditions. See, it's all about perspective, and how you see things. Which brings me to the next photo that I found on Infinite Life Fitness. This image below shows portions of food that you can eat for 100 calories. How many times have we eaten the full muffin and thought it was okay? That it wouldn't affect our waistline? How many times have you thought, "Well, pretzels are healthier than chips, right?" I'm right there with you. I thought the same thing. But really, all you're getting out of those pretzels are empty carbs and calories. Where's the nutrition in the pretzels? Do they fill you up? Do they keep you filled up for a long period of time? If you say 'yes' to those last two, you're lying to yourself. In which case, you may as well stop reading and come back when you're serious. I know the truth. Previous fatty, remember?!!!

So take a look at these comparisons. As a foodie, and previous fatty, that little kid who would eat anything would go for quantity every single time. Look at how much more you get of the healthy stuff. Do you know how hard it is to actually eat all those carrots in one sitting? One of those little bags of baby carrots is a 100 calorie snack. A WHOLE BAG!!! Not half the bag, a third of the bag, or 12 carrots, the whole darn thing is a 100 calorie snack. I can't make it through a whole bag before I'm stuffed and tucking the rest away for another time. That's how filling the good stuff can be. Those are the prime things you should be choosing to eat.

That's a WHOLE apple compared to a bite size candy bar. About 2/3 of a melon compared to a bite of a muffin. Are you getting the picture yet? Are you still going to crave those pretzels, muffins, cookies, chips, and candy bars? HECK YEAH!! You are, after all, human. And it's in our nature to desire things like that. You're still going to want that ice cream cone, or fresh baked chocolate chip cookie. And every once in a while, it is A-OK to indulge in those things. Everything in moderation. But when you decide to treat yourself to that cookie, or that ice cream cone, make it a homemade one, where the ingredients are better for you. Use whole wheat flour to make that cookie, fresh ingredients to make that ice cream, and skip the cone. Remember what I said in the beginning of this article? The choices you make today will affect your life tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. So what kind of choices are you going to make for YOU today?


Go make some great decisions. Because YOU ARE WORTH IT.

Managing Your Salt Intake

It's one ingredient that you don't pay attention to until you have to. Heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, the list goes on. It's never too early to pay attention to what you are putting in your body.

According to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, we are supposed to take in no more than 2300 mg of salt, 1500 if you have one of the illnesses mentioned above (or others!). Did you know the average American takes in 3400 mg of sodium a day, if not more?!?!!! Whether you think it is a lot of salt or not, maintaining your salt intake, and watching your salt levels now is better than having to do it because you have developed a condition that forces you to.

So let's take some preventative steps NOW.

1. Make small changes. There's no need to leap into excluding salt from everything. Instead, decrease your amounts with small changes, such as buying reduced sodium soy sauce, or skipping the salt on your baked potato. Craving those fries from McDonald's? Order them without salt! Did you even know you could do that?!! You can!! You will be surprised at how much of a difference it makes!

2. Don't eat processed and pre-prepared foods! Processed foods are just bad for you, but they can also include half of your daily allowance for sodium, if not more!

3. Read the labels!! Did you know that some foods that try to reel you in with the big letters, screaming, "NO FAT!!" to you are often the worst culprits? These low/non fat foods add salt for flavor. Know what you are putting in your body! Still want to eat out? Ask the restaurant for their nutritional facts on their foods. Most restaurants have them, and even post them online, so you can check out what you are truly putting in your body.

4. Make your own food. I know, the task seems daunting. But you can lower your sodium (not to mention calories, fat, and carbs!) by making your favorites with fresh ingredients, right in your own kitchen!! I recently posted an Egg Roll recipe to the Facebook page, and showed the comparison in a post about how much healthier the homemade egg rolls were! Best part? The homemade version had ONE THIRD of the sodium of those that you would find in the frozen section at your local grocery store! And there are even recipes where you can omit salt all together, and add other spices to make up the difference, without getting the sodium!

These are just a few ways that you can gradually move yourself toward the levels you need. On a regular basis, I don't take in more than 1000 mg of salt. And most days, that's a high! I would say 90% of the time, by cap for sodium is at about 500-600 mg of salt a day. Amazing, right? But I make all my own meals, from scratch. No box, nothing processed, no fast foods. Everything is homemade. Small things eventually turn into big things, and before you know it, it's all habit. Tasting things that are extra salty will make you cringe instead of crave. And this is all part of being a healthier YOU. That is truly what it is all about. Make the changes now to prevent the illnesses later. I know you can do it!!

For more information on daily salt intake, and how to reduce your salt intake, check out this article from the Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sodium/NU00284

Walk Yourself Healthy! Join Me!!

Inspired by some activities where I am living, I devised this plan to "walk" myself to a better me. I threw in a little fun, but kept things simple. After all, the more complex you make something, the less likely you are to finish the task at hand. So here it is. My Walk Yourself Healthy Challenge!

The plan is plain and simple. By doing certain things throughout your day, you earn miles in your walk. While there are exercising activities listed on the chart, there are also other healthy choices that you can make throughout the day to help you get where you're going. You don't have to do them all! If something on the list is not something you want to do (some people don't like to count calories or log their meals), then don't do it! It's as simple as that! These are just many things that have helped me tame my portions and get on track to a healthier lifestyle.

There are a couple of things on the list that can be duplicated, and, therefore, earn you more miles. For example, if you take 8,000 steps in a day, you then earn 4 miles. Same thing goes for drinking additional glasses of water, and 30 minutes of exercising. All other items on the list can only be counted once in a day.

Here's the plan, and how to work it for you!

1. Choose your destination. It can be a place you would love to travel to, a place you have been and would love to visit again, a place across the US where a friend or family member lives. You don't have to travel around the world for your first go round! You can start off with somewhere that is a few hundred miles away instead of a few thousand. The key is to choose a destination, and keep it!

2. Go to maps.google.com, input your starting place and your ending place to see the number of miles it takes to get to your destination. Round the number up to make a rounded number (i.e., 264.23 becomes 265). This is your ONE WAY magic number. Since you will need to get yourself home, too, multiply this number by 2, and you get your ROUNDTRIP number. The roundtrip number is your goal mileage. Decide how many days you want to have to make your trip. Divide your roundtrip number by this number to find out your recommended daily mileage. Note: This number is just a recommendation! You can go over on some days and under on others, the whole point is to reach your destination and make it home safely. :)

3. Post your mileage somewhere where you can see it and keep track of it daily. I have a dry erase board on my fridge. Here's what I have written on it:

Destination:
Miles to My Destination:
Days to Reach My Destination and Come Home:
My Miles So Far:
Miles To Go:

It seems a little daunting at first, but as the numbers go up, you'll be motivated to keep at it!

4. Hop to it!! Below is the list of what earns miles. You're on the honor system here. Fudging your numbers has no effect on anyone else but you. So don't cheat yourself! Work hard to get to your goal. You will be surprised with what you are capable of!

I look forward to hearing all your success stories throughout your walk. Visit the Healthy, Fit, and Fabulous Facebook page, and share your stories with others. I will be posting some tips, tricks, and healthy recipes for you to use along the way. Check back frequently, request healthy alternatives for your favorites, or just vent. I wish you all the best of luck with your walk! If you need help, or think something would make a great addition to the list to earn mileage for, let me know!!

GOOD LUCK!!!