Eating Healthier

Each Monday I try again, hoping to make a dent in flubber. I attend my local gym, work my tennis shoes off til' I'm so sore the next day that its hard to move. In order to get on top of this problem I need to remember that it takes more than going to the gym. I need to eat healthier and limit my food intake as well. This is one of my biggest challenges. Let's face it, it isn't always easy eating healthy all the time. I love to eat good food, foods that taste good, that actually have flavor. I have a magnet that sticks to my fridge that is the food pyramid according to Dr. Fuhrman and I really like it because it puts food into perspective.  I can see what I need to do. I love to cook the healthy recipes I make for Ron because I like to prepare food, chop and measure etc. but at the same time I think it would taste better if someone else would cook it. I think its normal to think this.  I have put together some healthy food recipes on my blog with the help of Dr. Fuhrman's recipe page. even included desserts which is important. I have tried these recipes and have liked them. I am constantly adding more to the blog so you will need to visit often. Try some of these recipes, give yourself at least 2 weeks to get used to eating this way of healthy eating. That is how long it takes our taste buds to convert.  Take the challenge this week and eat healthy. Really watch what you are eating and how much you are eating. Let me know if you try one of the recipes and what you think of it.

Faith Anyone?

We should not be discouraged or depressed by our shortcomings. No one is without weakness. As part of the divine plan, we are tested to see whether we master weakness or let weakness master us. Proper diagnosis is essential to proper treatment. The Lord gave us this remarkable assurance: " Because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong" (Ether 12 :37)  But Wishing for strength won't make us strong. It takes faith and work to shore up a weakened cord of integrity. Real faith in Him will provide real relief-- and glorious rewards. He said, "Because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father"

We had an awesome lesson in Relief Society on Sunday and wanted to share this quote and some of my added thoughts and feelings about it. It was on faith. What faith is, and how to obtain it.

This quote is from Bishop Edgley:  Because of the conflicts and challenges we face in today's world, I wish to suggest a single choice--a choice of peace and protection and a choice that is appropriate for all. That choice is faith. Be aware that faith is not a free gift given without thought, desire, or effort. It does not come as athe dew falls from heaven. The Savior said, "Come unto me" and "Knock, and it shall be {given} you" (Matthew 7:7). These are action verbs--come, knock. They are choices. So I say choose faith. Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism.

Faith is more than things hoped for and not seen, it is a deep conviction, a deep feeling of knowing without assurance. It's deep hope in our soul, in our hearts. Faith begins with hope and desire. We learn this from Alma 32:27-43. With this hope and desire we become motivated and begin to experiment, to see if will work.

I had made the comment that when we want to lose weight we often go to the gym, you can't just go to the gym one time and expect to lose weight you have to keep going to the gym and not only that but going to the gym isn't the only way to lose weight so you could follow the Word of Wisdom, eat healthy, stay active, you don't go to the gym and then come and sit and veg in from of the TV or computer all day, you need to keep going. It's the same with faith. You need to have desire to receive it, motivation to prove it, and you have to keep doing it, but also try a variety of ways to receive it. You can pray, pay tithing, read in our scriptures, be chaste, keep the commandments, fast, keep the Sabbath Day holy, and a huge variety of other things to do to receive faith. We need to not only do one thing but do the variety of things to make the faith more balanced.

Remember you can't just wish for strength to overcome weakness or wish to have faith, it takes effort, action, we have to work at it. Is it hard work? Not really, it's quite simple but then again it isn't, it is work and like anything worth having it takes sacrifice and effort. It is a process, we are not going to be perfect all at once but as we keep at it we will become perfect in that thing we are experimenting in. The key is--we must keep trying. We mustn't give up on our faith, we must keep nourishing it like a seed that will someday with special care will turn into something beautiful, useful and sweeter than anything we have ever known because of the accomplishment we feel in achieving it. Faith is so essential in living the Gospel Plan. Without it we will never reach our highest potential. Faith is like a key which is used to opening a door to happiness and eternal life. We have the key within reach, we have the choice....do we want to be happy, do we want our families to be happy? Those things are obtainable even here in this crazy world that we live in. We have to have faith, we have to live the gospel principles which have been taught to us. We need to be a strength for each other, to be the cheer leader our for families and friends that we love. We have to help them by encouraging, teaching, and by being the example ourselves. We must work to overcome, to master weakness not the other way around. We can do it, some days will be harder than others, because there is someone out there wanting us to fail. He wants us to fall on our faces and give up. He doesn't want us to be happy, he doesn't want families to stay together. He is hoping we choose to give into the worldly ways, to stumble and hope we forget who we are and what we can do if only we make up our minds to do it and to work at it. "He never said it would be easy, but He promises it will be worth it".

Happenings:

Reading: Mental and Spiritual      
Finshed Reading: I have finished reading these books this year so far, they are in order:
The Maze Runner
The Scorch Trials (still waiting for the third book to end the series)
The Help
The Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mockninjay
The Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged)

Books I'm Reading: 
The Book of Mormon (ongoing everyday)
The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens


Books to be Read: (the small condensed version)
Great Expectations
Little Women
Pride and Prejudice
North and South
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
Mansfield Park
Still Alice
The Forgotten Garden
More books from Lynn Austin

I could go on but I'm starting with classics and working in some of my favorite authors like Lynn Austin. She has some great stuff and I haven't read them all yet. I would like to read something funny romantic soon, so if you know the perfect book for me, let me know.

Physical:

Everyday at home I do some exercises to tone the stomach.I need to get rid of flubber. Mondays I go to the gym to workout, this week I got the craving and was drawn to do Zumba. It's perfect for cardio. I went back to the gym on Wednesday and did the Hip Hop with power (which means with weights). Not only do you get cardio but you also tone. Perfect for what I want. I've also been eating healthier. Instead of pulling out my Kit Kat, I've been snacking on apples and pears. I've been eating small amounts of oatmeal or fruit smoothies everyday. (check out my recipe blog for smoothie recipes under the breakfast page)   


Culture:
I had the opportunity to attend my son Jonathon's band performance recently and I love to hear them play. They are great. They played some great stuff but one of my favorites was this song named  Fate of the Gods 
Check it out. You can also hear it on my My music blog-Give Me A Beat . 
I have collected a new playlist of songs of theme songs from different movies and also music from awesome composers even the great Paul Cardall.

General:
 
I have been been very concerned with some of my children's habit of brushing their teeth or should say lack of. Every morning before each goes to school or after family prayer in the evening I'm always reminding my kids to go and brush and floss (evening) their teeth. Although it seemed as if they were but with no real evidence. So, I now have several of my children brush and floss their teeth in my presence so that I know without a doubt. Sad really but, one of my children feared to brush his teeth or didn't like the taste of toothpaste. Of course reminding him we aren't to be eating the toothpaste just brushing our teeth with it. I'm not going to go get fruity tasting toothpaste when I know most of that is no good anyway. After several days of it, he now loves to brush his teeth and went as far as to say it was fun. Ha. I don't know about that but if he thinks so, okay...I'm not going to say otherwise. 

One of my daughters also has a fear of water, particularly showers. She doesn't do it often enough I"m embarrassed to say. She prefers the bath but doesn't even do that enough. My debate about a bath was that you can't wash your hair correctly. When you are washing your hair in the bath water, you are only washing it in dirt from your body. Therefore not really washing your hair as it should, because you can't rinse all the dirty soap you put into it. I offered to do it for her. So, she finally came to me and asked me to do it. It was hard on her neck and back but we did it. After we dried her hair and styled it, she was in heaven. She loved the bounce it gave, because it was clean. I'm hoping this gives her the motivation she needs to do it on her own next time.

So as a mom I feel like I'm making a difference in this area. Hoping to improve on my children's habits of being clean in every aspect of their lives.

Can't Win Them All

I've had one of those weeks. Not only did my favorite basketball team-BYU not win their last game...I was so bummed especially after hearing the bad news about Brandon Davies. But also, my two sons who tried out for the Davis Soccer team found out last night they didn't make it. Brandon was close, he made the first cut but not the second. We got up early Mon. & Wed. mornings just for the conditioning for the try-outs. Glad that's over, maybe it was still a good thing to do. My two girls didn't win big at the Cheer Nationals even though I thought they should have been placed different than they were. Oh well. We can't win them all. It's been that kind of week. We can't always have winning relationships all the time either.  But, what are we to learn from all this besides not winning all the time?  Well, we need to keep trying, don't give up. Always work to improve yourself. Stay positive and work at it. Eventually, something will happen for your good.

The girls may not have won big, but we had fun at Disneyland/California Adventure Park with the four youngest kids. The boys may not be on the soccer team but they can try out for tennis. They have a better chance playing together. That will be awesome. Relationships improve, people forget about being selfish and think of others. As for BYU, their future still looks bright, I still have faith in them and I know they will pull it together even with Davies gone. Maybe we can play some of our rivals again and this time win. I'm looking forward to seeing the team again in action. Maybe we can't win them all but that's okay, we will still have fun watching them. Go Cougars!