Going through Life with Gratitude

Going through this process of being more fit and more healthy with a sense of Gratitude has made all the difference in my Attitude towards Life.  Before, everything I did was done with begrudgingly.  Always in the back of my mind was the fear of failure and resentment towards that failure.  I hated my body and what it meant to me. 
Now that I understand that my body is a tremendous gift that I have stewardship over, all my activities seem do be done because I want to.  Not because I have to.  My body gives and gives and gives and gives to me all day long.  How do I give back to it?  How do I nurture my own body.  I tend to nurture EVERYTHING and EVERYONE else around me.  The idea of nurturing myself is a foreign idea to me.  But it feels right.  Making these changes in my life are being done so that I can live a better life, not to be skinny. 
I have never before done activities like running, hiking, or even gardening with a sense of gratitude in my heart.  My heart literally fills like it's going to burst with gratitude.  My body is amazing.  I can do so many wonderful things.  Now I just want to eat right so that I can do even more wonderful things, so that I can run faster, hike higher, longer and steeper hills.  Eating candy is not going to give me the effect that I desire. 
I'm sure this is all a review of what I've said the past few weeks.  But it is so powerful to me right now.  
If I could ask anyone who reads this blog to change one thing, that one thing would be to have gratitude for you body.  No matter what shape or size it is.  Your body is amazing, a gift given to you with great love.  Recognize that love, be grateful for it, and nurture your gift. 

3 Meals vs. Every 3 Hours

The debate is on.  Which is a better way to eat during the day?  Just 3 square meals?  Or every 3 hours?  My trainer friend, with pleading hands, begged me to eat every 3 hours.  She is convinced that if I do eat every 3 hours I will start to drop weight.  I've tried that in the past and all I end up doing during the day is thinking about what I'm going to eat next.  When eating 3 meals a day I find that I get famished and tend to make not so good choices.  What does it really matter when I'm counting calories too?  Just as long as I stay with in my allotted amount of calories I should be fine right?

Today I seemed to be SUPER hungry.  I had gotten back from the water park with my kids and I was just hungry.  Something about being in the sun and water that makes one's hunger roar like a lion.  I didn't make very good choices.  But those choices didn't completely derail me either.  I would say that is success?   What's a fat girl to do?   Brush off that twix and move on to better choices.  

I think tomorrow, to prevent my hunger from roaring like a ravenous lion, I'm going to try and eat every 3 hours.  I think another of my problems is that I'm not getting enough protein in my diet.   I know protein keeps me fuller longer and helps me to build muscle.  

Off to make something yummy for dinner.

In addition to...

This is my third week of getting up at 7am to exercise.  It's been so wonderful to get up and get my body moving.  Exercise does so many great things for me mentally, physically and spiritually.  After not exercising for such a long time and feeling like crap I wonder why it is that I ever stopped in the first place.  I now know why.  I was doing the exercise for all the wrong reasons.  I wanted to be skinny.  Now all I want is to have a strong body, inside and out, allowing me to have the energy to keep up with 6 children, my husband and the demands of a busy house hold.  There's a lot to get done in a single day when there are 8 people to take care of.  If I'm sick and run down those task become a strain and almost unmanageable.  Becoming light, fit and healthy is a process, a journey that is going to take probably a lifetime to achieve.

Today we increased our running time from 1 minute to 2 minutes.  So instead of walking 2 minutes and running 1 minute, we swapped and are now running for 2 minutes and walking for just 1.  I have to say it was a challenge.  But I can do hard things.  If I can hike the Y, I can do this.  Towards the end of the run I wondered what I could eat today to help me improve my performance.  I have never thought that way before.  Eating the right foods will help me to run faster, my muscle to perform better and my heart to beat little easier.  I struggle to make goals due to the destructive behavior that I found myself living to reach those goals.  But this goal seem healthy, and one that will help me to progress in my running.  Eating the right foods will also help me become light, fit and healthy.

Starting today I am going to try and eat between 1500- 1600 calories a day.  I am not going to limit any foods, except for junk food i.e., red vines(my favorite), salt water taffy(another favorite), candy bars and the like.  These foods are my downfall.  I need to replace them, like I mentioned before, with oranges and watermelon.  Candy and junk food make me feel heavy, sluggish and burdened.  Burdened with the knowledge that I just ate something that I know is not going to help me feel better or run faster.

This goal is going to be a challenging one.  But I can do hard things.  I can and I will.  As much as I HATE to count calories, I know I need to to help me get back on track and to once again bring to light my eating habits.  It's all good.

I have been feeling out different website to help out with calorie counting.  I decided to go with myfitnesspal.com.  It is easy to navigate and another of my good friends asked me to join with her.  I successfully logged all my calories today and stayed within my 1500 limit.  Yes, success for one day.  And it felt GOOD.  I still need to add more vegetables to my daily intake.  I am aware of this and I will try my darn dist to do so tomorrow.  I have a ton of lettuce staring at me.  I think I just need to make a great salad out of it and eat it with my lunch and dinner.  I have a lot of great viniagrettes that I need to whip up.  Maybe I'll even share a recipe or two.

Hiking the Y

This past week my good friend Rachel asked if I would join her on some hikes.  One of my unattainable goals has been to encorporate hikes into my exercise routine.  Hiking has always been so daunting to me.  And difficult, and a tad scary and truth be told it gives me a bit of anxiety.  I know how difficult it is to hike and in the past I've hated every step of the way.  Until I get to the top and realize what an amazing journey I just took myself on.  In the process not really grateful for my body and the ability it had to take me up the mountain.  I was always focused on what was wrong with my body, never being thin enough or good enough. 

This time was different.  I am in a new place.  I want to go on hikes cuz I know how wonderful they are for me mentally, physically and spiritually.  Both hikes that I went on the whole time I had a sense of gratitude for everything about my body.  My beating heart, sometimes it was racing so fast I needed to take a break to bring it back down again. My lungs, that they could provide me the oxigen I needed.  A lot of the time it felt like I was sucking wind, but at least I could still breath.  My legs that they were strong enough to carry my overweight body up both mountains.  And especially my eyes.  Taking in the breathtaking views of this magnificent world given to us by a loving Heavenly Father.

I have a long way to go before I can once again "attack" the mountain.  I realized that I have to eat the food of life, i.e. vegetables, for my body to truly function the way I desire it to, and the way Heavenly Father meant it to.  And that desire is to be light, fit and healthy.  I can no longer indulge in sweets.  I have to just remove them from my home and replace them with fruits.  Oranges, watermelon, apples and dried fruit.  A much better option.  I can do it.  I can feel it deep within my soul, the desire to change for the betterment of ME. 

I have lived in the UC almost all of my life and have NEVER hiked the Y.  It was a huge accomplishment for me.  I felt like I overcame a lot of fear reaching the top of that mountain.  If I can do that hike, I can pretty much do anything else that is challenging.  What an amazing blessing.  What an exciting time it is to be alive.