Healthy you 4/28/11

Taken from Reshaping it all by Candace Cameron Bure

How many times have you reached for junk food that wasn't part of your plan because you justified that it would be a one-time thing? "Just this time" is a mind trap, and although we've fallen into that trap several times, we keep telling ourselves the same lie. Recognize the thought, and fight it.

 Submit yourselves, then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7

When we resist temptation, it eventually leaves. I promise you that. I mean seriously, you aren't still craving that chocolate bar you rejected last month are you? The temptation eventually left.

Now she isn't saying that these foods are evil. Its just the pull the food has on us. When we are desiring these foods more than we desire God, It becomes a sin.

I'm struggling this week. Feeling kind of in the dumps and this is what makes me want to eat. I'm a chocolate kind of person. Here's a recipe I make that makes me feel less guilty about eating the chocolate. Its about 100 calories a cupcake with a little whip cream on top.

1 box sugar free cake mix ( you can use any flavor but I choose chocolate)
1 can pumpkin
1/2 cup water

mix and put into cupcake pans. bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. (If you have good cupcake pans you don't even have to spray them)
makes 24 cupcakes ( you can also make the smaller cupcakes and have 2 for 100 calories. This is what I like so I feel like I can eat more)

Healthy you 4/14/11

 I signed up for these emails from Made to Crave. This one really hits the spot at my house. Go here to view and sign up for yourself.

I will give you a glimpse into my life. This weekend I was trying to get the house ready for our open on Sunday. We had a lot going on so I didn't get started til after dinner. I was really bitter because I felt like I was the only one trying to get the house sold. I had asked my husband to hang some pictures and fix a leaky faucet. He hadn't done it. Now I was trying to get the house together as everyone else was sitting down watching TV. I decided I wasn't going to do anymore. If no one else cared neither would I. I still hadn't shampooed and there were some spots that really needed it. I went to my room to just read by myself. I had just gotten 'Reshaping It All' by Candace Cameron Bure. So as I'm reading I'm thinking how I just want to go down stairs and eat something. But I keep reading. She talks about just that. How we start to feel emotional about something and then we turn to food instead of God.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Galations 5:16

I did apologize the next day to my husband and thankfully no one came to the open. (The floors were really that bad!) Next time I will not dwell in my bitterness!

Hope everyone else is having a good week (:

Healthy you 4/7/11

For this Healthy You, I'm just going to post a yummy and healthy cake. We all love cake once in awhile right. This recipe is light and perfect for all of those summer gatherings coming up! I think I'm making this for a get together Friday. Everyone always loves it and you can make it sugar free!

CELEBRATION CAKE
Betty Crocker Super Moist Yellow Cake Mix (you can really use what ever cake mix you want)
3 Egg Whites
1/3 cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce (or natural)
1 sm can Mandarin Oranges in Juice

Frosting:
Cool Whip Lite
1 pkg Sugar Free Instant Pudding Mix (dry) (vanilla was wonderful)
1 sm can Crushed Pineapple in own Juice

Preheat oven 350. Spray a 13 x 9 pan with cooking spray. Mix the cake mix, egg whites, apple sauce, and the oranges with their juice. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool the cake completely.

For the frosting, gently fold together the Cool Whip, the pudding mix and the pineapple with its juice. Frost the cake. The frosted cake should be stored in the refrigerator

Healthy you 3/31/11

I'm doing great right now at dropping the pounds. I'm at a new goal I haven't seen since my last son was born. In September he will be 5! Its always so motivating to reach a new goal. In this book I'm reading, very slowly I might add, Made to Crave. She suggests to have a friend that you can journey with on the Healthy You path. This is a great suggestion. You can hold each other accountable for doing great. She can pray for you and you for her. Hopefully the temporary pleasure of one brownie won't be worth having to tell your accountability partner that you made the choice to mess up.

Healthy you 3/24/11

     I feel like I'm on self sabotage mode this week. I am eating all kinds of really unhealthy foods. I have lost about 6 pounds in the last couple weeks. I haven't worked out at all in a week. It's been so busy for some reason. I havn't gained any back yet but I need to stop before I do.
     These few lines stick out to me in 'Made to Crave'.

 I relied on food more than I relied on God. I craved food more than I craved God. Food was my comfort. Food was my reward. Food was my joy. Food was what I turned to in times of stress, sadness, and even in times of happiness.

Why do we do this. We have an accomplishment and we celebrate by having a feast or going out to eat. We are sad about something and we pull out the chocolate. It's never ending!!

They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved. Psalms 78:18

(She says in the book) Each time I craved something I knew wasn't part of my plan, I used that craving as a prompt to pray. Instead of wallowing in what I can't have , I'm making the choice to celebrate what I can have.



How is everyone elses week going?! Tearing down those bricks one by one (:

Healthy you 3/17/11

So I just picked up a new book from the library. A few of my friends started reading it and are really enjoying it. It sounded great from what they were telling me so of coarse I want to read it. I turned to the first page and WOW, off the bat it already hits the spot. The introduction is called 'Finding Your "Want To". How perfect is that? Most of us know that if we eat foods that are healthy for you, you're going to be healthy. Most of us know what foods are healthy. Its not a matter of, you must eat them or you could have major health issues or even you should eat them because they're better for you. When it comes down to it, it's all about motivation. Here's what it says in some of my favorite parts just in the introduction!'
:
   It's not the 'how to' I'm missing. It's the 'want to'..really wanting to make changes and deciding that the results of those changes are worth the sacrifice.
   The cycle continues day after day, week after week, year after year. A whole lifetime could be spent making excuses, giving in, feeling guilty, resolving to do better, mentally beating myself up for not sticking to my resolve, feeling like a failure, and then resigning myself to the fact that things can't change.
   And I don't want to spend a lifetime in this cycle.
She goes on to talk about the story in Matthew 19 about the rich young ruler. She says basically its like us asking how we can get closer to God? And in Matthew 19:21 it says 'If you want to be perfect (whole), go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me'. She says Jesus isn't only saying 'give up your treasures and follow me' . He's saying 'I want you to give up the one thing you crave more than me.(unhealthy food) Then come, follow me." Wow! I paraphrased this last part.

So how is that for the first 5 pages of a book! This book, if you want to look more into it, is 'Made to Crave' by Lysa Terkeurst. I'm really looking forward to reading more.

I have a really good recipe for some low calorie, high fiber, crave satisfying cupcakes. You take a box cake mix(any flavor you want), something sugar free if you can. Add 1 can of Pumpkin. Add 1/2 cup water. Mix well. Put into cupcake tin. Bake on 350 for about 20 minutes. Can add a little whip cream to the top and these are about 50 calories if you use the small cupcake tin and 100 calories if you use the normal size.

Healthy you 3/10/11

     So I have been thinking alot this week about 'Weight loss Thursday' and I decided I would rather call it 'Healthy you'. I don't want it to be about weight loss but about being healthy. Losing weight isn't really about losing weight or it shouldn't be. If you make it purely about losing weight than in the long run you aren't going to succeed. Eventually you are going to put the weight back on and still be unhealthy. It's all about the choices we are making for our lives. The food we put into our bodies. And I know some of you reading are not trying to lose weight, just trying to make healthy choices.
Colossians 2:8 Don't let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding non-sense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world. and not from Christ.
     With that being said I want to highlight something I read a while ago in a book. If we understand how our bodies work and the way God designed them to react maybe it can be easier to make different food choices. In 'Suzanne Somers Fast &and Easy' she has great insight on our bodies and the way we process different foods. She has a list of  'Funky Foods' that she says you should just take out of your diet (or if you don't like that word you can say eating). These foods raise our insulin level in our bodies. Insulin determines what foods will be stored as fat in our bodies or burned off as energy.
     Here's a list of some 'Funky Foods' :

 Sugar

  Beets           Maple Syrup                                                                          
  Carrots        Molasses
  Corn syrup  Sugar
  Honey

Starches
  Bananas                      Potatoes
  Corn                           Sweet Potatoes
  Pasta (made from         White Flour
semolina or white flour)    White Rice
  Popcorn                        Winter squashes(Acorn, butternut)

This is a small list of what she says are 'funky foods'. If you take these out of your diet completely you will loss weight very fast. Now the point is to be healthy though. So I would say if you just focus on replacing White with Wheat for now and try to cut out eating a large amount of these items you'll be on the track to a healthy you.