Life Changing

Healthy living - you could say my healthy living journey began a few years ago. When I think back on how it began I'm pretty sure it has a lot to do with being far away from civilization and having to make all meals. Plus being home full time I slowly realized that it is my "job" to feed my family.

Like many things education is key - watching Food Inc. and other food documentaries  really fueled me for a while, but somehow my brain had been wired to think we couldn't afford to eat organic - whole foods.

Emotions have a lot to do with this journey as well... a roller coaster of emotions are reflected in my weight gain. Our first year away from what I knew as home equaled 12 pounds of emotions. Getting pregnant and then losing our baby fueled me again to exercise and count calories (the counting of calories is exhausting) but I got back to what I thought was healthy.

Thankfully the Lord has blessed us with two healthy babies since and now I am fueled by the little people in our house. In order to do my best at taking care of them I have to take care of myself, I also need to set an example for them.

Wanting to be healthy I continued to investigate what healthy is and what I found was that there are all of the competing voices out there telling us what is healthy and what isn't... who are we supposed to listen to?? To say I am a skeptic of things, might be an understatement, I rarely jump in to things with both feet without trying to educate myself. Education in healthy living is vast and there are opinions and studies on every side of the argument. Wheat - No Wheat... Gluten - No Gluten... Dairy - No Dairy... Meat - Organic Meat... GMO (this one is huge).

We are also bombarded with every kind of "healthy" system to help us lose weight, the problem is we don't JUST need to lose weight, we need a RESTART on our bodies!

Recently (3 days ago) I completed 30 Days of Healthy Living and Beyond with Arbonne. During the 30 days I removed Wheat/Gluten, Dairy and Processed Food, Avoided Refined Sugar (all sugar really) and your plate should be 1/2 Veggies, 1/4 Lean Protein, 1/8 Complex Carbs, 1/8 Good Fat. I also added a supplement of probiotic, prebiotic and digestive enzymes.

The 30 Days looked something like this:

WATER, WATER, WATER - we are supposed to drink half of our body weight in ounces of water each day!

Breakfast - Eggs with spinach, mushroom, tomato, avocado. OR Meal Replacement Shake: Arbonne Protein Powder, Arbonne Fiber, Spinach, Blueberries, Coconut Oil and Almond Milk.

Lunch - Salad: Any Variety just making sure to follow the above recommendations.

Dinner - Made dinner for my family and adapted to fit above recommendations. Example: Spaghetti - I would make mine with spaghetti squash instead of noodles and have salad.

Snacks - because I am nursing our littlest I am hungry... so I had a protein bar or green apple or hummus with veggies or almonds... or another meal replacement shake.

The hardest part for me was giving up coffee in the morning and SUGAR! By day 3 I was craving sugar... like I had to have it... but mind over matter right. I also had supplements that helped me succeed - fizz sticks and herbal tea to replace coffee/coke and fit chews replaced sweets.

The end result, I feel great and I'm not just saying that... I have 4 kids at home, one of them is a newborn... I have every reason to be tired. My energy is back, I don't have cravings (don't get me wrong there are days when my 3 year old drives me to wanting a brownie - but the brownie WON'T FIX my feelings).

My ultimate goal wasn't weight loss - even though it is an added bonus - I wanted to know what my body could feel like. Would I really feel "that different" based on what I put in my body? Fortunately with will power and encouragement from those around me after 30 days my life has been changed. I don't want to go back, healthy feels better than the brownie tastes.

What Next: there is nothing I would like more than to walk alongside others as they see their lives change. Contact me for encouragement or more information in the 30 Healthy Living and Beyond program.