Worship is Active and Not Passive

Bootcamp is on a two week break, and I already can tell a difference.  Yesterday, I was feeling overwhelmed when I realized how much I need to get accomplished this summer to get ready for next school year. Normally on Tuesdays, I would have my bootcamp workout.  Stressful day and no major workout...I was still stressed.  I realized how much less stressed I have been the last 4 weeks.

Spiritually, I know I am supposed to not worry...to let go and let God.  This is so hard sometimes.  I can be such a control freak over my immediate life and to-do's.  I feel like over the last month or two God is really showing me that worship and surrender are ACTIVE and not PASSIVE.  What I mean is that for me I am coming to see that there is something amazing that exercise does for me spiritually. Let me clarify.  When I work hard and sweat hard, I let go and I surrender.  Each lap and each physical movement helps me let go of the worries and distractions and stresses that weigh me down.  As I sweat out the stress, there is more room for God...more room for prayer.

Exercise is great for me physically, mentally, and emotionally.  I am finding that as I feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally, I also see improvement spiritually.  I take more time to seek God throughout the day and the week.

(Source: Pinterest)

I also have been trying to go to Holy Yoga once a week.  I have always enjoyed yoga, but there is something special about actually doing yoga with other Christians...about actually worshipping while being physically active.  With holy yoga, you are actively worshipping.

Today, I got up and went for an interval run/walk with Nala.



Running and I do not have a great relationship, but I feel like I need to keep trying. Things worth doing are always hard.

(Source: Pinterest)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Bootcamp Fitness

I started this blog so I could document my personal journey with balance.  The last few weeks I have been going to a bootcamp fitness class with Texas Bootcamps.  I have really enjoyed it.  It is on a two week break.  I will miss it.  I know exercising outside in summer in the Texas heat...it sounds crazy, right?  I absolutely love it, though.  Other people are exercising with you, so it motivates you to keep going...keep pushing. We meet three times a week, and each workout is different.  You never get bored, and your body doesn't plateau as much with all the variety.  I feel so much stronger.  I have been sleeping well, I have more energy, and I am in a lot better mood. 

(Gotta love Pinterest quotes for motivation)

Speaking of sleep, I really should be in bed already.  Time for some water and sleep.  I'm going to restart the Fast Metabolism Diet again tomorrow.  I keep starting it and getting sidetracked.  Hopefully this time I can make the full 28 days.

Holy Yoga and a Long Walk

Well, today was Day 9 on the Fast Metabolism Diet.  I do feel a lot better, and I have lost 3 pounds.  I have not followed it 100% perfectly, but I have tried to follow it pretty closely.

Eating better and working out more is so time consuming.  I feel good, but I also am just tired. The positive side of exercise though is you sleep better. Yesterday, I did 30 minutes of hot yoga and then an hour of holy yoga.  That was my second time to go to try holy yoga.  I really enjoyed it.  I absolutely love the idea of worshipping God while exercising.  Worship just feels like it should be active and not passive.

Today, Nala and I walked two miles on our favorite trail by the duck pond in the beautiful weather.  (With Texas the beautiful weather will not last long.)  Then, I went to an hour of boot camp fitness. I made a quick dinner taco of ground turkey, kale, and salsa on a spelt tortilla.

Now, I finally am blogging and getting ready for bed.  I really need to keep up with my gratitude list. Today though, I was grateful for the beautiful weather and a good day at school. 

Prayer, More Fitness, and a Better Metabolism

This weekend has been a great weekend.  Today I went to church at First Baptist Dallas. I have really enjoyed the guest speakers over the last couple weeks for the opening of the new sanctuary. We have had Dr. David Jeremiah and Jym Cymbala.  Today Dr. James Dobson came and spoke. The last couple sermons have convicted me on how much more I need to consistently be praying. I enjoy praying when I walk my dog.  We have a trail by a duck pond down the road. I enjoy walking Nala over there.  I find it very peaceful, and it brings me a lot of joy.  I like praying while we walk. The ducks, the water, the trees, and the sunshine all help me let go and let God. Over and over I am reminded of the importance of surrender and faith.  I am an achiever.  I always have a list to accomplish, so it is a daily...hourly choice to surrender and not worry and not overthink.

This week I finished week 2 of bootcamp fitness. I can already tell I am getting a little stronger. It feels good to feel some progress.  I also started a meal plan this week to help increase my metabolism.  I have a slow metabolism even though I am a small person.  I can gain 5-10 pounds quickly (especially when my thyroid levels are off) but then it is so hard to lose that 5-10 pounds. I found a website called The Fast Metabolism Diet.  I purchased the book through Kindle and the app for the i-Phone. 

The diet lasts 4 weeks and each week you go through 3 phases. The first 2 days you eat more grains and fruit, the next two days you eat veggies and protein, and the last 3 days you eat a mix of all of it. In general, you cut out sugar, alcohol, wheat, dairy, soy, and corn.  Just cutting out dairy and wheat can help your body detox.  On Thursday and Friday, I felt awful and had headaches from detoxing and allergies. Yesterday, I felt a million times better. The app for the phone is amazing (it also only costs $1.99)! You eat about 5-6 small meals per day.  At each meal/snack it tells you what types of foods to eat and then gives you choices.  I like this a lot better than other meal plans I have seen because it tells me what to eat but still gives me options. So far after week 1 I have lost about 2-3 pounds. I am glad to have found something to help me know what foods to eat to help increase my metabolism, and it did not cost me a fortune.

Fitness, Food, and Gratitude

Last week I was becoming a worrier again.  I was feeling stressed, buried, and overwhelmed.  This is a battle I walk daily.  I am serious, focused, and often tense.  I work hard at balance and relaxing.  Yes, I have to work at relaxing.  Please do not dismiss me and just say "You just need to relax."  It is not always that simple.

God reminds me again that in the piles of worry is the neglect of gratitude.  I began counting 1000 Gifts last year and neglected it.  He reminded me it is time to start again. I pulled out the journal, and so I begin this post with gratitude:



391. pedicures with a good friend

392. the Spring Blooms at the Dallas Arboretum
393. a baby's laughter (I took pictures of my friend's baby and the flowers at the arboretum)
394. time spent with a good friend
395. pancakes at The Orginal Pancake House (I had craved pancakes for a month.  They were the perfect dinner Saturday night).
396. began a bootcamp fitness class today (Hopefully I will still feel gratitude tomorrow).
397. committed to eating better more consistently the next 4 weeks
398. loose leaf tea and the electric tea kettle
399. new storage for our small house from Ikea

400.  hot showers

As I work on balance and eating better, one of the things I make myself do is cook on Sunday.  I cook usually 2-3 main course meals on Sunday with about 2 days worth out of each item.  This gives us enough leftovers during the week that we eat at home but I do not have to cook on a school night. I tend to make a lot of the same items with no variety, so one of my goals is to try one new recipe each week.  Last week I made a beef and vegetable soup in the crockpot.  It was yummy! Even the hubby liked it (who by the way hates soup).  This week I tried two new recipes from the Six Sister's.

1. Chicken and Black Bean Casserole


2. Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry

Now, I also want to get back to tracking more of what I am eating. 
Today I just had a Nugo Dark Pretzel protein bar for breakfast.  For lunch, I had some of the black bean and chicken casserole with a Navel orange. For dinner I had a southwest salad before going to bootcamp fitness.

29 Lessons Learned - Part 1

I turned 29 a couple weeks ago and have been wanting to write a post about 29 lessons learned.  So here goes.  Here is part one of some of the lessons I have learned in my 29 years.

1) Verbalizing helps
I am the type of person that I need to verbalize my thoughts and feelings.  There is too much going on in my over-analytical head.  Writing it down and talking about it out loud helps me process and let things go.

2)Drinking water is important.
Drinking water makes a huge difference in how I feel and how my body responds to things.

3) Self-awareness is essential to growth.
In order to grow, I have to accept my strengths and weaknesses.  I have to make decisions with them in mind, embracing the good with the bad.  I need to pay attention to how I respond emotionally and physically to events and things I consume.

4) Find moments of simplicity.
Take the time to slow down and just breathe or just be.

5) Reward yourself with rest.
Sleep deprivation is not worth it...even if you are a night person.

6) Find a daily, consistent happy moment.
Nala is almost always the best part of my day. Pets give love unconditionally and are uncomplicated.  Sometimes we just need a source of joy and love that is uncomplicated.























7) The book is always better.
Books will always be the best source of escape.  Book stores are happy places.

8) Just because I have a favorite color does not mean I love all items in that color.
I know this.  I just wish come gift time everyone else knew this.

9) Snacks are important.
Ask my mom or my husband.  You really do not want to know me when I am hungry.  I am no longer pleasant.

10) You cannot and will never make everyone happy.
I tried.  I tried for a long time. No one is perfect and sometimes no matter how delicate we try to handle people's feelings, we hurt, we disappoint, and we anger. That does not mean I go out of my way to be cruel.  It just means that living in a world of too many feelings to juggle is a world where sometimes balls get dropped and feelings get hurt. After too many crashes and all seems broken, sometimes it seems too hard to pick it all back up and start juggling again.  Sometimes you just have to ask God for help because he juggles a lot more than I do.

To be continued...

A Blessed Birthday Week

I wanted to update this little blog just about every day for the last week and never found the time.  I am going to catch you up on what I have been doing and eating. Last Sunday I kept up my routine of cooking, shopping, and preparing for the week.  I will say that actually cooking more and buying just a few items at Trader Joes (instead of almost all at Whole Foods) is saving me like $50 a week. Between Trader Joes and Whole Foods I have been only spending about $60-$70 a week.  Then, we also get other items at Kroger.

Last Sunday, I made chili and chicken noodle soup. This is a staple backup meal for us. My husband loves chili, and I love chicken soup.





 We both have something we love to eat throughout the week for leftovers. The chicken soup is chicken, chicken broth, onions, celery, carrots, and brown rice noodles all cooked in the crockpot. The chili is ground turkey breast,  16 oz. tomato sauce, 3 cans of beans (usually red beans, pinto beans, and black beans), onion, bell pepper, and False Alarm chili seasoning.

Last Sunday (as well as a couple other days), Nala and I went on a 2 mile walk on the trails.  Nala loves to meet new people and watch the ducks.



Thursday, February 7th was my birthday.  I decided to get up and try a 6am hot pilates class.  I have done hot yoga at 6am before, but not in about 2 years.  I decided to try it.  My yoga studio is very close to school.  I have to be at school at 7:30, and the class is from 6-7.  I wasn't sure if 30 minutes was enough time to get ready and get to work, but I made it. (Sometimes it pays to be low maintenance.)  Oh my gosh, it was amazing.  I felt so awake and energized all day!  I have a slow metabolism, so I think exercising in the morning really did a number on my metabolism. 

My dad sent me flowers at work, which was a nice surprise that made my classroom smell amazing.



Thursday night, Kyle and I went to dinner.  I made him surprise me.  I gave him a list of about 5-6 acceptable choices. We ended up at The Melting Pot.  We had a fabulous four course fondue dinner.  (I would rather not think about the amount of calories I consumed, but it was my birthday.)



Last night, I got to go to a wine bar called Mercy Wine Bar with 3 really good friends.  We had a fabulous night with tons of laughter.



Today, I went to church and then went on about a 15 mile bike ride with a friend and her daughter. She pulled her 3 year old daughter in a bike trailer. We rode to Whole Foods and had lunch and then came back.  We were gone about 3 hours.  We were only riding about 7 miles per hour, but it was a beautiful day.  Riding a little slower made it easier to talk while riding, so it was a great way to visit with a friend and still get a workout in. After my bike ride, I took a nap and then walked the dog. 

I later did some shopping at Whole Foods and Trader Joes for the week.  I need to finish packing my work out bag for yoga in the morning.  Here are my lunch and snack for tomorrow.

For lunch, I am having spinach with carrots and cranberries that I will mix with chicken salad.  For a side, I have grapes and cheddar cheese.



For my snack, I will have tomato basil hummus in a snack dipper with cucumber and sesame hummus chips.



Overall, I had a great birthday and feel very blessed that God is helping me find joy and balance through positive, healthy every day choices.

Blessings and good night,