and spirit...encouragement for your soul.

Hopefully this will be a place of resources and information for living a healthy lifestyle while feeding your soul. Recipes, links to helpful sites, words of encouragement and scripture....all to help you and your family make wise decisions for your life.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Back on track, literally!

A weekend of laying around, eating, drinking, snacking, caramel corn and desserts has caused a renewed desire to visit the gym. I am praying God will help me with the discipline part of losing weight through exercise and diet. Having been skinny most of my life and now dealing with a weight problem is discouraging so divine intervention is needed please!

Eating right is not a huge issue as I adore fresh vegetables and whole grains and most healthy foods. As a matter of fact, I prefer them. (I shall never give up fried chicken though!) I am stocking up every other week with fresh, organic produce from the coop. (See the "Organic Produce" page.) When I bring the produce home I wash and prepare all of it for cooking and place all in green bags. When dinner time rolls around all I have to do is take out as much as I need and chop it or steam it. (Thank you Rachael Ray for that wonderful tip!) So the diet part of the equation is not a problem.

Now for the exercise part...I am not a fan! I shall have to say God is doing a work in that area. I visited the gym today and spent some quality time on the treadmill and ALMOST enjoyed it.

As I was moving to the weight machines this little lady on the eliptical machine stopped me. She said she was looking at my ankles and lamenting that her ankles used to be thin. Now she has trouble with water retention and her ankles are swollen. She is in her mid eighties and looks marvelous. She used to be a professional ball room dancer. Her scoundrel husband left her with four small children when she was in her thirties. She took in ironing and cleaned office buildings while the children were sleeping. When the children were all in school she took a job in a factory. All of that information in 10 minutes from a woman I didn't know. Wouldn't you want to learn more?

You see how God works? He placed this very interesting elderly woman in my path and now I can't wait to go back to the gym to hear more of her life story. I don't believe in coincidence so my new friend, Barbara, is a gift from the Most High God!