Ask yourself...how am I doing on this challenge? Be honest! Nobody is looking but you and God. Maybe you ate something you said you wouldn't during this 30 days. Maybe you didn't wake up every morning and have that quiet time with God. Maybe you celebrated too much and gave into that piece of cake or glass of wine. Seriously, it is not the end of the world and more importantly God doesn't love you any less.
What I hope you get from this 30 days is that through Christ you have the strength and power to change your life. If you recognized that you overindulged, haven't been in fellowship with the Lord, or that you skipped a workout AND you sought to rectify that you are achieving success on this journey. Remember when you had no recognition. You were just eating any and everything whenever you wanted it and exercise was not even an afterthought? You prayed only on Sunday at church, but longed for a conversation with God during the week. Remember that time? Well, now it is long gone and you started a new life! You had a breakthrough. Look at you Overcomer!
I hope that you are learning to discipline yourself spiritually, physically, and emotionally during this last 20 days to deal with what's eating you so you can deal with what and how much you are eating. Maybe you have a heatlthy diet but you just don't like exercising. I feel you. Trust me. When I first started this journey I questioned God about every session. Are you sure Lord? Now I look forward to working out (most days that is). I hope this 20 days has given you a passion for moving your body!
Let's face it folks, we are getting older and it is in our best interest to move our bodies as much as we can while we still can. The earlier we start the better. Teach your children the value of a good healthy lifestyle that includes exercise. I'm praying that the Lord will give us a long healthy active life until we meet Jesus on the other side. Hopefully, another benefit of this 30 day challenge is that your children have seen you and you are setting a good example of how to live a healthy life that honors and glorifies our God.
As I have been talking to people throughout this 30 days I have made some interesting observations about what people think about health, food, and fitness. I want to share them with you in case you hold some of these ideas too.
- Thin does not equate to healthy. Exercise has more benefits than just weight loss.
- You cannot out exercise a bad diet. Period. You have to add exercise to your life and you have to make some changes in food choices.
- Vegetarian is not synonymous with healthy.
- Just because a food package has healthy, wheat, or organic on it doesn't make it true. Read the label and ingredients.
- There is a mountain of information and how to tips out there. Be a careful consumer. Not every diet and exercise tip is going to work for you or fit into your lifestyle. To maintain the new tip it has to work for you or you have to make changes to make it work.
- It is implausible to believe that you will never overindulge again or have something fattening that you have given up once you start eating healthy. It is going to happen so don't beat yourself up about it.
What's For Dinner?
Here are the recipes I promised. Also made some great fish tacos. Let me know if you want the recipe. Picture below. |
| Praise-Worthy Pepper Crusted Tuna • ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt • ¼ teaspoon ground coriander • ¼ teaspoon paprika • ¼ cayenne pepper • 2 (6-oz) Ahi steak, about 1 1/2" thick • 2 tbsp fresh coarsely ground black pepper • Olive oil • Field greens • Fresh Fruit • 2 Tbsp Salad dressing (light vinaigrette) In a small bowl combine the spice mixture…combine salt, coriander, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Lightly coat fish in olive oil so that pepper and seasoning stay on the fish. Lay the tuna steaks out on a plate, and sprinkle the spice mixture evenly on both sides. Then roll the tuna in the ground pepper (coating the sides of the tuna) and gently press it in so that it adheres to the surface, being careful not to smash the flesh. Place tuna in a very hot lightly olive oil coated skillet. Cook until desired temp. 2-4 minutes of each side. Rare tuna ~ 2 mins. More medium rare ~4 mins. Add the tuna to your favorite salad combination. Here I paired the tuna with field greens, strawberries, cucumbers and red onions. |
 |
| Heaven Oven Roasted Veggies (Before) |
 |
| Heavenly Oven Roasted Veggies (After) Take your favorite fresh veggies, coat them lightly with olive oil, your favorite herbs, and seasonings then roast them at 450-500 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Here I used corn, asparagus, tomatoes, red onions, green beans, carrots, garlic and, red and green peppers. Vegetables should all be relatively the same size for even roasting. I seasoned with kosher salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, coriander, rosemary, thyme, and basil. |
 |
| Wholly Halibut Fish Taco |
Your body is the temple of the Living God. Live well in Him.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4
2 comments:
Hi Aqua! I'm hanging in there on the 30 day challenge. I have noticed a different mindset within me as I take this walk. It took me a while to settle on what I would do for the challenge, but I finally settled on picking up my meals from My Fit Foods & exercising 5 days a week. I've fallen a few times, but that is where God gets the glory! Usually when I get off track, I enjoy the unhealthy food & find it hard to get back on track, well during the challenge, I have found that I'm enjoying unhealthy food less & less! I've been praying for God to give me a craving for healthy foods & a "want to" stick to healthy behavior. I feel that my prayers are being answered!
My health tip for the challenge is my source for healthy meals, My Fit Foods. This is a growing chain of healthy fast food. The stores consist of large refrigerators from which you come pick healthy meals to go. Simply microwave & eat! I pick up my meals at the beginning of the week & keep them in the refrigerator. No cooking, cleaning up or heating up the kitchen for me! I actually find it to be more economical than the grocery store. Good luck to all!
Janice
Jan
I love it! I'm going to post your comment to the blog since not everyone returns to read the comments. Thanks again!
Post a Comment