Getting Real and Setting/Sticking with your goals.

    Holiday are here!!! This can be a great time of the year. It can also be like riding a bull and trying to hold on to dear life just to be thrown off. It can take your breath away to feel like you totally failed yet again. When this happens (and it will for most of us) it is what we do after that makes us great or makes us feel like we just can't seem to get it.

  So how do we pick ourselves back up? Here is my SECOND Key to success.

First: Realize that it is real life and learn to FORGIVE yourself and not to give up just because you maybe had 1,2,3, even 4 days (or more) of celebrating the Halloween holiday.

Second: It is important to make promises to yourself then KEEP THEM!!! When I started to run I would make promises to myself such as;" I promise that I will make it to the stop sign" (Even when it was only 10 steps away) When we do this it makes us feel good and helps us believe in ourselves.

Third: Get your paper out and write down your goals in detail and WHY you want them.
Don't just say that you wish you could loose 50 lbs. Tell yourself that you are GOING TO DO IT. And Believe that you are capable and worth the effort. I remember looking at the scale at 216lbs and thinking "How am I EVER going to loose 70+ lbs? It is so far away and I just don't know if I can do it." Then one day I changed my self talk and belief. I told myself that I just had to take the first step (Running) and that was where I had to start.

Forth: Make an action plan. In any game they do this. Take football, they create a plan. They take timeouts to reassess when necessary and plan again. They also take time to study their opponents. What are your opponents?  Make a plan to over come them and then write them down and review your why.

Fifth: Reward yourself when you hit mile stones. This can be a period of time, hit a mini goal, had a perfect day, or even a perfect hour, kept a promise you made to yourself.                

  Things come up that causes stress. It is part of life! Learn to love yourself and know that you are made from the great creator and that you can do anything because of who you came from. (God) 
If you ask He will help you in this journey called LIFE. We are not alone and He knows you and loves you and wants you to be successful in this life.

   It is late and I am getting tired, so for now I just want you to know that it is really important to keep "trying 'til you win" It is a process and I do believe that we learn when we fall. I know that I do NOT like the way that I feel right now after falling off for a few days. I look forward to a new day, a clean slate.
Good night all. Hugs, Emily

    

Day 8 & 9 Feeling GREAT!!!!!! Also, cleaned out my food

                     I didn't get the chance to blog yesterday, I took the children rollerskating.

It's a little fuzzy but the blur in the black skirt is Spice. 

Today I want to talk about the energy that I feel. It is amazing!!! I was talking to a friend of mine after I left I noticed that I was talking a million miles an hour. Little confession here. I got hooked on the 5 hour energy shots. Which is part of the reason that I decided to go raw.

    To have the natural energy through the right kinds of food. I also don't want to become a slave to anything. Which is what happens when you are addicted to something. After I realized how much and how fast I was talking I realized how GOOD I felt. I can't really describe it, I felt like I had taken one of the shots. The difference was that I didn't have a crash. When I finally did get tired, it was a healthy tired. I did notice however, that I did start to get the munchies around 9:30ish. I figured out that it was because I was tired. I needed to rest but wasn't able to. I had to pick up my hubby from the airport at 11:30pm. But I slept well when I finally did crash. 

Here is my day

I was mostly raw yesterday. It was again a little tricky because we went to my sisters house. She does not do raw but I made it work. I did try some of her "Fire Dragon Chili" I really liked it. I had about 1/4 of a cup. I may have to get that recipe. 

Today, I feel a little tired but that is because I went to bed LATE and wonk up early. I couldn't  fall back to sleep so I went to the gym. I may have to take a nap a little later. Anyways, I wanted to show you what my fridge ect looked like before I cleaned it out and what it looks like now. 

I don't like to though away food so I gave it to my niece and her husband who just got into their new place.  I helped both of us, I got rid of a ton of stuff and they don't have to go and spend the money for it. 

These are not in order. But I will explain each section. 

This is the small drawer in my fridge before I cleaned it out. This is where I usually keep the cheese, sandwich makings ect. 

                                         This is the second drawer where we keep our dairy. 

                                                       
                                                     Bottom drawer is a fruit drawer.

                                                    Oh my, ya all of the sauces and milks.

                                           Freezer. this shelf is frozen veggies and grapes.

                                                       Frozen greens for shakes.

                                              Shelf where the nuts and grain type things go.

                                                 Top shelf in the fridge. Greens for salads.

 Eye level to Beeps and Bear this is what I usually have here as well as grapes or other fruit.

 Middle shelf  veggies and other things. These tomato's are going to be turned into salsa. :0) Then eggs. Hanging on the side is an onion.

                                                                        Juicing veggies

All in all not so bed right? Like I said before I was doing the "Clean Eating" 

I cleaned it up and cleared some of the stuff away so here are the pictures of the after. I also added pictures of my pantry and other placed that I put food. 

        This is now the second shelf up. Still eye level to the kids so they can pick healthy. :0)

 Bottom drawer. Ruby Red Grapefruit. (Pink doesnt work so well in my back ground), Plums. 

Dairy drawer, still kept the yogurt and butter but added more Grapefruit and Pomegranates

The door. I only kept a few of the sauces. Low Sodium Soy Sauce, Spicy Mustard. Some Ranch for my children.  I also kept my bee pollen

                           Cheese drawer, Eggs and the cheese and meat, tortillas under that.

Same as above.

      Eye level, Raspberries, Strawberries, Sugar Snap Peas, Green Beans, Had the Tomato's but I ate them all. Mmmmmm

In my cupboard Bananas, Red Pears. SOOOOO GOOD!!!!

                                             This is my pantry. Top shelf is where I keep things that I need to refill and can goods.

                                                        Grains and my sunflower head. Below are more refill and other grains ect.

 I decided to open the drawers to show you what is inside.  This one is Pop Corn.

 Roots, Sweet Potato, Onions Potatos. 

                                                         Sweeteners and Corn shells.

 Pastas, All Wheat or grain. No white here folks.

 Floor, In the buckets are my flours to make bread and then I have my Brown baking sugar.

                                          On the side of the drawers are my vinegar's and oils.

Later today we are going to take the kids to a 5K  and a kiddie run. It will be a good time. Will post those pictures tomorrow. 

                                                   
I also have decided to put on a feast!!! I have wanted to speak for a while now about health as well as sharing my journey. I think that it is time to just jump in and DO IT!!! Sooooo, the last part of February I am planing on setting a date. I am excited!!! I will be sharing my journey from where I was a child to now. How I am feeling and what it was like to do this. And I am also going to talk about the importance of eating raw.
    It's not an all or nothing here, You don't have to start jumping headfirst into the pool here. But it is always good to continue learning about health. Anyway,s look out for that with an official date, time, place. Also please feel free to let me know if you are interested. I will need to know how much food I will need, and also get a place large enough. :0) I will let you know a price as well.
   Hugs, Emily

Day 4 One of the Keys.

  On my first day posting about this 30 day challenge I talked about important "Key's" to fulfill goals. That is what I want to talk about tonight.
  As we all know that once you start something the excitement of it gives you "will power" or "motivation". The trick is to KEEP that motivation when you REALLY want some of your old favorites. Brownies and ice cream  are huge downfalls of mine. Tonight at the party they had both. How does one stay "motivated" when 2 of your 3 downfalls are right there staring you in the face?
 Find out your reason WHY!!!! Why are you doing ____________. You fill in the blank. Lets use health as and example.  WRITE IT DOWN!!!
    Ask: Why do you want to be healthy? Then ask it again, and again. Find your "root" purpose. Again, write this down and read it EVERY DAY!!!
  Here is how this works. I will use  my 30 day raw as an example of how this should look.
  Question: Why are you trying to do the 30 day challenge?
  Answer: Because I have been reading about going raw and I want to have the experiences that they have. Such as sustained energy, bright eyes, and I want to hit my optimum weight.
  Question: Why do you want that?
  Answer: Because I believe that my body is a temple and I know that I need to take care of it the very best I can. Also, it is a challenge, and I want to prove to myself that I can be the one in charge of my body. Also I know that I need to train my body to "crave" the things that it needs not what it craves or wants.  Because I know that I can do hard things even if at first I am NOT perfect. It is the process that brings me closer to my goals.
  Question: And Why do you want that?
  Answer: Well, God gave me this body and tells me that I am to govern it as best I can. That it is a temple and that it is the only one that I get. I want to do the best I can to live by His commandments and to do the things that He tells me to do. I also want to become more then I ever have before. I also want to help other people know their true potential.  
   True Reason; WHY I want to do this challenge.
     ROOT Answers:
               1. God gave me this body and it is a gift as well as a temple.
               2. I want to live Gods commandments as best I can and be healthy.
               3. To show others that they can achieve their true potential and that they don't have to be perfect. They just have to TRY!
   Sometimes it may take more than three times of asking and answering.  I am sure that I could go on with some of my answers like my last one but it is late and I need to go to bed but before I do. The important thing to remember is to find your reason why you want to do something. As you do this and you find that you are having a rough time sticking to it. You have already found your why. If it is truly your real reason and you truly what it then this "KEY" will help you stay or get back on track.
    I truly help that this helps you. It can be a very beneficial practice to incorporate into your life, your goals, your dreams.
  Hugs, Emily

Day 2 Old habits Or Tastes are Sometimes a Hard Thing to Kick. But its OK!!!

This post I figured that I would add some pictures!!! If you are anything like I am I LOVE looking at pictures!!! This is my morning juice which had Mint, Cucumber, Romaine Lettuce, Beet, Half an Apple. This is what it looks like before I mix it all up. Mmmmm Right!?!

                                            This is what it looks like after I mix it up. Better!!!

LOL I had to add this picture of my son. After all it is the Halloween season right? He is pretty scary in this picture.

Let me tell you a little bit about my son. He is the sweetest boy you will ever meet. He opens the door for people. Whenever we go anywhere he will almost always open my car door for me then wait and make sure that I am in then close it for me as well. He was walking past our dear neighbors house and saw that she was on a ladder and went up there and held onto it for her. He just loves people and is an all around good kid.

He always wakes up early in the morning. He came down just after I had finished making my morning juice so I asked him if he would like to spend some time with me and have some of my juice. He said yes so I put some in my fancy glasses and put a cucumber on the rim and we had a good morning chat and had a healthy juice together. He is so funny He loved these pictures that I took of him being crazy.

This is my morning breakfast. And below as you can see the kids REALLY loved it as well. It doesn't look very good but it was WONDERFUL!!! The sauce was 5 Dates, Strawberries, Banana, Coconut Water, Chocolate Powder, Blend till SMOOTH. Then I chopped up more Bananas.

I know that the kids were acting a little silly but they really loved it and started to dip strawberries into the sauce.

Here is Sugar dipping her strawberry in the sauce. She is a little crazy about berries.

For snack I had 1.5 Plums. They are the huge ones.

Lunch I had another concoction that I made at my sisters house. It was half thawed Mangos, Raspberries, Truvia, 3 packets, Blended it with water until smooth. Then added more Mangos, Fresh Raspberries, Strawberries (Half Thawed) Then for a late snack I had cooked Spaghetti Squash with Pink Salt, & Smoked Paprika,

Sounds like I had a pretty good day right. Well, for dinner we were supposed to have spaghetti with home made Sauce. Fresh from the garden, blanched, peeled, and cooked down. Well, that kind of happened. But when you visit other people who live out of town you have to be flexible right? They had white noodles and french bread. I think my biggest down fall is french bread. I LOVE the stuff!!!!

I am embarrassed to say how much I had. But, if I am going to be truthful (Which I am) I have to spill the beans. I had 3 or 4 thick slices!!!! Probably half a loaf. Ugh!!! But like I said in my heading "and its OK". This is life and I am going to have weak moments. This is where I apply "Try 'Till you Win" the only way to fail is to give up all together. I wont give up AND I did stay vegan. Except what might have been in the noodles and the bread. I have no idea what might be in the bread but noodles do have egg. I didn't think about that until now. Hmmm. I guess the same applies. Tomorrow is another day and I will do better.

 This morning I went to the gym and did weights on my shoulders. It feels wonderful to be going in the mornings again. More on that later. For now, good night.

Day 1 Mostly Raw

  Today was the first day that I didn't eat anything with meat, or meat product in it. This is not my first attempt at going raw vegan. I do like the way that it makes me feel. I am not hungry and actually I need to get used to feeling full. I am so used to eating around 1200 calories that to eat around 2000+ is different.
  This is what I had today:
Pre-Breakfast:
  Veggie Juice- Beets w/ Tops, Ginger Root, Lemon, Cucumber, Half and Apple,
Breakfast:
  1/4 cup Pineapple, 1 Banana
Snack:
  Grapes about 2 Cups
Lunch
  2 Plums and Banana
Snack
  2 Bananas,
Dinner
2 1/2 Small-Medium Baked Potato w/Salsa, Salt, Pepper, Smoked Paprika.  
Salad w/Spinach, Carrots, Cabbage, Cucumber, Avocado, Tomato, Salsa.
1/3 Cup of Home made Chili w/ Beans, Tomato Diced (Caned), Peppers, Onions, Chili Powder, Sal

 I think that over all it was a good day. I do think that I over did it with the potato's. Good thing that there is always tomorrow.
 Like I said, "Try 'Til You Win"

   Exercise: I did 40 Minutes of weights. Working on Chest and Abs. Then 12 Minutes of Running. I was going to run longer but I hit the stop button on accident. Which was ok because I had to get home to make my children breakfast before they headed for school and before I started my day with Buddy. (My son)

Deciding To Try Something New With My "Diet"!!!!

  As I sit here and think about what I want out of life, where I long to head as to my health and where I have come from, I have decided to put my pictures up of myself at my heaviest and what I look like now. I will also journal for the next little while about my new goal. I want to get to my ideal weight and I also want to have a lot of energy. To accomplish this I will be eating a mostly raw, vegan, low fat, high carb "diet".
   Please be nice as we all have imperfections and we are all working to become better people.

Above: My starting place at 216lbs.

Not a whole lot of a change but here I was 194lbs. My hubby and I ran the haunted half marathon.

  I live by the law that "modesty is the best policy" however, I wanted to share that I still have a little bit to go before I hit my goal. With my shirt on it is not to bad. I have a few friends and family who think that I don't need to loose anymore weight. I am currently at 153.6lbs I have come a long way but I still have about 15-20lbs to go.

I get asked how I was able to lose most of my weight and I always give the easy fast answer. My Fitness Pal and going to the gym most days. Which is mostly true but I have also found some KEY things that we must do in order to make any real permanent changes. Which is a different post. But I did need to make a bold commitment to make some changes. I have been working on doing a 30 day raw challenge!!!

My plan is to do a LOW FAT,  High Carb, Vegan diet. Mostly raw.

I have done MANY "diets" in the past and have found success in most of them. The problem was that I didn't maintain the release of weight permanently. I want to not only achieve my goal and perfect weight for my frame but also to become extremely healthy!!! 

SO.... Here we go!!! Tomorrow I will be committing myself to a vegan, mostly raw low fat diet.

 You may be thinking "what is she talking about low fat, high carb, vegan?"

Here is what I have been doing for the last 2 days.

Breakfast: Juiced veggies with  little fruit. This is when I wake up to get my system going with amazing raw enzymes and minerals. When you juice your veggies your body can simulate into your bloodstream in 15 minutes!!! It makes it so that your body does not have to "sift" through the fiber to find the treasure your body needs to cleanse as well as use to feed your cells, blood, ect.

Veggies and herbs that I have been juicing include: Broccoli, Carrots (not a lot), Beets and the greens, Romaine Lettuce, Cabbage, Lemon, Celery, Ginger root, Mint, Cucumber, Peppers, Kale, Water Cress, Cilantro, Parsley, Radish. Just to name a few. Fruit that I put in it is usually half and apple.

Later when I feel hungry I will be eating fruit!!! In fact I will be eating a LOT of fruit until 4pm. As much fruit as I want. :0) No calorie counting as I have done in the past. If I am hungry I eat fruit. As much as I want. Half a Watermelon. Sure why not? Today I ate about half a Pineapple, 5-7 Bananas, 3 Pears, 3 large Plums,  1 Mango.

Tomorrow I will probably eat Grapes, Bananas, Nectarines, Plums, Strawberries, and anything else that I think sounds good. :0)

For dinner I think we will be eating Baked Potatos, with fresh Salsa. Maybe a Salad with veggies.

My goal is to write on this blog almost daily to let you know how things are going.

 Oh, I feel it important to let you know that I am planning on making this a life style if you want to know more about this way of eating please read this book called 80/10/10.

I will not be weighing myself for the 30 days. I have done some research and it is said that, at first from bloating, healing of the damage done by low calories, Processed Sugars, and many other things that we have done to hurt our system, it is normal to gain before releasing. So because of this I will not be stepping on the scale. So at the end of my 30 days I will post pictures and my numbers. 

Hope you feel free to follow my journey.

Having Appreciation in Unique Ways.

   Last week we went to a family reunion. It was a wonderful time spent with some of the most wonderful people I know.  Here are a few pictures of my family that made it up to Zion's National Park.

My older sister.

My two little brothers (the tall ones) and their families. Then there is my husband and my beautiful children as well as my older sisters (above) two teenagers.

My older sister again with her two older girls and her oldest daughters husband. Playing games.

My grandmother.

My father and my baby brother.

My mother.

Left to right My baby brother, me, my younger brother and his baby girl. So cute!

 

So why am I here talking about these wonderful individuals and titling this post "Having Appreciation"?

A few of us went on a beautiful walk/hike and when we came back my father asked me to go and make sure that no little fingers got into the cake. I walked over there and my family had surprised me with this beautiful birthday cake.

They started to sing "Happy Birthday" it was such a nice surprise. I am not ashamed that I was a little emotional.

It was truly beautiful and I was so grateful. The "unique" part of my appreciation is this. I made myself a promise. This promise was that I was going to go off of sugar (Cake, Cookies, Candy, Sodas, any snacks that are sugary) for a year. It was hard in the way that I didn't want my family to think that I didn't love the cake and appreciate what they had done for me. My younger brother asked if I was going to have a piece. I told him that I just couldn't he didn't quite understand why I couldn't for some of my OWN birthday cake. However, he respected my commitment and decision.

So I guess maybe I should have titled this post something along the lines of being true to yourself. Because that is what I want to really talk about.

You see, I have come to a point in my life where I am tired of inconveniencing myself to show gratitude for others efforts. All of these years I have been wanting to get off of sugar and every time I tried there was always a party, or someone has made something "special" for me or my family ect. So I would break my commitment because I didn't want to hurt them. What I didn't realize was that I was really hurting ME. In hurting me I also realized that I was hurting, my relationship with my Heavenly Father, my relationship with my spouse, kids and so many other people in my life. I believe that when we say that we have integrity we also need to include integrity to ourselves. When we keep our promises to ourselves we feel better, as well as gain confidence that we are able to keep promises to others. I found that I matter! As hard as that it to comprehend sometimes, it is true we do matter.

              I was given a beautiful gift from my Heavenly Father called a body. It came to me one day that if my body is a gift, and not a curse that I always thought it was growing up, then shouldn't I take care of it? I wanted to make a commitment that would show my Heavenly Father AND myself that I was grateful for this gift, and I want to take care of it. So as thankful as I was for the truly beautiful cake I was also determined to stick to the promise that I made to myself.

 I am not saying that I think everyone should go off of sugar. What I am saying is that I do believe that it is worth the time and effort to make small promises to ourselves and then to learn to keep them. Those small promises lead to bigger promises, which lead to progress in this journey we call life. It also leads us closer to our Father in Heaven. It amazes me how things start on the inside of us and work out.

We have to decide then commit through the hard times as well as the not so hard times. While I there I was talking to my niece about what I do for exercise. I run. I will  tell that long story in another post but I told her that in all we do in life. If we want to progress whether in our education, fitness, spirituality, or any other area, we need to get comfortable with uncomfortable. That is my theme. That is what I tell myself when I don't want to do something or go through a hard trial. If we stay in our comfort zone we will not progress and we were sent here on this earth to progress to become more like our Father. He wants us to succeed and He expects us to do hard things and to take care of the gifts that He has given us. Our bodies are one of them.

Much Love, Emily

 

 

 Here are a few more pictures. Enjoy.

My son hiking with some cousins.

Spice(My second daughter) her cousins (My older sisters younger children)

My Brother-in-Law (Older sisters husband)

Left to right. My baby brothers little girl and my "Bear" Best buds forever!

                                                       My baby "Beeps"

My oldest "Sugar"

My younger brother and his baby girl.

My baby brother and my sisters older girl. :)

My son (we all had to climb through these rocks to get to the place where we were headed. Good times.)

Smore time! (Bear)

My baby brother and his little girl.

My son. :)

Part of Zion's

This is the road that I ran while I was there. This is from the top of there I decided I was going to stop and turn around. I did a 5.5 mile run. It was beautiful!

My wonderful husband on the patio of our cabin and the beautiful mountains behind him.