Monday 1 August 2016

My Baby Steps To Health


In my last post, HERE I shared all about how I wasn't prepared to live a body healthy life and how I got to the point of not only hating my body but ignoring it almost completely. That was not an easy post to write. Admitting some of things caused shame and other hidden feelings to rise to the surface but ohhhh my, was it ever good to work through them with God.
Once I had laid down all of my disappointments, shared my true feelings with God and asked Him to lead me to a long term health plan I felt him give me what would be my first step to living a body healthy lifestyle.

I will share the steps but friends, please know that this is more about the importance of inviting God into every aspect of our life. The steps He gave me are working and so far quite easily sticking. However, I'm not recommending that you do what I did. If you struggle to make body healthy decisions, the first thing I would say to encourage you is that God cares so tell Him. Invite him in. Not telling God about a struggle in our life is as good as hiding it. I know that probably isn't your intention, I know it wasn't mine but it brought the same results. 
Ooooooooook! Let's talk baby steps!


BABY STEPS

1. Stretch each day.

I did 5-7 minutes of stretching each morning before spending time with God. It was 5 days before I felt the urge to add another step.

2. Think about your portion sizes and when you can (without binge eating later) , have less. 

So, with this step, notice that there was no change in the food I ate. It was just a change in portion size. It was about 7 days again before adding step 3. The thing that made me feel ready to add another step was that I was easily remembering to take less on my plate and not have seconds unless it was really healthy or if I was still really hungry. It made me realize how often I would take seconds just because it tasted good and not because I was hungry.

3. Add 25 crunches to your stretches routine.

I can't remember exactly but it was a week or two before I felt ready to add another step.

4. Surround yourself with healthy choices. On social media, don’t look at junk. Intentionally follow inspiring health feeds - body, soul and spirit :)

annnnnd STOP. 
Let's stay here for a while because for real, this was HUGE and really changed the way my mind was thinking and we all know how important that is! I went through my pinterest, instagram, Facebook and email to unfollow and unsubscribe to all things that were delicious but not healthy. While finding and unfollowing those accounts I was also looking for healthy lifestyle accounts that I found inspiring. At some point I will share some of those accounts but the accounts that inspire me may not inspire you so if you decide to do this, be patient in finding your people. ;) 
It took me about three weeks before I felt the urge to add another step.

5. Eat more vegetables and start your meal with them. (this is still while eating whatever else I wanted with the veggies)

God, I love you for so many reasons  but this step was really cool! 
So, picture this.
It's friday evening  and I've ordered pizza for my family. While waiting the 20 minutes to pick it up I am chopping and preparing some cucumber, grape tomatoes, carrot sticks, avocado and maybe some fresh mushrooms. While on my way to pick up the pizza I start munching on the veggies and do so until get home, serve my family and watch them all eat their first piece of pizza. This is not difficult because I know I'll have some, I just have to eat my veggies first. By the time I'm done eating my veggies and start having pizza, my tummy is simply not as hungry and therefore I don't eat as much pizza. 

When I wanted a sweet treat I would choose to eat a piece of fruit first then have whatever sweet I was really wanting. haha Often times the craving would pass and I didn't have it at all. Sometimes I did though....and that's ok. As long as I had the fruit first.

I LOVE this step! Abundance and good choices over restrictions! YES!

It was a week before I felt to add step 6.

6. Add 12 leg lifts for each leg to your exercise routine (5 days/week)

More body moving! and I was ready for it :)

7. Word of knowledge about “dark days” and giving up chocolate and instagram before bed.

At church there was a word of knowledge (if you're not sure what that is please feel free to email me) about someone who was having "dark days" and I knew I had to put my hand up because I was at least 4-5 day's of the week I was feeling very negative, angry or sad. Not necessarily related to food....just a general feeling. Some people around me prayed then the pastor went on to say that she felt that at least one of the people having dark day's needed to make a change in their diet and bedtime routine and there would be further breakthrough. 
I knew right away that was me. God told me that he saw why I ate chocolate and that it was a comfort to me (even through it was the extra dark kind by this point). He told me that he wanted to be my comfort and that I should stop having any form of chocolate. I said a big YES to giving it up! I was kinda hoping for a time period but He didn't give one. lol It's been about 7 months and for the first time the other day I had some FREE chocolate (free of dairy, nuts, sugar). I'm not going to continue to have it....for now.

As for a change in bedtime routine, I also felt that was me. Most nights before I would go to sleep I liked to check out what was going on in the Instagram world for 10 minutes or so. I actually thought I was doing pretty good with limiting how long I was on it. I felt that God was asking me to give that up and he asked me instead to replace it with a few minutes with Him before drifting off to sleep. I loved that He wanted to be the last thing on my mind before sleeping and as soon as I started the routine I noticed that He was also the first thing on my mind when I woke. 

I also haven't had a "dark day" since. Praise God! 
It was 7-10 days before I added another step.

8. Think simply about food, don’t try to go all out with extravagant healthy meals. 
Often times in the past when I wanted to eat healthy I would do my best to make sure that each healthy meal would taste unbelievably good so that I wouldn't miss the unhealthy options. Not this time. This time I felt that I should just keep it simple with the basics. Fruits and veggies were eaten in abundance. 
It was 3 weeks before I felt to add another step.

9. Jog up and down the stairs to get your heart rate up 3 times/week before your stretching & workout routine. 

Simple enough :)
It was a week before adding step 10.

10. Drink a glass of lemon/lime water 20 minutes before a meal.

Sounds easy....right? 
Thing is, when something isn't routine, it isn't necessarily that it is a challenge to do it but a challenge to remember to do it! It took about 2 weeks before I felt to add step 11.

11. Fuel up on fruits and veggies.

At this point I was already eating fruits and veggies before each meal or treat. This step was a huge change in my thinking. My focus was to get my energy/essential vitamins and the fuel my body needed to make it though the day with the good stuff! I started making meals that consisted of mostly vegetables and snacks that were fruit. Yes, I was still eating carbs and treats. Somehow saying  YES to fruit, vegetables and seeds and not saying NO to sugar and carbs was awesome for my mind. I had already been working on filling my mind with images of yummy healthy food and was doing my best to focus on fuelling my body with the good stuff. These things combined helped me to not even think about what I wasn't having.....most of the time ;)

12. 5 minutes on the Elliptical 3 days/week 

I know, I know, only 5 minutes?!?! How can that make a difference?! 
All I can tell you is that it just did. At this point I was stretching, doing crunches, leg lifts and now the elliptical. Sometimes this routine didn't feel like enough. As in my body was ready for more so on those days I would add in some other at home exercises. More often than not I was adding more to the routine and really enjoying it. 
Since I hated this type of exercise, the fact that I was enjoying it was AMAZING! 

13. Listen to your body to see what you think it needs. 

Cravings and listening to your body are two very different things. I had grown accustom to giving in to cravings so learning to tell the difference between the two was first step. It was pretty simple cause cravings were usually unhealthy. 
How do I listen to my body? 
When I start to get hungry I think about what my options are and what I want. 
For example....today for lunch I really wanted a bowl of stir fried veggies with rice and tahini dip but I kept thinking about a green smoothie. I ended up making the green smoothie with LOTS of spinach and after drinking it I'm feeling satisfied. I'm not a health expert and can't explain exactly why I think my body wanted the green smoothie but I feel great after having it and that's enough for me. 
I also hydrate with water more often now because I take the time to think about what my body needs. That brings me to the last step (for now anyways).

14. Drink a tall glass of lemon water when you first wake up.

I started with 8oz of lemon water when I first woke up and now I drink 32oz of lemon or lime water when I first wake up. Usually I drink that then make breakfast. By the time I start eating breakfast it's about 20 minutes later.

As a consequence of making the above choices I unintentionally quit drinking coffee. I quit having all refined sugar except on rare occasions. I no longer eat wheat but have whole grains instead. I don't eat meat and pretty much never have meat products. I have seeds in my smoothies and eat legumes to keep up the protein. I used to eat meat with pretty much every meal and now I just don't eat it at all. I am now Plant Based :) My body feels great and my energy has been constantly surprising me!  

I’m now up to 20 minutes on the Elliptical 3 days/week. On top of the above exercises I do arm curls and bicycle crunches 3 days/week. If I’m feeling inspired I’ll add in more exercises. I also ride my bike and am much more active with the boys.  
I'm fully convinced that body health should start in our mind. Restrictive thinking just creates challenges that become so very hard to overcome. 
As a result of these changes I have lost weight but that isn't a focus anymore. I find that as soon as I begin to get focused on weight loss, what I'm doing doesn't feel like it's enough which is discouraging. When I focus on eating an ABUNDANCE of good healthy food, I feel light as a feather and thats enough for me! 
Thank you SO much for reading! 
xoxo
Sue 

Below are a bunch of examples of meals I've eaten over the last 6 months. If you want more food inspiration from moi, head over to my INSTAGRAM  where I'm sharing at least one meal or snack per day.  I share smoothie and pretty much all recipes that I love ;)


Left over stir fried rice with a salad wrap filled with carrot shreds, apple, cabbage shreds a peanut sauce and chopped peanuts.
FRUIT BOWL! 
Watermelon, blueberries, strawberries & longan.
Stir fry
Chicken, zucchini, broccoli, carrot, black beans, cabbage, garlic, onion.
No oil....I just used a bit of water instead.
Non Dairy Coconut yogurt with strawberries, coconut chips, pumpkin seeds, almonds & granola.
Summer Rolls with a little green smoothie.
In them...
lettuce, carrots, avocado, broccoli
and I dipped them in a peanut sauce.
Salad time! 
Pretty straight foreword with the lettuce, tomato, black beans, corn off the cob & avocado. The thing that makes this salad awesome is the Avocado, lime cilantro dressing! No oil, no sugar and delicious! 
Rice & Salad
Fried mushrooms, kale, black beans & onion topped with goats cheese and an egg.
Jamaican Rice & beans, green beans with baked chicken.  At this point I was no longer cooking with oil so it was oil free :)
A tiny piece of baked chicken, baked sweet potato, sautéed snow peas, rainbow swiss chard & zucchini.
Mega Salad! Fully loaded with carrot, red cabbage, grape tomatoes, zucchini, cabbage, broccoli, avocado, nuts, seeds, and lettuce! I used lemon juice and the avocado as dressing. Once it was smashed and mixed in it covered everything and tasted yummy.
Spiralized curry potato fries, grape tomatoes, avocado and broccoli slaw.
Rice, kale, baked chicken and grape tomatoes.
Simple Salad
Smoothie Bowl with Longan 
Check out my INSTAGRAM for the recipe :)
Green Smoothie
In it...
coconut water, pear, kale, frozen banana, ice
Tropical Smoothie
In it...
coconut milk, pineapple, mango, banana
Mish Mosh of left over food! 
Jamaican rice & peas, arugula, black bean dip, guacamole, corn off the cob, spiralized sweet potato fries.

FYI....in the beginning, between many of these healthy choices there was cake, pizza and cookies. It really has been a process full of grace for myself friends :) 

Wednesday 1 June 2016

Process to Health


I'm a slow processor.
And I kinda like to have stuff figured out before I start sharing about it. Not this time, I'm learning that sometimes it's good to share before I have the end result.
So, this is me sharing my not quite 'there' health process.

Before I go on,  I want to say that I have always been a big believer in "it's what's on the inside that counts" and "there is beauty in all shapes and sizes". That's not what today is about though. As much as those things are true, they didn't change how uncomfortable it was to be physically overweight. So, if you're reading this, please know my heart is for me to be physically healthy.

The health of my body got out of control.

I could blame having children, after all, it was when I was pregnant with Eli that I went totally nuts in the eating department. I won't though. The truth is, I wasn't prepared to live a body healthy life. What on earth does that mean? 
It means I was prepared to live a spiritually healthy life and a soulfully healthy life but the fact that my body was in decent shape was just pretty much by chance. As soon as my choices were put to the test (yes, when I was preggers), I just made one bad choice after another. Pretty soon I didn't really care at all and ate whatever I craved.
The moment I cared was when I had given birth to my adorable baby boy and no longer had a beautiful baby belly to take the focus. I cared about how my body looked and felt then quickly did something about the 60lbs I had gained. Then the yo yo game started. I would get motivated and make good choices when I would notice that my body wasn't looking and feeling the way I wanted it to and go on some kinda crash diet (all the while calling it a lifestyle change).
I often found when I was on the diets, I felt physically better even before I had lost the weight. I noticed the energy, how my tummy responded to food and even how clear my head felt. That wasn't enough for me to make changes that would stick though.
It took quite a while but eventually I looked in the mirror and said it.

"I hate you body."

Right now is probably a good time to say that this post wasn't easy to write. Feeling this way was shameful. I knew it was wrong. I just couldn't help it. I couldn't figure out how to love this body that was making me so uncomfortable. 
At that point I couldn't even figure out which crash diet to try next in order to lose the pounds I so desperately wanted to. I tried so very hard to think long term and would make changes in that mindset but they just wouldn't' stick and while I was "on track" it felt like all I could think about was the food I couldn't have and how much I wanted it. I spent time telling myself things like "do you want ice cream or to feel good?" The choice should be easy but it almost never was.
 I tried stuff like ...
exercise 
no sugar
no wheat
no dairy
no processed foods
calorie counting
you get it....but shortly after committing to it I would have a craving I just simply didn't feel like denying and there I was....right back into eating junk. To be honest, it was comforting. I also knew that was wrong.
Most of the time I didn't even feel bad about it. Until I was figuring out what to wear for an event or even church. I am so sad to say this but I have actually not gone to church because of how I felt in my own skin. 
Since I wasn't conquering this body issue I was having, I decided to simply ignore my body. After all, I did feel good about who I was on the inside and loved so many things about life. I thought if I could just ignore my body then I would be happy.
That's what I ended up doing - I ignored the problem. 
 It wasn't just how I looked, it was how my body reacted to certain foods.  Some stuff just doesn't agree with me, like dairy. But was pains in my stomach enough to keep me from eating ice cream when the craving came along (possibly 3 times/week), nope, it wasn't enough. 
I tried positive affirmations and that was pretty good. I began to tell my body nice things like "I love you belly because you gave me my beautiful children" or "I love you legs because you work and you take me places I want to go". It was good but just not enough. 

Finally the day came.

I gave up. 

I just totally and completely knew I could not do this healthy living thing on my own.
This realization felt horrible. 
It made me angry.
It made me ashamed.
It made me disappointed in myself.
It made me desperate to know how other people did it.
Then it made me angry again because I couldn't do it.

Instead of staying with all those feelings that giving up made me feel, I had a very honest conversation with God about all of it. I told Him "I give up, I need you". I may have had some angry outbursts in there somewhere but seriously, I really did tell Him everything.  All my negative thoughts and disappointments.
Then I surrendered my body to Him and asked Him for help....like a lot. 
I asked him to lead me in this journey. 
I even got brave enough to tell Him my hopes and dreams for my body.

That's when it all began.
My baby steps health journey.

God gave me small steps and one by one I incorporated them into my life. Now, 5 months later my daily choices look quite different. Some of the steps are focused on what goes in my body and some are focused on moving my body. Some took weeks to focus on before adding another step and some just days.
I haven't lost all the weight. I actually haven't even weighed myself to see how much weight I have lost. 
My number doesn't matter.

My choices matter.

Since making so many of these changes I no longer hate my body. I'm starting to feel the opposite. I feel like I'm learning what it looks like to love my body.
I'm thinking long term but just taking one day at a time.
Thank you so much for reading about my journey. If you can identify or have thoughts on this, please feel free to share them in the comments below. I would love to hear from you.

Am I leaving you hanging if I don't share the steps that God gave me? ;)
Promise I won't leave you hanging for long. Those details will be my next post! I'm excited to share that with you!
Make sure to "follow by email" so you get notified when I've posted part 2! 
Thanks for reading part 1! 
Much Love!
xo
Sue 

Follow me on Instagram to see some of the delicious meals I'm enjoying! @healthbysjb



Wednesday 10 February 2016

My Right Now

Lots of change has been going on. I got married, moved and sent both my kids to public school and am still adjusting to it all. As if that wasn't enough --- My essential oil diffuser jewelry business Cedar & Honey, that I have been operating with a dear sweet friend Kari, is in the process of selling off inventory as we are closing shop. Kari and I both seek God's timing for all things in our lives and when we felt that it was time to close C&H, we felt it at the same time which happened to be when things were booming and really, when logic would say to keep going! For the Cedar & Honey lovers, there is good news! We're still selling jewelry, just in our separate shops. 
Kari will still be designing diffuser jewelry among some other lovely jewelry, essential oil and more! Check out here shop here


Of course I am still selling jewelry but am now going to focus on my shop. I opened it a while back but didn't list product or do much of anything as I was focusing my time and energy on C&H. 

I've been loading up the shop with new designs and old faithfuls. Here are some Instagram shots I've been posting which by the way - you should come follow me there to see sneak peaks of what's coming for spring and some fun ways to style my jewelry. 





Thanks for your support friends!
Much Love! 
Sue

Friday 22 January 2016

Your Everything

If you or better yet, a stranger took a good look at your everything, what would they say it means? 
Would it mean you're ...

fun
loving
creative
spontaneous
organized
generous
patient
passionate
a lover of the King?

I have had the phrase "everything means something" in my head for about a week now and it was just tonight when I asked myself and God, is it true? Do I believe that everything means something? 

I think it's good to know why we do what we do. 

If a complete stranger took my everything

my conversations
my actions
my use of time
my thoughts
& even
my prayers

what would they say my everything says about me?
what would they say your everything means about you?

As I'm writing these words, I feel challenged. I've decided I believe it. I believe that my everything means something and I believe your everything means something too.  
Everything, right down to the way I interact with the grocery store cashier....it all points to something. Certainly we are human and can not be perfect in character at every moment. However, I do have to ask myself how often I let the challenges of life get the best of me and start letting "my everything" point in a direction that I'm not meaning for it to. 

At any point, we can change the direction that our everything points to. ------->>>
xo
SJB

Friday 15 January 2016

Salt & Light


Do you choose a word for the year? Or maybe a statement? Or a bible verse? What makes you choose the word that you decided on? It's a big commitment....one whole year of this one word being YOUR word.
Well I did choose a word this year, just as I have for the past 7 years. The first year that I chose my word it wasn't really me that made it all happen. Well, let me explain that. I was in the middle of some major life changes that were just all negative.
Side note - this is where I get unsure of how much of my mess to share.....after all, my mess isn't the point of telling the story but without letting you in at least a little, you won't see the full picture. *Sigh* Here goes nothing.
My marriage of 6 years along with all the dreams I ever hoped for (as far as I knew it) was coming to an end. I didn't have anywhere to live with my 2 year old munchkin. I had alienated myself and therefore didn't have friends around me. Thankfully my parents and I were in good relationship but they were living 3 hrs away trying to start a new life of their own. My living situation got figured out but the rest was still a mess. My heart ached and all I could think for months on end was "how did I get here".  I kept going over my big decisions, then my small decisions and everything in between wondering if that was where I went wrong.   
At some point while trying to figure out my life the new year came around. I was never one for new years resolutions but this year something had to change. I decided that I would choose one thing to change. The problem was, I didn't know what to choose. It seemed that so much had to change. I took it to the Lord.  He lovingly told me that I needed to decide where I want to go, what kind of mom I want to be, what kind of daughter I want to be, the kind of people I want to be around and the list went on. It hit me. I need to live with intention.
Intentional.
That was my very first word for the year. Everything I did and every decision I made was filtered through the lens of "is this living intentionally". I would ask myself, does this decision line up with the way I have decided I want to live? It was a lot of work and made me so very aware of where I had gone wrong. 
As you can imagine, living intentionally in the mess I had was a pretty big challenge so it was my word for about 4 years in a row. I guess that kinda makes it not really a "word of the year" but I loved the habit that started from letting "Intentional" be my word. I found myself automatically using that filter when making decisions. It was a new way of life and became much easier with time.
Two other words I had were FOCUS and FOLLOW. They also changed my way of thinking dramatically and I'm so grateful for the new filters that were put in my mind. 
This year I have been so busy with life changes that I hadn't thought about a work for the year at all. I did however find myself wanting to write out and hand stamp "Salt & Light" constantly. I was thinking on it and reading about it in the word as well. I guess God wasn't going to let me forget to choose this years word - He even chose it for me. 
When I've found myself thinking about what being salt & light means to me, I am quickly thinking about my boys and my husband. I want them to feel a ray of sunshine and a good taste in their mouth when they think of me and with every connection we make I pray that I can be their daily dose of salt & light. 
This little misshapen silver button pendant is coming out in my new collection February 1st! It is misshapen to represent that we don't have to be perfect to be salt and light. 

Thanks for reading friends!
OOOO <<<------- hugs! Love Sue