Jesus Thank You

One of my favorite songs right now that we are doing in youth group. It is hard to hear, read or sing these words---and really believe them---without tears.

What a rescue!

What love!

What forgiveness!

What a God and Savior!

Jesus, thank You.

Thank You.

Wow, things are so busy around here and I don't see an end in sight until June. Yes, June!

Youth retreat was this past weekend I can't tell you how much having my "greens" everyday helped me. I slept like a baby both nights and I came home NOT exhausted. I was emotionally tired, but not physically tired like I usually am. I drank them everyday and I felt great! I even lost a pound over the weekend! Added benefit! :)

I leave tomorrow for another retreat. A women's retreat that my sister is leading. She has done this Faith Walk for years now, but with her being lay leader, I want to go and support her. As it approaches, I am getting excited about what God might want to do in my life through this weekend. I am almost pack and, yes, I am packing my "greens." She has told me that there will be long days.

Exercise has not happened since before retreat. That is a shame, but Monday-Wednesday this week, I have spent a lot of time out of the house running errands, catching up on things since I was gone last weekend and will be gone this weekend. It is hard for mom to be gone two weekends in a row!

I am eating pretty well. Not always making wise choices, but more than I used to. It is getting easier and easier. Like today's lunch, I had half of an avocado, baby bel cheese (we love those!) and blueberries. I am totally satisfied. Totally. I am done and not craving anything.

Slowly, I am learning that sugar and junk makes me crave MORE. More junk, more sugar, more anything I can put in my mouth. Good food satisfies my body and I don't feel hungry afterward. It feels like food was meant to be: FUEL for my body. I wish I could always remember this when making my choices. It would make me NOT go through Chick-Fil-A or ever eat ice cream!

Inspite of not always making wise choices, I am so happy with where I am. I am learning more and more about good health. My choices are becoming wiser more often. My body is slimming down. I feel better than I have felt in a long time.

Next week, hopefully, life will be more routine so I can get back to my surge training, running and yoga-like stuff. I miss it.

For now, I am looking forward to a weekend of being with women who are seeking after God. May He meet me there and show me exactly what I need to see about myself and about Him.

Pretty good week for me. The eating was not so good because of spring break and the many activities we had, but I did get to run several times which was nice. I had to hit the dirt road, though, because we have had boys sleeping in the game room since Tuesday night. Oh the joys of good friends!

We are off to youth retreat, so the food will be not so great and not so healthy, but I am taking my greens with me to mix up each day. I will try to get one of those drinks in each day.

I can't wait to post next week about some new products I have been trying out and love! Not enough time this morning, but I'll get to it.

Praying for good health inspite of not sleeping well this week and the expectation of rainy weather all weekend. :)

Kind of working on a new workout schedule this week. I am trying surge training on MWF with running and/or yoga on TTHS.

Today I went out on the dirt road to see how I would do. Plugged my ears with my favorite playlist for running (Skillet, of course!) and headed out. To run to the "neighbors" up the road, the terrain is all uphill. I was pleasantly surprised that I could run to their road and back without stopping (1.2 miles) or hurting. My breathing was good. My legs felt strong.

Wearing my Nike Plus chip, I could tell that my pace going uphill was good for me (8:45), but when I got back to my driveway, my overall pace wasn't what I thought it would be, considering that the way back was mostly downhill with a few small rises in the road. (10:45) I must have slowed or maybe the uphill reading was my pace at the moment, not the average.

I could tell (again) that the surge training was helping me overall in running at a pretty steady pace without feeling exhausted. I felt strong today.

You can imagine how sad I was to get back inside and load my first run in months on Nike, only to find that because it has been so long since I have used my Nike chip that it was no longer calibrated and had no information on it. :)

Well, I guess it did have some info on it. I had a surge training run early in the month where I used my iPod, but it didn't have today's run. So it posted this little short sprint run for some reason. Oh well........technology sometimes gets the best of me.

Today was short, but a start. A friend has motivated me to get back into Nike Plus. She has moved quickly from the orange to the green level through encouragement (and great competitiveness) from a friend. :) Go, Christy! You are THE BOMB!

So here is today's meager info: 1.2 miles/12:36 min/10:45 mph

After I realized it wasn't calibrated (and I found out I needed to put my weight in!), I went out again and ran enough to calibrate this baby.

We are now ready to go! Not sure what it will look like, but today felt great. The weather was perfect for me. Cloudy with a little wind, about 65 degrees.

The best part of it all was sitting on the porch afterward listening to Kari Jobe sing "My Beloved" and just meditate on how God Almighty could love a wretch like me. Highlight of my day.

I wanted to see how I would do just running a mile today. No surge training.

I ran a mile in 9:47. My pace was 6.0-6.6. On faster songs, I ran faster. Gotta love workout playlists. I will have to say that I had to "hop off" twice because of dropping my iPod and losing my Nike Plus out of my shoe! So it is not a true time for me. We'll see what happens on Tuesday.

Pleased. The surge training is helping.

Now I don't know how long I could sustain that pace right now because I haven't done anything of endurance. Maybe I can work on that part on the days I don't do surge training.

Great frustration with my Nike Plus today. It didn't read anything. I'm not sure why, but I had it in my shoe, but NOTHING.

Sadness. Oh well, it's a good thing I am not competing like Betsy and Christy! :)

Just realized that I didn't weigh this past Thursday. There is only one reason you "forget" to weigh in the right day........you didn't have a good week.

You know that I had worked hard and was expecting a weight loss, I would not have missed that weigh in on Thursday morning.

Just honest.

Made some great choices today with the Lord's help.

Did surge training even though I was short on time and wanted to nix it.

Ran a bit after the surge training and found that my comfortable pace had increased because of the surge training.

When the waitress at Bonefish tonight asked me if we wanted dessert, I quickly said, "no thank you" before I caved. They have THE BEST chocolate creme brulee in the city!

Once I got home, to an empty house (Wade went to the office tonight), I didn't indulge in two things that were tempting me here at home.

I drank water instead. I knew I wasn't hungry.

I drank water.

The decision has been made to not put anything else in my mouth before I go to bed except water.

Some good decisions.

One more thing I have realized: When I exercise, I want to eat well. I don't want to "waste" the hard work of the exercise.

So......exercise, exercise, exercise.

Daily.

Do something.

Do anything.

It's a must.

Deny and Discipline Myself

This is my prayer. Lord, help me deny myself what I think is appealing, but really isn't good for me. Help me to discipline myself to do what isn't attractive (right now), but would be really beneficial to my body, mind and spirit.

Simply put......keep me from sin.

Got some answers at the doctor today. Now, more than ever, I need to be eating well and giving my body the fuel it needs. I am fine. Nothing is wrong. I just need to be diligent and disciplined in my pursuit of health.

God help me when I am weak......which seems to be coming about once a week.

Frustration has set in a bit for me. The past 6 months has brought sickness to myself, my family, more than normal.

Yesterday I found myself on immediate bedrest for a day or two.

Bedrest affects my whole life.

Today will be no exercise.

The kids will come to my bed for school instruction and help.

The temptation to eat the wrong foods and more of it will come often. That's what happens when I am just lying around.

Lord, give me endurance and patience. All things come from Your hand. Even this time on bedrest. May I look to You in faith and trust.

Yummy New Chicken Recipe

Oh how I wish I had taken a picture to show you of dinner last night. It wasn't really that the chicken was so beautiful, though it wasn't ugly.

Now the salad was absolutely beautiful with fresh spinach, red romaine, broccoli and then some beautiful red peppers on the top. Beautiful AND tastes great!

The chicken recipe was from one of the Maximized Living books I am reading right now. It was sooooo yummy! So tender and tasty! It is a "keeper" as we say at our house. If the family likes a dish and votes that it is a "keeper" I write it on a card and it actually makes it into the family recipe box, as well as Leah's and Lydia's boxes.

The comment in the book says this: "This chicken is juicy and delectable plus simple to prepare."

I LOVE adding healthy recipes!

CHICKEN SAVOY (Serves 4)

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
1/8 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2/3 Cup Water with 1 Tbsp Sea Salt
2-3 Cloves of Garlic, Minced or Grated
1/2 - 1 Tsp. Dried Oregano or Basil (See *NOTE)
Salt and Pepper to Taste
1/4 Cup Grated Italian Romano Cheese
3 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place the chicken breasts in a 9x13 or other shallow baking dish. I used a glass 9x13. Mix olive oil, water and salt together in a small bowl. Pour over chicken breasts. Grate or mince garlic and sprinkle on the chicken breasts. Sprinkle salt, pepper and other seasonings over chicken. Sprinkle cheese over the top. Bake at 450 degrees for 20-30 minutes. (My oven took 25 minutes). Remove the dish from the oven, and pour off excess fluid, leaving the chicken in the baking dish. (I served the plates with the chicken on it, so I just lift the chicken out of the fluid onto the plate. I wanted the chicken to sit in the fluid until everything else was ready to eat). Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and serve. (As I reread this recipe before typing it, I realized that I totally forgot about the vinegar! Yet it was sooooo yummy!)

*NOTE: I did not have fresh basil or oregano, so I used a spice mixture that we like, Kroger Chicken Grill Seasoning. It contains no sugar. It does contain salt, so I would sprinkle lightly or cut the salt in the water bath to 3/4 Tbsp.

**NOTE: I was serving 5, used 5 breasts, but still used the same measurements of other ingredients.

Great tasting chicken! After eating, we talked about how it would be good next time to cook double of the chicken so that we can put it on a salad the next day. Great meal to send to work with Wade.

This recipe will become a "regular" at the Arnold house. And it was so simple! I didn't get home until 6pm last night, but we were sitting down to eat by 7pm. Gotta love that!

I'm up .6 today. I am just thankful it wasn't more. I didn't eat well over the weekend and my first day of exercise was today. I'll take it.

In my reading lately, I read about a variation of surge training. I decided to try it today just to throw myself a curve ball, so to speak.

Run for 30 seconds as hard and as fast as you can. I did for 9.0, 9.3, working up to a 9.5 for the last 3 intervals.

Rest for 1.5 minutes. I walked at a 2.7.

Do this 8 times.

I didn't find this to be as hard as the training I was doing with only a 30 second rest in between the first 4 surges. However, that let me move my speed up higher than I have ever run. So I ran harder in the 30 second intervals, but I had more recovery time.

There was more sweat. Does that mean I worked harder even though I didn't necessarily feel more tired at the end? :)

Maybe variation is the key. Both take me about 16-18 minutes depending on warm up and cool down.

One more time--I know I sound like a broken record--when I ate sugar Friday, Saturday and Monday nights, I felt horrible. Monday morning I had a migraine that just screamed for the covers to be pulled over my head for the day.

Once I went back to eating healthy foods, I felt better......well, after a day of getting the toxins out of my system. I'm back to more energy and sleeping well. During the time I was eating horrible, I woke up a couple of times a night. Now I am sleeping all the way through the night without getting up once.

Why would I ever go back? What would make me DESIRE to eat sugar knowing the side effects?

It reminds me of the Israelites who had been enslaved to the Egyptians. God rescued them from their enslavement, but when it came time to endure and trust what they knew to be true, they longed and begged to go back to Egypt! Slavery!

They could only remember how sweet everything tasted! Oh, those wonderful foods they gave us while we were all chained up!

Yep! That is me. I am learning so much great information about healthy eating in ways that fuel this body God gave us, yet when endurance is needed or when my flesh craves sugar, I am a wimp! I know the truth, but I sacrifice it for a LIE!

All I can remember is how sweet the sugar taste in my mouth. I believe at that moment of "crisis" that sugar is the only thing that will calm my stressful heart, body, soul, spirit........whatever is stressing me at that time.

Then I pay the consequences.

Thankfully, my consequences aren't nearly as severe as the Israelites. All but two of the Israelites died in the wilderness because they could not, would not trust and believe in the TRUTH, in GOD.

Lord, help me to endure and deny myself fleshly indulgences that are not good for my body. May I long to trust and obey You more than feed my flesh.

A Venison Spaghetti I Liked

My freezer is full of venison. We have deer and elk in abundance in our freezer here at home, as well as in the one up at the poolhouse. I should be using it. It is grass fed, not grain fed. It is lean. It is healthy.

One simple problem. I really don't care for the taste of it.

With all that I am learning, I know that the venison would be a healthy choice for us, so I am determined to learn some YUMMY recipes using it.

Here is one that we made earlier this week. It is for spaghetti because Grantmeister had asked for spaghetti. *NOTE: He asked for spaghetti not because he wanted to eat spaghetti, but because he wanted to have the garlic bread served with the spaghetti! Learned that later. ;)

In this recipe, I used several things that were from cans of organic products because tomatoes aren't good this time of year. In season, I would use our homegrown tomatoes.

2 packages deer breakfast sausage
2 packages ground elk
1 large onion
5 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning (use fresh basil and oregano if you have it; I was out!)
3-4 Tbsp grapeseed oil
1 can black olives, chopped
1 jar Classico (Tomato/Basil) pasta sauce
1/2 box of organic beef stock
1 can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, oregano (in season, use fresh!)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 box of Whole Wheat spaghetti noodles

Heat oil in large Dutch oven. Add onions and garlic; saute. Add venison and beef stock. The venison is so lean, I add beef stock to moisten it up a bit. It also helps lessen that "gamey" taste that I don't care for. Cover and let cook down til meat is brown and tender. Remove lid for last 15 minutes of browning time.

Add pasta sauce, tomatoes with peppers, olives, seasonings, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover, turn to low, and let simmer for 20-30 minutes til flavors all combine.

Cook whole wheat pasta per package directions.

Top with parmesan cheese.

*NOTE: This spaghetti is thick and not a lot of red sauce because Wade doesn't prefer red sauce. I made it very chunky for him, but everyone else loved it except Lydia who LOVES red sauce. I could have just added more red sauce to her portion.

Should have taken a picture, but I didn't. This made a whole lot of meat. I used half for meat for the spaghetti and froze half of it for later use.

Rough Week

Rough week as far as health.

Hubby got the flu.

I did not meet with the Lord for 3 days except through little prayers.

I have given in to eating sugar 3 nights in a row.

There has been NO exercise since Friday.

I missed my Monday appointment with Dr. Bishop because of a migraine.

All in all. I rough 5 days.




Thankfully, His mercies are new everyday.

The Lord and I met today and it was wonderfully sweet.

Today the eating was much better.

Tomorrow the treadmill will welcome me back with open arms.

Had to post again to process.

I am sad. I am angry. All at the same time.

Bottom line is: I am emotional right now.

Which in the past has only meant one thing: Go get chocolate!

Like chocolate can help my situation or my emotions. In reality, it only makes it worse after I give in. Then I am down on myself.

So I am choosing (with God's help) to go to the Lord and to do something else. I am drinking water and going to get my handwork out. I am going to get my hands busy working on something that doesn't need crumbs in it.

The answer is NEVER in food. It is always in the Lord. So, Lord, help me to make a wise choice, not a foolish one. Running to food at moments like this is just plain stupid! I don't want to be stupid, but wise. Help me be wise.

UPDATE: I went to the treadmill instead. Great choice! Burned calories AND destressed my mind.

Not Worth It

Just posted yesterday about how wonderful I feel and then decided last night to have a "vacation meal." A meal where I eat something I want to eat that might not be as good for me.

Wade and I went to dinner at Bonefish and I didn't order my normal salmon and broccoli. I ordered the Baja Fish Tacos which I used to love. My taste buds didn't enjoy them as much last night, but it might be because I had eaten so much before I got them that my taste buds had shriveled up and were begging for mercy!

We were to meet at 5:30. I finished at the chiropractic at 5 and went straight there, taking my new book with me that I had just taken out of the mailbox. I thought I would read while I waited. So I sat down around 5:10 and started enjoying my book.

The waiter brought me something to drink and I settled in, started to relax. I was going to enjoy the next 20 minutes of reading, as well as a nice relaxing dinner with Wade. It was so nice to be out of the sicky house! I had not been out of the house for 3 days.

At 5:30, I ordered the Bang Bang shrimp (which we always get), knowing that they would be hot when Wade got there. Instead, Wade called at 5:35 and began apologizing profusely.

Someone had tried to break into his truck. He was going to be 30 minutes longer.

Oh well, he is worth waiting on and I still had my book.

The only problem with this was that the waiter had brought the Bang Bang shrimp AND bread with that yummy pesto oil! So I ate and read. Ate and read. No self-control.

I should have just said, "No thank you" to the bread.

At least the Bang Bang, I knew I had to share with Wade and leave him at least half, right?!

But I didn't stop there. No! We decided NOT to share a meal and I ordered the Baja Fish Tacos with......yes, with the chips instead of mixed greens!

I will have to say...........I don't remember when I had a chip last and I enjoyed everyone of those chips!

But I immediately didn't feel well.

Symptoms? Fuzzy headiness (yes, it was the food, not my age!). Stomach issues. Reflux back. Stomach bloated. Strange feeling in my neck and chest. All I wanted to do as climb into my bed and go to sleep.

And after taking care of my flu-sick girls, that's what I did.

Only it took me a while to go to sleep. I had to read to try to get to sleep. Finally I slept.......

Until 3am.

That meal so hurt my body, I can't sleep. I have been awake since 3. Finally got up around 3:45am. I couldn't lay there anymore.

I have said that it is not worth it, but here is another example of it not being worth it.

One day I will learn. I feel so great when eating healthy! I want to become addicted to that great feeling. I want to remember how horrible it feels to NOT eat well.

I don't think I am a good candidate for "vacation meals."

When I think of my surge training and yoga from yesterday, I think it was all null and void.

But today is a new day. Today I can say "no" to the unhealthy stuff and go back to my healthy eating plan.

It's like God's grace. His mercies truly are new every morning.

And I'm so thankful.

This has been a pretty good week. I have felt well, made good choices, tried a new dvd with yoga moves which I love, and increased my surge training.

First, I feel great! It is a HUGE thing to have sickness in my house (flu) and me not get it. I am usually the one who gets sick. Me and Grantmeister. Grant got the flu nasal vaccine, but I didn't. And I didn't get sick. Yet. And I feel great about that. That says something to me about eating well and exercising, as well as taking my supplements. Just taking care of myself is so preventative.

Second, once I make a good choice it leads to other good choices. The planning that I did on Sunday helped, but I have also made great choices when it came to snack time. I have munched on cashews, blueberries, granny smith apples and cheese.

You know what? I haven't had a "sinking" time once! That is because the choices I am making are energizing, not putting me in a sugar coma.

Third, my new WholyFit DVD has been a good addition to my exercise routine. It is yoga moves to Scripture and Christian, meditative music. It is a basic DVD since I am just beginning, but I want to do this DVD for a month, then buy the next level.

This basic DVD is enough to make me sweat a bit and to stretch (ha!) my abilities. I am not flexible at all, but hope to increase that as I do this kind of exercise. It will be important as I get older. I have to work to keep my body in the poses and, at times, my body trembles underneath me, but I like the way I feel afterward. I liked it so much yesterday, I did it again today even though I was only going to do it every other day. :)

Lastly, I have been able to push myself in my surge training. Today my intervals were at a 8.5 speed on the treadmill. That is the fastest for me that I have ever run. I even tried a 9.0 once and did fine til the end. When I went to reach for my iPod at the end of the 30 seconds, I almost fell off the treadmill! That would NOT be good!

So an increase in surge training tells me that my body adjusted to the 7.0 and the 7.5 and the 7.8. It even adjusted to the 8.0. That means I am able to increase my speed because my body is enduring well.

Surge training today was 4 intervals at 8.5+/3 cycles. My legs were exhausted when I stopped, but I still made it through the yoga. My legs were really trembling!

But right now, I feel great! I have energy to attack my spring cleaning!

Oh, one more thing: I am down another pound this week. :)

Still reading and learning.

New WholyFit dvd done and enjoyed.

Taking care of sick kiddos.

Eating well.

Drinking water, water, water.

Weight still going down.

Wise snack choice today.

Feeling great!

Another good start to my day. I was up at 5am which is my best time. It gives me a long time to meet with the Lord. That early, I can do my surge training before the kids get up, too.

Surge training today I increased my speed up to 8.4 and put it on a small incline. I did 4 intervals/3 cycles. Felt good, but worked hard. My thighs hurt. I also added push ups (which are very hard for me) and sit ups. I hope to do yoga later today.

I am finding that I am craving carbs in the afternoon. That is usually when I crave something, but now that I am not eating bad carbs, I am craving them. Yesterday I ate cashews (but too many), but I went for a few pita chips. Not a good choice. I wish I had eaten a granny smith apple and some cheese instead.

Then we had an organic pizza for dinner. I ate too much and I didn't check to see what kind of flour it was made out of. Sadness.

I did deny myself a glass of wine. I wanted to have some with the pizza last night, but didn't. I also ate one bite of organic dark chocolate. That's all it takes with really dark chocolate.

Water, water, water. I am drinking so much water. It is all I am drinking besides cup or two of coffee. The bathroom and I are friends. :)

The Maximized Book that includes many recipes is really, really good. I started reading it yesterday while at the dr's office. It is some of the same information (same author), but the recipes are going to help me more further toward greater health.

Because of the sickness and late afternoon dr's visit, I didn't get to make the meatloaf, but I will do that tonight. I will have lots of time since we will be home all day.