Today I heard the powerful lyrics: Life is fragile, We could die at any minute.  Eternity is a long time, how are you going to spend it? The devil is relentless, always trying to break your faith.  But nothing is comparable to Gods amazing grace.  We can’t change the past, so make a brighter future.  I’m giving it up to God, that seems to be the right solution.  Thank you for the pain, God thank you for the rain.  You’re building my endurance.  It’s all part of Gods plan.  Let me back up, the last 7 weeks have been pivotal for me, as I have sunken deeper into a land of despair. Despair that I wasn’t willing to acknowledge in the sea of highs and lows that come with the birth of a child.  Backing up even further, the past two years have given me two healthy children, a boy and girl each born by C-Section. The same two years have also taken my dad to heaven and sealed the fate of a family that …

Dear Readers, Please forgive my time away from blogging yet again. No worries however, I have been busy finding my purpose through blogging…and well ummmm, having a baby. My little Aria is now almost seven months old, and being her mom has taught me more about my purpose then anything. Being a mom is all about being nurturing, loving, patient, attentive, present, a good wife, but also more about taking care of yourself and leading by example than I would have ever realized. Growing up, I missed the part where I was supposed to learn to take care of myself first. I grew to always put the needs of others above my own. Ironically becoming a mom myself, I have learned the sheer importance of taking care of me so my daughter can learn to take care of herself too. I don’t want her to struggle like I do. I am proud to have found my “why” throughout the past few months. Because I am still growing, I expect it to change overtime. My “why” has been realized at the …

Dear Readers, So as you may have been able to tell from reading my blog post on returning to the gym, I am back at it. Does that mean I’m 100% committed and not going to slip? NO! Yesterday I had the best workout I’ve had in six months. Today, I ate whatever I wanted, feeling as though I had earned it. However, listening to my favorite book “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson during my commute to and from appointments with my patients today…the words “it’s the small decisions, compounding over time, that either lead to successes or failures”. Looking back on my day…did I have to eat out? No. Did I have to eat every unhealthy carbohydrate known to man? No! For some reason, I have a need to self-sooth in self-sabotaging ways…something that follows me from childhood. I recognize that I must conquer these habits so deeply engrained in me, habits that have made sustaining my goals unattainable, until now. I share this struggle with many who also have good intentions, but …

Originally posted on innerfitgirl's Blog:
Hello innerfitgirl readers, For various reasons, I took some time away from blogging…a year to be exact. However, having a husband who believes in me, my ideas, and my goals express his desire for me to continue blogging was enough to re-ignight the fire I have helping others while helping myself. I have edited my profile as a new beginning to the daily posts, weekly articles, and monthly goals I will be making. You can expect to see posts including: 1. Inspirational quotes 2. Recipes for healthy meals 3. Food prep tips 4. Exercises 5. Spiritually 6. Creating your peaceful space 7. Gardening 8. The outdoors 9. Random facts 10. Daily efforts in achieving my own well-being long-term and so much more! Each of my monthly goals, will follow the normal nursing process…identify the problem, set a goal to fix the problem, create a plan to achieve the goal, implement the plan, and evaluate the plan for effectiveness in fixing the problem. Thank you for checking into my blog, I hope you…

Though behind in my goals for 2014, I am not going to be discouraged…part of having a healthy lifestyle is not dwelling on the bumps in the road. The problem I have identified and plan to address this month is my diet, which consists of too many processed convenience foods and not enough planning and preparation at home. My goal in addressing this problem for the month of July is to clean up my diet. Over the coming months I intend to put a clean/whole food eating plan into action with the 80/20 rule. That is, 80% of the time, I will eat non-processed, whole foods that are fuel to my body, allowing wiggle room the other 20%. This will be a process, it will take patience, planning, and dedication. Small changes being implemented this month include: 1. Food prep Sunday’s – Plan and prep breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the work week to decrease need for quick convenience foods and to ensure that meals and snacks are well balanced. 2. Protein, Fat, and Vegetable/Fruit 3 every 3 rule – Balance out …

I am no stranger to making drastic dietary and fitness changes and than stepping on the scale every morning or looking in the mirror and feeling defeated because the results I want don’t happen over night. This has created a vicious cycle of disappointments vs gratification, ups and downs, and has made it impossible to take my goals past first base. No matter how bad I want to make it to home, I’m my own worst enemy because of this idea that I should see results over night. We live in a society that expects immediate gratification for their efforts. Imagine what would have happened if people 100 years ago just gave up when their hard work went unnoticed for long periods of time. Instead, they continued to give it their all even when they had nothing because they had faith their small efforts would add up in a big way someday. This is how cities and business were built, how inventions were made, how food was grown, and therefore how life was lived. This …

So tonight I allowed myself a cheat meal since we were invited to a relatives home for a family bday. I can tell you, not even worth the cheat. I’m glad I could eat and enjoy myself rather than saying “no I can’t eat this or that.” Honestly though, I think I would have been better off, it wasn’t worth the cheat to me because there wasn’t anything remotely healthy about what we ate…and now of course my stomach is angry and I feel tired instead of energized! What I’m taking away from this is that cheat meals go against everything you are working towards and unless it’s healthy in someway, it’s just not worth it…not even once a week. My goal is to change my taste buds, get to where my unhealthy staples are a thing of the past. This was a setback…and though I can work off the extra calories with a workout…I feel like I just turned my body back into a garbage can. Wanting examples…1 lg slice all meat pizza, chips …

Lemons are not only high in vitamin C…they are a cholesterol zapper, detoxifier, diuretic, and thermogenic all in one according to Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D, CNS in The Fat Flush Foods. I never feel better than when I’m not only drinking lots of water, but also adding in a lemon a day to fight bloating, cholesterol, aid in digestion, detoxify, and improve skin texture/tone.

Chop up your favorite veges (broccoli, mushrooms, onions, peppers here) add to 16eggs, and beat in 4oz almon milk for fluff, season to taste…I use herbs to cut down on need for salt for flavor. Line each muffin hole of two muffin tins (24 muffins total) with turkey bacon or Black Forest ham, pour egg/vege mixture inside. Top with cilantro and bake on 350degrees for 20min or until egg is done. Pull out of oven and let cool before using a butter knife to loosen from bottom of pan. Store 1/2 in the fridge for this weeks breakfast and freeze the other half for next week. For each two you have, less than 200 calories, balanced, and filling!