4-100 Exercise for April 1st

Four exercises performed for 100 seconds each, 3 rounds!

Check out this exercise content for keeping in shape while practicing social distancing.

https://youtu.be/SWEfplRBfPY

The work out goes:

Squats 100 seconds

20 second rest

Leg raises 50 seconds left side

Leg raises 50 seconds right side

20 second rest

Pushups 100 seconds

20 second rest

Crunches 100 seconds

1 min rest

Repeat 2 more times for a complete workout.

This is meant to challenge you. Go for as long as you can take a breath and get back into the exercise.

Make sure to sign up to my email list to continue on this journey with me. Remember it is one petal (step) at a time.

~Crystal

Watch, because they are not watching for you!

I was out on my walk/run this morning and as I approached the school there were a lot of cars coming and going. There are no sidewalks near this school and so the cars were not able to get over for me to stay safe on the side of the road, I would march in someone’s driveway while I waited and then strike out again. This made me want to write to you today to ensure you are staying safe & getting in your workouts.

We live in a distracted world. There are virtual billboards and lights flashing, it seems like everywhere. We are constantly checking social media, emails, & text messages while driving. Yes, I know it is illegal to do this, but it doesn’t stop everyone. We have choices & if caught those choices come with consequences, hefty ones that hit your pocketbook $$$.

If you are one of these people stop, please. Not just for the other drivers around you but also those walking, biking or running around in your local community.

How many times have you been backing out of a parking place & all of a sudden there is a person there that was in your blind spot? What about the car speeding past you in a school zone only to look over and see that they are more focused on the electronic in their hand than where they are, the posted speed sign, & flashing lights alerting them of the school zone? Have you ever been this person?Pull over and take care of what is needed and then continue on with your day. Facebook, pinterest, twitter & instagram will all be there when you reach your destination.

I want to encourage you to get out, take a walk, go running, or bicycle. These are great exercises to get your heart pumping & releasing some feel good endorphins. If you don’t like to go alone, find a friend or a bunch of friends to go with.

As you are out and about here are some tips on being safe:

Know your surroundings-make sure to go in areas that you are familiar with.
Take a buddy or more-If there is someplace you would like to explore take a friend or multiple friends with you. It is not people that we always have to be aware of. Cities are seeing more animals in them as they grow and they can be dangerous.
Be aware of the people around you-I am not saying be afraid. Just make sure you know if someone is near. Pay attention to their actions. Do they seem normal or harmless or should you switch sides of the street or go another direction.
Carry protection with you-If you have a carry permit and are not anti-gun carry a gun with you. If you don’t believe guns should be in public then carry pepper spray with you. If you do carry pepper spray make sure to note the expiration date and replace it as needed. Another weapon you can use are your car keys. Place them between your fingers, sticking out that if you need to jab someone or something with them they are always available. Tasers are another thing I know some runners keep with them.
Sidewalks or walking paths-use them if they are available. This keeps you away from traffic.
Stop-if your body is not responding well to exercise that day it is ok to stop and head back home. If you are unable to get back home call a friend to come pick you up or sit & wait 5 min and try to head home. If it is an emergency please call 911.
Hydrate-make sure to hydrate before you go out, especially on really hot or cold days. This keeps your core body temperature stable. If you are able to carry water with you, do. This will help hydrate you on your workout.
Dress appropriately-make sure to dress for the weather outside. If you are a warm blooded person and it is freezing outside still cover your ears, fingers & nose. Frostbite is not something to be trifled with and should be treated by a doctor if you don’t cover yourself properly. You can also run during the warmest part of the day in the winter to keep from being too cold. In all seasons put on your sunblock. You can tan even with sunblock on and it protects your skin from harmful UV rays. Every pale person knows what a sunburn is like in the summer! Protect yourself as much as possible. Loose fitting, sheer cotton shirts will still allow you to run in the summer but protect your skin. Another good summer tip is run before the sun is up.
Step aside- step to the side of the road and let cars, other people or animals pass you.
Watch out-distractions occur to everyone. My last tip here is watch because they are not watching you. Whether you are the one in the car or outside, always be watching for everyone & everything else. Treat it as if everything around you is not paying attention to you. If you are crossing in a crosswalk don’t cross until ALL the cars stop. If you are riding in the bike lane make sure you know how many cars are approaching you. Treat each animal that may come across your path cautiously. Be on guard, be more aware than everything around you.

I want to encourage you again to get outside and be physically active, all while being aware of what is going on around you. Treat each car, person, animal as if they aren’t watching for you, but you are watching for them. Feel free to share this post with your friends & share in the comments your tips for outdoor workouts. Keep safe and thank you for taking this journey with me, one petal at a time.

Crystal

Are you really helping?

I was at the grocery store the other day shopping for tomato paste when I hear a gentleman say “You don’t need olives, I just bought you a gallon of olives.” While he was speaking, I saw this sweet lady go around the corner of the isle away from him. He turned around and said she’s not even here. I said “no, she went that way.” and pointed in the direction she went. To which he replied “she didn’t hear a thing I said did she?” I said “no, she didn’t.”

We went our separate ways shopping, and I ran into the sweet lady still just around the corner of the isle, she had met up with a friend and was chatting. I apologized for butting in and let her know that he had said she didn’t need any olives, he had already gotten some. She giggled and looked at me and said “will you go find out what we are shopping for then?” I giggled and we went on our shopping ways…

I enjoy interacting with people and this is what I would call a help. I love helping people. This can annoy people I am around because they would mind their own business or they think it is none of mine.

This is not the situation that originally brought this topic up for me to write on, I forgot what that one was, but the principle is the same. It makes me think “Are you really helping?”

I have been doing a bible study by Karen Ehman called “Keep It Shut:What to say, How to say it, & When to say nothing at all”. The point of the study is to make sure that we are filtering our words to build others up even if what has to be said is hard. We are also supposed to know when to not say anything because it could be harmful and it is only for our benefit, not really to help the other person.

As I have gone along through this study, I realized in hindsight that there are many things that I say that should have been said differently and there have been times that I should just sit and listen.

Let’s revisit the couple at the grocery store…In this situation they would have found one another and had the conversation that was missed. He would have conveyed that they didn’t need olives and life would have gone on.They didn’t need my help, but it did bring me joy to interact with this sweet older couple.

So this also brings me back to why I am here and the point of this blog. You don’t NEED my help. In a world full of knowledge just waiting to be accessed at our fingertips you can learn anything and everything you need to know.

This brings up a new look to “Are you really helping?” because the reason you are here & hopefully the reason you keep coming back to read this blog is that I am helping.

I research, live, fall, rise up, keep going, study some more, write what has worked for me, & what hasn’t. My ups & downs are to inspire you to try something new & different. The life experiences I share hopefully help you to know and understand yourself a little better and makes it easier for you to get healthy.

I know that everything I write will not necessarily hit home for you, but I am aiming to help you understand what will help you become more healthy. Also, I want you to do it in a way that you can stick with it as a life change & if it helps you realize what doesn’t work for you, I see that as a win.

Part of being healthy is growing as a person. I study how to overcome my obstacles and sharing when it isn’t necessary is an area of growth for me. Don’t shy away from taking a look at yourself and working at becoming a better version of yourself, even if that means (take a deep breath) being quiet or pondering how to respond to someone so that what is said, is not something you have to apologize for later. I am working on this also.

Feel free to share in the comments how you practice mindfulness with your words.

Thank you for taking this journey with me one petal at a time.

Crystal

Stress: Master or Minion?

We all experience stress and we all handle it differently. Some are masters at handling their stress & others are minions. No not the cute little yellow guys off of Illumination Entertainment’s “Despicable Me” movie. Minion in this case simply means that stress is your overlord, you have no authority and you follow it wherever it leads you.

Ouch, that sounds so harsh!

I have been more of a minion than master lately. This is why I am sharing this information with you. We need to be aware of how we are handling stress.

So what is stress? Helpguide.org defines stress as your body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. The Bing search dictionary says stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. Psychologytoday.com says that stress is two things: the psychological perception of pressure, on the one hand, and the body’s response to it, on the other, which involves multiple systems, from metabolism to muscles to memory.

How do you cope with stress? I cope with stress by eating, spending money, & I am way less focused. This controlling need comes over me. Yes, I said controlling instead of uncontrollable because I allow it to control me. I go looking for my keto approved snacks, but nothing is satisfying. Then an ad will pop up in my email and I find myself adding things to my Amazon shopping cart. The task at hand becomes so minuscule because I am stressing and allowing distraction to rule all. I am sure I don’t have to tell you that not being focused, eating, and breaking the budget only adds to the stress.

Stress is not always a bad thing. It can drive you to accomplish more than you would have with out the pressure. However if you are not overcoming it and it only is piling up then stress can & will takes its toll on our bodies so practice ways to overcome your stress. Here are some tips to help you become the master & stress your minion!

Pray, read the bible, & worship!

I believe that prayer, reading the word of God & worshipping are great ways to combat stress. It takes my mind off of me and my problems. Each one of these help to relieve stress for me.

Yes, I do actually do this. No, not all the time or every time but I am way better the older I get. When I stop, take the focus off the stress issue, pray, worship & read my bible then my focus is shifted and the thing that was stressing me is not as intimidating. I don’t do all 3 at one time, my usual go to is 1st prayer and 2nd worship. I would say reading my bible is the one that I don’t use as much, however it is not because it isn’t important. Bible reading & memorizing scripture are extremely important so you have it with you everywhere you go.

Plus you can pray, worship & read your bible anywhere you want in America and that is something to be celebrated. That is not the freedom everyone has in the world.

Do the task I am avoiding!

I have to face the music and just work on the task I am avoiding. Just like this blog post, I will fess up and say that I have been working on this blog post for 3 weeks because I feel very ill equipped to tell people how to overcome stress. I have studied and over analyzed it to the point that I finally asked myself “How do YOU deal with stress?” and then told myself to write that! I am here to help you and if you are here reading my blog you are here to see how I can help.

I know that once I have completed the task in front of me I will feel so much better, it won’t be as bad as I make it in my head, & I will be free to move on to other things on my list.

Another example of something that I avoid is the dishes. I love a clean kitchen, but cleaning it is a whole other story! I know that once the kitchen is clean I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders and I am happy.

Take a deep breath!

Whether I do it once, one minute, or even for 5 minutes. Deep breathing is relaxing, lowers blood pressure and has a calming effect. So I take a deep breath or many and press forward. I can feel the pressure melt away.

Now the task or the problem is still there to be tackled, but now I am more prepared.

Create something!

I love creating cards, scrapbook pages, knitting, crocheting, quilting, & so many other things. However it is about having a hobby. Hobbies where we feel fulfilled are what is important. Maybe the thing you create is not made of paper or fabric. Are you an avid hiker, baker, decorator or a builder?

Then map out a new hike, find a new recipe to try, find things that can be used in other rooms in your house and rearrange, or are you one of the very talented people who can build a wall unit for your house, or hang sheetrock and make a new room. Do these things. Creating something triggers a part of you brain that relieves stress.

Do nothing!

There are moments when I have to give myself permission to sit down and watch a movie, take a bubble bath, or even read a book. Learning to schedule my days and stick to it is very challenging. I seem to be an all or nothing person. I am either scheduling every minute of everyday or I am so overwhelmed that I end up not doing anything on my list. To overcome this I have learned to make sure to schedule in free time each day.

Take the time and give yourself permission to do nothing. Don’t get me wrong this is not permission to nothing ever it is permission to relax for a few hours or a day and then get back to work.

If you are a person that doesn’t need many breaks in your day & you thrive on the go, go, go then make it a short 5 min. If you are like me & wish you could go, go, go and not get worn out, then schedule in a little more time. This will take some trial and error. I am still not at the perfect place I would like to be with this, but I am working on it and trying.

Exercise!

The last one I am writing about today is certainly not the last resort. Exercise is fantastic for releasing endorphins, those feel good hormones designed to help relieve stress. I love the idea of running and do it every now and again. Mostly I am a walker, so I go for at least a 10 minute walk. I know that 30 minutes is better and if I can, I will walk for at least that if not longer.

Exercise can be many things though. Some forms of exercise are basketball, hockey, football, pickleball, badminton, volleyball, ice skating, roller skating, skiing, hiking, bike riding and that is a short list. There are so many more things that you can do to get up, get moving and raise your heart rate. That is one of the key things for it to be exercise is that it raises your heart rate along with gets you moving.

Thank you for taking this journey one petal at a time with me. We will learn together. I appreciate you all.

Share in the comments some of your favorite ways to overcome stress.

Crystal

You asked for it…

You want an update you say. Well here it goes. Keto is my preferred way to eat. I still have room to grow & learn here. This is a new way of life for me, but I love it.

When I first started out, I did not have the cravings for things, however now there are times that I crave certain foods. This is one of those areas where I believe I can study and find out why. I don’t because let’s face it we cannot do everything we want in life. It is not always about carving out the time either. There really is not enough time to do all we want. Now we can delegate & some can even hire people to get more done in their day, but that is not an option for most people. Now I am a “most people” kind of person. Hiring someone to get more work done in my life is not where I am financially.

This is how I handle the situation, I do the best I can. It is that simple.

Right now I am working on goal setting. My goals are getting my blog launched, overcoming fear, not eating my emotions, keeping off the 50 pounds I have lost this year through the holidays, setting a goal to lose the other 25 pounds next year at 1 pound a week (so by June 30, 2020), eating a healthy keto diet, exercising 5 days a week, & learning how to be the example. I am not sure that is everything on my list, but it is a good start.

If you haven’t seen my beginning photos of where I started my weight loss journey, then check them out here.

March 2019
October 2019
March 2019
October 2019
March 2019
October 2019
March 2019
October 2019

This is the comparison of my 2nd set of photos taken 2 months into my weight loss journey in March 2019 with my most recent photos as of October 2019.

When I look at these photos I am amazed. I didn’t realize what other people saw when they looked at me. I didn’t look this big in the mirror. Now when I look at myself I appear larger than I do in a picture. I don’t believe it is the camera’s fault either. The way I envision of myself is skewed.

I tend to see things the way I want to. This can be a good thing, however it can be bad, very bad. When I was heavier I saw a thinner person. Now that I am 50 lbs thinner I see a heavier person. This is part of getting healthy.

What? You may ask. It sounds odd and unheard of, however it is true and in our heads. We see the version of us that we think we are. It is a mindset and we have to work at changing it. For me this is why I take pictures. The ones taken above & in my starting post are all taken in the same spot in my living room.

See I know this because there is a spot of wax where my young nephew, who didn’t know better, picked up my Scentsy warmer lid and tried to carry it, but it got too hot & he dropped it. I have never taken the time to try & iron it out of the carpet, so I stand on that spot each time I update my photos.

In my health & fitness journey I believe the scale & photos help keep me real. Do they define me? No. But I can deceive myself by thinking a certain way over & over. So I step on the scale to see where it lands, it doesn’t always lie. Lol. I take updated progress photos so I can visualize what I look like at the weight the scale says. This helps me see my progress & it helps me see the truth in front of me.

Can’t you get that from a mirror? Wouldn’t your mind deceive you the same way? For some interesting reason I see what’s in the mirror & what’s in a picture differently. Maybe due to the size perspective, I am not sure. It definitely makes me wonder. But I am just being real with you, in hopes of encouraging you to find what keeps your health & fitness journey real.

Is it the scale? Photos? Is it old clothes?

Share in the comments how you keep real with yourself in your health journey.

I want to encourage you all to not give up, stay strong, & don’t give in just because someone else says it isn’t working. Learn yourself, research yourself, & be accountable. You can do this.

It is growing one petal at a time.

Crystal

Attitude of Gratitude

One of my favorite sayings is “The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem”~Jack Sparrow from Curse of the Black Pearl.

When life is not going well & it seems like one thing after another is piling up, how do you respond? Are you a person who rises above and conquers the massive mountain in front of you? Are you the person that hides & waits for someone else to jump in & help? Do you spiral out of control eating every feeling?

Someday I want to be able to say that I am the person who rises above & tackles what is being thrown/hurled at me. I am not that person. I am the one who eats every emotion. Even now when I know better.

I am working on goal planning & overcoming this obstacle called perfectionism that disguises itself as procrastination. See I am afraid of failing, and not doing something perfectly. I waste a lot of time researching something, only to eventually do nothing with the knowledge I learn because it is scary & it isn’t coming together the way I envision it. This starts a downward spiral of feeling like the world is crashing in on me. The pressure has been known to build until I blow up. This was until a couple of years ago when I started practicing gratitude.

I don’t remember how I came to this wonderful conclusion that gratitude combats pressure & anger. However I came to this knowledge, I put it to the test. I started saying 5 things I am grateful for each day, for 21 days. The rule was that everyday at one point in the day I would list 5 things I was grateful for & they couldn’t repeat. So they were 5 new things everyday. To ensure there were no repeats I would write them down. Lo & behold it worked, I stopped being so angry. The pressure to accomplish the mountain wasn’t so daunting.

I would love to say that it is a daily habit for me to practice gratitude & maybe one day it will be, but I am not there yet. I can say that I notice if life is just ticking me off a lot, I do start to practice gratitude again. Sticking to the rule of 5 new things each day, never repeating, seeing the results time & time again.

I know with Thanksgiving coming, I see a lot of people post about being thankful. With Christmas just shortly after that, everyone is so much more friendly. Does the gratitude help our attitude? I am not sure that Thanksgiving helps everyone be nicer at Christmas. It is a nice thought though.

We as people are excited for the holiday season. The twinkling lights, the surprises, family &/or friends, lots of good food & gathering together. Our attitudes are more jovial & generous.

I believe that this can happen more throughout our life if we are practicing gratitude. If we remember why life is wonderful for us. It will not be the same for each person, it will take more effort for some than others. Overall though when we practice gratitude it does alter our attitude toward life.

I invite you to practice gratitude to build a better attitude & let me know in the comments how it goes.

Join me in this great big journey of becoming healthy one petal at a time. Building upon each new petal. Growing stronger each new day.

Crystal

My beginning keto journey

This keto journey started for me, when I had heard so many people talk about their success. I kept thinking it was like Paleo. That was untrue. I learned this as I studied the concept behind keto and the way to eat healthy while on a keto eating plan.There are many ways one can eat a keto diet. Yes, I used the word diet, but now is not the time to get into my why for the use of that four letter word.

There is the “Dirty Keto Way”. This is eating anything and everything as long as it is a keto approved food & it keeps you in ketosis. Some of these foods include pork rinds, sugar free everything, cooking with butter & lard, cheese on anything, and meat at every meal.

There is, what I am going to call a “Normal Keto Way”. This is where you choose to eat mostly healthy foods but you limit some of the okay-ish options. This is the individual elects to use butter and lard on occasion, opting for olive or avocado oil instead. Veggies are included in almost every meal, dairy is limited, and meat is not consumed at every meal.

Then there is the “Clean Keto Way”. This is eating whole foods, no sugar free foods, grass fed meats, organic vegetables, and you make all your own sauces & seasonings.

I am the “Normal Keto” eater. I don’t want to eat dirty, and one day I will eat more toward the “Clean Keto Way”.

I chose to eat the keto diet after making the grown up decision to talk to my doctor, have my blood numbers tested, & read a couple of books behind what keto is & why it is claimed to be so healthy for people to eat this way.

I believe we should all do our due diligence to study what you believe. One of the books I read was “Wired to Eat” by Robb Wolf. I really appreciated his approach to the fact that there is not a one size fits all eating plan. I say this to let you know that I don’t believe keto is the one eating plan for everyone. I believe that we have to be students of our own bodies and learn what does, doesn’t & needs to change to make our bodies work in optimal performance.

Carbohydrates are not the devil and people who eat them are not killing themselves because they choose to eat that way.

I do believe that there is an optimal way to eat for health, weather you choose to let you body burn glucose for energy or ketones for energy. What is that optimal way to eat, you ask? In my opinion it would be a diet of whole foods. If you cannot grow it or make it yourself, then you shouldn’t eat it. No processed box food with items in it that you are unable to pronounce or that sounds like it should’t be in your food.

Even keto foods should be prepared at home, with a whole ingredient, that you made on your own. How can you do that? There is this great building in most towns or towns nearby called a library. It houses books, and many are now online. Our library uses “OverDrive” an app you can download onto your phone and check out books from there. I have found so many of my favorite keto recipes in books.

I started researching keto in January of 2019, when I made it my goal to go from 223 pounds to 150pounds. I did not start eating keto foods until March 2019, because I wanted to get foods out of my house that were not keto friendly. Waste not, want not.

My husband found me a blood ketone meter on Facebook marketplace. Blood ketones are the most accurate way to test your ketones. This is an expensive option though because the monitors are not too expensive, however the strips for them start at $1.00/strip. There are also urine strips, these are the least accurate ways to test your ketones. This is also the least expensive way to test ketones. It is said that if you pee out enough ketones to turn that strip a good dark color, that you are more likely not using ketones in your body like you should, you’re expelling them. I want to say have not tested this theory, it is only what I have read. Another way to test ketones in your body is a ketone breathalyzer. I have read that these are somewhat accurate, however the device is expensive.

When I started this journey though my cholesterol, triglycerides, & LDL were all high. So along with researching how to eat a keto diet along with lowering all of these essentially bad things for my body.

After 6 months I went back and had these numbers tested again. My HDL had went up (good), LDL went down (good), VLDL went down (very good), triglycerides went down (good), cholesterol went up (not so good).

After talking to my doctor though she was ok with me continuing on my keto journey. Her advice was to eat leaner, healthier cuts of meat. Use healthy oils to cook my food and exercise. We scheduled another date to run my lipid panel again, for 3 months down the road.

As this date is approaching quickly I want to say, I haven’t done so well at changing my eating plan or exercising for the 3 month time frame. I am actually nervous to have my numbers tested, but I will stick with the appointment. I have started exercising and I took some time off of artificial sweeteners and a couple weeks I refrained from dairy.

With all of this said, if I go in and my doctor says you have to give up a keto eating plan, then the truth is I will beg for one more try to get on track and get my numbers in order before looking to switch eating plans.

But however my keto journey ends I want to know that I did all I could and I did the best that I could. I want everyone to know that keto doesn’t work for some because it can put their lives at risk due to the added fats in your diet and you are genetically wired to have high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Don’t give up! Keep researching your body and what works for it. What makes you the healthiest you that you can be? Learn from your bodies response & work with a doctor that will support you in making you healthy.

I will post more on this keto journey after my 2nd set of blood test results are in.

Keep building your health and fitness journey on petal at a time…

Crystal

Challenge extended… Challenge accepted!

I joined a challenge with a group of ladies to write 7 blog posts in 7 days. The rules of the challenge are that I am to write for 1 hour only, including any edits or changes that need made. After that hour is up the blog post has to be posted, whether it is perfect or not.

At the beginning of the week I was very excited to do this. I had my first blog post written, posted, and feeling accomplished. Day 2 was a bomb. Here I am on day 3 and I am having a hard time finding or making the time to write these posts. Prime example, I only made time for 5 minutes of writing for day 3 and here I am on day 4 trying to get in 30 solid minutes and finish up later this evening. Which didn’t happen because here I am on day 5 finishing up my hour.

Now it did say 7 posts in 7 days not 1 post per day for 7 days. I may need to go back and double check that, but that is what I remember. So technically I am not behind.

I love this challenge though because I am a perfectionist & a rule follower. It stretches me past those two things. The blog post will not be perfect and I must follow the rules or find grace for myself.

Challenging yourself to rise above what your normal day is like is a good thing. Don’t shy away from scary big goals. I took this challenge thinking that it would be a breeze to schedule in 1 hour a day to write a blog post. Just sit down and write about whatever is going on in my life, how it can help others, & OH MY was I wrong. It is a big deal to carve out 1 hour to sit down and write when the laundry needs done, carpets need vacuuming, dishes need washed, work the blog program so I can launch it, do my bible studies that is only supposed to take 6 weeks but I have been on session 1 for 3 weeks.

I have even taken up task blocking. This is where you schedule out blocks of time to work on certain projects. It can be any amount of time and you focus on that task for an allotted amount of time. I wrote out my whole week’s schedule, looked it over and thought this is going to be great! Wait, what? I didn’t schedule any blogging time, oy vey. So I re-adjusted the schedule, put the blocks in on my work lunch hour or after fitness class, and worked it out.

Come to find out that even with my time blocked perfection layed out in front of me, I am struggling. I didn’t take into account that I have 3 dogs that need cared for, potty breaks that need taken care of, meals and snacks or anything else that calls my attention when I sit down to write.

I haven’t heard from any of the other ladies about how they are doing. I am not sure if it changed from notifying each person in a group text message to just posting on our Facebook post. I am believing that all my other comrades are out there in blog-land working frantically to write their 7 posts in 7 days.

Have you heard the saying “We make time for the things that are most important to us”?

What is important to you? What is a great big, huge goal that you would like to accomplish in your life, this year, month, week? Write it down, make a plan to accomplish it. Don’t hesitate. Life is going to carry on and you can ride the waves or just drift hoping to accomplish something.

Now of course I am not saying pack up all of your belongings and leave your responsibilities behind. I am saying look at your responsibilities and delegate them. Learn to let go of a “Leave it to Beaver” life. Ask for help picking up kids, vacuuming, cooking meals, someone to take care of your fur babies. Don’t shy away from a goal because life is in the way. Make it more than a goal, make it a priority. Remember we make time for the things that are important to us.

Write down your goal and then find ways that you can work toward it. Take a class, read a book, ask a friend to hold you accountable. It may take 1 year, 5 years or 20 years to accomplish it but do something everyday that will get you closer to the goal. If you’re a blogger, this is a good one. Set an amount of time and pick how many days you want to work toward the goal. I have heard of people sitting down and writing for 1 hour a day for 30 days. I admire these people and would like to make that a goal someday.

My goal to publish a blog that will help people be fit and healthy is a challenge. This writing challenge will help me accomplish that, by creating blog posts for you to read. Hopefully they will be encouraging, but certainly they will teach me to sit and write regardless of life going on around me.

This one post has taken 3 days to write, still within the one hour time frame. Now to some that may be deflating and truth be told sometimes that is me. I am not sure if you experience this or if it is just me, but when I start something I am much more forgiving of myself in the beginning because I am learning something new. Then as time goes along I become more demanding of myself and don’t offer much grace. Since this blogging journey is still new, I have a lot of grace and optimism for making it 7 posts in 7 days and only 1 hour per post.

I am not struggling for content either. If you have read my about me page, then you know that I have been on this healthy lifestyle journey for a long time, off and on and repeat! Something that is not know yet is that I am a journaler. I have many pages that I can pull from over the years. I will use that content because one day as I was praying the Lord showed me that I had all this usable information already. I just needed to type it out.

As this hour ends I want to encourage you to never give up, build your dream and if you need help reach out to me. I will share what has worked for me and what hasn’t. Know that just because it didn’t work for me, doesn’t mean that it won’t work for you. This is why I will share it with you. What works for one doesn’t always work for another. We are here to work together.

Keep building your journey one petal at a time.

Crystal

Bigger is Better

How many believe bigger is better?

We strive to have larger, more defined muscles. People get breast enhancements, butt implants & fat injected to their lips to make them larger. However when it comes to cellulite on your thighs we only want it smaller or non existent and definitely not visible.

The term cellulite was first used, according to Merriam-Websters dictionary website, in 1968. Merriam-Websters dictionary defines cellulite as deposits of subcutaneous fat within fibrous connective tissue (as in the thighs, hips, and buttocks) that give a puckered and dimpled appearance to the skin surface.

So in short this definition is saying that the fat cells in your body are under your skin and can be visible to the eye. There are many reasons that fat accumulates on our bodies. I am only going to deal with over eating as a result in this blog post. We will discuss other reasons later on.

When we eat our body breaks down the carbohydrates first turning that into glucose. Then insulin is released to carry the glucose through your system to be used as fuel by your body. When this fuel is not used, your body is designed to turn it into fat that it stores for energy later. As we continue to eat without looking at what we are eating, how much we are eating or without exerting large amounts of energy, fat stores continue to grow in our fat cells.

Each fat cell is designed to expand and shrink according to the amount of energy being stored. Picture a plastic balloon full of liquid fat that expands or shrinks based on the amount of liquid fat being stored. That old wives tale of losing fat is only true in the sense that your fat cell, stores lots of energy or a little energy.

Fat cells even have a memory, kind of like muscle memory. It doesn’t take long for them to remember being larger and storing more energy than you need.

Fat cells aren’t like other cells that continually grow, divide, create new cells and die. They do have a life span though, of 7-9 years, so they will eventually die off. The death of a fat cell is worth celebrating, in my opinion!

How do we get to the place where our fat cells only store the right amounts of energy? That is the question on every ones mind, well in a sense.

This is where eating correctly & exercising come into play. Who determines what eating correctly is? The FDA has the food pyramid, there are millions of books on diets, pills that block fat, eating disorders, fads and trends. People have allergies, aversions to certain foods, and eating restrictions.

How do you choose? I wish I had the perfect answer here, but I don’t. My true and firm belief is that there is an eating plan for you. You just have to find what it is. This will take some self discovery and it has to be something you can live with or do for your life.

Now this next statement may sound contradictory, but whole, unprocessed food is best. Eating meat, fruit, veggies & grains in their most natural form. If you can grow it & make it yourself would be my definition of whole unprocessed food.

Who has time to grow and make all of their own food? My answer would be more than we think. But as Americans we want convenience, fast, and easy and we want time to do “our own thing”. Selfishly we want all the luxuries we can have. This is one of the reasons the diet industry is booming. We want fast, easy, convenient wight loss.

https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Adipocyte

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/fat-cell3.htm

Physiological Causes of Belly Fat Accumulation

My “Why now?”

If you’ve read the about me section you know that I started dieting at age 13 and I have tried many ways to lose weight. I have been successful many times and the longest I had kept the weight off was 1 year. YES 1 WHOLE YEAR. Now to some that may not seem like long, however to those who have rode this roller coaster, you know that 1 year is a long time. I would have never thought that I could ever get back to where I started from let alone almost 30 pounds heavier.

So why is this time different? This time is different because I know that there is a calling on my life to walk this out. How did this blessed calling come about?

Well my revelation started April 11, 2018 as I was feeling lost because God had called me to quit my job of almost 12 years working for great boss’ and with great people. As I was going through this day I had to remind myself that God called me on this journey, so He would see me through. Then on the 22nd the message at church was planting seeds in faith. The pastor had a lady pray over me and she said that fear was keeping me held from going forward. The next morning in my private prayer time I asked the Lord what my next step was? His reply was, “What if the next step is trust?” Well that only opened up a lot more questions. Like, what does that mean? What is my part? On Wednesday the 25th in my prayer time again, I was talking to God about trust and what it was.

Well trust is an action, so “what am I supposed to be doing?”

His reply was take a step of faith.

My response was more questions, which led to Him saying to me “any step of faith!”

Through talking with the Lord and asking for His help to figure out what I was stepping toward, in His infinite wisdom He told me that I was taking steps of faith toward my dream. Insert quizzical facial expressions. What?! What dream Lord? That was the looming question for me as I went off to a 3 day ladies conference with our church.

Now at these conferences there is, for me, a session that hits home more than any other. That came Friday morning, April 27th 2018. This woman of God got up and was speaking about strength. Not spiritual strength, but physical strength. See she was a physical trainer, and her point was we have to have physical strength. The Greek word is coos, meaning physical power. You cannot love the Lord with all your strength if you don’t have muscle. Muscle like discipline, responsibility and self-control.

This is when I felt the outpouring of the Holy Spirit talking to me about my dream. My dream to be fit and healthy, so that I could help others be fit and healthy! This is also where I am to take steps of faith. This will take self discipline, focus, determination but it will empower me to overcome the challenge.

Most of you will notice that there is a gap here where I haven’t practiced what I was to be walking in. So I started as of January 1st. No, not a new years resolution. For me new years resolutions don’t stick, they are a nice thought that passes with time. I chose January 1st because it is a day we (society) associate with a fresh beginning. That’s what this is, a fresh beginning on an old dream.

So, “My Why Now” is a journey through prayer where God said I want you to take steps of faith toward a dream you had let go of so many times, but I am going to use you to help others.

There are others out there that don’t know how to start or where to start or even why to start again. I want to be of help through my journey.

Side note: I understand that asking all of these questions of God may not seem like faith to those who have journeyed through faith trials and can jump as high and for as long as the Lord asks when He asks. I admire you! I am not there yet, but by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit, stirring myself up, encouraging myself, and obedience, I plan on getting there.

I want to express a heartfelt THANK YOU for coming by and feel free to share your why now moment or contact me with questions.