Today I am grateful for the rain! ☔ 🌧️ I definitely took it for granted when I lived in Midwest, but living in Arizona everybody just gets so excited here whenever it rains. I was volunteering in the second grade class in church yesterday and all the kids were just sitting by the open door smelling the rain and begging to go play in it. I remember so many times being really annoyed because of the rain living in Chicago or Indiana, today was a fun reminder how important it is and the life it provides.
Okay now let's set some goals for the week ahead. Coming from someone who follows politics VERY closely, I will say I am glad we keep politics out of this group. It can be so divisive and more often than not adds just adds unnecessary stress to our lives...and in this crazy world it's nice to have a place where non of that matters.
That being said, this week will be intense for America, and no matter who wins there will be a lot of tension in our country. I only bring this up to say, think ahead to your week and stressful situations you may encounter. If you're feeling anxious about the upcoming week, I would encourage you to keep your non-negotiable very simple. This might not be the week to add extra fasts or go "beast mode". Just do what you need to do in order to stay on plan and fuel your body in a healthy way!
What is your non-negotiable for this week? Chat work you tonight on the Livestream if you can make it!
Yesterday we surprised the kids and brought home a puppy!! They have been begging for one for years and we felt like the time was right to bring one home.
Meet Angus 🐕 He's a Golden Retriever/King Charles Cavalier Spaniel mix. He's 11 weeks old and currently weighs about 8 pounds, he should be around 35 pounds fully grown. I know it will be an adjustment for a while as he gets potty trained etc but we are so excited. 😂 Wish us luck! 🤪
Cheese is good! I ate a block of chipotle oven baked cheese with lunch yesterday and it was divine. I love it, but know that it halts any progress I'm making, and will even trigger eating in excess to where I'll gain weight. It's sad but I have accepted it. If I eat it in small quantities with a meal, it's ok, but I really have to work to keep it in check.
What's your favorite cheese? How do you incorporate it? Do you see negative results when eating it?
Happy Sunday! Sharing a video today from our week, one of the highlights. This was Wednesday evening church, normally they have a more casual prayer meeting where someone plays the guitar, but they were doing some construction in the fellowship hall so they had their prayer meeting in the sanctuary. No one was there to play the piano so my my Grandma did it, she's been playing the piano in church for probably 80 years.
For context, she's 88, she had a really bad fall 5 years ago now and hit her head and ended up with a lot setbacks, similar to having a stroke. She has a lot of dementia like symptoms also (I am sure related to her Type 2 diabetes), she really can't read music anymore, and she has trouble seeing well, and she needs to wear hearing aids to hear but hates wearing them, so on this night she didn't want to wear them. My 93 (almost 94) year old grandpa takes care of both of them on their farm. Anyway, on this night she sat down on the piano and led worship as people called ...
Happy Tuesday! Thanks to those that hung out on the Livestream last night. One of the topics we talked about is breaking a stall. And unfortunately the best advice I have for breaking a stall is "keep it boring" and just stay consistent. Honestly that's been my motto this year. I love variety of course, but the more simple/boring I keep things with my food the better results I get. Usually when we add "variety" we add a lot of diary, or carbs, or those replacement recipes that increase cravings or contain hidden dairy/carbs/calories.
It might be hard to get into a routine at first but I do find that just eating the same things most days is actually a lot easier. And if you really enjoy that food (and know how to cook it), you'll still look forward to it each day.
If you're feeling stuck, just focus on consistency and keeping that food simple, and I PROMISE it will work...you just have to be patient.
Boring =Results! Have you found this to be true for you?
Happy Tuesday evening!
We spent the day at the farm show w/out 5 yo who didn't feel well. Which was probably good as it was windy, cold, rainy. We figured we walked 3+ miles. So lots of fresh air and exercise.
We ate breakfast on the way (location is an hour away from our house.) They had a Chicken Club Protein Bowl, so I had that. The "cheese" was plastic american cheese and it had tomatoes on it; but otherwise it was just eggs, bacon and chicken breast. I also had about 1/2 of my normal protein coffee on the drive.
We skipped lunch.
After some farm errands in that city, we came home to chore and go through all the swag we got. Caps, tee-shirts, flashlights, rain gauges, fly swatters, chip clips, pens and I seriously will never have to buy another note pad or sticky notepad, ever! And of course the nice grocery bags and 5 gallon buckets.
Then we took the grandkids swag in to them. Stickers, caps, corn hats, coloring pages, rubber bracelets, pencils.
Then we went to our Mexican ...
