Self Sabotage vs Bold Vision

I have managed to gain back the 10 lbs I lost during the Great Weight Off Challenge! I have been off track with my eating for the past couple weeks. I did one of the worst possible things one can do while pursuing a healthier lifestyle, which is to have junk food in the house. It's nearly impossible to resist cookies, chips, ice cream, cereal, sweet tea, etc. when it's in my personal space. I also got off track on the daily exercise routine and I haven't been drinking much water. So, combine those three things and it's no wonder my weight has crept back up. I am accepting full responsibility for my actions and getting back on track first thing in the morning. I'm getting the junk food back out of the house, exercising first thing in the morning right after I brush my teeth, and filling a gallon jug of water which I will drink before I drink anything else. I'm praying for strength to stick with the plan.

Speaking of plans, our study group is on week 4 of The Daniel Plan. It is helpful, but I think I'm going to have to go through the program again to absorb it all. There is a lot of information in the program and the format is confusing. The material makes sense, I just need to go through it again and put the plan in action!

I have a BOLD vision for my life that includes abundant health and energy. I will never give up on this dream. I am speaking on the topic of boldly living your vision at the Broken Beautiful Live Event in Marion, Indiana on May 10th. Even though I am struggling with my weight and have occasional setbacks, I am still in a better place than I was a couple years ago when I was in the hospital fighting for my life because of abscessed diverticulitis. I am keeping the faith that I will overcome this food addiction and live God's plan for my life which includes inspiring others to live their best life too. Together, we can do this!

Wishing You Abundant Health & Happiness,

Kathy Gerstorff

Shame on Them!

This is the best Medicine!

As I was working around the house I had my TV on and an info commercial came on and it really hit a nerve with me. The info commercial was about taking a pill and being able to eat anything that you want and still lose a lot of weight. This is crazy! People are so desperate to lose weight that companies like this capitalize on the emotions of an overweight person. Shame on this company! I even had a diet company steal a post on my Facebook and put a post-up to buy a diet pill. Again, shame on them.

Even though we would love for this to be true, this is not reality. As I have taken on this journey of losing weight I have had ups and downs, good days and bad days. I have found out that so much of gaining weight involves our mind; it is not all about the food. Our minds tell us to eat more and more food, but our bodies are telling us, please slow down I can’t handle all of this food. It is a need that we are trying to fill and we need to find out what that need is and not replace it with food. I am working on this area right now in a book called The Daniel Plan. This book is helping me rethink about so many things in my life that I need to change. We would love for you to join our group or you could even check this book out.

If just taking a diet pill would help me feel better, look better, and never feel the need to overeat and eat healthy all the time, then this diet pill would be a pill from Heaven.  Please don’t waste another dollar on these crazy lies from unreliable companies. You may lose weight at first but in the long run it just shadows the problem, it does not solve it. A lot of times it just brings back more weight.  Trust your true instincts and spend your money on healthy choices to help improve your health not hurt it.

Julie

Vegan Flatizza Flat Bread Pizza

As of Easter I decided to go from a vegetarian diet to a vegan diet, well technically "beegan" because I still use honey occasionally in my lemon water. I may transition away from that too eventually, but I'm taking it a step at a time. The only thing I think I will miss is pizza. We usually have pizza from a restaurant every week. I'm looking forward to making my own plant based veggie pizza using non-dairy cheese. I am seriously considering writing to Subway and asking if they would offer non-dairy cheese for their Flatizza. I'm sure I could make those at home too, but I am always on the go and it sure is nice to have options at restaurants besides salad and baked potatoes!

In fact, I'm going to make a  flat bread vegan pizza at home. I will let you know how it turns out. Seems like it would be easy to make:

Flat bread
Tomato paste
Veggies of Your Choice (I use Black olives, Onions, Green peppers, Tomatoes)
Non-Dairy Cheese
Herbs of Your Choice (I use Oregano, Basil, Fennel)

Mix herbs with tomato paste and spread mixture on flat bread, chop and top with veggies.Sprinkle on herbs. Add non-dairy cheese. Toast a few minutes until cheese melts. Enjoy!

Kathy

Empty Nest

 

 

Where has all the time went? Seems like when we get older the time flies even faster and we see our life passing by so quickly. I remember just yesterday when my two kids were starting school, and then they were seniors. When I look back in my mind, I miss all of those times when they were growing up. You do not have to diagnose my case; I know I am going through empty nest syndrome. My son is in college and now my daughter is leaving for law school in August.

I have defined my life around my two children. My world has always centered on what my kids are doing and what they need. Now, I must face they are all grow up now and starting new lives of their own. I would like to be selfish and keep them with me always but I do have to let them go to spread their wings.

Now starts a new journey for me. I have to look at my future as a new beginning. Now comes the hard part and that is doing it alone. I have always had my kids around and I know they are not going far but this will be a whole different life for me.  But, I have joined the YMCA and I have lots of friends to go places with so I do not think I will ever become bored. Changes come to us all in our lives. We must accept change and look for the positive in that change. Working on my health is a big priority in my life now.  I do not want to be a burden on my kids when I get older. I know there are times when things happen in life and we do need to rely on our family but until I can help it I will work on it!

So here is to letting go and looking forward to new beginnings and renewed health. Eating right, exercising, and working on my mind and spirit. Wow, I am already busy! New beginnings for all of the three of us, life is forever changing and I must accept change.

I will always be mom but now at a distance, but you know what I have always heard? Sometimes your kids come back home with interest, (new family additions) that will be fun to look forward to in the future!  Are you an empty nester?  If you are, this article is dedicated to you. Here is to a new beginning!

Julie

Break Sugar and Food Addiction in 48 Hours

We are on Week 2 of The Daniel Plan. This week Dr. Mark Hyman talks about food as medicine and says that we can change the way we think about food in 48 hours. 48 hours? That's doable! I can do 48 hours of eating clean. No sugar, no processed foods, just whole plant-based foods. I've done it before and I am sure I can do it again. If you think about it, it makes sense, if you go without eating sugar or junk food for 48 hours, you have technically broken the addiction. All we have to do is string enough 48 hour breaks together and we will be on our way to living addiction free!

I love in The Daniel Plan on page 36 where it states, "Every bite you take is a powerful opportunity to create healing or infirmity" and on page 37, "Take the junk out and let the abundance in." That's what I want to do! I want to create healing within my body and I want abundant health and energy so that I can live the life God intends for me to live.

We also learned about the fitness connection this week. Pastor Warren and his team of experts state on page 42, "Moving your body even just a little bit on a regular basis impacts not only your physical health, but also your intellectual, emotional, social, financial, and spiritual health." That's what I'm talking about! Every aspect of our life is affected by moving our body "consistently." I'm on a two-week workout streak. I decided last week to start looking at working out as a "job" that I love to do with the pay being energy. It's already paying off in additional energy. Every hour I workout seems to add an hour back, so it's never an hour wasted. I usually read a book on my Kindle and listen to music on Pandora while I'm on the treadmill, elliptical and stationary bike, so it feels like I'm getting twice as much done. I ALWAYS feel better after I workout. It makes me wonder why consistent exercise has ever been an issue. I think it's just the effort it takes to get to the gym, but if it's my "job" I'm not going to miss it. I'm going in to "work" Monday-Friday. I get weekends off to go hiking or whatever other exercise sounds like fun, but during the week, I'm sticking to my work routine. So far, it's working like a charm. I have committed to working out at least 30 minutes, but more often than not it's an hour, sometimes longer if I go for a swim. Getting paid to get fit, I could get used to a job like this!

Kathy


Here is a video of Dr. Mark Hyman talking about how food can be the strongest addiction or the most powerful cure of what ails us. I am looking forward to breaking my sugar addiction by giving my body the right food information and updating my biological software!

Sick Day

I can't breathe through my nose!



I have been sick for two weeks, and I am done dealing with this crazy cold. I have not felt like exercising or even eating right for two weeks. I have not been sick for a long time. Since I have worked at school and worked with sick children my immunity was built up. Now in my job at the courthouse I work with customers and money. Everyone has been sick at work, and so have many customers have been sick as well. I had thought in the back of my mind that I would be immune to what was going around because I had not been sick for a long time. Well, I was wrong; this cold crept up on me in the middle of the night.

 

I thought by exercising and eating right I had boosted immunity on my side. But, over the past two weeks I never missed work and I never had to stay in bed all day feeling miserable. Sure, I did not feel good at all, but I never had a fever and I was never so sick that I could not get out of bed. I really believe that exercising and eating healthier has helped me fight this cold. It could have been worse. The problem that I had was that when I was little my mom always gave us Sprite or 7-up to help us feel better and yes I did drink sprite over the past two weeks. I drank pop and I even had some candy, which I thought might help me feel better. I have no idea where I got that idea from. I’ll just claim that my cold made me delusional. The last two weeks of not living a healthy life has not only thrown me off track, it has also turned two weeks of potential progress into two weeks of weight gain. I now have to detox myself again from pop.

 

Today, I begin again. I feel better, and I am able to breathe! All in time for this great 70 degree weather to enjoy. There are so many hurdles in our way and so many detours we have to take in our path to live a healthier life. We need to not beat ourselves up (like I have these last two weeks) and look forward to a new start.

 

After writing this blog I am going out for a walk to enjoy the day and to enjoy and believe in a new day for a new me. Thank heavens there are better days always ahead, and that is what today is for me!

Julie

The Daniel Plan and My New Job

Julie, a group of ladies, and I started studying the Daniel Plan yesterday. We are meeting up every Tuesday for the next six weeks to discuss what we learn as we read the book, watch the video, and doing the study guide exercises. This week was the intro. We were asked to rate how we feel we are doing on a scale of 1-5 in the areas of Faith, Food, Fitness, Focus, and Friends. In all areas except Food, I feel that I am improving which is a 3 on the scale, but Food varies day-to-day and overall it's a 2 (Some Good Days). I am looking forward to the next six weeks so my numbers go from the low end of the scale to the high end. I want to rate a 5 across the board!

In the introduction Pastor Rick Warren says "For change to happen in any area of your life - whether you want it to be financial, vocational, educational, mental, relational - it actually works best to begin with the physical. You commit your body to God and all other things follow." I believe that's true because when we don't feel healthy, all we care about and focus on is wanting to feel better, all the other things become a lower priority.

In an effort to make my physical health a priority, I decided to look at exercise the same as I would a job. I would normally go to a job Monday - Friday first thing in the morning. I may not want to get up and go to work every day, but it's something I have to do to survive. How often do you miss going to work? Not often, because you want the pay. The pay for consistent exercise is abundant ENERGY. It will improve my health in ways that extend beyond money and in fact will save me money and most likely make me money in the long run because it will enable me to have the health and energy I need to pursue my dreams, help others, be active with my family, and travel the world. Those are the kinds of rewards I want from a job. How about you?

Look for a TGIF post coming soon!

Kathy

My Club

 

It is healthy for us to have good friends and to spend time with each other. I am involved in a club that is filled with great friendships.  When I was going through a divorce years ago, I just wanted to hide from the world. This group of ladies called me up and ask me to be a part of their group. I am so thankful that I joined. These ladies have helped bring me out of my shell. I have attended concerts, went on shopping trips, and I have ate out at fun places with this group. These are things that I would have never done if I had not joined this fun group of ladies!

I made the decision a couple of years ago to move back to my hometown, which is about thirty minutes away from the place that I have called home for almost half of my life.  I felt that I was losing my friends, but this was a desion that I had to make for both my family and myself.  But I never did lose my friends. I still go once a month to my club and nothing has changed. My club even came over this week to my house, and we had a great time enjoying each other’s company.

We ALL need to spend time with friends. It helps us in so many ways mentally and physically. It is important to have friends to listen to you and to help you just by being there and the other way around. Friends are there for you during your times of need, and they are there for you to have a cup of coffee and to laugh over good times.

This blog is dedicated to my wonderful group of friends. I do not know what I would have ever done without any of them. They have all been my rock and have offered great stability in my walk of life, and I know we will always be close friends.

As the great Helen Keller said, “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” How true this statement is! Call a friend today and make a memory together.

Julie

Floss One Tooth

I'm reading Choose Yourself by James Altucher. In one section he is talking about habits and makes a great illustration of how his friend's wife made a radical suggestion to floss one tooth. By flossing one tooth, you are sending a message to your brain that it is important and you are more likely to floss all your teeth. I love this concept and plan to use the "floss one" idea to get consistent with my exercise routine. Inconsistency has been my biggest roadblock to success! I am committing to doing one minute of exercise every day. Seriously, who can blow off a minute of exercise? ONE MINUTE! It's amazing how often I have skipped exercise all together, but when I look at it with the "floss one" philosophy, I doubt I will ever miss an exercise session again. How about you? Do you exercise every day? Do you do strength training? I challenge you to do one rep. Just one...and see where it leads.

Kathy

"You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. 

The secret of your success is found in your daily routine." ~ John C. Maxwell