I love weekends!

I must say that I LOVE weekends, and more than that, I love weekends more when Sunday night shows up and I feel both rested and prepared for my week ahead (This was last night for me, woohoo!!). While lots of life events are already behind me this semester, there are many more right around the corner - (Easter, finding out where my internship for the next year will be, a retreat, orientation for my internship, Big Day of Serving in Chicago...the whole school/classes/homework piece) - you guys get the idea! This weekend in particular was my last weekend of calm before the storm, so I tried my best to focus on relaxing - lucky me a few good movies were on tv to help!


Since my last post caught you all up (somewhat) on big life stuff that has been happening for me, now I can share some tools I have found and enjoy using to grow in my healthier lifestyle. Spiritual, emotional/mental, and physical health are all super important parts of any person's life so I divided my favorites up into those categories!

Spiritual

My favorite devotional tool is you version which is a great Bible resource! Best part about it that I LOVE are all of the reading plans and devo ideas they already have set-up for you to choose & they will even email them to you every day. I just started a new series on wisdom today.

Physical

To help keep up with what foods I am eating each day and making sure that I am consuming a healthy balance of calories/fats/carbs/proteins...etc, I find myfitnesspal to be very helpful, mostly because you can download it as an app for blackberry or iphone/ipod (in addition to using it online). Super user friendly, they have most foods you would ever eat already in their database AND a super fun barcode scanner built into their app to add foods that they don't have! EASY.

Workout/fitness wise, for the last couple of months myself (along with my awesome & encouraging boyfriend Adam, and our friend Kevin) have been doing the beach body Insanity workout series. We are currently on Day 40 out of 60. Every day these workouts find a new way to kick my butt, however its all cardio paced so the variety keeps me focused/motivated.


Now that the weather is nice (shocking for spring in Chicago!), I have also been able to start fitting running back in, and since there is a website/app for everything, I currently enjoy using dailymile to keep track of my runs! Best feature: in addition to keeping track of how far I ran/pace, it also lets me add details like how the weather was, how I felt, how much effort I put into the run...and some other fun ones!

Emotional/Mental

I find (and this is not really profound, just true), but I find that when I am in God's Word, eating well and working out consistently those together have the biggest influence on the stability of my emotional state! (Talk to me on a day when all 3 are out of whack, and its a BAD day!) So besides those 3, some other basics of this for me involve: calling my mom almost everyday, finding time to read, cooking and trying new recipes, and my girly and guilty pleasure - Pinterest. Ladies, you understand this! :) While I don't have any fun apps or websites (besides my pinterest) to share for this category of emotional health, and my mom probably wouldn't appreciate me handing her cell phone number out to the world, I WILL share a picture of my most recent recipe adventure (and link to the blog I found it from!)

Most recent! This was dinner Saturday night! (WORTH IT to make the pizza dough from the recipe if you have the time!) Here is the recipe link: YUMMY.

Any other fun tools you all use whether for growing spiritually, physically, or emotionally - please share!!! 

Blessings on everyone's Mondays (and week ahead!!!) Love, Kyla.

So, what about the food?

My trip with my family to Argentina was now over 2 months ago - and its amazing how my food eating habits have changed throughout this time.

Now, I will begin this by stating that I am by no means perfect and that switching to healthier eating habits has and will continue to be a challenge - because lets face it: who doesn't love a little sugar?

Over the pat couple of months I would say I have faced two main struggles with making this eating change. The biggest part of this food eating makeover to deal with and adapt to has been eating with/around other people. If I just came in contact with myself (or other similarly nutrition conscious eaters) then I would probably be writing a post about how easy eating plant based and nutrition dense food is! Obviously though, I love people and God designed us to thrive in relationships WITH each other - so boxing myself into a perfect food eating bubble just isn't realistic.

My second food struggle has been not having my own kitchen - but visiting my family, Adam's family, and doing disaster relief all means eating food others have lovingly prepared. All of my friends and family have been very gracious and conscious of accommodating my eating needs - but its always hard to be around the possibility of eating non-healthy. It takes a lot of self-control to turn down delicious desserts and other meals - in contrast to having my own kitchen where I can control what is and isn't available for me snack on.

I have found it really encouraging to take time to read blogs of others who are making healthy eating choices as well as continuing to take and research healthy eating/living.

So bottom line: I'm still really positive about eating, and now I am working on how this will translate into my summer!

The next thing is how have I felt??

The more I eat lots of fruits, veggies, and nutrient dense foods the better I have felt - physically and emotionally. Days I don't eat well I can tell a difference in my mood - which is really encouraging to me that I am taking steps away from being so addicted to sugars and processed foods. :)

More importantly though - what about coffee??

I still LOVE the smell of coffee and know without a doubt that I would still love the taste if I was drinking it. That being said, I think I am through the worst of the battle at least with craving coffee all the time. I have come a long way in the area of being able to cope with mornings sans serveral cups of coffee and am working on being an avid tea drinker :) My favorites? Spiced chai or Mint tea! (Green tea would be a close 3rd)

I have appreciated all of the love, support, book/movie suggestions from many of you. Please continue to share - and I love sharing my food passion too :) and will continue to post updates on how I'll be making healthy eating work throughout my job this summer!

Unexpected.

True life: this morning I declined being offered coffee.

This was potentially one of the harder tasks to take on in these past couple of days. On top of declining the coffee I then had the experience of sitting in a meeting while everyone else (okay there were only 2 other people...but still) everyone else was enjoying their warm and soothing smelling cup of joe. I admit, I was possibly slightly overwhelmed by how great the coffee smelled. It smelled wonderful enough to make me forget about how much I loved breakfast this morning (a fresh fruit salad!) and also wonderful enough to make me consider dropping everything and sprinting to the closest Starbucks for some comfort drinking.

I was asked if I had given up coffee for Lent. My response was "No, I've given it up for life". What??? Yes. You can pick your jaw up off of the ground now if you like. Coffee isn't great for you, but man it smells awesome!

This is tough. But being healthy and conscious of what I am putting into my body, is still a great great thing. Unless the coffee is being held right under my nose (like this morning) - I really am still excited about my new changes in eating.

For this morning though, I just will keep reminding myself about how healthy my bones and heart will be from lack of downing cups of coffee every day. Because what I really want right this moment is a huge steaming mug of java.

It was an unexpected question this morning: Do you want some coffee?

And the person asking had no idea how loaded that question then became for me...But that is life I suppose. Full of unexpected moments that are defining of who we are and what we value.

The unexpected matters.

18 days down. A lifetime to go.

It is hard to believe that 18 days ago I was returning from Argentina with a new found plan for becoming healthier by simply reducing the amount of processed sugar in my diet. Now, after 18 days of eating, researching, reading, and discussing the benefits of eating only natural foods, I  plan on never going back to my old eating habits. One easy reason being, the less processed/sugar/animal product type foods you eat, the less you think they taste great anyways!

After reading the book Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Furhman I was floored at how simple (in theory) it is to make a drastic health change for the better simply by having a primarily plant based diet. If you're not interested in reading it, I'll summarize: the higher amount of nutrient rich foods you eat = a healthier and more disease resistant you. That is it, in a nutshell, and honestly I think its crazy to not actively strive for being a healthy and informed consumer. Most people (hopefully) wouldn't buy a car or house without some amount of research, so why not take some time to think and study what it is you are eating and is directly effecting your body and mental health? There are literally TONS of resources and support available to encourage a healthy eating lifestyle...

I think in many ways I have overwhelemed most of my friends with my new natural eating vendetta. After becoming aware of how food can effect your life in such a huge positive way - it drives me almost to the point of crazy that most of my college peers could honestly care less. I totally understand that only eating all natural and whole foods as a college student is really really hard, but that is not to say it is impossible. Personally, I get really passionate about a lot of things, and while that part of my personality is as much a curse as it is a blessing sometimes, I really pray that others will see my passion for healthy eating and that it may spark a least a curiosity as to why I would pass up eating college favorites such as  Buffalo Wild Wings, pizza, or food from our student grill. God has designed an earth full of food that is perfect for our bodies - without needing all of the extra salt, sugar, gluten, and oils (among many other things) we tend to add. America is becoming more and more well-known for the high rates of obesity our citizens have. Food is getting a bad rap, and honestly its not the food that is the issue, it is us. If we are the ones that are buying  the processed and unhealthy food - that sends an easy message to the companies that their product is in demand. However, back to my earlier statement about the positivity of food, for as much as unhealthy food is addicting and contributing to high obesity rates, food does not have to be the bad guy - and this is probably the first time in my life I have put that concept together.

So now, what is next?

Next, is spending a focused six weeks on increasing the amount of nutritious foods in my diet and cutting out the not so great options. My first big challenge is work on my coffee addiction. Yup, if you just thought "yikes" - that was a very accurate reaction. I am 3 days now sans coffee, and this morning was a rough one to say the least. While I have noticed that having sugar limited in what I eat really has seemed to be helping me feel less moody, this whole coffee deficiency thing might be the ax to the absence of my mood swings lately...Why no coffee? Well, one cup of coffee a day really wouldn't be a big deal - but I am used to drinking at least 3 or 4 cups every morning which is a great way to be dehydrated and puts me at much higher risk for heart problems. So coffee got kicked to the curb this week and I am definitely mourning it's absence..if anyone has a great morning worthy drink to easy my coffee separation blues - please share!


Overall eating this week: Fruit & granola with flax seed for breakfasts, salads for lunch everyday, and lots of veggies for dinner. Snacks: almonds or kidney beans (which are a new favorite food item!)

Overall mood: No coffee. And it I spent the afternoon doing taxes. But all things considered: B+ for my mood grade.