Positive Thinking... You Gotta Try It!

My 90 day challenge.... To eat healthy (no carbs, no wheat, no gluten), and to exercise regularly again! I feel so much better when I eat like that. Here's my plan: Visalus Shake for breakfast, healthy snack, healthy lunch, Visalus shake for dinner! Anyone want to join me? What's your 90 day challenge?

In addition to sticking to the eating plan, keeping a positive attitude is also important. Having the right mind set is crucial to obtaining your goals!

Did you know there are many health benefits to positive thinking??? 

• Increased life span
• Better physical and psychological well-being
• Greater resistance to the common cold
• Better coping skills during hardships and stressful times
• Lower rates of depression
• Reduced risk of death from heart disease
• Lower levels of distress 

 SOOOOOO, take a deep breath and put this into action....

Here are some examples of negative self-talk and how you can apply a positive thinking twist to them. (Mayo Clinic, 2011)

Negative self-talk	Positive thinking
I've never done it before.	It's an opportunity to learn something new.
It's too complicated.	I'll tackle it from a different angle.
I don't have the resources.	Necessity is the mother of invention.
I'm too lazy to get this done.	I wasn't able to fit it into my schedule but can re-examine some priorities.
There's no way it will work.	I can try to make it work.
It's too radical a change.	Let's take a chance.
No one bothers to communicate with me.	I'll see if I can open the channels of communication.
I'm not going to get any better at this.	I'll give it another try.

Learn more about positive thinking and stress relief here.

My 90 Day Challenge

 My 90 day challenge..... Part One

Well let me start from the beginning.....

I'm somewhat of a healthy food freak. I loooooovvveee reading about and learning about ways to get and stay healthy.

I've read books on
     the Paleo Diet,
            the Primal Blueprint,
                 the Maker's Diet,
                     the Blood Type Diet,
                         South Beach,
                              Jillian Michaels,
                                   Dr. Bob,
                                        etc., etc., etc.

I have a good handle on what to eat and how to eat to be healthy. I start most mornings with a breakfast shake or smoothy. I'm always trying different brands to see what tastes and works best. Most days I mix up my own concoction.

So one day, I'm sitting at home and my friend calls me up and tells me about a shake that she just tried. She's a breakfast shake kinda person too. She said I just had to try it.

So I did.

And it was really good.

Hence began my journey with ViSalus. The fastest growing health challenge in North America.

Stay tuned for Part Two tomorrow.

Thankful Thursday

Things I am thankful for today:

1) Cherries (I'm sitting here eating a huge bowl of them right now!)

2) My daughters helping me around the house.

3) My first born son who keeps texting me pictures on his adventure to Lake Placid, New York.

4) My baby boy who wants to learn how to fold clothes so he can help with chores.

5) My husband who bought a 1962 Cruiser Inc so he could restore it. All because I saw one and said how cool it was :)








6) Summertime. I love summertime, the 100 degree days and all!

7) A relationship with a God who knows my every move before I even think it, who I grow closer to and understand a little it more each day.

8)  Oh and did I say cherries? Darn these are good!

The Return

It feels somewhat surreal to be blogging again. I didn't intentionally abandon my blog, it just seemed to happen. I felt like there was little left for me to say, and it felt forced. I started writing at 750Words. I liked to be able to mind dump somewhere that wasn't in the public eye.

I actually took a break from all social networking.

In the last 5 months, I have spent very little time staying "connected"....
                 very little facebook,
                         very little twitter, 
                                very little blogging.
Even though I am an extrovert by nature, I sometimes need to live the life of an introvert and gain some energy from seclusion. I can't think of a real good reason why I took this sabbatical from blogging, but I do know that I have a lot to write about now that I am back.

And I am looking so forward to catching up with all of you out there!

There is a reason...

There is a reason for my lack in posting.

Actually several...

1) I couldn't think of anything interesting to write about.
2) Sometimes I need to write about things that are just too personal to post publicly.
3) It seems like everyone has a blog these days.
4) I needed to re-evaluate my purpose.
5) My car was totaled.
6) It's winter, between lack of sunlight and decreased vitamin D, I may as well be a bear.

That's all.

Dear Creator...

God,

I have lost track again.

The world has sucked me in, I caved to the pressures of others who don't know you.

Take away my complacency. 

Take away my greed, my need for comfort and false securities.

You've asked me to be the salt and light, but my salt is weak and my light is dim, it barely flickers.

My actions mirror those around me.

Harsh judgement and cruel words fly from my  lips.

I want to love my enemies with the love that can only come from you.

I want to stop trying to figure you out and just accept you as the One who made me, and the One who knows best.

Forgive my arrogance, my self-centeredness, my audacity in thinking that I know best, that I can tell you how to be God.

Your ways are inexplicable. 

I want to believe your truths, all of them, even the ones that make me uncomfortable. The ones that others just can't believe you would do because you're a loving God, and love doesn't ever equal pain.

Rescue me from myself.

I want to be your beacon in this lost world.

I want to give up my comforts to help those in need.

Mold me, make me more like you.

Set me on fire.

Set me apart.

Amen.

Creativity...

The more I observe, the more I witness, the more I experience creative people, the more I have come to understand the creative process. Highly creative people need the emotional ups and downs to create. The creative process comes from that deep emotion's (pain, joy, anger...) need to get out.

Creativity lives in the fringes of insanity.

I'm not labeling. Much of what I write about comes from personal experience. I am a creative person.

Creativity drives me.

It takes on a life of it's own.

It's therapy.

It's exercise for the brain.

It's unpredictable.

It's a gift from above.