So What's Your Apple?

"When we bought the Enemy's lie in the beginning and ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Satan hissed then that we'd really see and know what is good and evil.  But the Father of Lies, he'd duped us in the whole nine yards.  Though we ate of that tree, we did not become like God."  

--Devotion 52, Storm Grace from Ann Voskamp's "One Thousand Gifts Devotional"

And there it is.  From the beginning of time, Satan has been dangling our greatest cravings and addictions in front of us, showing us how good they taste, how good they feel, and then dropping it at our feet for us to devour.  He's been lying to us to inflate our egos, to build up our selfishness and pride, and enhance our jealousies.  (I could go on here, but I'll just leave you with the first three that came to mind.)

Satan never REALLY gives us what we want, though.  That is it.  That is THE point of all of this.

When God created us, He had a plan for His greatest creation, and that was to "be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28)," taking care of the land and everything in it that He also created.  Not only that, but He provided for our every need.  He gave us EVERYTHING, but still, Eve wanted more...we want(ed) more.  She looked on her Creator and wanted everything He had, including the knowledge of good and evil.  And Satan found his in.

Genesis 2, verses 16 and 17 says, "And the Lord God commanded the man saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'"

Satan makes Eve question God, asking her if God actually said they couldn't eat of any tree, pointing out that she might be missing out on something good.  (Really?! Like Satan has something BETTER to offer us than THE KING OF KINGS?!)  If you can eat of some, why can't you eat the rest?  And then he comes in for "The Kill" when he says, "You will not surely die.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing Good and Evil (Genesis 3:4-5)."  Bingo.  He hit her right in her weakest spot, just like he likes to hit us in our weakest spots.

So Eve ate it.  She took the bait and took a bite.

Being someone that is a discretional eater (some might call this "picky"), I have not had a wide variety of fruit in my day, but I can say I've had the BEST strawberries in the world.  Fresh strawberries from Moldova will literally MELT. IN. YOUR. MOUTH.  Even as good as those were, and imagining what fruit MUST have tasted like in that Garden all those years ago, I can not fathom that the apple tasted good enough to face all that came after.

And what was Eve left with after that one tasty bite?  Pain, embarrassment, separation from God...  Once again, I could go on here, but we can keep it short and assume one thing, Eve was NOT satisfied after eating that fruit, not from the taste, and certainly not from what was promised to her.  She did not get what she wanted, nor did she get what she thought she would.

That's how Satan fights.  HE gets what HE wants when we fall into his traps and temptations, believing what he has to offer us is good and fulfilling.  He is satisfied when we feed our addictions, when we try to satisfy our cravings, when we become prideful and arrogant, when we operate from our selfish desires, and when we react to the jealousy we have burning in our hearts.

I've got a lot of apples that Satan likes to dangle in front of my face.  He makes them look enticing and juicy with all kinds of promise that can come from one bite, and each time I take a bite, I'm left less satisfied than before.

"But I have come..."  We aren't left to wallow in our sin or fight pointless battles that we will never win against the King of Deceit.  We have a Savior who came to give us life, and not just life, but ABUNDANT life.  All those empty promises that the Father of Lies dangles in front of us can't even compare to the life God has in store for us.

We have to learn to correct our focus.  When the devil dangles your apple of choice in front of you, you have shift your focus so that you can see what he is really offering you.  (Like getting that one last dig in to your husband in your latest argument is going to leave you feeling satisfied and empowered, it's going to leave you feeling disconnected and full of regret.)  We have to shift our focus to the true gifts of the Father and the abundant life that He offers us.  I'm pretty sure we'll be amazed with the orchards full of delicious apples He has for us!

The Skinny on Getting Skinny

Let's be honest - that title is a little misleading because nobody really wants to "get skinny" these days, but "The Healthy on Getting Healthy" just didn't quite have the same ring to it.  In my previous post regarding my Herbalife results, I mentioned that I would share what worked for me in reaching my health and fitness goals, so here are 10 of my "Weapons for Weight Loss".

1.  Herbalife nutrition.
This is at the top of my list because it made the biggest difference for me.  I know that you don't have to have this in your plan to lose weight, but it made my life so much easier and my results came quickly.  I'm a PICKY eater, so having two and a half meals a day (out of five) already planned was a big plus for me.  Not only was using Herbalife EASY for me, it was delicious.  I have yet to try a shake I didn't like, and the Bev Mix/tea drink is seriously my favorite part of the day (nutrition wise).

I love it when my cabinet is full of GREEN!

2.  Plan ahead.
One of the best things you can do for your weight loss is to plan ahead.  I like to look at a week at a time and plan my meals for each day (building around my Herbalife nutrition plan).  This allowed me to get the groceries I would need, and I was ready each day.  The days/weeks I didn't plan were the days I "ran to Sonic for a quick burger...and fries...and soda."  This also meant planning for the meals I would be eating out.  I would take a look at the restaurant online to know what to order before hand.  Staying on track with your nutrition goals is imperative in meeting your weight loss and fitness goals.

3.  Log your nutrition.
Along the lines of planning, I would say one of my best weapons for weight loss was logging Every. Single. Bite. into MyFitnessPal Every. Single. Day.  It might seem a little obsessive, monotonous, or even tedious, but it was so worth it.  You can scan most of the foods you eat (including your fruits...) or enter in the nutrition information of your most used foods and even recipes the first time you are using them.  After those first few days, it is much easier and becomes part of your new healthy lifestyle.  Logging the information lets you know where you are for the day, will help you plan those extra meals, and gives you accountability to keep the junk out of your mouth.  {If I'm logging every bite that goes in to my mouth, I don't want to SEE the sugar or carbs go through the roof...so I just don't eat it!!}

One of the best things I did was enter a typical day for myself (pre-herbalife) to see just how bad I had been eating.  The results were shocking (and disgusting).  A year later, I can still see that information in my mind, and it encourages me to make better decisions.

I'll just point out here, that is almost TWO day's worth of EXCESS calories, almost 500 carbs, 250 grams of sugar (Oh. My. GOSH.), and about HALF of Vitamin A and C, calcium, and iron that is needed for my body.  No wonder I felt so awful ALL THE TIME.

4.  Hydrate your body.
I think it goes without saying how important it is to drink water, but since it was a huge part of my weight loss, I'm going to go ahead and add it to the list.  I could write an entire blog on all the things I've learned about hydration, but I will just say that the goal is to drink at least HALF of your body weight in ounces each day.  That amount will only replenish what your body is using.  That does not account for what you are sweating out during your workouts, or what you need to really hydrate your body.  That is why you will hear people say to drink a gallon of water each day.  (The age-old suggestion of 8 glasses a day doesn't come close for some people and their needs.  That comes out to 64 ounces a day, the amount recommended for someone that weighs 128 pounds.)

5.  Set your goals.
You have to have something to work towards.  Knowing what you want to achieve before you even gets started allows for you to measure how close you are to your goals, and it gives you the opportunity to celebrate those victories!  (Celebrating the victories should be a weapon all its own, but I'll just make a note here to plan for some rewards, whether it is a dollar a pound or various prizes as you lose different amounts, those "prizes" will give you great incentive to keep going!)  I found that when I randomly changed my goals in the middle of working to achieve one (ie. getting greedy and going for "a little bit more", almost always resulted in very unsuccessful days/weeks/months.)  Set a goal, achieve it, then go for the next one.

6.  Measure yourself.
It's not ALL about the numbers.  There are certainly non-scale victories every day in my house (NOT choosing to go get ice cream after a crazy-toddler day is definitely one of those victories), but knowing where you are starting will let you know how far you have come.  It will be obvious in pictures and the way your clothes fit, but when you hit that "plateau" and you feel like you aren't making any progress, you can break out the measuring tape and SEE that you really are moving forward!

7.  Eat protein.
Two things: Know how much you need, and eat it at every meal/snack.  I think the one thing I learned the most about over the past year is PROTEIN.  One of the first things I was taught was that in order to lose FAT, you want to keep your muscle (DUH.), which you do so by eating plenty of protein.  You'll want to reevaluate your protein needs throughout your weightless to make sure you are eating for your current body and not where you started.  Knowing your protein needs will also help in your meal planning, you'll want to be sure and spread out your protein between all five/six meals of your day.  (My beginning protein factor was 112 grams, but it is currently down to 102.)

8.  Know your No's.
For me, I shoot for No soda, no fast/fried foods, no bread, no sweets...  The best suggestion I have for this weapon is to not go too far too soon!  You {probably} can't successfully give up a lot of different things at the same time that have been an addiction or a habit for a long period of time.  Also, by phasing them out, you'll be able to tell a difference about what each item does to your body.  Some of these things you might want to give up permanently (sodas) and others you might want to enjoy in moderation (breads...I mean, I'm not about to give up the occasional bread indulgence from my favorite Italian restaurants...and yes, there is more than one).

9.  Have a reason.
It's not about being skinny.  It's not about a specific number on the scale or the tag of your shorts.  It's about so much more than that.  For some people, this weapon might cause the biggest bang of all.  Your "Why?" can be very motivating!  For me, I wanted to get healthy first for myself, so that I could feel better all around (both physically and in my self-confidence).  Second, I wanted to get healthy for my family, bot present and future.  My husband and my daughter deserve the very best of me, full of energy and life.  I want to be able to be active with my daughter for years to come, and I want to feel well enough to serve my family as they need me.

10.  Enjoy the treats.
I don't call these "cheat" meals.  You can wreck a week's worth of work with one cheat meal, and there are just certain things you don't need in your body, ever, cheating or not.  That's cheating yourself.  Now TREATING yourself, that's another story.  Find things that you love, but that you really only need in moderation:  maybe it's pancakes for breakfast, or s'mores for dessert, or some Fro Yo with your family.  You don't have to go overboard, and you don't have to wake up the next morning mad at yourself.  (You could use the "treats" with your "prizes" I mentioned in number 5.  Set your goal of 5 pounds and take yourself out for some frozen yogurt once you hit that milestone!  I can assure you that yogurt will taste better than you ever remembered.)

And a bonus weapon for you - Know your body.  It's important to know what works for you and what doesn't (I always GAINED weight when I added running, but lost when I added walking).  Know what causes "issues" for you.  I have certain foods that trigger some tummy troubles and knowing what those foods are (and eliminating them) definitely helps me feel better...and feeling better keeps me on track!  I also have triggers that lead me towards "falling off the wagon," so I try and just avoid those all together. (Can we talk about the fact that I can't just eat one Reeses?? They are NOT satisfying.)  And maybe more important than anything is to know what special things you have that affect weight loss, for me it's PCOS, and knowing that I have it changes my daily nutrition goals.

Transformation Tuesday: My Herbalife Results

I've had friends and family asking all kinds of questions about why I started this commitment, if I even needed to do anything at all, why I chose Herbalife, my results, and when am I going to "stop," so I thought I'd share a little bit about my commitment over the past year, and then I'll follow up with what worked for me.

Why I made the commitment...
I have struggled with my weight and eating healthy for {what feels like} my whole life.
MY WEIGHT:  I've been WAY up on more than one occasion, and unfortunately, I've been WAY down.  I don't shy away from admitting that I have struggled with an eating disorder, and I do everything I can to make sure I don't go back down that path.  I have to be sure I'm following plans that encourage eating and fueling my body with what it needs rather than restricting myself from certain foods or low calorie goals.

EATING HEALTHY:  I also don't shy away from the fact that I am not a good eater.  I'm extremely picky and have had some bad experiences trying new foods.  Being picky has held me back, made me fearful, and most of all, made being truly healthy extremely difficult.

Thankfully, God has had me on this journey long enough that I had confidence in myself and found my self-worth in Him.  Many of you are to thank for that as well.  I'm so thankful to have such encouraging and supportive friends and family, some of whom would comment from time to time that I "didn't even really need to lose weight."  I had plenty of days that I felt beautiful, even at my heaviest (and my heaviest had NOTHING to do with "baby weight" as you'll read below).

But when you looked at the actual numbers, and where I was headed, it was scary and NOT at all healthy.  I'll be real honest here and give you the facts - When I found out I was pregnant, I weighed 160 pounds.  After battling hyperemesis during pregnancy, I lost 15 pounds during my first trimester and was down to 145.  I left the hospital (with my nine-and-a-half pound beautiful baby girl) at 155...5 pounds lower than the day I found out I was pregnant. (I felt on-top-of-the-world, great, awesome,  etc...I was going to be in great shape in NO time!)  At some point, and the details don't really matter, I began to pack ON the pounds while I slipped into my role as a mommy.  The day I went in for my first Herbalife consultation, I weighed 170 pounds.  I had gained 15 pounds in about 3 or 4 months, and if I didn't make a change, it was only going to get worse.

A few more numbers - I wore a size 14 (after leaving the hospital in my pre-baby jeans that were a size 10), and my BMI was a very unhealthy 31.

I made the commitment because I WAS unhealthy (even if other people didn't see it).  I was tired all the time with no energy to do the basic things I needed to in order to care for Bryleigh.  I can't teach my daughter how to eat well and respect her body when I am not doing either of those things at all.  And most importantly, I made the commitment for myself, because I want to raise the baby I already have (being active and involved), and I want to be healthy enough to have more babies (plural Brad Hammons...PLURAL ;))!!  {But really, that last part is all up to God, and we are okay with His plans for our family.}

Some of my progress pics along the way!

Why I chose Herbalife...
Over the past few years, I watched as my family transformed their health, with weight loss, increased athletic ability, and overall health.  Not only did they achieve their goals, but their results were long term.  What started as a way for my {now freshman in high school} cousin to get healthy turned in to a transformation for so many in our family, and I wanted to be a part of it!  I respected the results that each of them had, and I knew that I could have my own results if I committed to it.

I also chose Herbalife because of their nutrition plan.  As I mentioned, I am a VERY picky eater.  I get overwhelmed trying to plan healthy meals and snacks every day, so having TWO whole meals and half of a snack already planned for me each day made it extremely easy for me to start eating healthier. {And just to note, I am by no means perfect.  I still slip up all the time, and I'm still learning all kinds of things about nutrition. But I have come so far!}

My results and why I'm not stopping here...
Day 1 I was 170 pounds...Day 365 I was 135.  I've lost a total of 32 inches and dropped from a size 14 to a 4!  I will say the cliche that numbers don't matter...and they definitely don't.  Being a size 4 doesn't define me.  The fact that I weigh 35 pounds less than I did on this day 1 year ago doesn't magically make me a better person, but these numbers represent the progress I made over 12 months. The numbers show that my commitment to a plan paid off and it did work for me, and I'm certainly proud of that.

I'd consider myself still a "Work In Progress," and some people have had a problem with that, mostly because they know my past and are a little fearful I will take things too far.  To that I would say that I have people in my life (ie. my mom and my husband) that hold me accountable and will call me out.  My desire for the next year (and beyond) is to continue to learn what fuels my body best and adding exercise to my normal routine.  So that's why I'm not stopping here.  This journey for me is about getting healthy, NOT getting skinny (or having abs...but if they come, that will just be an added bonus).

Be sure to check back for "What worked for me..." - you can find the blog HERE.

My Kangen Journey

I was introduced to Kangen Water after I got home from a 4-day hospital stay at the end of October 2012.

Brad and I decided to start trying for a family in June of 2011, and we learned pretty quickly that it was going to take a little more than trying to get our blessing, so I visited a fertility specialist in August of 2012, a little over a year after we first started trying.  While at our first appointment, our doctor let me know I’d need to repeat the surgery I first had in July of 2007, followed with quite a bit of medication and a set of Lupron injections.

I had the surgery in September of 2012, and at my follow-up appointment, I was quickly prescribed about 3200 mg of various medications.  All of those medications, along with a doctor prescribed change in my diet, led to my trip to the ER, which you can read more about here.  The final diagnosis: ACIDOSIS, meaning my body was dangerously acidic.

It was definitely a difficult and frustrating week, and it left me feeling hopeless and scared.  Not only did I feel like I was back at square one regarding my desire to have a baby, but I NEVER EVER EVER wanted to feel that way again.  I told Brad several times on the day we went to the ER that I felt like I was dying.  I felt silly saying that at the time until we realized just how serious things were and how sick I really was.

We hadn’t been home too long when I got a call from my high school youth minister, Jimmy Reynolds.  He introduced me to some very simple facts about WATER, and then asked me a question.  Seven very simple words changed my life forever: Would you like to try the water?  As I mentioned earlier, I was desperate to NEVER get that sick again, so I was willing to try anything.

Part of my prescribed fertility treatment was to take care of myself and try to get as healthy as possible – the healthier I was, the "easier" it would be to conceive.  Not to mention I had endometriosis on my bladder, which caused CONTINUAL bladder infections (so severe I would end up vomiting for days at a time and miss countless hours, sometimes days of work).  Needless to say, I had already cut out caffeine, and I eventually decided to cut out everything but water.  I was drinking between 3 and 5 bottles of Dasani water a day, so I was pretty shocked when the kidney specialist told us just how dehydrated I was…enough to need 5 bags of IV fluids over the course of 3 days, which I was told is just about the entire amount of fluids my body requires to function.

Did you know that the bottled water you religiously drink, thinking you are hydrating and helping yourself is actually ACIDIC?  It doesn’t even qualify to go through city pipes, and if it did, they’d be rusted and ruined! On the scale of acidity, 14.0 being alkaline, bottled water is 2.5.  TWO POINT FIVE.  If you’ll take a look at a pH scale, you’ll quickly see that level promotes sickness and disease in your body.  

After talking with Jimmy about the various types of water people drink today, I quickly learned just how wrong I had been about what I thought was a healthy habit to have.  Each of those bottles had directly contributed to the acidic state of my body and were leading causes of my severe dehydration.  I was able to have a loaner machine in my apartment for 30 days, thanks to Ty Musser, my middle school youth minister. He was extremely helpful in our introduction to Kangen water.  He came and installed the loaner machine and talked with us for a good 2 hours, answering all of our questions and telling us some of the stories from things he had seen.

Brad and I agreed we would do anything possible to keep from going back to that state again, so we purchased our machine in January of 2013 after getting settled in to our new home and finishing up with the holidays.

I had high hopes that the water would keep me out of the hospital and, more importantly, keep my hydrated (which it has done both), but I had no idea all of the other ways it was going to help me.

One of the wonderful side effects of the endometriosis I have is IBS, and I have a pretty severe case of it.  I had my FIRST (and yes, there have been multiple) colonoscopy when I was 17.  Each test (colonoscopy, scopes, gallbladder tests, cat scans, endless blood work, etc.) has come back with the same results: inconclusive.  And each doctor left me with the same outcome: no answers, no suggestions, and NO relief. (I received my first OFFICIAL diagnosis of Endometriosis at 21 and IBS at 27…I went to my first doctor appointment for severe stomach pains at the age of 16.)

It is this area of my life and health that has seen the MOST improvement, and this alone was worth purchasing the machine for me: I went from having diarrhea between 5 and 7 times a day, EVERY. SINGLE. day of the week (and no, I am not exaggerating for added effect), to not having it AT ALL.  (If you are praising Jesus right now, SO AM I!)... I realize this might be a little TMI, but it's also TTT (totally the truth) and part of my story, and I hope that I can share the waters with other people that have a similar story.

I have been able to see other improvements from the water as well, including added energy, no soda withdrawals (I now CRAVE water), no headaches (these were actually starting to become a weekly occurrence as well), but I am even more excited to see what’s to come.  I hope to learn ways to manage (or even eliminate) my endometriosis pain and the side effects of PCOS.  I know this isn’t the end of my Kangen testimony.  I am hopefully that someday I will be able to add a chapter about beating infertility. I’ll keep you posted on that one! ;)