a healthy lifestyle

a couple of days ago, i shared with you some of my health issues and that i would be sharing some of the changes we are making. the older i get, the more conscious i have become about taking better care of my body. not because of vanity but of wanting to feel good and have lots of energy to keep up with my kiddos!

i've always known that exercise played a key role for me.  as life can be overwhelming at times and i can become stressed out, exercise has always been a way for me to work through it.  i also have seen over the past two years, that working out has help me feel so much better.  i used to have a sore back all the time, then i started taking a weekly abs class.  i realized that i had pretty weak abs.   i can't tell you what a world of difference my abs class has made.  no more back pain.  better posture.  a flatter stomach...who wouldn't want that?  it hasn't been easy.  i'm usually praying/begging God to have my 30 minutes abs class be done, because it hurts and it isn't easy, but the results keep me coming back!

over the last several years, i've also been more aware of what goes into my body.   after living in Papua New Guinea and making most of our food from scratch, i didn't realize how much our bodies had detoxed from the fast and convenient foods of the US.  i found that when we returned to living in the US, that my body would be sick every time i ate something that was not home cooked.   going out to eat is a big problem for me, not because i want to be picky, but because i don't want to become sick.

when we were in california a couple of weeks ago, two of my cousins were talking about the book Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels.   i knew i had to read it because of my new found knowledge with my thyroid and i wanted to know how i could better help my body.   i'm not through reading it because it is full of amazing information about how your hormones determine your metabolism.

with that, i'm sharing our first change that we have made as a family...no more processed foods.

you are probably saying what? why? or how come?  it's simple...because our bodies don't recognize them as foods and they are murder on our hormone balance.

i'm a realist, and i know that we won't be perfect, but as a whole we are going to try and stay away from all processed foods.