I was on a roll; losing weight, exercising, and making better food choices…

Then I started the downward spiral.  One binged turned into a whole day, which turned into a whole week.

What is wrong with me?  Why is this so hard? Why can't I just do this?

This was me at the beginning of my two-year-long "renewal".  

Let me tell you a little story...

I had a deep desire to be thin. At times, I would get to a healthy weight, but then a week later I was putting the pounds back on.

It's like I got to this goal and then I fell back into my old patterns. Then my actions did not fall in line with what I said I wanted. 

I continued to sabotage myself, which lead to thinking something was wrong with me and I was just destined to be overweight but wanting to be thin.

Until I realized something...  

God didn’t NOT want me to struggle forever.  He wanted me to conquer, WITH HIM.

No, in all these...

Three years ago, I found myself "skinny," but at the toll of being mentally "cray-cray" (I don't know if I'm cool enough to use this word, but I thought it would be fun). 

I had jumped on the keto bandwagon. The only amazing part of this diet was that I got to eat as much avocado, peanut butter, and coconut oil my heart desired…like a dream came true…

But not really…

I had started the diet in May. Everything was good. The kids were still in school, I had a routine, and there weren't many celebrations to contend with. 

Then summer hit. The lure of ice cream treats or a cold brew at the end of an evening was too much. My attention was focused on ways I could leave myself a couple of carbs just so I could have a lick of a potato chip. 

My mind started to become consumed.

"Did I hit my fat goal for today? I had those blueberries. Maybe that was too many carbs. What if I kicked myself out of keto? Now, I screwed up! I might as well have the whole...

Can I just say, my clients, are amazing?! They have done some pretty spectacular things. All of them. 

Not just a few.  

Every. Single. One.  

But "watching" my clients' self-sabotage, at times, is so PAINFUL for me. I just want to shake them awake. I wish I could just infuse them with the confidence I have for them.

I know they have to experience their own journey. I get that. 

I understand I can't make decisions for them. But it's excruciating. It's like nails on a chalkboard. I know I can't control their actions (which really is a good thing; I get this), so now I use their lessons to help teach others.

It is a beautiful thing about how God can use anything to his glory!

So, let me cut to the chase here. I can tell when self-sabotage is coming for my clients. I want to share what I know with you. This way, you can be on the watch for your own self-sabotage and hopefully not fall into this trap the enemy is so good at catching...

What do you think?

Is there a problem with your husband loving you even if you're overweight?

No.
There shouldn't be a problem with this.

But, so many women come to me and tell me that they have no motivation. They blame part of it on the fact that their husbands don't care what weight they are.

These husbands, being wonderful guys, are NOT the problem. They should not get the blame because we are overweight and seem to stay there.

Here is the hard truth.
Our thinking is the problem.

We think just because our husbands don't care what weight we are, that WE SHOULDN'T EITHER.

BUT WE ACTUALLY DO CARE. 

And, if we care, then we tell ourselves that it means we're being vain.

We go on to thinking that maybe we should just accept our overweight bodies the way they are. Because, really, we have no one to impress except our husbands.

Do you see the turmoil we create?

Now, I'm not saying that if you're comfortable in your body, that you should lose weight just because some...

Shut-up and listen.

Nope. Not to me.

To your body and your mind.

Did you know that God gave us the perfect tool to help us know when our bodies need fuel? 

It also has this fantastic feature that alerts us to the time when we should stop.

It’s highly sophisticated, using multiple messengers in our body. Yet, it is amazingly simple.

We’ve had it since birth (it’s innate). And, it has worked well for thousands of years, until recently.

But all of a sudden, very few people listen to it anymore.

Yes, I’m talking about hunger.

Instead of listening to our BODIES, now we follow books, videos, friends, or our thoughts and feelings. We use these to determine when and what to eat and when to stop eating.

Since we’ve haven’t been using our hunger to signal us to eat or not, we’ve miscalibrated it.

It doesn’t measure right anymore.

Our “hunger” now tells us to eat when we feel frustrated. Our “hunger” tells us to eat...

What do you do when NOTHING works?

How do you react when EVERYTHING is going wrong?

As I am writing this, I am trying to deal with 5 different tech issues at once.

Nothing is working right.

I can feel myself getting frustrated.

I can feel the anger and annoyance building up inside.

That’s when I glance to the kitchen. 

“I’m hungry.  Maybe I should get a snack.”

Yep.  That bad habit that I thought I had tamed pops up again.  I turn to food when I start feeling frustrated, angry, annoyed or just plain mad.

It may make me feel better in the moment.  But, only for a second.  When I get back to the tech issues, the frustration just starts flooding back.  Along with that, I'll be frustrated I ate.

If I had been using willpower to stop myself from eating, I would have gave in at this moment.

I would have thrown my hands in the air and declared, “I DESERVE THIS for the day I’m having.”

But I’m not...

 Things that DON’T make you fat….

• Sugar
• Flour
• Carbs
• Gluten
• Skipping Breakfast
• Fast food
• Eating every two hours
• Obese parents
• Your husband’s grocery shopping
• Kids eating every two hours
• Picky eating habits

Things that DO make you fat….

• Consistently over eating and hating yourself for it

This was not originally my idea.  I got this post idea from Jordan Syatt.  Just didn’t want to plagiarize.  But I did add a few of my own items to the lists.

I LOVE doing consults with potential clients.  It is my FAVORITE thing ever.  I love it because you can just “see” (I guess actually I hear since I do them over the phone) their minds working to give all the excuses as to why they are the weight they are currently. 

AND WE ALL DO THIS!!

Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the...

Who is ready for back to school?!

Maybe you have already sent your kids back or will in the next week or so.  My kiddos don't get back into the "grind" of school until after Labor Day.

But I AM SO LOOKING FORWARD TO IT!

As much as I have LOVED my summer and my kids being home, I am looking forward to having a “normal” routine again. 

My kids… not so much.  They all like school.  It's not pulling teeth to get them to go, but they enjoy all the fun activities and vacations summer brings.  They enjoy the warm weather and playing outside.  They enjoy using their time as they please.  To them, it feels like they are giving that all up.

I had a conversation with my kiddos about this the other day.  They were complaining about having to go back to school and missing out on sleeping in and swimming every day.  I reminded them that this wasn’t actually what they did every day.  A lot of days were...

Want to know something really neat?!

You are 100% lovable.  Always have and always will be.

There is nothing that you need to do different or change to be loved more.

Really, this world needs more love.  I know it sounds cliché but it’s true.  If we all could just see each other’s innate worth and lovability, can you imagine what this world would be like? What if we were all just confident in who God made us and loved ourselves even?  Not in an arrogant way, because arrogance is not love, but in a self-confident way.  Self-confident love is knowing your worth but recognizing everyone around you has the same worth.

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:14

You should really love yourself in a self-confident way.  I recommend it.  It doesn’t matter if someone else doesn’t love you.  Loving yourself is about giving yourself the...

For 5 weeks, I have been breaking down the top five “health rules” that I BREAK. 

One thing that I pray for you is that you never take any person’s opinion as fact.  While some of these “rules” might work for you, I would say the majority of people it is actually hurting rather than helping them.  Even when I tell you my opinion, you need to decide for yourself if you will benefit from this or not.  You need to test it out by applying it to your life, listen to how your body reacts and then by making YOUR OWN DECISION.

Last week’s rule was EAT EVERYTHING IN MODERATION.  I’d love to hear your opinions so don’t forget to stop by my Facebook page and leave questions or comments!

This is the last week!  Of course, I saved the best for last!

Health "rule": LOSING WEIGHT IS ALL ABOUT DIET AND EXERCISE, MOSTLY DIET THOUGH.

I’m smiling right now while reading that statement.  Yes,...