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Have you ever found yourself looking through books about diets and wondering what is going to help? Which “diet” is going to help you maintain your weight loss? Well, I’m in that place again. The place of eating and watching your weight creep up. Are you in that place too? The challenge for me this time is I am older. So I’m looking for answers but this time I want to merge the three books I love that impacted my beliefs on food. A way to merge all the thoughts I have learned together. A way to lose weight, keep an exercise regimen and bring balance.
In my opinion fitness is 2 fold. Diet and exercise. You can’t just workout and expect to be able to eat whatever you want and vise verse. You have to have both. Why is fitness so important? I believe God has an opinion about diet and I believe He has an opinion on exercise. He created us in His image. He also says that our bodies are His temple. So I think we need to take care of the temple He has given us. We only get 1 chance at life and we were only given 1 body.
How it all started
A few years ago when I was single (okay, more than a decade ago), I was overweight and overwhelmed by the thought of losing weight. So I sat down and cried and then I prayed. I asked God to show me His way for my life. Within a week I was given a book called Fit for Life. I read the book in a day and started following the format about a week later and I lost the extra weight I was carrying. This book really propelled me into my quest for eating healthy.
Fast forward 15 years and I still struggle with diet. I still pray the same prayer and every time I do He gives me a different book. I have been pondering the most recent books, The Green Smoothie Revolution and It Starts with Food. (The links are provided for your convenance so you can click through and purchase your own copy.) I have been thinking about all 3 of these books and I am merging them to create my own way of living. Each of these books have had an impact on my life.
My thoughts are around marrying the 3 books that have impacted me regarding diet they are Fit for Life, It Starts with Food, and The Green Smoothie Revolution. All of these books have impacted me at one time or another while I study nutrition. They all have the same concept. Eat real food. But why is it so hard or difficult to grasp this concept? Or to actually do it? I know that when I am following any of these ways of living, I feel better.
Eating Real Food
Since one book is about green smoothies and the other 2 are about eating real food, I’m really just thinking about how to merge the green smoothie in with the real food. I’m thinking somehow I have to drink a smoothie a day and then eat real food the rest of the day.
The other 2 books are about eating real food and eliminating the excess sugar from our diets. When we did Whole 30 a year ago, I didn’t realize how much sugar was in the food we were eating. Like the breakfast sausage or the bacon, they each had sugar in the ingredient list. I had to find new brands that didn’t add sugar to the food. This way of eating was a huge mental shift, but once I shifted I could see the benefit of eating that way. Fit for Life spoke about food combining. Eating your proteins with veggies and your breads with veggies but never eating your proteins with breads.
Green Smoothies
The book about green smoothies, the Green Smoothie Revolution, explains why they are so good for you. It explains that they help to decrease your toxicity in your body by raising your alkalinity in your body. Basically, making your body have more water so you become healthier. The book has many recipes and explains the reason of why you should drink green smoothies. I read the book and within a week I was drinking green smoothies. My children were drinking green smoothies with me at the time and they started eating fruits and vegetables they had avoided prior to. My energy level increased and I really felt so much better.
Eating well and taking care of your body is a daily commitment. I use lots of prayer and planning to help me effectively prepare for the week. The three books I love about health and diet, Green Smoothie Revolution, Fit for Life, and It Starts with Food have all had an impact on my thoughts about diet. I consider myself to continually learn about new studies on food and how it impacts our bodies and I’m certain I will have to read more books that are going to impact my thinking too. What about you? I would love to hear what books you have read that have helped to change your views on the way you eat.
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Stephanie has been blogging at Sticky Note Mom for 4 years. Before starting her blog she worked in the finance industry working on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade to working for major financial institutions with personal financial planning and the mortgage industry. Now she shares all she has learned about frugal living to help others learn how to stop spending and start saving more.