!0 Must Have Foods

For today's healthy hump day, I decided to share my top 10 favorite foods that I eat on a weekly basis.  Because I am so busy and running around so much, a lot of these are very convenient and allow me to eat on the go or for a fast meal.

1.  WFM Lime Italian Sparkling Mineral Water

2.  PROBAR Meal Bar: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip (meal replacement bar)

3.  Organic Apples (my favorite are either Golden Delicious or Pink Lady)

4.  365 Peanut Butter

5.  Green Smoothie (I use almond milk, frozen berries and lots of spinach)

6.  Silk Almond Milk

7.  365 Frozen Brown Rice

8.  365 Frozen Brussel Sprouts

9.  Chocolate Fudge Think Thin Bars

10.  Whole Trade Bananas!

I grocery shop at Whole Foods Market to ensure great quality and no unhealthy added junk!  365 is whole foods market in house brand.

Friday Favorites

As always, here are my five favorites for this past week!

Favorite Workout Song
                                       Scream and Shout - Will.i.am & Brittany Spears

Favorite Spring Line - Paper Crown

Favorite Quote

Favorite Room

Favorite French Press - Bodum Chambord French Press

You Can [BE] Change[d] for the Long Term

This post too will be short and sweet.  I have a test tomorrow morning in Abnormal Psychology which I have been studying for all day!
I wanted to write a little about the idea of growth.  I used to believe that people couldn't change.  I thought that the way that people were would be the way they always would be.  A lot of this was due to the lack of change in the people as I grew up.  What I have learned, by God's grace, is that people can change.  Lasting change, however, is not done by the person themselves but rather by God's grace.  This discovery really hit me Wednesday evening at my Counseling in Community training at my church.  I was speaking to the group and telling about where I am in terms of my view of loving people who have hurt you.  The way I was speaking and those things being so true in my heart showed me how much my love for Jesus and Jesus' love for me has changed me.  Yes, I struggle with selfishness, pride, idolatry still and I know that I will for the rest of my life.  It is not until I die that Jesus will be done sanctifying me and only then will I be changed into completeness.  I can say though that I am so different from who I was even just a year ago and by God's grace alone I will be so different from who I am right now a year from now.
I do believe that people change but I believe that God himself makes that change and when it is Him, it is the most beautiful thing.  It is lasting, and it is not only your behavior which changes but your heart and your mind.  When you are changed by Jesus, it is not that you just don't say disrespectful things to a friend, it is that you have the supply of love from the Lord to love your friend so it wouldn't make sense to say rude things to them.
You will fail, Yes, and that is when grace is extended to you by Jesus and you have the opportunity to repent.
The next time you feel the need to change or the desire to change, first talk to the Jesus who came to this earth to save us from our sins which truly CHANGED everything.

Enjoy Your Cardio!

This will be short and sweet!  First of all, working out has been going so well.  Not in the way of "i'm losing so much weight."  Yes! I want to lose weight but to be honest, I haven't really been thinking that much about the weight.  I have just been enjoying working.  Being able to go to the gym and do what you want to move your body.  I think one of the reasons why I do not feel slave to it (which I have definitely felt in my past) is because I am more flexible with my workouts and don't pressure myself to do something I do not want to.  I actually really enjoy the gym and all of the aspects to it so finding something I enjoy is easy.  But, to be honest, sometimes I do not want to spend 40 minutes on the elliptical.  So I do not and I do something else.
A prime example of this is tonight.  I wasn't that motivated to go to the gym anyways because by the time I was able to it was nearly 10 at night.  I went anyways and I just didn't want to go on the elliptical for 40 minutes and then lift weights like I normally do.  So instead, I put the intensity really high as well as the incline and powered through for 10 minutes.  I went and lifted weights for 20 minutes and then after that I ran a fast mile on the treadmill.  This intensity workout allowed me to burn the same amount of calories but in a quicker time since I was not that interested in spending that long on cardio machines.  I got an awesome workout and feel great now!
I do have somewhat of a schedule in terms of weight lifting because then I know that I am rotating through my muscle groups and allowing them to heal properly.  In terms of cardio, I burn at least 400 calories doing whatever feels fun!!

Here is my flexible schedule:

Monday - Core (Abs and back)

Wednesday - Arms

Friday - Legs

Extra Day (Whatever day I have off work) - Catch up/Fitness Class
I also always burn 400 calories doing cardio!