In With the New

I suppose it's not too late for a "first post of the year." After all, it is still January. I have made yet more changes to my life this year, and of course I will be blogging about them.

First things first, eating. I adapted the clean eating lifestyle about 6 months ago. I started making little changes here and there. You can't just go cold turkey with a clean eating diet. For those who are not aware of what "clean eating" is, I will give a brief description. You basically eat only natural, unprocessed foods. That means fruits, veggies, meat, nuts, seeds, etc. all of which are plain. In there natural form. No cereal, no pre-packaged, no long list of ingredients. I check every label very carefully. As a rule, if it has more than 6 ingredients- I don't eat it. If it has any oils in it, (like canola or vegetable- I will eat clean unprocessed oils like olive or coconut oil) I won't eat it. If it has added sugar in it, I won't eat it. You get the point. I try to stick with things that were not made in a factory using chemicals or with ingredients I can't  grow or kill in my own backyard. Okay, so you get the idea. Clean eating. The way God intended our bodies to be nourished. I have slowly gotten my family on board. Slowly. Definitely not there yet.. but we are working on it. One way I have found is to use Emeals. Emeals is an excellent meal planning website. Each week you are given a menu with 7 dinners, sides and the complete grocery list for the dinners, broken down into sections at the grocery store. Simple. The easiest thing you will ever find. They have a CLEAN eating dinner plan. It is fantastic! So every night for dinner, my family gets a clean, healthy, nourishing dinner. Go check out the site Emeals.com and see samples of meals and how it works. They also offer a clean eating crock pot meal plan for mommies on the go. If you watch Groupon, they have specials for Emeals all the time. I got a one year subscription for $29. That's 365 dinners complete with grocery lists. It's a great deal. I will take a minute to share a week of meals:

Provencal Chicken and Braised Kale with Lemon, Onion and Garlic

Buffalo Chicken Burgers and Parsnip Fries

Maple Citrus Pork Loin and Garlicky Pan Roasted Cauliflower/Broccoli

Rosemary Lamb Chops and 

Saute'ed Spinach Chick-Peas

So, clean eating has made it's way into my home in full force for 2014. I plan on sharing some clean recipes this year on the blog and some tips and tricks I have learned along the way. 

Next up, exercise. Of course I run. I run and run and run some more. I still love running and I am sure I always will. But I wanted to add more. I feel like I am missing strength training and muscle definition. So I did what any normal person would do.. I started P90X. (normal = crazy). I am one week in and I am floored at how intense this program is! It's over an hour everyday. You get one rest day a week. The program goes for 90 days. It promises muscles, definition and a "beach body". I plan on fully testing this program out. If I survive it! I am taking pictures as the program suggests, and plan on blogging this adventure as well. It is very hard for me to run and do this program but I plan on keeping both up. I can do anything for 90 days. That's just 3 months. It can't be THAT hard.. ;)

Moving right along. The next "new" is the use of smart phones and social media. I have seen all the blogs and videos and read all the articles. All the little sad stories about how life is passing you by as you sit and stare mindlessly at your phone. All the sweet little moments you miss with your kids, all the fun you miss with your friends... there are plenty of articles guilt tripping you into putting down the phone. And as you very well know, I am NOT the one to follow. I play by my own rules, I do my own thing. That thing for me is to put the phone down. Not because the blogs and news reports tell me to. Not because of an article that made me feel guilty. But because I want to. It takes up too much of my time. I was discussing with a friend that the smart phone has seemingly replaced all other forms of entertainment in my life. I usef to read books. I used to sit outside. I used to draw and paint. I used to do art projects and crafts. Now I read facebook, on the couch. I pin crafts instead of actually doing them. I don't like the person I have become with the phone in my hand. The way I zone out of the world around me to be sucked into people's lives I have never met or rarely see. I just don't like it. So I made a change. I deleted my facebook app. I make a conscious effort not to look at my phone every 5 minutes. I am not "quitting" my phone, or my apps, or even facebook.. but I am knocking them down the list. WAY down the list. I am given one life. One chance here on earth. There are so many other things to experience in the world than staring at a glowing screen. 

Last change this new year is a spiritual one. We are going through the entire bible with our children. We are actually using a book called Long Story Short. We do devotions 5 nights a week. We are doing this with all our church family and I am so thankful for it. It is a quick, easy way to bring our family together for just a few minutes each night in prayer and in the word. 

So out with the old ways and in with the new. Changes are a part of life, and we all continually make them. I am thankful for the will to make positive changes. And I always pray the positive changes I make in my life will effect those around me. I pray that God will use this vessel to encourage others. 

 2 Peter 1:5-8   For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here's to 2014!