Health

Well, again, I have failed to blog weekly, what is new? :) I have been researching the past few weeks on eating healthier. What I have found out is that I am farther from eating healthy than I would like to believe. I have often thought, "I need to care of my family as best as I can" or, "What can I make tonight that will be a good/healthy lunch/dinner." Especially since we have a family history of diabetes this has been more at the forefront of my thoughts. With that said, here is what I have found out. The reason that people don't do it is because it takes work and discipline and time. All things that our society does not really value when it comes to preparing healthy food. We value speed, convenience, and taste much more. The little that I have learned over the past few months has really helped us to make some simple changes to be healthier. We still have some things to work on, one of mine being that I love sweets and chocolate a little too much, but even there we are getting much better. Yesterday for instance, I was running some errands and picked up a small chocolate bar to snack on. After a couple bites I realized that it just didn't taste good.... I guess because of all the sugar (it was milk chocolate) and I found myself craving instead just a square (okay, a couple of squares) of dark chocolate, it has a much richer flavor and it satisfies my hunger for "something chocolate". Some of our new favorite more healthy choices are apple and banana smoothies, homemade granola, soaked whole wheat pancakes, veggie and chicken pizza, veggie and chicken or beef stir fry with rice pasta or whole grain rice, rice pasta with cream sauce and steamed veggies or a salad, I could go on, and maybe I should post a few recipes, but for right now I am not that organized, still getting used to soaking grains and thinking ahead of time for what we are going to have. Keeping healthy snacks on hand has been a challenge, but again, we are taking baby steps. As I work on this area of our lives and try to create healthy habits for our family, I think of this verse, Micah 6:8 " He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." I know that God sees that I am trying and I can rejoice in the steps that we take, because they are in His strength but also fall back and enjoy the grace of God as I walk humbly in Him. I can know that I don't have to get it all right or become a gourmet/all natural cook overnight, but that I can keep trying daily to get better!