Gentleness and Self-Control

     This week I heard about a new book called 'Give Them Grace' by Elyse Fitzpatrick. I really want to read this book. ( I have quite a list of books I really want to read though, so it might be a while) I read the description and went to the website to find that there is a blog written by the author that models her parenting philosophy. Basically, to treat your children with the grace God gives you. 

One of my goals for this year is summed up in one word- 'Gentleness'. It's a fruit of the spirit, and as a mommy of four small children, it's something I struggle with. I want to model gentleness to my children. I fail at this on a daily basis as the chaos of a house full of noisy boys (and one noisy tomboy) makes me raise my voice when I do not want to. However, I have been getting better at it. I do try to remind myself over and over that whatever is going on that is stressing me out - clean clothes being spread around the living room, my son sitting on his sister or my younger son taking off his diaper and peeing on a stack of books.... these are a few examples of what I am talking about... whatever it is, I try to remember that they are more important to me than whatever is being destroyed, or my clean house... or my sanity. 

(This is not to say they cannot be disciplined, but consequences to their actions can be issued without a bad attitude and they will still learn)

Anyway, this blog was a sweet reminder to me to give them grace. You might get something from it too-

Give Them Grace Blog

     Another of my goals for this year is to work on 'Self Control' I have done much reading about willpower. Another Fruit of the Spirit, I know that God not only wants us to strive for it, but He promises to help us with it through the Holy Spirit. I have certainly exercised my willpower in many areas thus far this year, Food, Excercise, and Spending being a few... but this also ties in with Parenting. I definitely need Self-Control to give them grace when I am tired and stressed. 

Did You know that you can strengthen your Willpower just like you strengthen a muscle when you exercise? Scientists have done many studies lately on this subject and have found very interesting things. There is something they call a 'Small Win'. Basically, you can do something simple every day and it boosts your ability to do other harder things. You may think the little things don't count, but the value of maintaining a consistent habit is tenfold! Even just making your bed every morning has been proven to make you more productive all day long!

Because of this, I have been striving to do certain things daily. I have read my Bible every day this year through a daily Bible reading plan app on my phone. I have maintained my Drawing of the Day habit. (although I have stopped posting them in order to not bore everyone to death!) and I have been working on other regular habits.

I will be sharing more about willpower and habits again soon, in the meantime, here are my two favorite books on the subject-

http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/1400069289

http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Rediscovering-Greatest-Human-Strength/dp/1594203075/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342190848&sr=1-1&keywords=willpower

By the way, this one is the most boring book cover ever and the one above it has one of the best!

Click the links to see the book at Amazon. You can even read a free chapter of the Habit book on your phone via the free Kindle app.

Thanks for letting me share.

Have a Great Day!

30 Days of The Skinny Rules!

Food! 

     It's what I have been focusing on for the past month.
Joey and I have undergone a complete change of eating habits and have maintained it for 30 days now.
This is my post to explain all the details.

     First of all, I didn't set out to start a diet when this all began. I have been needing to make a change however since I had gained a bunch of weight AFTER giving birth in January. Yes, After.
     Two things proceeded this big change. One, I had been reading lots of newly published material on habits and willpower. I was hoping it would eventually lead to having more willpower in the eating dept. but wasn't too encouraged because the book 'Willpower' stated that the advice therein wouldn't work for dieting because their findings indicate that you need sugar to power your brain (thus fueling willpower). The other thing was that I have been getting these awesome emails that post the newest stuff our library currently is receiving and I get an early crack at reserving good stuff. I can't pass up reserving a new release that looks interesting. (ps this is how I ended up reading about Habits in the first place too)
     So, one of the new releases I reserved was Bob Harper's 'The Skinny Rules'.

     There were so many people waiting for it that I was only allowed to check it out for a week. I have never had that happen before.
     I read the book, I felt it would work for us, and we dove into the change!

     Here is what I consumed before reading the book- Everything. Plus tons of chocolate milk and I loved my Dr. Peppers (LOVED) and I had no control, I was out of CONTROL!!!

     Here is what I (we) eat/drink now-  Apples, Water, Coffee (with very little sweetener), Almonds, Vegetables (limiting the ones that are carbs), lots of protein, lots of fiber,  Oatmeal, Meats, Cheeses...limited carbs (whole grain at that)

     Here is what we don't eat/drink- SUGAR, Potatoes, (accept sweet potatoes in moderation), Processed foods, Fast Foods (accept the one meal a week splurge allowed on the Skinny Rules Diet and even then it's just a burger, nothing else) cookies, cakes, donuts, etc. No COKES! No milk, (don't drink you're calories) No anything fun.

     I would have not bet money on me being able to eat like that for 30 days (or even a week!) So how did we do it? I'm not sure. One thing I learned from the book though, that changed my thinking is this- 'If you eat sugar, then you will crave sugar' Your body gets on a sugar high roller coaster that makes you want to snack all the time. Without the sugar (and carbs convert to blood sugar) you remain stable and eat less! It is true. The cravings all but went away when I quit cold turkey!

So the big question, did we lose weight?
Yes. And still losing. I hope to report back on that in another couple of months with more significant results, As for now it stands at about a ten pound loss for each of us!

One thing I didn't expect was that I lost interest in exercising and actually began to feel terrible after a few weeks. In fact, even last week, I was still feeling yucky and tired. I don't know if it was a type of detoxing that left me weak, but this week, I'm feeling much better and got back to my morning biking routine. I expected after a month off the bike that I would have trouble getting started. Before last month, I was going about a mile and a half in the mornings (not much) and it was taking me about 20 minutes.
Yesterday I set out at 6 a.m. for the first time in a month and did 4 miles in 30 minutes! I have my energy back and then some!!! Yay! Not only that, but I did Bob's Cardio workout last night and got up again this morning to do 4 more miles on the bike. I'm really looking forward to weighing myself at the end of this week to see if the exercise makes a big difference.

So, What is the end result in this experiment? The end result is that there is no end, hopefully, but that we will be able to keep it up as a new way of eating, not a temporary diet. This time next year I hope to be much more in shape and on my way to skinny!!!!