"You hem me in behind and before"

Man, I love Jesus! I was facing a stressful situation today, and He provided the perfect words of comfort for me from His Word. Currently I am reading through the Psalms, and this was my reading for the day:

Psalm 139
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.  
¹ You have searched me, LORD,
   and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
   and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.
 ⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.
 ¹³ For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
   they would outnumber the grains of sand—
   when I awake, I am still with you.
 ¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
   Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
   your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
   and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
   I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.

The Lighthouse Challenge

One of my favorite things about my recent vacation involved a lighthouse. That's right, a lighthouse. As a matter of fact, this lighthouse:

  

The reason this is one of my favorite moments is because I conquered this lighthouse. And by conquered I mean climbed to the top. 178 stairs to be exact (that's about 13 flights of stairs). And for those of you who don't know, that is a lot of stairs. I doubted that I could make it to the top, because let's be honest, even though I am doing a running program I am still not in the best shape. But I decided that I was going to give it my best shot. And I did it! Don't believe me? Well here is some proof.

Yep, that's me at the top. And yes I am glowing a little bit, but come on I just climbed 178 stairs!

People always tell you to never look down, and this is why. I mean, look at how tiny those people are. I followed their advice, though, and just snapped this picture over the side without looking down. I think that was a good decision considering my dislike of heights.

A view from the top

I'm Back

Yesterday I got back from an amazing vacation to Savannah, GA and Hilton Head Island, SC. Both places were absolutely beautiful and I have a lot of fun stories to tell. Those stories should keep me stocked up on blog posts for the next week.

Before I left for vacation, I basically cleaned out all of the perishable food in my fridge. I did this for 2 reasons: 1. I was going to be gone for almost a week and didn't want to find any terrible smells when I returned. 2. I knew that if I didn't have any food to eat that I would be forced to go to the grocery upon my return. As I mentioned in a previous post, after my vacation I planned on continuing eating real food with a few changes from the original challenge. And I am happy to report that my grocery trip today was successful in keeping with that plan.

This morning I made a 7 day meal plan and detailed grocery list, then headed out to Whole Foods and Kroger. I did so well with my shopping and I only bought a couple of impulse items that strayed from my shopping list. For the most part, I stuck to the rules of the challenge. I did, though, buy a couple of items that had more than 5 ingredients, but I had already decided that I was going to relax on that rule a little bit as long as I knew what all of the ingredients were and there weren't too many ingredients. I also did much better in terms of how much money I spent. I only bought for 7 days instead of 10, but my final total was well under half of what I had spent for the 10 day challenge. I think that was a result of not having to buy everything organic, lack of pressure in making sure that I was not buying anything against the rules, and being more comfortable with buying this type of food. It was still more expensive than my normal grocery bill, but I think the health benefits are well worth the added cost.

I can't wait to start eating real food again. I have felt awful for the past couple of weeks when I went back to eating non-real food. Especially on my vacation, I really let myself go. I mean, come on, we were in Savannah. I had to eat what the locals eat. But now, I'm ready for healthy food once again.

No vacation stories today. I'll post some later in the week. But for now, I will leave you with a teaser picture from Savannah. Two of my favorite things about Savannah were the beautiful trees and the really cool architecture. I took about 250 pictures on the trip and I would say that at least 200 of them are of trees or buildings!  Here is one of my favorite tree pictures that I took.

Vacation!

People, I'm excited. Very, very early tomorrow morning I am leaving for a vacation with the fam. I hope to eat a lot of delicious food, spend some time trying to get less white on the beach, and explore a beautiful city. Hopefully I will have a lot of fun pictures and stories to write about when I return.

The Aftermath

I know that it has been a few days since I've blogged. I really intended on writing a post on Monday, but I got distracted. On Friday I started reading a book series called "The Hunger Games." And it basically has consumed my life for the past few days (bad, I know). I have this disease where if I am reading a good book, I can't seem to put it down. I finished all 3 books in 5 days. Although the books were so good, I am kinda glad that I am finished with them so I can have my life back.

What I was going to write about on Monday was how life has been going after the challenge. Because I had been craving a few things during the challenge, I decided to let myself eat those things and then I would start back with the real food on Monday. Let's just be honest, that did not happen at all. I have pretty much been eating whatever I wanted, and mostly that didn't include any real food. Another part of the problem was that this weekend I couldn't put those stupid books down, and I refused to go to the grocery so I could continue reading.

The greatest thing about the past few days, though, has been that I have felt really terrible. I've been sick to my stomach and I felt the mysterious side pain a few times. That probably doesn't sound like a great thing, but it really just proves to me that what I learned on the challenge is true- I feel better when I eat better. So the new plan is this: after I get back from my vacation next week, I am going to go back to the real food.

Challenge Complete!

Wow, I can't believe I did it. And I really can't believe that I actually enjoyed the experience. As I have said so many times before, I learned so much from this experience and I want to share those things with you. Ah yes, it's time for another numbered list! So here are the things I learned/the benefits I experienced from the 10 day challenge:

1. Real food is filling- I hardly ever was hungry during the challenge and I ate so much less than I normally do. Looking back at the things I ate during the challenge, I realized that I used to eat double that and was still hungry multiple times a day.
2. Real food is delicious and so flexible- You can make almost anything with real ingredients and normally the food tastes much better than with the fake ingredients. Not once throughout the challenge did I think that what I was eating was disgusting, and I didn't get bored with my meal rotation system. I looked forward to eating the real food and didn't really think that I would before the challenge started.
3. You feel better when you eat better food- People kept asking me throughout the challenge if I felt better. The answer was always yes, but sometimes it was hard to explain. I wouldn't say that I had more energy, but I definitely felt healthier. You know, when you eat a really unhealthy meal and you feel kinda gross afterwords, well I realized that I had been feeling like that all of the time, but I didn't notice because I had nothing to compare it to. Not only did I feel healthier, but I am pleased to report that the challenge greatly reduced my stomach problems including the strange pain in my side!
4. Sweets and junk food should be seen as special-occasion food and should not be eaten everyday.- This challenge really changed the way I view food. Before the challenge, I would eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it. So basically I was eating a lot of junk food. I don't think that I can/should cut out junk food completely, but I want to only eat it on certain occasions, not everyday.
5. I really do have time to make nutritious food for myself.- Because I am single and don't have any kids, when I get home from work I have as much time as I need to cook. Even though it takes a lot longer to cook a healthy meal than to heat up some non-real food in the oven or microwave, I have the time to do that. So I need to take advantage of that now, because in the future I might not have as much free time as I do now.
6. Throughout this experience I have felt more grown-up. When I got home from work, I pretty much had to start immediately doing something because there was a lot to do--cooking, doing dishes, food preparation for the next day, running, and blogging. I have definitely been less lazy for the past 10 days, and I think that's a good thing.
7. I really can make this into a lifestyle change- I definitely want to continue eating real food, but I will need to tweak some of the rules. I want to make sure that I am eating real, wholesome food that provides lots of nutrients. I want to buy items with as few ingredients as possible, stay away from processed foods, and buy more whole wheat items. I will not be able to buy only organic foods (they are so expensive).  I also will not necessarily stick to the 5 ingredient or less rule. (I do want to buy foods that I know what the ingredients are, but it is very hard to find some things with less than 5 ingredients.) And I won't always say no to junk food, but I also won't always say yes. During the challenge I always had to say no to processed food, and that did make me have a few cravings--cupcakes, pizza, and a big juicy hamburger. From now on I want to primarily eat whole foods, but know that it is ok to eat a cupcake or piece of pizza every now and then.
8. I lost 4 pounds! Even though the food I was eating was not always low in calories (granola, avocados, almonds), I still managed to lose some weight. And losing 4 pounds in 10 days is pretty good.

Wow, I am impressed with all of the things I learned in just 10 short days! Thanks for being on this journey with me. I have appreciated all of your support and encouragement!

Day 10

I can't believe that this is the final day of the challenge. In some ways it seems like years since I have eaten "non-real food", and in other ways the 10 days have flown by. I have learned so much from this experience and I can't wait to share those things with you. But I am going to save that for tomorrow, or maybe Saturday depending on how many parties I go to tomorrow night ; )

The end of the challenge is bitter sweet. I am sad that I will no longer be under pressure to eat healthy food. Doing the challenge with my co-workers, writing this blog, and having to sign a pledge to follow the rules all kept me motivated to do the right thing and eat well. Now I won't have those things driving me. I don't want to go back to my old way of eating, but I think it will be very easy for me to slip back in that habit. But at the same time, I am a bit excited that the challenge is over. There was a lot of pressure to make sure that I was not putting a single bit of non-real food in my mouth, and I want to be able to eat a slice of pizza on special occasions. But I think the thing I am most excited about is getting to eat a Muddy's cupcake tomorrow thanks to my friends Laura and Drew!

And finally, for the last time:
Breakfast- Granola with milk and blueberries
Snack- Almonds
Lunch- Tortillas with hummus, spinach, and cheese; and an apple
Dinner- Tortilla with pasta sauce, Monterey Jack cheese, and feta (aka a Pizzatilla- pizza on a tortilla); and some carrots

I really wish I had taken a pic of my dinner. It was so delicious and it looked pretty.  Oh well, maybe next time.