Spiritual Warfare?

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of spending the evening in worship next to my dear friend Kami and a hall full of others at the Matthew West concert.

The night was opened by Mr. Talkbox. I hadn't heard of him, but once he mentioned that he toured with TobyMac for about five years, I recognized his sound. He put on a really hype opener.

Then, it was time for Colton Dixon to get on stage! I remember watching him on American Idol many moons ago.

Following Colton was the headliner Matthew West.

Neither of us had dinner prior to the show, so by time it was over we were both hungry. So we stopped for a Fourth Meal at Taco Bell on our way home. We sat in the lobby and just talked.

We both had such a wonderful night. We left feeling encouraged and uplifted. Kami even said it was exactly what she needed. I dropped her off and headed home.

Although I fell asleep pretty quickly, it was a pretty restless night of sleep. I think I dreamed all night and woke up several different times. By time I got up in the morning, I was not in a good mood. I was sleepy, cranky, and frankly felt like throwing in the towel. I no longer saw a point in waiting like I wholeheartedly believe I am supposed to. I felt like I should regain control of the wheel... Work came, which helped my mind get off these thoughts. By time I got off work, I was feeling in better spirits and headed to Kami's house for our weekly tradition of Monday night dinner.

I tell you all this because when I arrived at Kami's she told me about her day and how she was having a rough day as well. She said her mood was "rotten" and even her youngest at three could see the difference. We talked about how our attitudes could be so sour when we just had a wonderful night of worship and felt so uplifted not even hours ago...

Could it be that we were under spiritual warfare?

To be honest, this was always something I kind of rolled my eyes. I’m not exactly sure why, probably because I wasn't in a good place in my walk; however, being where I am now, I totally believe this. Especially after us both had the same kind of experience with our attitudes. Additionally, the Bible tells us of such struggle. Consider Ephesians 6:12:

 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (NIV)

“For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.” (AMP)

*Disclaimer*

I am in no way, shape, or form trained in Biblical studies. These are my thoughts on matters in my life as I trek through life.

Simplistic

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being."

Matthew 6:19-21 MSG

I have had this verse on my heart and mind for sometime now. I'm not exactly sure why - I haven't read it recently or anything. Maybe it has to do with my approaching mission trip (55 days!) to Haiti and simply thinking of how little they have there. I'm sure I will be impacted beyond words when I go, and maybe this is a way of God preparing me so I'm not in so much shock. I really don't know. All I know is that I keep returning to this verse.

Then, today, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and came across this blog post from Francesca Batistelli about wearing the same thing every day. As I was reading, I couldn't help but think it was yet another affirmation from God that this is where He is taking me. 

Francesca linked a post by Elite Daily in her blog that said talks about decision fatigue: 

"This is all related to the concept of decision fatigue. This is a real psychological condition in which a person's productivity suffers as a result of becoming mentally exhausted from making so many irrelevant decisions.

Simply put, by stressing over things like what to eat or wear every day, people become less efficient at work."

It also talked about making life simple:

"Indeed, having a diverse collection of clothing is overrated. We waste so much time worrying about things that have no substantial consequences, and don't even realize how easily we could change this.

The vast majority of us are guilty of obsessing over material things. When it comes down to it, they bring no real value to our lives. True fulfillment is acquired by going out into the world and fostering palpable and benevolent changes."

And furthermore, if we look to Scripture God has already told us this in Matthew 6:27-34 MSG:

 "Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. 

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. 

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

I don't think He is just asking me to simplify in my clothing department but in all areas of my life. Prior to reading the blogs I had already started going through my closets, drawers, etc. and setting things aside that need to go; however, it is really hard for me to decide if I should get rid of X thing. I hate making decisions. Seriously, I am not a decisive person. So, maybe simplification is where I am supposed to go so that I can leave my decision making to the bigger and more important decisions that need to be made.

Falling Off Track

Happy New Year!

I know y'all have been wondering where I've been.... ok, probably not. But I'm going to tell you anyway. I've been on my couch. (Well, not just the couch but you know what I mean.) Throwing a pity party. Yup. Sad. I know.

What Led Me to Fall Off

FRUSTRATION
It all really start around the mid to end of July and after my final weigh in for my family weight loss competition. The scale hadn't moved in about a month and that was very frustrating. I tried to remain positive by focusing on my pace and not the scale. That tactic seemed to work as long as I was running.

NUTRITION
My nutrition started to slip as I was not tracking my food on MyFitnessPal. I had also stopped wearing my BodyMedia, taking pictures of what I ate, and updating my blog. Without tracking these things, I started giving in a little bit more to my cravings.

INJURY
In early August I started to experience some pain in my foot when I was running. I ignored it for a couple of days because it wasn't all that bad, but then on one of my runs it was a pretty severe pain and I actually had to walk home. I was completely bummed and knew I needed to take some time off.

TIME OFF
This time off came around my birthday where I took a trip to Cedar Point with a bunch of my girl friends. I was out of town not worrying about what I ate or drank. Girls just want to have fun, right?

HELLO COUCH POTATO
So a combination of all of these things lead me back to my former habits. I was making poor choices when it came to eating. Like, ordering carry out almost every night or going out with my friends for dinner and a drink. These poor choices made me lethargic, which led to making another choice not to cook and to eat out, which led me to feel lethargic again. You see where I'm going.

What I Learned

TRACKING
Although some do not see the point of doing it, tracking in anyway is helpful to keeping you on track. It's easy to mindlessly eat thousands of calories in one meal. I'm not saying you can never have pizza or your favorite take out anymore, but that needs to be a rarity. In most cases, the fast food you buy is going to be more expensive than a meal at home and three times or more your meal allotment.

ACCOUNTABILITY
I know this may sound silly but my blog was kind of my accountability. Posting what I was eating and doing daily helped me stay on track. I may only have a handful of readers but the feeling of posting my activities and eats for the "world to see" made me eat healthier. Notice that when I started slipping, so did my posts. Because lets be honest, no one is going to cheer me on when I'm eating pizza or take out for the fifth time that week. And doing so is just embarrassing.

LISTENING TO YOUR BODY
It is very important to listen to your body when it comes to injuries. Your body requires rest to recover and repair. In my case, having a foot injury did put me out of running for a time (I'm still not sure that my foot is 100% better, but I think its getting there) but it was not a good reason to stop all activity. I should have continued with lower impact cardio (either bike or elliptical if my foot could take it) and I could still certainly lift weights, work on my core, or even do some floor exercises for legs. The truth is: I used my injury as an excuse to be lazy. There you have it.

Getting Back on Track

Even though it is a new year, I don't do resolutions. I prefer goals. I have a goal list and continue to add and modify it. My goal for this year is to do good in school, PR a mini-marathon, and reach my goal weight. I'm going to use these goals to get back on track. To get back to being healthy. Before I start any training, I need to get to the Dr. and be sure that there is not an issue with the foot. Stay tuned - I'll have more coming for you!

6 Miler + CrossFit

Saturday was quite the day.

I woke up bright and early and headed out for my long run with my friend Julie. I needed to do 6 miles and Julie said that the trail we would run from her house would be about that. Well, we hit 3 miles and still had a 1.65 mile loop around the local YMCA before we would head back for the final 3 miles.

I tried to do what I could and around mile 5 I was experiencing some discomfort in my stomach and my ankle, so I stopped and walked for a little bit. After a while, I started to feel better so I ran the remaining 1.95 miles back to her house. Overall, and not including the walking part, I completed 6.95 miles in 69:39 for an average pace of 9:58.

5 Mile Stretch

Shortly after my run, I headed to a local CrossFit box for their guest days workout. I met up with my friend Justin and was surprised to see his sister Kaitlyn had decided to try it out too! (Side note - I used to babysit these two and their younger brother back in the day.)

The workout for the day was actually a group workout made up of 3 members, which just so happened to work out perfectly for us!

Musical Medicine Balls
100 Kettle Bell Swings
100 Burpees
100 Goblet Lunges
100 Toes to Bar, Knees to Elbow, or Crunches

Team "TooPhit": Kaitlyn, me, and Justin

The workout could be divided among the members in anyway, as long as 100 reps were completed before moving on to the next exercise. While one member was doing the work out, another member would be at rest, and the other would be holding a medicine ball overhead. If the medicine ball would be set down, the workout also had to stop.

KB Swings

Our idea was to do 10 reps each and then rotate. I didn't make any adjustments to the kettle bell swings and I think that we would have sped up our time if we had done as many as we could before we switched members but we didn't have that much time to talk about a game plan so we just went with it.

Burpees

Burpees. Oh how I hate burpees. First of all, with (what I believe to be carpel tunnel) my wrist problems, it's really had to put weight on my wrist when it is bent. Secondly, I have no upper body strength. Thirdly, on this fine day, I had thought it would be a great idea to run 7 miles before going to CrossFit so my legs were very sluggish. I did what I could, but I could tell I was slowing the team down. So I did what I could before I felt like death and then passed it to the next member. I felt terrible, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Kaitlyn doing goblet lunges

The goblet lunges are lunges where you knee comes to the ground each time, alternating legs. Each leg counted as 1 so we each did 20 before passing it on. No adjustments were made here and I ended up with some nice bruises on my knees. I love me some battle wounds!

Crunches instead of toes to bar

The last exercise was toes to bar. Toes to bar are done by hanging from a bar and bringing your toes to the bar. You can alter this by just bringing your knees to your elbows. Originally, I planned on trying to do knees to elbows from the bar because I thought I would be okay with it; however, by time we got to this my arms were jello and decided I would just pound out the reps doing the least difficult move: crunches.

Team "TooPhit" (as I am dubbing us as it's Justin's nickname around the box) finished the workout in 22:40.

We completed the work out with a few minutes of stretching. Even though the workout had it's challenges, I still enjoyed it and wish that they did guest days once a month!

Justin "TooPhit", Kaitlyn, and me.

What did you do Saturday morning? ;)

Most Talented Dog Ever

It's Wednesday afternoon and I should be getting ready to go to the gym, but I'm updating y'all on my eats and workouts instead because I am feeling lethargic. I want say it might have something to do with this heat wave, but lets face it - I'm am not outside all but maybe 10-15 minutes a day right now. I didn't get up the past few days in time to get my morning run in, so I went to my gym in the evening to run on the treadmill as it has been too freakin' hot and humid to function outdoors.

Monday

I was up in enough time to run for about thirty minutes so I munched on a bit of banana and honey, but then my body had a different idea so I stayed put and just got ready for work instead. I made a smoothie with water, cranberries, blackberries, spinach, and some PlantFusion protein powder. I haven't had this combo in a while and it was delicious.

I guess I should mention at this point that I have changed from my 4 eats (3 meals and 1 snack) every 4 hours to 5 eats (3 meals and 2 snacks) every 3 hours. I did this because I was feeling really hungry after 3 hours and I hadn't been able to lose any weight for a few weeks. I thought maybe it was because I had increased in my running time/mileage and was still eating around 1200 - 1300 calories. My goal is now more around 1350-1500. So not a big difference but we'll see if that helps.

Anywhoo -- I had a mid-morning snack of a rice cake covered in Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

Lunches for this week consist of a Morning Star Spicy Black Bean Veggie Burger, mozzarella cheese, pineapple slice, and some sweet potato rounds. This has become one of my new favorite lunches. It is very easy to make, delicious, and filling. I will try to change it up next week, but I give you no promises!

My afternoon snack was a White Chocolate Macadamia Luna Bar. I hadn't tried this flavor before and it was really good. I tend not to go for the Luna bars because it does contain processed food but they were on sale for $1/bar so I couldn't pass up on the savings.

I then took off to work out. I first hit up the Fitness Studio to do some toning and then headed off to MaxFitness to get my run in. I ran for 35 minutes and approximately 3.5 miles.

When I got home, it was time for dinner. I cooked up some Salmon and topped it off with Sweet Baby Ray's Honey BBQ Sauce and blueberry-nectarine salsa.

Now time for intermission.... Jumpy the Border Collie:

...and now back to your regularly scheduled post.

Tuesday

I heard my first alarm go off and snoozed it and then never woke up again until I had 45 minutes until I had to leave to make it to work. I showered up and made a smoothie with mango, strawberries, protein powder, and some spinach.

My morning snack was a rice cake covered in Justin's Vanilla Almond Butter that I picked up at my local Fresh Market. I hadn't tried this flavor yet so I was going out on a limb to buy a whole jar but it just sounded so good... and Holy-Yum! I was right! I love this stuff!

Later in the afternoon I had a pear with a hard-boiled egg. Simple yet satisfying.

I got home, changed, and then hit up a spin class at Max Fitness. After that I hit up the treadmill but was having some discomfort in my calf muscle. I tried to go as long as I could, but could only make it to the 2 mile mark before I decided I would rather be safe then sorry.

I cooked up some ground chicken tostadas when I got home and it hit the spot. Have I ever mentioned how I love food that is so simple yet so delicious?! Well, I do. This meal is easy to make. Just brown up some ground chicken (or turkey, or even a lean ground beef), toast your corn tortillas, and serve it up with some lettuce, tomatoes, and black beans. Add some salsa for some added spice and wallah! You could even add in some other flavors if you wanted like corn, onions, and/or avocados!

Question: What kinds of things do you do to get past a plateau  Do you change what you eat or your workout schedule? Fill me in! I would love some ideas! 

Back to the Grind

Do you ever get off a day and it seems like it takes you multiples days (for me, weeks) to get back on track? That is what happened to me. Although I was more than happy to help my grandpa move a couple of weeks ago, not having that time set aside so I could work around it really threw me off from my blogging streak' however, I maintained my running and eating which is what is really important (if I'm being honest.)

Here are a few highlights from the past couple of weeks that I have been silent..

STUTZMAN BIGGEST LOSER

On Sunday, July 7th, my family gathered for the results of our biggest loser competition. Some of my family I had not seen since Easter so their loss was noticeable. I did my best but wasn't able to pull off the win. My uncle Dewayne came in first, followed by my uncle Terry, and I placed in third. Overall, I can't be disappointed in my performance because I am 25 pounds lighter than when we started! Here is a short video that my aunt put together.

RUNS

My average pace on my runs have decreased, which is exciting! Well, I guess more than exciting, it's unbelievable! I was running my long run on Saturday and when MapMyRun would say my split pace, I was shocked. I was holding a pace that I would have never imagined I could do for one mile, let alone for 6 miles. It just goes to show that hard work and dedication does pay off.

 

Training Plan

I am still making changes to my running plan as I need to. Because I have been feeling stronger and that I need less time to recover, I have added a an additional day of running during the week. Additionally, I am still going to use my split timer for my run/walk but am only going to use the walk time if it is absolutely necessary. I figure, if I can run 6 miles and walk less than 2 minutes of it, I really don't need to be walking 4 minutes on short runs. Here is this weeks plan:

Week 8Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday

• 3 minute warm up
• 3 minute run x .5 minute walk. Repeat 8 times.
• 3 minute cool down

Saturday 7/20 - 6 miles
HEALTHY SURPRISE

I had placed my Healthy Surprise box in my pantry and kind of forgot about it. I figured I needed to start eating some as my next box will be arriving soon. Here are some of the treats I've tried:

Sesame Ginger Journey Bar: It wasn't like a flavor explosion in your mouth but it was still good. I would eat another one. It was 200 calories with 7 grams of protein. It is all natural, gluten free, non-gmo, soy-free, and vegan. They have other flavors and I would really like to try the Pizza Marinara. You can buy them online through the website and it breaks down to $2/bar. Not shabby!

Mango, Pear, Pineapple Fruit.0: Although the flavor was good, it was like eating baby food... or drinking a warm smoothie. It may have tasted better if it were cold but I'm not sure. If I get another one in a box, I will have to try it that way. It was 100 calories for the whole pack and you can purchase them online from their site. Cost breaks down to $2.50 a pouch. Maybe a good snack to pack for kids..?

Apples + Cherries That's it Bar: I loved this bar. It was soft and chewy and filled with flavor! I hope I get another one in my next box! One bar is 100 calories and only contained apples and cherries. Seriously! They have three other kinds, Apples + Pears, Apples + Apricots, and Apples + Mangoes. If you would like to try them, you can try all 4 flavors for $6.99 ($1.75 a bar) by going here.

Home Free Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies: These crunchy, bite size cookies were delicious! They took care of the cravings for crunch and sweetness all in a 100 calorie pack! The bits of chocolate were surprising soft and creamy compared to the crunchy cookie. The 100 calorie packs go for $1.50 on their website. That's about the cost of a candy bar, only these are a bit healthier.

SunBiotics Original Almonds: They're almonds. You either like 'em or ya don't; however, I saw on their website that they have Cheesy Almonds which I would LOVE to try! I absolutely love cheese! I wasn't able to find a store locator or a place to purchase these through their site, so I'm not sure how you can try these or how I will get the cheesy flavor... I guess I'll just wait.



Running Perks and June Recap

SATURDAY

I woke up in the morning feeling like p diddy and had a tablespoon of Justin's Maple Almond Butter and a Pomegranate Blueberry Pistachio Kind Plus bar. This was my first time having a Kind bar and it was really good. I had this to eat because I planned on running about 30 minutes after...

...but the 30 minutes turned in to over an hour before I actually hit that pavement. Oops!

My phone recently had an update and ever since then the GPS has not been working properly. I was running along and hit the one mile spot waiting for MapMyRun to read my total time and distance.. and I waited... and I waited. I thought maybe I had forgot to start it, but when I looked at my phone it was only reading .70 miles. Ugh. Frustrating. But I continued and said I would just have to guess by the total time. These are the split times they gave me, none of which I am trusting because it obviously didn't take me almost 38 minutes to do two miles.

 

I did some stretching when I finished and then found this weird gross thing on my shirt. I wonder how long he was along for the ride.

I hopped on MapMyRun.com to fix the map as best as I could to see what my total distance was. I planned to do 5 and ended up doing 5.45 with an average pace of about 11 minutes/mile. I guess that just means that I will have to do 5.5 or 6 this coming weekend.

After I freshened up, I headed to IHOP for some delicious breakfast! Yes, I had bacon and waffles. My lovely aunt gave me some grief for posting this photo on Facebook but I explained to her that running has its perks. I ran over 5 miles and burned more than 800 calories, and the day was just getting started. The meal was about 660. It was probably less than that because I didn't get butter and I used sugar free syrup instead of regular. So, of you ran 5.45 miles, you could eat like this too! Well, technically anyone could have this but you can have it with less guilt if you ran first. Oh, and it is a fact All my running buddies know that we run so we can eat. :)

I then headed off to Tiffany Nails to get in the 4th of July spirit.

After the nail salon I headed to get my hair done. It was desperately in need of a cut but was talked in to just a trim as everyone said they liked my hair long, so long it stayed. I think I am going to chop it all off when I hit my goal weight but we will see.

When I got home from running around all afternoon, I was in the mood for something salty and crunchy. So I took a look into the Healthy Surprise box I received a few weeks ago and found some Sesame Dijon Zucchini Chips from Just Pure foods. These were really good and I was sad when the bag was gone! The whole bag is one serving for 170 calories and 5 grams of protein. I can handle that! But I just checked out their website and one bag is $7! Yikes! Not sure I will be buying more of these after all.

SUNDAY

I kicked off Sunday with a smoothie made of pineapple, orange, ginger, kale and protein powder and then headed out to see my friend Britni.

After spending some time with her I headed to the grocery store to get all the fixin's for the week. I didn't have that much on my list and ended up filling the cart (and my cupboards) with things that were not necessary like chips, protein and other healthy bars, zero calorie flavored waters. I guess I was a little hungry.

When I got home, and after everything was put in its place, I made breakfast for lunch. Just a couple of eggs seasoned with Mrs. Dash, an orange, and a half of an Ezekiel English Muffin with a Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb wedge.

I was getting ready to relax when I noticed I had a voicemail from my mom asking me to come help her, my dad and brother move my grandpa. So much for relaxing. It was up off the couch and ready to work.

When we got there we had to pack everything up and load it, take it to his new home and unpack it. We got the major things done first, the kitchen, bath, and bed rooms. I had to leave at 8:30 pm because I was exhausted and I had things to do to get ready for work on Monday.

JUNE RECAP

Question: What do you like to eat after a run or workout? Do you splurge every once in a while or stick to the diet?