day seventeen...who do you please?

I will keep it short and sweet tonight, but I just have one question to ask you. Who do you please? Is it yourself? A spouse? Parent or sibling? Your flesh or your spirit? Tonight at church we read a verse in Romans 8 that said, "So them, those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:8). This hit me like a ton of bricks and made me really think about who I am trying to please. It was only last month that I was living a life solely devoted to my flesh and feeding my sin of addiction to food. I did not realize at the time that because of my fleshly desires, I could not please God. Really makes you think about who you are pleasing.

I can say with confidence now that I am living wholeheartedly for the Lord and am walking in His steps more than ever before. Through this Medifast program, I have been able to deny my flesh those things it longs for and instead fill up my spirit with the things of God. And with the Lord's help I am able to walk in His ways and please Him.

Breakfast
Sunday's seem to be my late start day. I tend to sleep in, which causes me to eat my breakfast later on in the day throwing my meal times way off. This morning I woke up and had a pineapple mango smoothie around 10am.

Lunch
I went to church around 11am and didn't get home until about 1pm, so it was definitely time for my lean and green meal for the day. I made a new dish today that I think you guys will love. Sundays from now on are going to me my "try new things" day. And hopefully by Monday or Tuesday I will have the recipe for you all. So today I made spaghetti using zucchini and added some marinara sauce and sausage to it...oh, and a little bit of melted cheese. Delish!

Afternoon Snack #1
After two or so hours, I ate my first snack of the afternoon. I had some pizza bites and drank lots of water. For some reason these bites are super dry, resulting in me drinking about 24 ounces of water. But I see it as a good thing!

Afternoon Snack #2
I then had a smores crunch bar as my second snack of the afternoon. I can't tell you enough how much I love these. They are so stinkin' good! I could easily eat these everyday, all day.

Dinner
I ate a tad late today, because I had to wait until I got home from church...which was around 9pm. I will be honest, I don't like eating too late because I feel kind of gross in the morning. I don't know what it is. But...I have to complete my meals for the day even if that means eating late. I will just have to wake up earlier on Sundays in the future so I don't have to stay up late.

Dessert
I tried to pick a small, light meal so it doesn't sit in my stomach too long as I am going to go to sleep for the next 8 hours.

Remember to feed your spirit rather than your flesh so you can please the Lord and not yourself or someone else. God is the only one who matters.

xoxo,
Toni

day six...you need to heed in order to succeed

When the Word of God is telling you something, you better listen up and do it. Take heed to what the Lord is saying to you. Last night the Lord spoke to me greatly through Pastor Chuck's Wisdom for Today Devotional. It was all about Jesus taking the victory on the cross to defeat satan so that we can in turn have victory.

In case you can't read it, it says, " His [Jesus'] victory means we can know victory. Though Satan will never stop trying to tempt you away from God, you can stand against that temptation and know the glorious victory of Jesus Christ."

Then this morning I received an email from my Medifast health coach, Charlotte, and she sent me another little Word from the Lord and it was all about standing fast. There was that word again: stand. You think the Lord is trying to tell me something? I need to be ready to stand in any situation. Whether it is about the Word of God or even about my diet, I...no we, must remain standing.

It is when you take heed to the Word and those helping you that you will succeed.

After waking up this morning and remembering all that the Lord spoke to me about the night before, I was ready to begin my day. For breakfast I had a delicious ice blended mocha shake. It was nothing special, I just took the Medifast mocha powder and blended it with one cup of water and one cup of ice. Simple perfection.

 

Next up for my morning snack, I ate some cinnamon pretzels. Still on the fence about this one, but I think I am beginning to like them more and more. My taste buds are finally adjusting to how the Medifast food tastes and how it is way better than "normal" processed junk food. Hopefully, one day I will just despise the taste of fast and fat food.

 

Doesn't that pretzel picture just look extra fall-like? I don't know...I think it does and I like it. Lunch was pretty boring and simple, but I like it. I have come to realize that cooking different and new recipes can oftentimes get me into trouble food wise. I tend to go all out and that will not help me when I am on this program. I think for right now I need to be repetitive and simple. So I stuck with my original ground turkey salad lunch. And for some reason, it smelled and tasted just like Taco Bell. I know, totally weird, right? But it was actually really tasty! And way better than Taco Bell...just sayin'.

Medifast Lean and Green Breakdown:

1 lean: 5 ounces of ground turkey

3 greens: 3 cups of romaine lettuce

1 healthy fat: 2 tablespoons of light Italian dressing

For my afternoon snack I decided to go and try the BBQ Bites once again. The verdict? Still not a fan. I don't know what it is about these, but they just don't taste that good to me. I may be crazy. But I still ate them, so I guess they aren't the worst thing ever. 

I had to rush dinner, unfortunately, so I could make it to church on time, but it was pretty good. I made the mac & cheese again and I think I made it right this time! Woohoo! For some reason, there were some tiny chunks in it last time because I didn't stir enough. But this time, I stirred like crazy and enjoyed a nice hot bowl of creamy, chunk-free mac and cheese.

After church, I came home and had my dessert. I have said this before, but I just love all of the bars. Tonight I had the cinnamon roll bar again and enjoyed every bite. When I have to order more meals for next month, you better be sure I will be buying more bars (and shakes).

So there you have it! Day six, complete! I cannot believe I have almost hit a week! Keep posted because I am going to share a little secret with you all tomorrow or on Friday. :)

xoxo,

Toni

day four...an evening stroll and a lesson learned

I cannot believe I have completed day four! Time seriously is flying by. I can't tell you how happy I am and how much I am looking forward to how I will feel and look a month from now or even six months from now <---I am hoping it takes about six months to get to my goal weight of about 105 pounds. I am only 5'1", so this weight is in the healthy weight BMI range for me. :)

okay, moving on to breakfast! I had a smoothie today. An orange mango smoothie to be exact. I can't put my finger on what the taste reminded me of, but it tasted so familiar. Who knows. Overall it was a nice, icy cold and fairly thick smoothie—components for a perfect smoothie.

Moving on to my morning snack, I had a blueberry soft bake...that I did not "bake" but rather cooked  in the microwave. This tasted pretty similar to a blueberry muffin. Actually, it tasted like a real muffin a lot (minus the vitaminy taste. All the Medifast foods are stock full of vitamins). I also thought I would switch up the pictures a bit and show you a step-by-step of how I made this little morning treat. I promise you, there are blueberries in the batter, they just all sunk to the bottom.

So for lunch, I switched it up and had some chicken rather than ground turkey. I also added some sauteed red peppers and put it all over a bed of romaine lettuce and added some light Italian dressing to it.

It was at this time after my lunch up until my afternoon snack that I struggled a bit. I wasn't tempted by other foods, it was more of a I just have to eat something right now. But by eating every 2-3 hours (not every hour) is how my body stays in a high metabolic, fat burning mode. So I waited and practiced discipline.

So, when it was time for my snack I decided on the cheese pizza bites. And you know, they actually did taste like cheese pizza. I was pretty shocked! The cracker part, which acts like the crust, is covered with a cheese and tomato flavor which just comes out to be a pretty delicious snack. I definitely like these better than the BBQ flavored ones I had yesterday.

Around 5pm, I got off work and began to eat my next Medifast snack: A Caramel Crunch Bar! I am not the biggest fan of caramel (I prefer chocolate over anything), but this bar wasn't too bad! I am liking all of the Medifast bars so far!

I ate my bar while driving with my mom to the backbay so we could take a leisurely walk through nature. While walking we listened to a message by Cheryl Brodersen and it just taught me a lesson for sure. <---This is my lesson learned. ;) She had given this message the day after Pastor Chuck (her father) went to Heaven. The joy she had in the midst of a difficult and sad time was incredible. I am currently going through a time at home where it is hard to find joy and love for those who just get on your nerves. You know? But the Lord spoke to me and was telling me I had to show love for these people. I not only think of how Jesus would treat these guys, but also of how Pastor Chuck would have treated them? Both would do it in love.

So we strolled along the beautiful nature path quite briskly while listening to a message, along with all the different birds and animals sounds in the distance. It was such a peaceful moment. After we got back to the car I told my mom, "Wait! We have to take a picture for my blog!" And so we did. :)

All in all, we only walked a bit under 3 miles (we were shooting for 4 miles). But hey, we still burned 235 calories in about 47 minutes...and all we did was walk! Plus, it was nice spending time with my mom.

When we got home, I began making my last meal of the day. It was oatmeal again. But this time it was a brown sugar flavor and I decided to attempt and make a muffin out of it. It didn't turn out exactly how I thought it would, but I will get it right eventually.

So there you have it! My day in a nutshell. Tomorrow I face day 5!

xoxo,
Toni

day three...my food is the will of God

Can't believe it's already the end of day three! Hasn't really even felt like I'm on a diet due to the fact that I'm like eating all day! I love it.

So as I was reading my morning devo it was talking about how my food should be the will of God. That spoke mountains to me. I shouldn't be so concerned with earthly food that will just cause me to become hungry again, but I should be filling myself with the word of God and following the call The Lord has for me. 

The devo is taken from The Daily Light. 

Ok, as for my food today, I made myself the Medifast spiced pancakes for breakfast. They were...not bad. I most definitely prefer the real pancakes, but these were pretty satisfying for being "diet food".

After breakfast I went to church and was a tad late on eating my next meal. Since it was lunchtime, I decided to eat my lean and green meal. So for lunch I had ground turkey "tacos" with grilled onions and asparagus "fries" on the side. 

Then for my first afternoon snack I had some BBQ bites. These didn't taste as good as they sounded, but were still pretty good. 

Moving on to my next afternoon snack, which I ate after my hour and 20 minute walk (totally forgot to take pictures), I had a peanut butter crunch bar. This was pretty good and tasted similar to a crunchy protein bar. It also had chocolate on it which just makes everything taste better. ;)

After church I had dinner, which consisted of a nice hot bowl of apple cinnamon oatmeal. The taste was a tad off, but it wasn't all that bad. But next time it may make a muffin out of it instead. Recipe to come later ;)

And then right before going to bed I had a wonderful dessert. It was another frozen yogurt type dessert, but this time it was mocha flavored rather than peanut butter. And I totally put a filter on the photo because the original one didn't look great at all. Bad lighting...or just a bad photographer ;)

So overall it was a great day! I'm excited to see what this next week has in store for me.

xoxo,

Toni