Does God Exist?

We had a really good class on Sunday discussing one of the big questions, "Does God Exist?" 

This is Adam "The Dad" by the way(BTW). 

It was such a "hot topic" we ran out of time trying to fit everything in one class time.  One of our friends wanted to go after church to discuss it more with the whole class.  I didn't realize it would be a big subject matter.  I mean, we all should believe that God exists in a Sunday School class right? 

The issue did not relate to a lack of belief in God as the ultimate supreme being that formed the Heavens and the Earth.  It developed out of a sense of our individual understanding of who God is in our personal relationship with Him.  Explaining that relationship through a distorted America-centric point of view became the real topic.  We have clouded our minds with what the true importance of a real relationship with God is.  This personal relationship we each have with the Creator is not something that can be found in Hollywood or down the street at 7-eleven.  It is a unique experience that does not rely on any doubt of God as a supreme being but rather it relies on the depth we choose to go with God.

The draw to Christianity for me is the beauty and wisdom of the Gospel.  It relies on one thing, God's love for us.  Jesus came to this Earth to offer me a way to experience the right creation God intended for me to be a part of.  I cannot wait until that day comes! However, that offer can be so much deeper on Earth with my decisions I can make each day.  Yes, I know that one day I will experience the true beauty of a perfect creation where God's Love Wins, but I can be a part of that Love while here and the more I choose to experience it the more it radiates into those around me.  Isn't that a beautiful thing we can take part in?  In beginning in my knowledge of who God is I am able to perceive a real perspective on what life is really about.  It is not about the creation we are currently experiencing or the way in which it was created.  It is about the story God has written for each of us.

Our unique life story that has already been written is an opportunity to bring the most Glory to God in our short time.  Are we called to not search out His hand print in creation? No, quite the opposite. God has given us intelligent minds to search Him out in every aspect of who He is.  He is a creator, inventor, lover in the truest sense.  He is every good part of us and creation that we perceive in its perfect form.  The fun is searching out what He has written us for and looking back to see that story dancing between struggles and victories. 

I don't have anything together and yet I am still able to see that small glimpse of what God has in store for me as a Dad, Husband, Brother, and Son.  I am not living up to the potential God has set before me.  That is the Wisdom of the Gospel in my life.  I am grown through that relationship I can develop with God if I take the time to spend it with Him. 

So, Does God Exist? Well, that is not the question I am worthy to ask, rather the question I have to ask is, "Am I choosing the best existence God has for me?"

Proud Moments

Does anyone else get super duper excited as Fall approaches? We do! I got to be a stay at home mom today as Baby Boy woke up with Pink Eye around 3 this morning. I immediately started medicating him with drops and by 3 today he was bouncing around like his usual floppy headed self (I can totally hear my dad calling him that). Anyways, since he wasn't the kind of sick that required us to stay home we went and did some grocery shopping, fitness gear shopping (SO EXCITED to share that) and some cooking.

We bought every vegetable that we could possibly roast and while he took a nap I chopped them up, sprinkled them with ground ginger, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg and garam masala and roasted away. We even made dinner for our friend who just had a double mastectomy and delivered it to her and visited some.

Today was my day off of exercising but since I bought some new fitness gear (SO EXCITED) I had to try it out. So I got in 1.3 miles of running while pushing my 40 lb 3 year old in his stroller (talk about sweat) and then another 1.4 miles in walking as he colored with sidewalk chalk. We ended our day with swings, talking with Uncle Chris and free slushes at Sonic with our bubba and sister, thanks to our local radio station KLTY.

So not only is my house clean (I also did dishes and laundry), but I have dinner for the rest of the week prepared, half of a test written for Bible and a fantastic new FITNESS DEVICE TO SHARE....is the suspense killing you?

Here are my proud moments for all 5 of us this past week.

Adam-Not only did he work a full day on Tuesday, he told me to go eat with our mutual friends after we were both invited....thus he was on after school duty which included cheer practice for Ribbit. He then got home, watched the kids while I scrambled their dinner together, did dinner, gave baths and then decided to go help our neighbor that we barely know. He could see him struggling to dig out some plumbing issue so he went into his mosquito infested yard and helped as much as he could. WHAT A GUY!

Goober-I can name every tune he plays on the violin. He was amazed when I started singing along to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jingle Bells and Jolly Old St.Nicholas. He said " you can tell what those are"....and I said "quite easily". My heart also leapt when Goober brought home a .....wait for it.....100 on his last math test. I mean if you only knew what our day looks like when we start math HW or what our day looks like when we go over his last math test and we look to see what directions he didn't follow because he wanted to be the first to turn it in. Its quite frustrating for everyone involved. His teacher scared the beejeebies out of me when she sent me an email that was titled " What did Eli do now?". I did'n't want to open it...but when I did she had scanned in his test grade as a picture for us to see.....talk about heart failure!!!! GOOD JOB BUDDY!!!

Ribbit-This little girl has caught the LOVE OF LEARNING bug. She is doing so well and God is showing us again and again that making her stay in kindergarten again was a wise choice. For the first time ever, she wrote her FIRST AND LAST name by herself!!! She was so stinking proud and I loved watching her form all of the letters with her lips first and then practice drawing them in the air before she wrote it on paper. She also read her FIRST BOOK "I can hop". She pointed to every word and every time she would turn the page she would say "watch mommy, its magic....ssswiiisshhh". We fist bumped several times when she finished and we all made a huge deal out of it.

Baby Boy- I get an email at least once of week about his fantastic behavior or his cute curiosity from a teacher. He even got a Daniel Sticker for not giving into bad behavior when everyone else in Spanish class was doing so. He knows the sign language to all of "trust and obey" and his music teacher said that he is the only three year old who will do it the whole way through. He truly is a sponge, soaking up every thing you say, every face you make, every conversation you have and he spits it all back out!!! We are so proud of him for keeping his nap mat dry every day this past week too!

Momma-I just have to tell you how proud I am of my time at my last race this past weekend. I ran a 20 k at an 8.22 mile minute average. I stayed with my friend the first two miles to warm up but when she told me I could go ahead, I DID. I have the race pictures to prove just how much energy it required to keep that pace but it was well worth it. I saw my kiddos and the finish line both at the same time after the last long hill and I sprinted. I felt so good afterwards physically but mentally I was drained. I have never talked to myself that much in my life....its funny how much time I spend physically preparing myself for races but I psych myself out over the mental part. Today as I was telling my brother about it he said "if that is what you have to do to get through the race then that is totally ok"...another reason I so love my little brother...he is always so proud of me and encourages me to keep going!

Ribbit sporting my medal!

I started at minute 3 which knocked my time down some but I am so stinking proud. 

I really could have cried though as I finished mile 12 and immediately heard my kiddos voices saying "mommy mommy". I also pictured them a lot of the race and told myself that hearing their voices and hugging them was worth it all. I also couldn't wait to hang my medal around Ribbit's neck as she was the only one who even cared about it :). Goober immediately took my free hat and Baby Boy took the only thing I had left, my water....who needs water after a 13 mile run anyways :).

You might be married to a runner if...

I'm dedicating this post to my handsome, funny, servant hearted, gracious, hard working husband. He not only puts up with me but he puts up with my running...which at times probably feels like the third wheel in our marriage.

You might be married to a runner if....

1. You are solo after 8 PM every night.

Adam and I used to enjoy staying up late to watch TV together. He now gets to watch whatever he wants to as I pass out the minute the kids have stopped coming out of their room asking for one more "nuggle" or "tiss". If someone invites us out and I know it will keep me out past eight then I have to either politely decline, check the weather real quick to see if I can push my morning run back some or send Adam solo.

My hubby and big man enjoying a ranger game with our neighbors. I totally volunteered to stay at home with the kiddos knowing that I had a long run planned for the next morning!

2. You are solo after 4:15 every morning.

Poor Adam. My alarm is set for 4:15 every morning and the ring I have is two levels above "BEYOND ANNOYING". It has to be. He knows the routine. I will be up for the next 20 minutes rushing around the house, turning on a lot of lights, filling up my water bottle, searching with my phone light for my fitbit, opening and shutting doors, opening and shutting the garage door and he can finally go back to sleep around 4:35. I try to be quiet. I lay out my clothes the night before. BUT, for the love it is 4:15 in the morning, I am still a little disheveled.

See the time this is posted? Yup, started running at 4:42 am.

3. Your spouse has a whole section of the pantry labeled "parents food only"...which really means "momma's food only".

Hey, before you start judging. I NEED MY PROTEIN. What Adam considers his 15th small meal of the day is my energy boosting, 15 grams of protein, expensive kindbar before my long run on Saturdays. Those things are expensive. I also hoard my own cereal that has lots of fiber and protein and is low calorie so that I can have it the minute I sit down for breakfast.

This bar isn't particularly high on the "healthy" scale but it sits well with me and sticks with me through long runs. In fact my last PR was set after I ate this bar before running.

4. You have learned to ignore the damp clothes that are standing up on their own in the bathroom. Just walk away.

Poor guy, he literally just keeps pushing all of my NASTY clothes into a pile until the weekend when I do LARGE loads of what smells like locker room laundry. There are times when I will pick up clothes off the bathroom floor and wonder how on earth they will ever bounce back from the state they are in...10 miles in the TX heat does weird things to the feet....that smell ain't natural.

(A picture here would be way too disgusting)

5. You aren't surprised anymore by anything.

Adam barely flinches now when I come home with another running story. Like when I fell and had blood all over my hands and knees and ran 9 more miles covered in it only to get home and show him my battle wounds, he didn't even blink. He continued to hand out the kids breakfast while I limped around and bandaged myself up.

Goober took this picture for me...as I said Adam wasn't impressed at all with my battle wounds :)

When I swore I saw a wolf at a park during my last long run he just looked at me and laughed and said " are you sure, I highly doubt it". I was expecting him to grab me and say " I am so glad you escaped the dangerous public park with the wolves....you probably were running to fast for him to catch you". Nope.

When I come home and announce another PR that I am so stinking proud of he just smiles and says "Good Job". I am expecting him to take me out for celebration coffee and declare my awesomeness to our neighbors.  Instead later on when they ask why he doesn't run with me he smirks and says " I don't like to run that slow".

This was my fastest time ever. My splits got faster and faster. I am accrediting it to three things 1) the marathon protein bar, 2) the fantastic weather that morning and 3) my new breathing methods. 

6. You know that the key to her heart is a new pair of running shoes...... flowers and candy are a HUGE NO NO.

Adam and I recently went shopping with another couple...the wife is one of my running buddies. I think the husbands expected us to want to spend our money on jewelry or purses. Nope, we went straight to the running gear and tried it all on. We also spent the majority of our time trying on shoes, running around the store with them on, talking about all of the new inventions out for runners, how our arches would be supported and in the end I GOT A NEW PAIR OF SHOES. I haven't even taken them out of the bag yet....They will be unveiled after my race this weekend. They are stinking awesome. Thanks hubby!

These awesome shoes will soon be retired to weight lifting days and spirit wear days at school. 

7. You get threatened if you forget her snacks!!!!

I have seriously changed my metabolism. I can't go 2 hours without a snack. I have never in my life been this hungry.... I mean there was that one time when I couldn't eat before surgery and I felt hunger pains. BUT, this is a constant battle to keep myself full, especially the day after a 9-12 mile run. I plan out my snacks for the whole day so that I am eating 100-200 calories every 2 hours. This keeps me energetic but not so full that I feel sleepy. Well if Adam is in charge of getting our snacks for the day into my fridge at school and he forgets....he might as well sleep on the couch that night. THERE IS NOTHING WORSE THAN A HANGRY (HUNGRY PLUS ANGRY) WIFE! I have also been known to demand that we leave events early because I can feel myself getting hungry and one of us have forgotten the snacks. He has even referred to me as gollum and smeagoll off of Lord of the Rings before....my mood does change quite quickly.

One of my new favorite meals is a protein packed stir fry with edamame, spinach, low fat feta cheese, roasted cauliflower and asparagus topped with mustard. It does have a weird smell to it but taste amazing!

I also LOVE LOVE LOVE spaghetti squash, roasted tomatoes, baked shredded chicken and tzatziki sauce!!!

Zucchini noodles are also a new fave...one can only eat so much salad and tofu noodles. I shave these with a carrot peeler and then add tomatoes, pineapples, blueberries, strawberries and sometimes shrimp!! YUM!

Fitness Friday-My friend's Marathon

I'm not sure where to begin.
This actually has nothing to do with physical fitness but the word marathon applies to the situation.

Two weeks ago my friend, my sister in Christ, a fantastic mommy to three children who are the same ages as my own, who attend the same school and same church we do .....two weeks ago her world was rocked with a health problem that she never knew existed until she went into the ER.

Two weeks ago our mutual friend, who is also my sole sister (we run every run together), a woman that I can't find one ounce of weakness in, a fellow sister in Christ....two weeks ago the loss of her mother at age 10 was brought to the forefront of her mind as she walked through this health scare with our friend.

Two weeks ago I was reminded that our time here on Earth is fleeting, a mist, a vapor. That my children are so precious, so much a part of what makes me work hard, so enjoyable even when they are not.

BUT, this school year which started almost 5 weeks ago God began to pave the way for all three of us.

Five weeks ago, I saw that my teaching schedule would allow me to attend Moms in Prayer at our school for the first time in my 6 years there. I went and immediately caught their vision of begging the Lord on the behalf of our school, our students, our parents, our teachers.

Three weeks ago, I heard a sermon on how the Lord's word is always good to our hears. It satisfies us like nothing else can. I was reminded that the Lord has provided everything we could ever want...even when I don't know what to pray He has sent the Holy Spirit to groan and utter on my behalf. The Holy Spirit has had to stand in my place a lot lately as all I know to pray is "please God, please".

Last week, our pastor finished his sermon series on Community....something that I have a desperate passion for. I was in tears when the pastor reminded us that we are made in God's image and so this deep longing I have to be a part of a community, to form deep bonds come from Him. I am not a weak human who is selfishly craving something that I can't have. I am craving a deep rooted community where I can suffer with the saints, praise God for our blessings and trials, love and grow together.

Last night I went and prayed over my friend with the health issues as she underwent a life changing surgery today. I watched my friend beg God for healing, to allow her to wake up after surgery (a very real issue), to allow her to raise her kids. I watched my other friend sob as she remembered losing her mother but praise God for the lessons she has learned and the memories she has of her. I felt deep roots among us as we held hands, hugged, held, laughed and cried.

Today, my friend is in recovery. Her operation was a success, in fact it turned out to be the best case scenario they played out before her yesterday as she was told every scenario possible. She will be able to raise her children, testify to our God's faithfulness again, love her husband, fellowship with her sisters.

As I prepare for a 20K, 1/2 marathon and full marathon I have to visualize this whole ordeal as a race. There are times in our lives when we have to step into our friends sufferings, into their marathon. I don't know any other metaphor that applies so well.

Its long, excruciating, its mental, physical, requires grit, sucks for most of the way, you only see the end when its right upon you, there are thousands of others running past you but not with you, you are passing up others but not stopping to engage them. There are times in my life when I am going to have stop my life, my marathon....turn around..step into anothers pace, anothers life and carry them, support them.

Stopping my race and entering theirs means I lose my pace, I lose my routine, I back track, I become uncomfortable as I step into a race that I didn't train for....but I go back none the less and I make sure that both my friend and I finish strong. I make sure that they are loved on, feel supported, are being ministered to, are able to get back into their own pace and we all cross the finish line together.

So many people have stepped out of their race and into mine countless times. Jesus stepped down from the throne and entered the human race, lowering himself to the form of man, to show how to be a true servant leader.

For those of you who have never run a race I don't know any other way to describe crossing the finish line other than a feeling of being "complete". You have trained, you have endured, you have backtracked to pick up a friend, you have encouraged other runners, you have grabbed nutrition along the way, you have mentally told yourself that you can finish time and time again. This feeling of real completeness will be so much sweeter as we cross into eternity and look back on our marathon of life. As believers I hope we can look back and see how we stopped at mile 17 and re-grouped, praying and begging God for our lives. I pray we can look back at mile 20 and remember all the times he was faithful to sustain us through the hard times and hills and always kept his promises. I pray that at mile 25 (whenever that happens for us all) that we can look ahead and sprint towards the finish line, reaching out to grasp God and hear him say "Well done thy good and faithful servant". I pray that we run the race with endurance and in community.

Birthday Party Overload

It has been one of those weeks where we are doing just enough to keep our heads above water. Our house is a disaster and we are all 100% ok with that. We have better things to do like attend a bajillion birthday parties, go cheer on our Cougars and Tigers at athletic events, attend concerts at church and for momma...fit in 26-30 miles of running a week to train for all of my upcoming races.

Baby Boy is still loving every bit of school. I overhead him tell his teacher "Alright Perona (he  hasn't grasped that there should be a Mrs. before her name yet)....so "Alright Perona, is it time for a WESSON?". He was sitting in her lap as he asked it. She said "Yes, Baby Boy its time for  a WESSON' and off all 5 of them went to sit at their tables and get ready to learn!!! Cutest thing ever. He also asked to hold my mirror one day and told me to look at it. He said "see Mommy, we look like God, we are made in his image". Done!!!!, he could graduate tomorrow only knowing that and I would feel like all of my tuition was well worth it!!

Ribbit is also doing fantastic, learning how to write her last name and sounding out words on her own. She loves coming home and telling us the bible story she studied that day and how "sad it was that Cain used a stick to kill his brother Abel but we aren't really sure it was a stick, it could be anything like a stick or a rock". Her artistic skills are showing up in other areas of her life too. Her teacher sent me a text of her math practice sheet. Not only did Ribbit draw all of her shapes correctly and draw the right amount but she also colored them in with polka dots, diagonal lines and colored in the background with Cougar colors. When I asked Ribbit if she wanted to be an art teacher like mommy she said "well if you are still alive then we can both teach art at CCA". Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Goober loves all things 5th grade but is once again starting to let some things slide. The best part is that Adam and I are both in and out of his building all day long so we get updates constantly!!! We know that he isn't listening in Bible, that he is offering to help others in math, that he earned 4 Daniel Merits for being courteous and that his teachers all think he is a fun sensitive kid. Thats our boy in a nutshell ;). He is playing baseball again and I'm always so impressed by his pitching skills even though I see it every season. He picks up where he left off and every coach is impressed by his left handed abilities! He is also getting pretty consistent at batting. He (and us) are having to adjust to much longer practices and prioritizing HW/ dinner time as a family and church events.

Auction/Boxing Event with my girls!!

Someone thinks that they are big enough to be a Smash Brother!!!

If you look close enough you will see 3 brown kiddos out there dancing at a birthday party!

Another Covenant Big Bash where everyone was invited!! Love our school!

At the boxing event with my good looking man.

Last Saturday's birthday party gifts....whew wee, that was a whirlwind day but LOTS OF FUN!

You get the full treatment when your momma is the face painter at birthday parties!

The two littles LOVES this karate birthday party. The people who owned the business couldn't get over how serious Baby Boy took the whole thing. He would call out the leaders if they didn't answer back with "YES SIR"!

Fitness Friday-Monday Edition :)

As usual, I am behind on blogging. I honestly would rather take naps though on the weekends than catch up on the blog, especially now that I am training for a 20k, 1/2 marathon and full marathon. Saturdays are my long run days and therefore a nap on Sunday after church is a MUST. Saturday naps hardly ever happen as we spend our Saturdays at birthday parties, sporting events, church events or cleaning up the house....but Sunday, oh glorious Sunday....weight day, church, lunch, NAP, dinner, tv time, BEDTIME....love it!!

So my next tip for staying fit is having a routine....with both exercise and your diet. Routines are proven to be the desired form of educating students because they know what is expected of them. Routines are what defines us as families...routines for holidays, birthdays, bedtimes all give us a sense of belonging. Routines give us peace, can help us make decisions easier and keep us from making rash decisions.

My SCHOOL YEAR exercise routine is the same every week so that I know what nutrition I will need to recover, what I can and can't accomplish during the time I have to exercise and if and when I need to add in a recovery day.

School Year Work Out routine (which differs heavily from my summer routine)

Sundays-Weight Circuits with my girls at 6:00 (5 rounds of circuits that we perform 3 times each). They focus on legs, arms, core and back. There are 3 of us that meet on Sundays and we take turns writing the circuits. This is important because I will avoid burpees all day long...but one of my girlfriends adds them into all of her routines!!!! I love lunges but another girl HATES them...this way we all keep from doing the same routines and really challenge our bodies.

Bar Squats ...HURT SO GOOD :).

Mondays-4:45 am. A 5 mile run around Colleyville with my girls. There are 5 of us that run this route. It takes us through several nearby subdivisions and across several big highways that are dead at 5:00 in the morning. This run has a 4 mile cut off so if we are tired we can always stop short of our goal of 5 miles. We have met the newspaper man many times on this route and I jump every time he approaches us slowly and hurdles the paper out of his window. Geesh.

Colleyville Run...including a run right past Braums...good thing they are closed that early in the morning :).

Tuesday-4:45 am. A 5 mile run down the Cotttonbelt trail that has some hills and wide sidewalks so we can run side by side. Us ladies like to talk ...ALOT...which is how the time FLIES by!!! This trail runs all through the mid cities and we start at my friends house in Hurst and run to the watertower in Colleyville and turn around. This one also has a cut off at 4 miles so that some of us can adjust for time or soreness. This trail is usually busy with bikes this early in the morning and they are normally wearing bright lights...it reminds me of the twilight zone every time. This trail also has llamas and lots of bridges!

Straight down to the water tower and back. If we want  to go the full 5 we head back down Glade and turn around when the sidewalks ends :).

Wednesday-Off day for my running group but DANCE NIGHT for my Zumba group (mainly teachers from school)!!!! My groupon just expired for Zumba and since I hate to pay for exercise I have started walking on my treadmill while I read every Wednesday morning at 5. So far I have read "Shepherding a Child's Heart" and "Thank you for Arguing" and I started a murder mystery last week. I normally walk for an hour, at a low incline....just enough to get some movement but still give my body a rest day.

We all showed up to Zumba in our pink and black!!!

Thursday-4:45 am. Stairs and Weights circuit at our school. We have 2 flights of stairs at school so we have 6 circuits we work through 3 times each. (ex. Run 3 flights of stairs, 15 tricep dips, 30 standing russian twist with weights). Each circuit has you doing something different on the stairs...like running them with high knees, jumping up them with both feet, skipping every other, bear crawling up them, etc.) There are 5 of us that come on these days and we all take turns writing these circuits too. If one of us needs to skip stairs then we run sprints in the gym instead...THE KEY IS GETTING YOUR HEART RATE UP!

Friday 4:30 am. 6 mile run through the main part of Keller. We meet at our friends house who lives off a main road in Keller and run a heavy hill course and normally through sprinklers..MY FAVORITE. There are normally 4/5 of us that head out there. We start 15 mins earlier to allow for a  longer run and longer travel time. This run always gets me turned around, I couldn't ever do it alone since I have no clue when to turn, they are always yelling at me as I pass the turn and have to circle back :). It is so early though that I can't see a lot of where we are at and I hardly ever stop to look at the street signs...I GOT THINGS TO TALK ABOUT PEOPLE!!

Saturday 6:00 Park Run. We aim for these runs to be fun and exploratory. We pick different parks all over the Metroplex and plan out longer runs. Right now we are building up to our 13.1 race, trying to all get it down under 2 hours. These runs have taught us many life lessons, like EAT before you run more than 5 miles....wear things that don't rub your thighs, armpits and toes....long runs KILL your body sooo much more than short ones. Plus, we run later which means its hotter. This past weekend the weather was PERFECT and I was in such deep conversation with one of my friends that our intended goal of 10 miles turned into 10.5 before we ever thought to check our distance. NOW THAT IS GOOD CONVERSATION. We all feel like we get a double work out as we have to huff and puff up a hill while we talk. That's our story and we are sticking to it!

This park run started and ended at Sparger park. There are wooded trails with BIG HILLS all around Sparger. My sweet friend and I were so deep in conversation that we ran several loops 2 or 3 times :).

This routine has allowed me to run 104.5 miles just in the month of August. I set a PR in August too, running 7 miles in 1 hour and 1 minute. I LOVE IT!!!

As far as routines go with food, I have about 20-25 foods that I KNOW I enjoy and exactly how much I can have to be full. I rotate through these every time I go grocery shopping. As long as I have 3/4 of them at home I am never tempted to eat fast food, or like this past weekend... I said no to Pizza, Cake, Cupcakes and Chips at ALL 3 BIRTHDAY PARTIES... I had my roasted sweet potatoes and apple mixture for dinner already packed in a tupperware and popped a bag of Kettle Corn popcorn to munch on at another party.

These foods include a smoothie every morning, normally full of spinach, a fruit and Advocare Spark. Other foods include dark chocolate raisins from Sprouts Bulk, egg whites, Tropical Fruit Trail Mix from Sams, Rice Cakes with PB2, Bananas, Oatmeal and Grits 100 calorie packets, Edamame, Canned Tuna, Turkey Lunchmeat, Carbmaster Yogurt, Cheerios, Apples and KIND bars. I also eat a lot of Dr. Spreagers Super Green patties, roasted veggies and almonds.

Egg whites on top of roasted cauliflower, asparagus and peppers with Siracha sauce!

Routines also include knowing where I can eat out and exactly what I will order before showing up there! Panera Chicken Strawberry Poppyseed salad with No Fat dressing!

Yummy Dessert, Apples with PB2!

A GOOD GOOD Smoothie!!! Spinach and Spark..then I either add a frozen banana, frozen pineapple, 60 calorie vanilla yogurt or almond milk!!!

Having a routine allows me to feel like I am in control of my health, like I can plan ahead and I am hardly ever in a situation where I can't fit in a workout or eat a healthy, low calorie meal or snack!!