Day 13

Never thought I'd even make it this far on the FitFat40 challenge. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, then read my last post and it will catch you up. A few things have kept me going like the community that has been established. Doing a challenge like this with a bunch of people keeps the momentum up. I probably would have failed otherwise. We are all in this together and I even think it has allowed me to get to know more people because FitFat40 is certainly something to chat about. My partner for the challenge is Brittany, another staff spouse and it's been fun to encourage one another. Not going to lie, we also share our struggles which for me goes something like this..."IF I HAVE TO EAT ANOTHER SALAD..." or "I WANT SWEEEEEETS."

But I don't say or tell you those things for pity. I don't want this to be treated like a diet. Diets are temporary. I want to do this so that I can ultimately change my mindset about what I put in my body. I'm realizing my life has been all about convenience. If I'm hungry, I go get whatever can feel that void fast. So when I'm blurting the salad remarks, it's mostly because I don't feel like preparing food myself. Finding quality "fast" food is tough other than salads but I'm learning to really search over menus and ask ingredient questions to find the best option.

This challenge has forced me to get creative with cooking. My favorite meal so far has been the Philly cheesesteaks I made. Everyone needs to try this recipe...so good!

Photo Credit

I've also been educating myself on nutrition. In the midst of all this, I have discovered that I think I have a gluten intolerance. You see, before this challenge, my stomach ached 80% of the time. So painful that most of those times I would just have to go to bed and sleep it off. I'm 13 days into this challenge and I've been pain free. For years I thought it was a dairy intolerance but I've had a ton of dairy the past 13 days and no pain. Therefore, since I've cut grains completely, I'm thinking it has something to do with the grains. When I do bring grains back into my diet, I'm going to make every effort to go gluten free. I'd much rather do that then deal with being "sick" all the time again.

My next adventure is to start juicing. My cousin does it all the time and talks about all the benefits. I'm feeling like I need even more veggies in me and that will be the fastest way to get them. Any suggestions on juicers or recipes?

This saying is so true....

Have any of you cut out certain foods or are eating more naturally? I'd love to hear the benefits you have experienced and get encouragement/support. I challenge all my friends to try eating more naturally for a week and see how you feel. I never thought I would say this but I feel SO great. One of my favorite blogs is 100 Days of Real Food because she does such a great job educating you on reading labels and such. 

So what do you think...can you go a day without sugar? Grains? Try it ;)

-Sara

#fitFAT40

Hey friends! Life is good and time seems to be moving in turbo speed. The good news is that I only have 7 weeks of school left until summer vacation. Things are crazy this time of year at a school with all sorts of activities which makes the weeks go by even faster. I'm looking forward to wrapping up the school year so I can relax and mentally processing my first year of teaching.

In personal news, Elevation staff & spouses started a fitness challenge this past week. Basically you can get up to 4 points a day. Here is the breakdown:

• no sugar of any kind (except fruit)
• no grains
• exercise for at least 30 min.
• journal

We started this past week and I'm off to a great start. Todd had a few days of traveling so it was difficult for him but I think he will get back on track. I'm mostly eager to do this just because I've heard so many people talk about how much sweeter fruit and other real food will taste once your body detoxes from all the other junk. I'm not so much in it to lose weight but rather just get in better routines. I love that our church set up a website for all of the staff to hold us accountable to documenting our points. The challenge has already forced me in a good way to get more creative with dinners. Did I mention the challenge is for 40 days???? Bring it on!

Anybody else LOVING spring? Last weekend we went to Lowes and bought a few goodies to spruce up our yard. I love looking out our living room window to this view...

Plus springtime means lots of dinner dates outside and live music on the weekends! Charlotte is way more dog friendly than I actually imagined so we try to take Maggie wherever we go. We meet so many people this way because she is certainly a conversation starter.

 

And maybe my most favorite thing this time of year is fresh strawberries! YUM!

Have a great weekend!

So God Sent a Savior

Over the past 8 weeks, our church has been learning about some of the greatest stories ever told from the Bible. During the conclusion of the Easter message, our Pastor shared something he wrote along with the help of Amena Brown detailing some of those stories. It's written in poetic form and very powerful. I was excited to see that Pastor posted it on his blog so either check it out there (www.stevenfurtick.com) or view it here...




I heard it a few times that weekend but even today I have listened several times truly reflecting on those words. Thank you God for sending a Savior!

-Sara

The Greatest Story Forever Told

Our Easter weekend was amazing. We feel so blessed to be a part of a church that brings God our very best every weekend to worship Christ with thankfulness and reach our city for those that need a Savior.

Today I wanted to post a short recap of the Easter weekend we had at Elevation across 8 locations including our newest in the Greater Toronto Area. As most of you know, Todd is on staff with the Video team and they worked nonstop this past weekend to capture footage and edit the recap all by Monday morning. Whether you go to our church or not, I encourage you just to watch it just to be blessed to see the kingdom at work. It always inspires me to see God at work all over this world and it just fires me up.

Jesus is ALIVE!




We are all about the numbers. Every number represents a life change. Praise God!

Tomorrow, I'll be back to share with you a segment of our teaching message that spoke volumes to me.

Have a great Wednesday!

-Sara