 WHO'S UP FOR A CHALLENGE? If you are reading this chances are you are already intrigued! (read to the end there are prizes) This week I'm celebrating my ONE YEAR Birthday of Fit Life! But I'm not celebrating with cupcakes and ice cream.........Ooooh No! I am paying it forward with a Challenge to inspire YOU! THE PURPOSE: This challenge is to help get you eating healthy and clean, to keep you accountable, and to jump start your healthier lifestyle! What is clean eating? Check out this link on bodybuilding.com Ten Rules of Eating Clean. THE CHALLENGE: Your goal is to eat a clean diet for the next FOUR WEEKS! Beginning Monday May 5th and ending May 31st. You can earn entries throughout the month for a chance to win a prize at the end! BUT remember that your biggest reward will be a new healthy lifestyle! Here is how you can earn entries:
*I will be adding ways to earn more entries on my Facebook Page throughout the month. So be sure to check there often! Be sure to LIKE my page first so you get all the updates! HOW TO ENTER:
WHAT YOU'LL WIN! Well for now that's a surprise I will reveal later (I'm still compiling some great stuff for you). But I will tell you that it will include bundle of goodies with some of my new favorite things from Sprelly, Wildtree, and Complete Nutrition Fredericksburg . ALREADY EATING CLEAN? Well then you you've a bit of an advantage, you've done the hard part of breaking it in! You can still participate for the prize. BUT, I hope you will offer a little more encouragement on Motivation Mondays! NEED HELP WITH A PLAN? I am certainly not an expert (yet) in meal plans but I have learned quite a lot in the last year. I'll be glad to help you get started. Just let me know in the body of your "I'M IN" e-mail. I hope you are up for the Challenge! 
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 http://www.shape.com Allow me to re-introduce myself......... Hello, my name is Melissa and I am ADDICTED TO SUGAR! Oh yes, I can say this and laugh but, unfortunately this is a very REAL and TRUE statement! And I know I'm not alone because many have shared with me the same struggle. Maybe you have a battle with sugar cravings as well. I didn't always think that sugar addiction was real. I just joked about it, chalking it up as just a weakness and I just needed more discipline. This was only half truth. I discovered this hard reality after disciplining myself for seven months including training for competition. If you read my last blog D is for......Diet? I shared how I had let go of my diet structure and lost control a bit after competing. The grip of those returning sugar cravings were just so overwhelming. I began questioning myself, how did I ignore this for seven months and now can't get past it for seven minutes? But, I was determined that MY CRAVING WILL NOT CONTROL ME!  One day as I searched the library for more nuggets of nutrition knowledge I found the book that confirmed that I was NOT crazy! Sugar Addiction is in fact real! The title is
Beat Sugar Addiction Now, by Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D. This book reveals four types of sugar addiction. * http://vitality101.com/ Recently, several have asked me if I have simple solutions for sugar cravings. Though my nutrition knowledge has increased in the last several months including my own experiences battling sugar cravings, sadly I haven't found any "simple" solutions. However, this book does explain why we may be craving sugar and the possible remedies to controlling those cravings. You can find out which of the four types of sugar addiction you may have by clicking the following link and taking Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum's quizzes. http://vitality101.com/health-a-z/Sugar-take_the_sugar_addict_quiz You can find out which of the four types of sugar addiction you may have by clicking the following link and taking Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum's quizzes. http://vitality101.com/health-a-z/Sugar-take_the_sugar_addict_quiz I spotted my type of sugar addiction right away by its title, "Feed Me Now or I Will Kill You:" When life's stress has exhausted your adrenal glands. This was yet another joke among my husband and I because the "mean girl" does in fact come out when I am hungry! Well, the jokes on him because I found legitimate reasons for becoming "mean girl" when I'm hungry. Reading this began to make sense. When I had weened myself off of sugar and was eating often my cravings were much more controllable. But it also explained a bit why I had some difficulty with a few days of low carbohydrates during my training. But the truth is, regardless of what type of craving you may have, adjusting your diet is certainly priority #1! If you reduce your sugar intake including processed foods (such as processed carbohydrates) and replace with fruits, natural sweeteners in moderation (Stevia or Truvia), and "good" carbohydrates (brown rice, whole wheat breads, sweat potatoes, beans etc), this should help control your sugar cravings. Now on the spiritual side of things, those of you who have been following our Made to Crave* bible study you know this is all about dealing with our cravings for food. In Chapter 2, Replacing My Cravings, Lysa TerKeurst talks about using her cravings to prompt her to pray. She writes: "God, it's 10:00 a.m. and I'm craving again. I want those snack crackers that are literally screaming my name. But instead of reaching for those snack crackers, I'm praying. I'll be honest, I don't want to pray. I want those crackers. But, instead I'm going to have a handful of almonds and brick by brick.....prayer by prayer.....lay a path for victory." "Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my sighing. Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for you I pray. In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice, in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation" (Psalm 5:1-3). So what would happen if we did this too? Replaced our cravings with prayer. Is this a challenge you are willing to take with me? Though battling any addiction is never simple or easy and, I'm certainly not an expert, I hope that sharing this information and a little bit of my experience will be helpful to you. And friends we are all in this together. This week in our MTC study we will take a look at Chapter 4 Friends Don't Let Friends Eat before Thinking. I hope you will keep reading the weeks to come. I have plans to share more about our Made to Crave study as well as more on fitness and nutrition. Blessings, ~Melissa *http://www.jacobteitelbaum.com/health_articles_a-b/Ann-book-beat_sugar_addiction_now.html *http://lysaterkeurst.com/made-to-crave/  D is for.......... DIET? OK, so my little OCD acronym (Organize Create Design) may be taking on a new spin! Those of you who have been following me on my fitness and nutrition journey know that nutrition has become a very important part of my life. So important in fact that I have taken new steps in my journey to learning more about nutrition in order to become a "health coach". I have truly been inspired by how nutrition effects us. Not only does it effect our physical bodies but also our emotions, mental clarity, and can even effect our spiritual health!
Lets rewind a bit..........back to, oh let's say October. During my training my diet changed drastically. It is safe to say that 75-80% (if not more) of my competition prep was in my diet. I didn't mind the new diet at first, I actually loved the organization and structure of it (surprised?). But, after several weeks I began to feel the effects of the extremely strict diet. Physically I was feeling depleted and I was becoming very bored eating the same thing day in and day out. It became hard, sticking with it took a huge amount of discipline! Have you ever had a craving? Have you ever felt hungry? Multiply that by a 100! But you know what? It made me dig down deep and surrender to my Jesus. In my previous blog I Am An Overcomer I share how I found my strength and encouragement. I knew that the strict diet was temporary and I would have more flexibility when the competition was over. And I looked forward to it, believe me. But, during this time I learned so much about how food really can effect your body. I saw changes I had never seen before. Despite being tired and overwhelmed at times it really did feel good to be healthy, eating a clean diet, and being in the best shape of my life. I made it through competition day (November 23, 2013) but the journey was far from over. Remember the flexibility that I couldn't wait for.......Well, the flexibility quickly turned to a new struggle. Actually this was an old struggle with a slightly different face. Balance! Hello........Hello.........Self-control are you still here? No answer. Are you hiding? Come out, I want you to meet my friend Balance. I know you will be good friends! O.K. not exactly how it went but you get the picture. I felt like I had lost control of what I had worked so hard on. The problem was I had no goal now, well not a specific one. The Holidays had tripped me up, I had given in to the lies that "I deserved a break. I deserved to eat a little, after all I had been on some form of diet for 7 months." But now it was January and I couldn't seem to get out of my hole. I desperately wanted my self-control back and wanted a balanced healthy lifestyle. So here I was again full circle struggling with the same things I had been struggling with when I began in the spring. Condemning myself for my lack of self-control, fear that I will gain all of my weight back, and feeling depressed and angry about it all. In her book Made to Crave- Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food Lysa TerKeurst talks about the truths in Gods word that can fill our hearts when these lies we tell ourselves creep in. www.madetocrave.org Old Lie: I am such a failure with this healthy eating thing. Why sacrifice this instant gratification now when I know eventually I'll just go back to my old habits anyhow? New Truth: I am not a failure. I am lavishly loved child of God. Part of my right as a child of God is to operate in a power beyond myself. The Holy Spirit is God's gift to me so it is possible for me to use the self-control I've been given. Favorite Verse: " How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (John 3:1) The thing about me is when I get angry enough I get determined! So embracing this "truth" I was determined to use my God given self-control, find balance, and figure out this nutrition stuff . I began soaking in everything I could about nutrition and learning how to create healthy diet plans. Thanks to my friend and trainer Heather, she was willing to share her wealth of knowledge on the subject. I also checked out a few books at the library, connected with health related Facebook pages, and read nutrition articles. So now I'm on my way. Everyday I'm learning new things. My ultimate goal is to get a Certification in Nutrition, but for now I have started writing a few diet/meal plans including my own under the mentor-ship of Heather and doing pretty well with it. I am officially a nutrition NERD! I actually enjoy writing out meal plans. I am so excited to see where God takes me from here. My cravings haven't disappeared but I feel like I have a little more self-control. So then my journey continues! If you struggle, I would love to hear how you deal with your struggles with food. Comment below or email me mailto:melissakmacgregor@gmail.com. Oh and just a note.......! In my first week of my new diet plan I lost 5lbs! And I'm back in the Gym on a regular basis (well when the snow doesn't interfere). Blessings, Melissa OCD Mama |
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