Week 47

Don't skip meals.

Get in the habit of eating three meals a day.  Even when we were adding a breakfast room onto our house and had construction things all around us, with concrete floors and bare sheetrock walls, we ate three home-cooked meals using real ingredients each day.  The boys were starting their breakfast with some pineapple (that we cut up) on this day before going to school.

This is especially important if you are trying to lose weight.  Skipping meals is not the way to lose weight; it slows your metabolism (the body's defense for times of starvation).  Instead, you want to kick start your metabolism in the morning.  So start your day with a good morning routine.  Then eat a good breakfast.  Make each of your meals substantial - just a piece of fruit for breakfast or a small salad for lunch is not a meal. 

Be careful though to not eat a lot of bready items or wheat-based items daily.  Today's wheat is creating lots of problems from arthritis to obesity for lots of people.  I try to find better quality wheat berries, which I grind to make my flour.  We seldom have pasta dishes or sandwich bread since I don't regularly make my own at home (be careful with your bread selection - most contain dough conditioners).  Our diet has changed over the years, as man continues to degrade and destroy the foods that God has given us to eat (for example, we also don't eat non-organic corn and rarely eat fish because of its toxins).

But be careful that you don't go to the other extreme (except for a short period of time for a medical condition), and severely restrict your diet cutting out an entire food group.  Many of today's diets are based on this concept, such as cutting all carbohydrates out of one's diet.  Remember, it is all about the quality of the ingredients you buy and the foods you eat.  Cut your consumption of wheat down (or out) but eat other good quality carbohydrates such as organic sweet potatoes, brown rice or quinoa.  Buy the best quality foods and ingredients you can, and be aware of how these foods are grown, raised, and handled. 

While it is important to not skip meals, it is also a good practice to not eat after dinner (to allow your body time to 'fast' each night), and not to snack throughout the day.  Hypoglycemia 'runs' in my family and I was on my way to developing problems in my early twenties.  I was told to eat small meals throughout the day.  At one point, I felt I would pass out in the morning when I got up if I did not eat immediately.  I also always carried snacks in my purse.  I think a lot of the problems like I had, that many people experience, stem from erratic blood sugar levels caused by sugar in one's diet.  Skip the processed sweets, stabilize your blood sugar and stabilize your eating to three regular meals a day.

I now seldom eat between meals.  I typically get up early (by 5 a.m.) and don't eat anything until 8 a.m.  I sip on my water and have some fresh fruit usually around 7:30 a.m.  Since I have cut sugar out of my diet (using only raw honey, maple syrup, and dried fruits for sweeteners), I don't have any problems feeling faint in the morning or throughout the day, even if I skip a meal.  I never carry snacks in my purse anymore.  But eating a diet of real foods cooked from scratch takes planning.

Work on creating a routine for yourself and eat three regular healthy meals each day.  If you are trying to lose weight, eat smaller portions, but eat balanced meals.  Plan out your meals, create a meal planner for your week, make sure you have the right ingredients and then follow it. 

If you are trying to lose weight, don't snack between meals, or if you do in the afternoon, have some fresh fruit, that is in season.  Your meals do not have to be complicated and make a huge mess in your kitchen.  We often have a one pot dish for a meal.  For instance last night we had Dudley's Stew over Yellow Rice.  I have posted lots of recipes now, work on making all of your meals with 100% real ingredients that God has given us.

  

"Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so."  Genesis 1:29 - 30