Friday, September 28, 2012

How should we spend our precious time?

I had a revelation today while nursing my son (nursing is typically the only time I sit down and actually think) I was thinking about how I spend my time and if it was good or if it was not all that good. I don't believe I do anything bad, but maybe I could be doing a lot better things.

I started thinking about how moms and dads these days have sooo many more interruptions and so many more things to "stress or worry" over bc of how everyone thinks we need to live. We have to worry about jobs and making enough money for a too high of standard! Most of us live outside what we really make (I respect those of you who live within your true budget) and spend money we do not have. Since I am not working Kory and I do not splurge AT ALL I mean literally we buy gas, groceries, and pay bills. Even then the demands seem too high.

Also let me bring up the no brainier in this time, technology! Wow I have a love hate thing going on with technology!!! It can be a time saver but most the time a time waster. Watching tv now is such a waste of time for me it's time I could be folding laundry, doing dishes,vacuuming, or here's a good one spending actual quality time with the people I love! Now, I love plopping down after a long day and relaxing with Kory and Ryan and watching a movie, it's like movies make sense they allow about two hrs to relax and just watch, tv on the other hand can create hours and hours which to me I cannot afford anyway and if you can afford that time you need to find other things to do.

We wonder why divorce rates are so high I swear its bc of technology. I mean who has time anymore to selflessly love their spouse anymore? A man can't come home from work and help his wife, no football is on, there are too many games to be won video games phone games computer games!! And what woman really is stoked about "making love" after an exhausting day with no help and no time to herself? Making love is making us another thing to do on our to do list.

This is so sad to me. Why can't family be family now. It makes me want to throw away my tv my phone my computer. I want my time being spent on people not things to entertain me and not just people my family. I hope no one gets me wrong I do think these things can be good I just think we as Americans waste a lot of our time on really pointless, non-rewarding things that can easily take away from what is very important, our families and our Creator.

Let me know your thoughts on this!!

Friday, September 21, 2012

Health and Fitness advice from an ex-fatty

So I guess when you lose 70 pounds people want to know how, I really don't understand why, but I get the question A LOT! So, what I am going to tell you is probably one of the most secretive diets out there b/c. . . well b/c it is NOT a diet. I do not believe in dieting. Diet means what you eat so its a really silly word to use anyway when referring to what you did to lose weight, "I dieted" ... oh, ok, you ate? 



So anyways thats a pet-peeve of mine I guess. What I want to tell people in this post is I balanced my eating life aka diet, and began to get active. What I mean by balancing my diet is I simply restrained, restricted, enjoyed, indulged. You hear so much about well I counted calories (are you kidding me? That is SOOOOOO time consuming I stopped after one meal) or I quit eating carbs (really? no fruit? no whole grains?) or my favorite I limited my fat (REALLY?? That is sooooo like last year) Ok, ok all of those are great and for sure can help you lose weight, but here are my issues with them. 

When you count calories, it really is such a hard process and you begin to not think about what calories you are taking in, all you are concerned with is how MANY you are taking in. Too many calories does lead to weight gain, but there are so many amazingly healthy foods that are high in calories, and not to mention a TON (especially now a days, all those 100 calorie snacks) of awful foods pretty low in calories. What makes a food high in calories? It is simply the grams of fat, each gram of fat contains 9 calories whereas a gram of protein or a gram of carbohydrates only have 4 calories. I believe this is where the famous limiting my fat intake came from. 

People starting realizing high-fat food was very high calories. So what you need to know is there are good fats and bad fats which I think we do all realize this. Eat the AVOCADOS the FISH the NUTS, these are high calorie good-for-you foods! Even dairy is good I understand there is bad fat in dairy but there are sooo many great things in dairy that help your metabolism (which is what helps you burn calories)! 

Ok, now the carbs! This is definitely a newer thing and one I tend to agree with more so then not. Limiting your carbs FOR SURE makes you lose a lot of weight and actually you lose it very fast, but heres the down side, as soon as you begin introducing more carbs into your diet after not eating very many YOU GAIN QUICKLY! AHHHHH!!! NO GOOD! What you need to do with carbs is after a certain time in the day you can no longer eat carbs, my rule was 2 pm. The reason being, carbs are what fuel your body and if you do not use this fuel, well then by golly it turns into that jiggle you do every thing on earth to hide (oh no.... OH YES) Yes, that is right fat doesn't turn to fat CARBS do! So if you stop eating carbs at a certain time it gives your body enough time in the day to burn them all off before you hit the hay and arn't so active. Also the carbs you eat are very very very important! I said I stopped eating carbs after 2pm that doesn't mean at 10 am I was woofing down some cake and ice cream. No no no, you eat BROWN carbs and fruit NO WHITE carbs. These are refined and quickly turn into fat if not used right away (so basically only eat these if you're about to run a marathon) brown carbs are low glycemic which means they take a long time to break down and give you a lot longer to use the energy they provide your body, not to mention they have fiber which is awesome for getting rid of waste in your body and keeping you "regular" if you know what I am saying ;)

So basically these are the rules I followed I didn't care how many calories I took in necessarily but I cared what type of calories I was consuming. I wanted calories that worked with my body not against it. I stopped consuming carbs by 2pm. I went to the gym! The balance I really had was I ate what I wanted on the weekends. Why you ask? Well to trick my metabolism. You see if you eat the same stuff over and over and you do the same work out over and over, your body becomes accustomed to this and  then it becomes super hard to shed the weight. 

I always tried to trick my body by one day eating a bazillion calories from not so great foods, this would REV my metabolism up a lot b/c the body is saying to the brain "Oh dear Lord she is going back to her old ways we better start working hard to keep her from getting so large she has to be lifted by a crane!" Then the next day I would limit my calories A LOT and eat very minimal and very healthy and the body was like "dang we are doing good" and before you know it that crazy revved up metabolism is burning those small amount of calories faster then you can go to the gym! It really does work.

 So if you are stuck and feel like wow I am trying so hard and not losing 1 lb well then try being really bad for a bit then kick it into EXTREME gear! Also I changed my work outs as much as possible. I did cardio a lot, but also some palates, weight lifting, yoga. Change it up! Ok so that is what I am sharing now. I will be posting more health and fitness tips randomly so keep an eye out!

love love love!

Monday, September 17, 2012

The trust of a child

This is something that really spoke to me recently. I will be blogging more on this subject. I

want to inspire you all and myself to rely on our Heavenly Father. He does provide and He

is the most trustworthy!


Proverbs 3:5

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding" 

Notice how a small child, even a baby, allows you to pick them up and carry them. Does the child seem the least bit worried that you might drop him? Of course not. In fact, he usually has no idea whether he is one foot or 6 feet off the ground. He just assumes that since you have him in your arms, everything is going to be alright. He doesn’t ask for your credentials, to see if you are qualified to carry him or to be his parent. He trusts you completely.

You have no doubt noticed that as a child makes the transition into adulthood, trust is the first thing to go, and it goes gradually. "That’s not fair!!" is one of many exclamations commonly heard as kids get older. Typically, the child is asserting his independence; transferring his trust from you over to himself. He trusts his own judgment about what is right, and what is fair. This is part of becoming an adult, and to some extent, it is a good thing, but let's look at the spiritual application of this principle of trusting your Heavenly Father.

If there is any one predominant theme that runs throughout the bible, it is the idea that we must trust God, as everything that could go right in our lives comes from Him. If Adam and Eve had trusted in God's instructions not to eat of the fruit, they would have stayed in the Garden. When God wanted Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses argued with Him, and even asked Him to choose somebody else. But God’s message throughout this argument is "It's not you, Moses, it's Me. I'll make it happen." If Abraham had trusted God when He said that he and his wife Sarah would have children, he would not have tried to Do Something; that is, he made another woman pregnant with Ishmael, which was never God's intention.

Think about giving. If you give a tithe, you're making a statement that you trust God to make your remaining 90% cover 100% of your needs. Think about resting. If you follow God's example and take one day off per week, you are trusting Him that you will get everything done in 6 days that you need to get done. Since we are commanded to give and we are commanded to rest, we need to be able to trust that He will come through for us when we follow His directives for our lives.

Finally, think about the message of salvation itself. You cannot be good enough to spend eternity in the presence of God, so you have to trust in the blood of Jesus. God wants us to have a child-like trust in Him, that He will always provide for us, that He will cause all things to work together for the good of those who love Him.

To discuss the topic of trust without mentioning its opposite, fear, would be incomplete, to be sure. It has been said that the Number One command in all of the bible is "Fear Not." Younger children have no fear because they trust.

Psalm 56:11

"In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid . . . "

God's word makes it clear that you cannot simultaneously have trust in God and have fear in circumstances. It's like asking me to make you some coffee black, with cream and sugar in it. You can't have it both ways.

Fear does not come from God


2 Timothy 1:7

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

1 John 4:18

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

Fear = bondage


Romans 8:15

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."

Hebrews 2:15

"And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

If fear is synonymous with bondage, then trust must correlate with freedom. If you have problems with fear, then you should pray for the freedom to trust God!

Test

Have you ever been out of work, or had some other financial catastrophe (or potential catastrophe)? Did you pray about it? Or did you worry? When you told friends, did you come across in such a way that you were showing how worried you were, or were you brimming with confidence that the Lord would somehow take care of it? Even worse, did you try and Do Something without praying about it first?

Pride Check

The more we trust Him, the less we trust our own strength and understanding. Satan would have us think that to place our trust wholeheartedly in Him is a sign of weakness. The world thinks this, but here's what the Word of God says:

Proverbs 3:5

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding" 

Post your thoughts let me know your feelings on this! Before you do, look at your child, or a child. 

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

My very first blog

Pretty much I have never done this before and decided to start as a way to market a new business I am in the process of creating!
I am 24 years old will be married to the man of my dreams for 4 years on this November 2nd. I just had a healthy, beautiful baby boy August 3rd 2012. He is my life right now, and because of him my husband and I want me to stop working in the "real work world" and stay home and raise our son. Obviously leaving a job will most likely cause financial changes and for us these changes are going to be HUGE! I say this in future tense because I am still receiving disability for being on pregnancy leave, but soon will be bringing in zero dollars to our home! SO, to hopefully help I am going to use my God-given talents and passions and create a skin care line. I am beginning with lotion and will sell online on etsy.com.


My precious baby boy Ryan Jacobs Platt
He is 5 weeks in these pictures

I guess since this is my first blog I should talk a little about myself. I was born in southern California where I lived till I was 7 my parents then moved my brother (Paul, who is two years older) and myself to Gunnison, Colorado. Gunnison is an extremely small town, population at the time about 5000. My dad and mom had no idea what they were doing other then listening to God. My dad had a dream one night about a Gunnison Colorado (they had been talking of moving to Colorado) he had never heard of it before (like most people) the next day he looked on the map and proclaimed we would be moving to this mysterious town! My parents are people of faith, they have a personal relationship with God. Unlike most "christians" these days they actually rely and trust on God. They seek Him, study the bible, and therefore have a strong faith that has taken them very very far in life and also has helped them succeed beyond their dreams, I am sure!
Their trust and faith is one I do admire a lot. You see I tend to think I have all the answers and that I can control my life and my families future, even through being showed time and time and time and time and time again that I REALLY have NO control! Things can change so quickly! Jobs can come and go, people can come and go without any heads up. Its like holy cow I would have really appreciated some warning, NO there are not a lot of warnings in life, things just,  happen.
My beautiful parents
My amazing brother and me
So back to my life story. I was raised in a tiny town I went to high school had a couple dumb boyfriends that of course didn't work out (thank you LORD) and had a lot of great friends and few not-so-great friends. I always had the support and love of an amazing family which really is such a blessing these days. Growing up I had so many dreams and goals, I wanted to be a vet, actress, business owner, professional dancer, gymnast, attorney... INSTEAD I moved back to California right after high school and lived with my uncle and aunt in San Clemente (gorgeous place), where I went to massage therapy school and met my husband, Kory. We married after about 2 and half years of knowing each other. We stayed in California a few months then I nagged and nagged him till he finally said ok lets drop everything and move to Colorado! So almost after a year of marriage we took a huge leap of faith, quit our jobs, flaked out on our lease, packed up and moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado! I got a job SO quickly and Kory got one a few months after me, we bought a great house and BAM we did it and we were doing good.
About 10 months after moving here Kory's father passed away from heart problems he had been dealing with for many years. He had had a heart transplant in 2000. We went to California the day we found out. A couple months later Kory helped his mother and brother move out here so they could be by us. That has been really good!
My husband and I
After I met Kory I gained a lot of weight. Kory had been overweight as a child but in high school he turned it around and got really into working out and taking supplements. Sadly being a young in love couple turned us into a very CHUNKY young in love couple. After Kory's brother moved out here he began playing baseball and being quite chunky himself he was having trouble with the running part of practice. I made a deal with him that we would begin working out and getting in shape! WOW so all three of us began our own little "biggest Loser" I ended up losing a total of 70 lbs Kory lost about the same and Kody (his younger brother) lost about 50 lbs. So we pretty much were awesome! We are all still doing very good, I did just have a baby though and do need to shed a few lbs to get back to where I was. So needless to say health and fitness is now a huge part of my life and I do plan on blogging about that quite a bit and sharing my knowledge along with my skin care knowledge!
Kory's brother Kody who is 15,
NO seriously he is 15, me and Kory
That is my life in a nutshell! I look forward to blogging :)Blog