ENCOURAGED IN HEART

I don’t know where it’s been all my life, but feta cheese…I heart you.

That’s it.

It’s a very cheesy

What’s your favorite cheese?

For anyone that also loves feta; below’s a new Weight Watchers recipe that I made last night:

Mediterranean Turkey Sliders
(5 Points Plus value per serving)
¾ pound ground skinless turkey breast
2 Tablespoons reduced-fat crumbled feta cheese
2 scallions, finely chopped
6 pitted black olives chopped
4 (1.5 ounce) mini whole-wheat sandwich buns, split
½ cup thinly sliced cucumber
½ small red onion, thinly sliced

1. Combine turkey, feta, scallions, and olives in a large bowl. Shape turkey mixture into 4 (3/4 inch thick) patties. Spray a non-stick ridges pan and set over medium heat. Place patties in pan and cook until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees for well done – 6-7 minutes on each side.
2. Scoop out and discard soft centers of each bun. Place a burger on each bun half; top evenly with cucumber and onion. Cover bun tops.

I don’t know about you, but I am totally psyched for the royal wedding.

There’s just something about a commoner (whose not common wardrobe retails higher than my home!) being plucked out of common life and transplanted into royalty. It’s just so, hummm… I dunno,

Awesome…

Fantastic…

Lovely… (the Brits say that word more than I say coffee.)

Inspiring…

Jealously producing…

Come on, admit it. Having a “staff” that handles your daily calendar, logistics, security, driving, cleaning, cooking and such sounds like a pretty sweet deal. The staff in your home is most likely YOU.

Yesterday, I finished reading the book, Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst with a small group of wonderful women. I wanted to share something I wrote to them, with you.

It’s about marriage.

I started this blog in 2008 because of my food addiction. I’ve always been a food addict, but it was a turning point in my life because I faced it and blogged about it where I did a Weekly Weigh-In. I know that many of you joined EIH, because you have also struggled with food. I blogged then, read Crave and am writing now, three years later, because I still struggle with food. Food still has a powerful pull on me. Breaking habits and thoughts and ideas and relations to food takes t-i-m-e.

Back to what I wrote to the Crave gals…

I’ve made a choice to be married to a balanced and healthy physical body…and that I’m never going back.

They’ll be ups and downs with good ol’ Lucy. I won’t do it all perfect. God never asked for perfection. He’s just asked for an earnest heart.

This month I’ve traveled 3 pounds above goal weight and may or may not be blinging out this month. But the sweet spot of “marriage” is that I’m not going nuts about it. I’m not “filing for divorce”. No, I’m staying married and riding it out.

Staff or no staff, when you’re married there’s a commitment of forever attached to that choice. Sometimes, the thought of forever can see like a really, really long time.

It is.

The maintenance part of marriage is necessary. Period.

How’s that for a ho-hum kinda excitement?

Maintenance is like marriage. It’s the anti-wedding day. There’s not a whole lot of linen napkins and fancy, fancy with everyone in their Sunday bests. The toilet seats get put down and the cute litte quirk is still well, cute…not obnoxious. The wedding day is not real life marriage. The wedding day is more idealistic than realistic.

Idealistic and realistic meet at forever. Forever is the length of time that I’ve ideally and realistically determined that I want to love and live for God. If that means counting Weight Watcher’s Points Plus for the rest of my life to stay healthy, I consider that a rather small price to stay married to healthy for my King.

The royal wedding. Have you caught the craze? Where are you at in your healthy living? Single, dating, engaged, married, divorced, re-married?

I want to encourage you today with one of the most profound statements in Lysa’s book. “I’m on a journey with Jesus to learn the fine art of self-discipline for the purpose of holiness.”

Holiness sounds rather regal to me.

Yesterday, I woke to a dusting of snow on the ground. I don’t know if the weather got the memo, but it is SPRING and Spring doesn’t have snow.

Well, I guess it does.

Never once yesterday did I say, “Wow, since it snowed, I guess Spring is off the hook for this year.”

But countless times in my eating life I’ve said, “Wow, since I had a bad eating day, I guess I’m off the hook and will never get to my goal weight. It’s a bust.”

Yesterday, God gave me the gift of snow in Spring. Seeing snow on the ground was not a limitation of Spring, but rather a gift.

Limitations are gifts from God. My limitation in the area of emotional eating is a gift. All throughout this past week, God had me reading in 2 Corinthians 12.

“I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations (my emotional eating addiction). Satan’s angel did his best to get me down (tell me lies that I’ll be fat and “stuck” forever); what he in fact did was push me to my knees (praying and pleading to God for help). No danger than of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (Message)

A bad eating day is sort of like a snow in Spring. It happens. You know how I like to say it, “Sheet cake happens.” But no matter what, God’s desire is to bring “new life” into today. Cherry blossoms and tulips for Spring and a deeper relationship with Him because of my weakness with food.

God doesn’t want me focusing on my handicap but to celebrate the gift. Weakness is a gift. (That’s some crazy talk, huh?! But it’s true.)

The “gift” is a new life with Christ – dependent on Him, more than me.
The “gift” is looking for comfort from Christ, rather than a food.
The “gift” is sharing this “handicap” so together, we can come out of hiding and grow closer to one another and God.
The “gift” is that no matter what the day brings, Spring is here. Don’t lose focus because of one small snow day.

The “gift” this month was not a watch, but rather a $14.35 hair iron from Target. I have maintained my Weight Watchers Lifetime Member goal weight. It has not been easy and I’ve allowed a few “snow days” and “sick kid days” to get me off track, but I’m still claiming it’s “Spring”.

One day of snow won’t stop Spring just as a day of bad eating won’t stop me from pursuing the new, beautiful life God has for me (and you)!

We all struggle with something, and have bad days…that’s why we need God in our every day life.

Don’t let the temperature fool you, Spring is here. Do you see the gift of snow in Spring? Where do you live and what’s the temperature there?