It is 9:00 a.m. and I just woke up. I guess I'm more jetlagged than I thought from being in Saskatchewan since Thursday.
And so I'm not going to do my typical morning routine. I let myself sleep in, and we're going to get started late, and I'm not going to apologize at all. Honestly. I don't feel one bit guilty. Really. Believe me yet?
It's a law of thermodynamics or something that "an object in motion tends to stay in motion". I remember learning that in school. But I don't think they're right when it comes to human beings. The pull is not to keep us in motion; the pull is to get us to sit on our butts. Let me explain.
It seems to me that the biggest challenge I have had of my entire life is trying to choose what I know is good for me. I'm not talking in the moral area, although that certainly is an issue. I mean in the general lifestyle area. We all know we should eat a healthy breakfast, but do I do it? We all know life works better with schedules, but do I stick to mine? We all know we should exercise regularly, but do we?
But it's not just that we know these things. It's also that they objectively make us feel better. After I exercise, for instance, I feel so alive for the rest of the day. I'm happier. I'm more confident. When I eat properly, I feel better. I'm less lethargic. I have more energy. When I do my devotions early in the day I have a spring in my step. I feel more peaceful.
There really isn't a downside to these things.
So why are they so hard to do?
So many mornings I sit here, at the computer, telling myself to get off and go exercise. I know I'll feel better when I'm done. I know it will put my day on a better footing. But do I? (Well, lately I do, because I'm getting better, but what amazes me is that even though I'm getting better, it's still a big struggle.)
While I was hanging out in the hotel room this weekend between speaking engagements I watched a lot of television (and knit a lot!). I tried to watch CSI, but that's just too gross for me. So I stuck to the Home and Garden channel and the Food Channel. I felt very ripped off because What Not to Wear was not on at all during my entire hotel stay, but there's little I can do about it now. But some of the British shows were interesting.
Two in particular followed two women with horrible lifestyle habits. They were tremendously obese, and to call what they ate "food" would be an insult to actual food. They smoked and didn't exercise. And over the course of a few months they were to radically change.
It is hard to break habits, even habits you know are bad for you. I have never smoked, but I imagine that quitting is agonizing. And here's the truth about all of these things: no matter how good it feels to do it, our bodies naturally want to take the easy way out. We tend to rebel against what we "should" do, even if what we "should" do makes us feel tremendous.
Isn't that silly? I guess it's one of the consequences of sin in this world. After all, it does make sense from a spiritual point of view. Our bodies are in rebellion against the perfect state in which we were created. And I don't think this only affects our moral decisions. I think it affects everything. It's why it's so hard to do the right thing even in our daily routines.
But I want to put a stop to that. I have realized this year that I need to do what gives me energy, and sitting in front of a computer screen, or eating ice cream for breakfast, doesn't cut it. I wish I could bottle up the feeling I get after I exercise, or after I cook a healthy meal, so that I could remind myself how good it would feel to "just do it", but I can't. I'm going to have to develop mental discipline instead, with God's help.
I do believe it helps, though, to remember that our bodies are always in rebellion. So we shouldn't really use them as a good guide. Of course they're tired and don't want to go for a jog; that doesn't mean you shouldn't. Of course you crave a Diet Pepsi; that doesn't mean you should give in to that aspartame. We don't have to listen to our bodies. We can rise above them.
I'm very fortunate because my family all lives in my hometown. We're doing Christmas Eve at my brother-in-law's, Christmas at my mother-in-law's, and Boxing Day here with my side of the family.
Christmas Eve we always get together with my husband's side and play games all day. Usually the adults have played cards and the kids play on their own, but this year I'm going to get the kids in on our games. They're getting older, and sometimes they don't pay as well alone anymore. And charades is a fun game to do altogether!
My brother-in-law is a single dad, and he's not exactly handy in the kitchen. So even though the Christmas Eve festivities are not at my house, I'll likely be supplying much of the food. My main goal is to bring things that are healthy. I'll bring two huge plates of vegetables with some dip. The dip is fattening, sure. But it makes kids eat vegetables. And I would rather they eat vegetables than chips! Too often at these family get togethers we just eat crap. I make my dip with low-fat sour cream and low-fat mayonnaise, so it's not so bad.
I'm also bringing meatballs, which I'll make in my slow-cooker. I don't buy the frozen meatballs; I make them from scratch.
1 1/2 pounds ground meat (I often mix turkey & beef; no one can tell) 1/2 cup breadcrumbs 2 Tbsp ketchup 1 tsp worcestershire sauce dash nutmeg 1 tbsp dijon 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 egg
Mix all together. Add more breadcrumbs if you think they need it. Then I cook them on a rack over some tin foil in the oven at 425. That way grease can drip off, and it makes them lower in fat.
I mix them in with a homemade barbecue sauce, which is created by combining all my barbecue sauces, ketchups, and mustards that happen to be in the fridge together! It's amazing how good it usually turns out! I also bought a rice cooker recently, that makes up to 12 cups. I'm going to make a ton, because I'd rather they eat rice than french fries!
On Boxing Day I make Christmas dinner. Here's my tip for an awesome turkey: BUY IT FRESH. Seriously. You don't need to do anything to it. I put garlic cloves under the skin and in the cavity, but that's it. Then I just baste it. It has enough flavour of its own, and if you rub it in salt, it can rob it of moisture.
That's what I'm planning for this week! For my baking, I'm making more chocolate frosted sugar bombs. You can find the recipe by scrolling below.
Do you have any tips on how to munch more healthily this Christmas? I'd love to hear them!
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Last night my girls attended a birthday party at a family's house that I just love. They are wonderful, with a whole pile of daughters, and very family and faith oriented. I totally trust them with my girls, so nothing that I'm about to say should reflect on them!
They were asked over to watch a movie with the girls to celebrate the 12-year-old's birthday. And they watched National Treasure II.
Now Katie, my 10-year-old, doesn't always handle movies well. She loves Pride & Prejudice, Ever After, anything romantic really. She can handle Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. But this movie freaked her out. So did Scooby Doo and ET.
When they bounded through the door and changed into their pyjamas, the first thing Katie said to me was, "can you lie with me for a while?".
When she was 8, the answer almost always was "no". She needed to figure out how to go to sleep on her own. Oh, sure, I might lie there for 15 minutes, but nothing more than that. I needed my rest, too! So I'd pray with her, and sing with her, and help her focus her thoughts on something else.
But these days I'd be happy to lie with her all night, because I know the days when she wants to cuddle are quickly coming to an end.
As we lay there, all tumbled up in each other, I was stroking her hair, and kissing her head, and praying over her, and it was just lovely. I don't know how many more opportunities we'll have like that. She's growing up so fast.
But last night whatever I did didn't seem to be working. I prayed, we talked about how to combat evil thoughts, but her breathing just kept getting shallower and shallower.
And then suddenly I realized why.
I think the revelation came around the same time as she jumped up, ran to the bathroom, and threw up. The first time was rather orderly. She had time to get her hair back, and hit the toilet, and everything was hunky dorey.
She must be better now, she thought. But then, as she was crawling back to bed, she suddenly whipped around, ran back to the bathroom, and basically missed the toilet and hit her hair.
So we plopped her in the shower, and I cleaned up the bathroom, and she went to sleep pretty quickly after that.
This morning I am sitting here, tired from cuddling with her so long and yet happy for the chance to do it, but now my stomach is feeling a little iffy. And I can't figure out if I'm about to ralph or if it's just memories of last night.
I am writing this while squinting through one eye.
I so proud of myself!
After avoiding venturing to the eye doctor for 6 years, I finally went to check my pressures. I have glaucoma in my family, and I really should be getting checked, but it's not fun and I was always busy.
So today I said enough of that.
And they put drops in my eyes, and my pupils are so big at the moment you can't tell what colour my eyes are, and I had to drive home like that (thank goodness it's not sunny here today!), but I DID IT!
So often we put off necessary things when it comes to our health. As a Christian, Pap smears is one thing that is NOT necessary depending on your background. What they're checking for is cervical cancer, and over 95% of cervical cancers are caused by STDs. So if you were a virgin at your marriage, and you married a virgin, you really have nothing to worry about. I go every three years, and I think that's fair.
A friend of mine once told me of this horrible thing that happened to her one day for her Pap smear. She was heading out to the doctor's, and before she left she went to the bathroom and decided just to run a facecloth around there and make sure she was clean.
Later, while sitting in her stirrups, she was trying to go to her "happy place" when the doctor said, "my, aren't we fancy today?". She just giggled, thought he was nuts, and went back to the beach she was trying to picture.
Later that night, she was cleaning up the bathroom and throwing the old towels in the hamper. She noticed that facecloth was glittering. Calling her daughters into the bathroom, she asked for an explanation. It turned out that her six-year-old had been playing with glitter make-up, and had washed her face off right before my friend used the facecloth you know where. Nothing like being incandescent before your gynecologist!
I've been worked up so much this year because my mother has such health issues. She had breast cancer many years ago, so I've been getting mammograms since I was 30. I had a weird tingling in my feet, so I had an MRI. It was nothing, but it scared my husband. I've been poked and prodded this year galore, but I'm healthy!
Men, on the other hand, never go to the doctor. So the next Tuesday Tackle will be to make my husband, a physician himself, book a check-up. I think that one will be harder than this week's tackle!
Sheila's book, Reality Check, is filled with stories of all the foibles of everyday life. Check it out here!
When I was a kid I hated them because you got needles. I remember when Rebecca was turning 5 and it was time for her booster I made an appointment for the two of them to get checkups. She asked me, "Is it going to hurt?" I couldn't lie to her, so I said, "well, it won't hurt Katie." Probably not the right thing to do.
She started crying, and it was 7:30 in the morning. Still five hours until her appointment. So I went down to the doctor's office and asked them to give her her needles now. We'd come back later to see the doctor. So they did, just so that I didn't have to listen to her cry all that time.
But it's way worse when you're an adult and the doctor wants to get way too personal with you. I am just not good at Pap smears. They can tell you to imagine you're on a beach all they want, but you're not on a beach, and if anyone did that to you on a beach there would be a major incident.
The problem is that I don't actually need Pap smears. When they do one they're looking for cancer. Cervical cancer is caused by HPV, an STD. Really. If you've never had HPV, your chances of having cervical cancer are around your chances of winning the lottery.
And the gynecologists know it. At least in the United States the guidelines are that if a woman has only ever had one sexual partner, and he's only had one sexual partner, and you weren't sexually active until you were an adult, every three years is fine.
Canada's guidelines aren't so kind, but I've tried to convince my family doctor that I really don't need to be examined like that every year.
Unfortunately, I do need the mammogram. My mother had breast cancer at 41, so I need to be checked.
Happily, my friend Kelita explained to me how to prepare for mammograms. So if any of you are scheduled for one soon, and you're worried, here's some great advice.
Go down to the kitchen naked in the middle of the night. Open your fridge door. Insert one breast right up against the fridge, wedged in nicely.
Then, as hard as you can, slam the fridge door on your breast. Now you are ready for the appointment!
If you're afraid you can't manage to slam the door hard enough to get a true feel of what it will be like, another method is to find two metal bookends. Go outside and ask a complete stranger to come into your house. Give him the bookends. Take off your shirt, and ask him to slam the bookends into your breast as hard as possible. Now you have simulated the mammogram experience and you're ready to take on the world!
In all seriousness, it's not that bad. It's one of those times, though, where I'm really glad I'm an A cup and not a DD.
About Me: I'm a Christian author of a bunch of books, and a frequent speaker to women's groups and marriage conferences. Best of all, I love homeschooling my daughters, Rebecca and Katie. And I love to knit. Preferably simultaneously.
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