One Year Later

It’s been a little over a year since I was diagnosed with diabetes and embarked on one of the hardest and scariest journeys I have ever been on. Read on to see how it’s going, where I’m at, and what I still hope to accomplish.

Changing my lifestyle

For those who have followed my journey this last year, you all already know that I completely changed my entire lifestyle. I went from eating whatever looked and sounded good and leading a mostly sedentary life to tracking my macros, eating within a prescribed range of calories for carbs, proteins, and fats, and exercising daily. Over the last twelve months, I have tried several different types of exercise, finding what fit my life and my personality best. I have tried different types of low carb foods, found protein-rich foods, and settled on some things I eat pretty regularly to keep my macros balanced. So here’s where I’m at with all that.

I am currently eating a 1600-ish calorie diet. This is to keep me on the path to lose weight, but to also aid in muscle growth. Forty percent of those calories are carbs, another 40% are proteins, and the last 20% are fats. My weight loss has slowed to closer to 2-3 lbs per month, but the weight loss is evident in the shape and contours of my body. As I have said before, the scale is not always the most accurate measure of weight loss and health. Muscle is denser than fat and so 1 lb of muscle takes up less room on your body than 1 lb of fat (which is a more accurate statement than “Muscle weighs more than fat”). I’m also working on losing the fat that I have held onto the longest, so it’s a little more stubborn than the first 50 lbs were. For the most part, I feel comfortable with this level of loss.

I still track my food intake, but I have slimmed my app usage down to just Fitbit and MyFitnessPal. The biggest reason for that is….

No more diabetes!

In August, I went in for my yearly check and since my A1c was so good in February, my doctor wanted to do a simple finger prick. My a1c came back normal!! Since I no longer have to track my blood sugar, I no longer need an app to do that. As Forrest Gump says, “That’s one less thing.”

Exercise

I just completed a 9 week gym challenge. Unfortunately, in the midst of that, my mother died. Living in a hotel and surviving on a weird combination of hospital, hotel, and restaurant food is not conducive to good health & exercise. Thankfully, the hotel did have a couple of treadmills so I could keep up with my running/walking routine.

At this point in my journey, I am doing yoga 5-7 days a week, CrossFit 3 days a week, and running or walking 3-4 days a week. I get about 7-10 miles walked/ran/hiked each week, not including the running done during a CrossFit WOD or the walks to and from the gym. Now that the gym challenge has ended, I expect that routine to change and vary a little more, but I’m happy with my activity level. It’s lightyears beyond what I was capable of last year. I’m seeing great strides in my strength and ability and my endurance. I have always been strong, it’s just been a long time since I’ve been able to see it.

I’ve accomplished so much

September 2020….. and September 2021

My biggest accomplishment has been defeating diabetes. Now, let me make perfectly clear – because I have PCOS, I will always be insulin resistant. I will always have to be careful with my diet. I cannot eat the normal person’s 325g of carbs each day. My body just cannot process it. But, I can eat the foods I love, in moderation, without worrying about getting sick or hurting my body.

I’ve lost 70 lbs. I am at the lowest weight I have been in over a decade. And while it’s nice being called “skinny”, the best part is how I feel. I feel lighter. I feel more like myself. I feel better physically and emotionally. Even on my bad days (which we all have), I feel better than I can remember feeling.

I am physically strong. I have the potential to be fast. I’m still slow, but not as slow as I was. In February, it took me 30 minutes to run a mile. Last week, it only took me 15 minutes. I can actually run a 5K now. It takes about 45-50 minutes. I can tell that with more training, I can be even faster. I can lift some pretty heavy loads at the gym. Not super heavy, but for someone who has only been lifting for a few months, I’m pretty decent. Cardio still kicks my butt, but my heart is healthier than it was. Not only can I feel it, but my Fitbit tells me so. According to Fitbit, my heart health was poor last year. Now it’s good.

But I’m not done yet.

I’ve still got goals

I have come so far this year. I have farther to go though. I aim to lose about 25 more lbs. I would love to run a 10 minute mile. Maybe even an 8 minute mile. I want to never again have to worry about diabetes. I want to deadlift 200 lbs. I want to Rx a WOD. I would love to compete in CrossFit. I want to find new ways to balance my macros and incorporate more protein.

Most of all, I want to show people that health doesn’t have to be impossible. It doesn’t have to be a chore. It doesn’t have to be something you put off until you have no excuses. Health and fitness are something that you can start achieving TODAY. Right now. Go drink a glass of water. Find what exercise feels good in your body and in your soul. If I can do it, then you definitely can.

Run, Crystal, Run!

So I have this sweet picture book for my son and it’s all about bees and how awesome they are. It’s titled “I’m giving bees a chance” and it’s about a little boy trying to love bees since they are so important for the environment. It’s really cute how willing the boy is to learn to love bees.

This is exactly how I feel about running.

I actually used to enjoy running in high school and considered going out for track, but with my dance schedule, I didn’t have time for it. But I was a sprinter back then, not a distance runner. I had zero endurance. The day we ran a mile, I walked as much of it as I could.

As an adult, I never ran. Not for fun, not for play, not for sports, nothing. I am not a runner.

I have always joked, “If you see me running, you better run, too, because I’m being chased.”

And yet.

And yet I started running a couple of months ago. My health coach, through my husband’s health insurance, advised me on an app to use and shoes to get and with the aid of both of those, I’ve begun running.

I’m trying to give running a chance.

I’m trying to love running.

I know all the benefits of running and I think it would be a great addition to my exercise routine and my diet plan.

I’m trying to love running the way my friends who run love it.

But I don’t really love it.

It’s hard. I run out of breath, my legs ache, and my knees swell. I’m not strong enough and I have no endurance.

I am using the couch to 5k app to do intermittent walks and runs. It starts with a 5 minute warm up walk and ends with a 5 minute cool down walk. In between, you run for a minute, walk for a minute. Once you get a hang of that, you move up to 1 1/2 minute runs with a 2 minute walk. I haven’t progressed passed that. I can do it for 3 or 4 rounds, but after that, I’m beat.

I don’t love running. Not yet.

But here’s what I do love.

I love the time with my husband.

I love the tunes in my ear.

I love the difference in my body.

I love seeing the progress in my endurance. I may not be able to move up to the next stage of walk/runs, but I am better able to handle the stage I am at. I will move up soon. I’m sure.

I love the post-run yoga at the end. It feels like a reward for hard work.

I love that on the days that I run, I hit my step goal. And my active minutes goal. And my miles walked goal.

So, I’m giving running a chance and I’m trying to love it. We’ll see what happens.

Progress is Hard

The month of March sucked. No lie.

I started running using the couch to 5k app. Running completely kicked my butt.

I randomly stopped drinking as much coffee No particular reason. I can’t even give you one. My husband says it was his idea, but I really don’t remember that.

My yoga practice was pretty intensely focused on strength training with some heavier cardio than I’m used to doing.

All of that combined to create some weight gain in the form of water retention. And by “some” I mean five pounds. Five pounds.

You could see the water retention, too. My hands, knees, and feet were are all super swollen. My wedding ring, which had become pretty loose was back to being tight. I was achy, too, from the running and yoga. Seeing the number on my scale climb every morning was super disheartening and downright depressing.

I’m not being facetious either. My mental health spiraled downward and only didn’t bottom out thanks to my husband.

I finally had enough and called my health coach. It was either that or give up entirely. I have put in entirely too much time, money, and effort to give up. Seriously. So, thankfully, my husband’s health insurance through the UMC provides health coaching. They call monthly to check in and offer tips and advice as well as encouragement. Plus, you can call them anytime.

So I called. Yes, my weight gain was mostly likely water retention caused by muscle repairs being made by my body and the lack of coffee. Also, even though I was drinking 64 oz. of water daily, that wasn’t actually enough. WHAT?! I had no idea that 64 oz. was still too little. According to my coach, I need to be drinking closer to 88 oz. of water. To come up with how much you need to drink, take your weight and divide it by two. That’s how much water you should have. So if you weigh 150 lbs, drink 75 oz. of water. That will help keep your body from retaining too much water when your muscles are sore. It will also keep you from holding onto extra water that you don’t need.

I’m still retaining some water. It’s getting pretty humid where I live and my body is pretty sensitive to that. But I have mostly lost the five pounds I gained back last month. I added my second cup of coffee back in and I increased my water closer to 96 oz. a day. I’m holding onto about a pound of water, though.

All this to say, progress is hard. The first 45 lbs. lost were really easy. The next 45 are already super hard. I’m not giving up though.

I have a great support system that includes family, friends, and my health coach. If you have access, I highly recommend signing up for a health coach. it has made such a difference in my health – both physical and mental. If you need a person to support your journey, I’m here. You can do this, my friend.

April Yoga Calendar

I have found that the best way to ensure that I make it to the mat every single day is to have a plan. When I first started doing yoga, I just did the same two or three videos over and over. While it helped build strength and confidence, it got boring and it was hard to choose what I would do each day. I ended up missing some days because I didn’t have a plan and choosing in the moment was too overwhelming.

In November 2020, I started following Yoga with Adriene’s free calendar and playlist. While that was great, some of the videos were either too easy, too short, too long, or too hard. Haha! I felt very much like Goldilocks. I would skip videos that weren’t for me and fill in with the same ones I’d done earlier in the year. Or I skipped the day entirely.

In January, I followed Breath, a 30 day journey with Adriene and by February, I felt confident enough to make my own plan. I was building endurance and strength and decided I needed a minimum of 25-30 minutes on the mat each day. So using, Adriene’s calendar as a base, I made my own and substituted longer practices on days that she had short flows. In March, I did much the same thing, but focused on her Yoga for Weight Loss series.

For April, I have tried to take a few different things into account – I chose several videos that focus on weight loss or targeting certain body parts. I have also chosen several videos for balance, stress relief, and renewal as I feel that is what I am needing right now.

In addition to the practices on this playlist, I will add bedtime yoga some evenings before bed and post-run yoga on days where I go for a run with my husband.

I hope this playlist will help you find what feels good, too, and empower your daily practice!

Yoga for Weight Loss & Gut Health

I talk a lot about my weight and my a1c and trying to improve those, but I want to take some time to talk about the other changes in my body. The first one is flexibility & strength. I can do little things that I couldn’t do before, like getting up from the floor without help, crouching to get into lower cabinets, and lifting heavy boxes. My husband and I rearranged the garage last Saturday and I had zero problems helping with the heavy lifting. I can pick up my son and carry him around. I can run up and down the steps. The bulk of my own body is no longer a hindrance to my mobility.

But it’s more than that. I had my gall bladder out in 2017. Unlike most people, my system never leveled out. I was sick after every meal. I was put on medicine to take every night before bed and if I missed it, I was sick all the next day. Over the last 8 months, I’ve stopped slowly taking it entirely because it was having the opposite effect on me. I can eat the food I love without hurting my gut. Last week, we ate one of my favorite meals – shredded beef sandwiches. Normally this meal would cause acid indigestion and I’d be chewing tums all night in order to get some sleep. Not anymore. I went to bed fine and had no gut issues.

I’ve noticed other changes in my body, too. Clothes that were too tight are too loose. Y’all, I’ve lost more than 12 inches on my belly! I’ve gone down several sizes. My yoga pants this morning are a medium. I can’t remember the last time I wore a medium… it’s been at least a decade. My BMI has dropped 10 points. Even on days when my weight loss isn’t as fast as I’d like it to be, I am still losing. I am down nearly 50 lbs in total and am inching closer to my next goal.

How have I done this?? Diet and exercise, guys. And I don’t mean like “diet” but I mean I watch what foods I put into my body and I am careful with portions. Gone are the extra carbs and saturated fats and high calories. I feel better, I have more energy, and I feel like me again. I don’t take any medicines or supplements for my weight or gut health. I just move my body everyday and feed it what it needs.

Yoga has been an integral part in all of this. Would I be losing weight just by changing my diet? Sure. But there comes a point where you have to start moving. You have to exercise. Yoga is wonderful because it has varying intensity and is proven to help stimulate gut health. You don’t need an expensive pink drink. Just a mat and an internet connection. Start with some beginner videos. Then move up to higher intensity ones. I’m doing Yoga for Weight Loss this month and loving it! Find what makes your body feel good, strong, and healthy. Trust me, it will thank you for it.

One last thing — you can do it, too.

Eating Well…

…When it’s that time of the month

If you’re like me, you probably get some cravings either leading up to or during your period. Those cravings can make it really difficult to eat well for the week you are on your period which can lead to weight gain, high blood sugar, and an overall feeling of crappiness, not to mention the guilt you may feel for not eating right. On top of that, it can be hard to exercise when you are dealing with cramps, mood swings, and the fatigue that all seem to go hand in hand with PMS.

So what do we women do to stay healthy all month long?

Understand your cravings

So before you can satisfy your cravings, you need to understand what cravings are. In the simplest terms, cravings are your body’s way of communicating with you. I never really thought too much about them until I was pregnant and experienced all sorts of stereotypical cravings. Turns out, you aren’t just crazy. Cravings are your body’s way of signaling that it needs something.

It’s totally common to crave food on your period – for one, your body is working harder than normal so it needs more calories than normal. So it’s ok to up your caloric intake (not by a ton, mind you, but by some). Not only that, eating certain foods can release serotonin which results in a boost of positive feelings that counteract the moodiness commonly associated with PMS.

So if you’re need a calorie boost, a dump of feel-good hormones, or maybe some protein to counteract the blood loss from Aunt Flo, you are going to experience cravings for pasta, chocolate, and steak.

Satisfy your cravings in a healthy way

It can be really hard to handle cravings when you are trying to stick to a specialized diet, especially if it is a new change to your life. My number one suggestion is to have a plan. If you have regular periods, you can track them and can count on when they will start. If you don’t, you generally can tell when they will start based on the other symptoms you may feel. Which means, start planning. Ask yourself, what am I going to need to satisfy those cravings?

First of all, as always, this is not medical advice from a doctor, this is just me telling you what I do that works. Stick with what your doctor says is right for you. Don’t make a sudden change to your eating habits without consulting a doctor.

So, I know the week of my period, I am going to want all the bread. I am also going to crave chocolate on down days and on my heaviest day I am going to want a lot of meat. Because I have to watch my carbs, the bread and the chocolate can be difficult to fit into my diet. Before I knew I had diabetes and before I was working my way towards health, I would eat a whole loaf of bread by myself during the week of my period. I would have oreos by the dozen, 2 or 3 cosmic brownies, and at least one chocolate extreme Blizzard from DQ. If that’s you right now, girl, I get it. Just thinking about all that sugar makes me kind of nauseous now, but then… oh man. On top of all that, I would have a least a burger or two from various fast food restaurants. And while my cravings might be satisfied, I did not feel any better and often felt way worse. So, I’d eat more. It’s not hard to see how I gained so much weight, is it?

Look, I’m not trying to shame you or myself. Some of us are able to eat like that and still be totally healthy. But I can’t. My body doesn’t work like that. Besides, I may have been craving sweets, but processing all those carbs and refined sugars usually leads to some heavy fatigue. Which is why I felt worse.

So here’s what I do now. I found a great bread that I can eat. Kroger makes a carbmaster line of a lot of my favorite foods, including bread. It has only 9 grams of carbs per slice and it is yummy. Carb craving satisfied!

That chocolate craving is satisfied by a bowl of Halo Top Chocolate ice cream. It’s only 18 g of carbs for 2/3 cup. It’s delicious. Seriously, try it.

Craving meat is easy for us carb-watchers because there are no carbs in meat. However, you have to stay away from burgers because the bun will kill you. Not literally, of course, but many buns have 50 or more grams of carbs. That whopper from Burger King? Girl it’s 54 grams of carbs and that’s not even including the fries (a small is 44 g) or the drink (just get a water or an unsweet tea. So grill a steak a skip the burger. Trust me, your body will thank you.

Maintain an exercise routine

A lot of women gain weight during their period thanks to those cravings and fatigue, but it doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve found that even though I eat more during my period week, I typically lose 1-2 lbs. Why? I keep up an exercise routine. Sometimes I go easy on myself and stick to gentle yoga, other times I try to keep up my normal intensity of a harder yoga flow and a brisk evening walk.

Go easy on yourself. If your cramps are particularly horrendous, do a gentle yoga flow or a slow walk. Staying active, even if it is light activity, is important to maintaining your weight. And it will help you stay consistent. I find that when I miss a day of exercise, the next day is that much easier to miss.

Yoga + Christianity

Can Christians practice yoga?

The short answer is, “yes”. If you don’t have time to read all the different reasons why yoga is not outside of the realm of Christianity, you can stop here. If you are a Christian and you want to try yoga, go ahead. It’s not going to break your relationship with Jesus and will most likely enhance it. Go get your mat and learn some asanas.

For others who want some more background, keep reading. I’m going to talk about the background of yoga, how it can develop your faith, and some objections to Christians practicing yoga.

Common objections to yoga

Even before I practiced yoga, I heard people say that Christians can’t or shouldn’t do yoga. The biggest reason is that ancient yoga comes from Hinduism and Christians cannot perform any religious practice that comes from another religion. Y’all, I really love you, but I’m trying super hard to not eyeroll right now. I’ll go into this more in the next section, but let me just say for now that ancient yoga and modern yoga have very little in common, other than the asanas (or poses).

#1 The poses are offerings to Hindu gods

While this might have been true in ancient yoga (it’s not mentioned in any of the books I have), it isn’t in modern yoga and it doesn’t have to be for you. It’s all about intention here. Paul asks the people of Corinth, “Don’t you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit is in you, and you have received the Spirit from God. You do not belong to yourselves. Christ has paid the price for you. So use your bodies in a way that honors God,” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). I believe that yoga can be used to show honor to God, if that is where your intention is.

When I get on the mat every morning, I do so with the intent to get healthy and take care of my body. I want to care for my body because God created it just for me. It is my job to care for it and doing so honors God. There are many types of exercises you can do to be healthy and care for your body, but I prefer yoga because of the emphasis on self care and moving your body with intention.

#2 Yoga is too sensual

Like many other things in this world, overemphasizing sex and sensuality has plagued yoga. Let me first say that sex is a good and healthy expression of love between two married persons. It should feel good and there is nothing wrong with enjoying sex. But with that said, yoga has nothing to do with sex. It is our culture’s over obsession with sex and, especially, with porn that has tainted yoga as being overly sensual.

I know a lot of yoga is about finding what feels good, but it is not in a sexy or sensual way. It is about learning how your body and muscles move and learning to not overexert yourself by pushing into a pose that you aren’t ready for. For example, I can make my heels touch the ground while doing downward dog, but it stretches and hurts more than is ok. If I force my body there, I’m in pain for the rest of the day. However, if I find what feels good or what feels right, my heels are about an inch off the ground and my body feels strong.

If we call all things that have to do with physical feelings “sensual” and then outlaw them, we’d be left with very little to do.

#3 Yoga is “New Age”

Yoga can be New Age, if that’s your focus. It can also be Christian. Or Hindu. Or atheistic. Yoga is meant to be spiritual, but it doesn’t have to be, so atheists could totally participate. A lot of people tie it to New Age Spiritualism because it doesn’t tie you down to a specific spirit. Now, you could practice with a yoga instructor that teaches New Age Spiritualism, but you don’t have to. By now, many of you know that I follow Yoga with Adriene for most of my yoga flows. She does not spout spiritualism of any kind.

# 3.5 But, what about Namaste?

Namaste means “the spirit in me honors the spirit in you.” That’s a pretty Christian idea, if you ask me. Is it present in other religions? Yeah, sure, but they don’t lay exclusive claim to it. In fact, in many Bible studies over the years, I have learned of the importance of acknowledging the Spirit in my brothers and sisters around me. Doing this actually helps prevent a lot of the negative and judgmental thoughts we humans are prone to.

Background of yoga¹

Ancient yoga originated in India thousands of years ago. Practitioners would seclude themselves away from the rest of the world (think monks) and completely dedicate themselves to uniting or yoking their mind, body, and spirit. This is what yoga means, literally to “yoke” or unite. Yoga was a part of social and cultural constructs in India, including their belief in the caste system. Yoga was a way to move up the ladder of that system. Back in the ancient days, yoga was practiced entirely by men. Women weren’t allowed to practice yoga until the 1900s! Ancient yoga was taught one-on-one and practitioners lived very Spartan lives (again, think monks).

Ancient yoga is very different from modern yoga which came into being in the 1900s as Eastern yogis travelled to Europe and America spreading their styles of yoga. Modern yoga is not religious, though it can be tied into the religion you practice. Modern yoga is practiced primarily by women in group setting who own all. the. things. yoga-related.

What is yoga?²

Yoga is blend of physical exercises, meditation and prayer, and breathing exercises. It also includes a general “do no harm” philosophy and a high moral code that will bring you closer to God (whether that is the triune God from Christianity or another God is up to you).

The most common form of yoga in the West is Hatha Yoga and it has an 8-limbed approach. The first two limbs focus on the moral code and includes refraining from certain actions, studying spiritual works (like the Bible or theology books), devotion to God, and cleanliness (aka eating well). The third limb is the one everyone recognizes as yoga – the asanas or poses. These poses are meant to help clear your mind and prepare your body for meditation.

Don’t be wise in your own eyes.
Have respect for the Lord and avoid evil.
 That will bring health to your body.
    It will make your bones strong.

Proverbs 3:7-8

The fourth limb is the pranayama or breathing practice. This is one that many Christians have a problem with because prana means “life energy” or “life force”. To make a long argument short, some say that messes with things we’re not meant to mess with. However, this is a huge misunderstanding of the point of pranayama. The breathing practices in this limb are among the same practices I’ve learned for controlling anxiety, for controlling my breathing in exercising, and for relaxation. It is well known that slowing your breath, taking deep breaths, can help calm a restless or anxious heart. Your breath is important because it’s necessary for your life, but how you breathe is equally important. For example, when you hyperventilate, your brain convinces your body that you don’t have enough oxygen, when in fact the opposite is true. You end up with too much oxygen in your brain and you pass out. Learning to control your breath is a good practice.

The 5th through 8th limbs of the Hatha Yoga approach do tend to lend themselves more into ancient Indian practices and beliefs about enlightenment. That said, meditation and prayer are important to a spiritual life, regardless of what religion you follow.

In 1957, Swami Vishnudevananda came to the West with his five principals of yoga to improve physical health & mental health, as well as develop your connection to your God. These are proper exercise, proper breathing, proper diet, proper relaxation, and positive thinking and meditation. These are the 5 things that I focus on most.

Yoga to develop your faith

As a Christian, I have found that practicing yoga first thing in the morning helps me set an intention for my day, wakes up my sleepy mind, and gives me time to pray. My Bible study companions jokingly say I need to pray during yoga so I don’t fall or because the poses hurt! While that is true sometimes, I find that especially in savasana (corpse pose) and child’s pose, I am able to determine my mindset for the day (positive thinking!) and spend some time talking to and listening for God. The harder poses wake up my body and my mind so I can really begin to think about what I need to say to God. I can think back on the Scriptures I read before getting to my mat and pray about them specifically.

When I start my day with yoga, I am able to spend my day focused more clearly on God’s path for me. I have set my intention on what I believe God’s path for me is and I am able to walk it with Him.

I rarely leave time for myself to do yoga in the evening before bed, but when I do, I am always grateful for it. Not only do I sleep better that night, but I spend that extra bit of time with myself and with God, letting go of the day and handing it over to Him. Yoga has definitely only drawn me closer to God.

Aside from the mindset and content spirit that I have found, yoga has led to a much healthier body. Physical health is something God is deeply concerned with. John, in his 3rd letter from exile, writes that he hopes the letter finds the followers of Christ to be as healthy in body as they are strong in faith (3 John 1:2). Daniel and his friends refused to eat the rich food and drink the wine given to them by the king and they instead ate vegetables. The kings attendants almost wouldn’t allow this, worried that they would be too weak to serve the king, but Daniel convinced them to let him try and at the end of their trial period, he and his friends were healthier and stronger than all the other slaves (Daniel 1:8-16). Even the author of Ecclesiastes reminds us to refuse to worry and keep our bodies healthy (Ecclesiastes 11:10).

So friends, if you’re worried about how God feels about your yoga practice, talk to Him about it, find your intentions behind it, and remember that God wants you to do what draws you nearer to Him.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

---

¹everyBODY Yoga. Stanley, Jessamyn. Workman Publishing, 2017
²YOGA: Your Home Practice Companion. Sivanda Yoga Vedanta Yoga Center. DK Publishing, 2018.

Yoga with Pre-Teens & Teens

Yoga is great for all ages, even teens & pre-teens!

I’ll say that again.

Yoga is great for all ages, even teens and pre-teens!

I don’t know about you, but if it doesn’t involve reading or video games, my kids are not into it. If it involves physical exertion, they are really not into it. Now, I’m not saying my kids are lazy, they just are not used to a lot of physical activity and they do not play sports. That’s fine, but yoga is a good way to give your kids some physical activity while also teaching them about their minds and bodies.

But why is yoga important for teens?

As I said in this post, yoga is so much more than flexibility! And while many children are naturally flexible, it can be like foreign language. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Not only that, but teens and pre-teens grow at a pretty rapid pace. This can lead to them losing flexibility, balance, and coordination. Yoga will help them maintain those things.

Yoga helps create a love of physical movement. Teens, even more than young children, tend to sit for long periods of time. Either at school or at home, learning or playing video games, our culture has created a pretty sedentary lifestyle. Physical therapists will tell you — movement throughout the day keeps you from getting stiff, creates more energy, and helps your brain function. Teens preparing for college really need to keep moving in order to keep their brains processing.

Yoga also helps to create mindfulness. This is important at all ages of life, but I think it is especially so for teens and pre-teens. As children enter into adolescence, their hormones change pretty rapidly and that leads to moodiness, emotional upset, and lots of drama. This is all totally normal for teens, but they need a way to process their emotions and let out their frustration safely. Yoga does this!

Resources for Kids Yoga

• Yoga for Virtual Learners – this a playlist of videos that are great for teens and pre-teens. We use these for our PE classes occassionally.
• Yoga for Mental Health – this is a playlist of videos that helps with mindfulness. It includes meditations and poses for all sorts of things teens & pre-teens (and adults!) may be feeling or dealing with. This includes depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, feeling stuck, being a bad mood, and so much more!
• Yoga Mat – Gaiam makes a lot of really great and durable mats. My husband and I love ours!

Do your kids like yoga? What are your favorite resources for them? Let me know in the comments!

• 

• 

• 

Yoga with Small Children

Yoga is great for all ages, even small children!

I’ll say that again.

Yoga is great for all ages, even children!

My 5 year old loves yoga, even though he’s picky about his teacher. He does not like doing Yoga with Adriene videos. They’re “too hard”. He does, however, LOVE Cosmic Kids Yoga. He also loves following books with yoga poses like Good Morning Yoga.

My 3 year old goddaughter also loves Cosmic Kids Yoga – she does it with my son anytime they come to visit. Jamie (the teacher of Cosmic Kids) is hilarious and a fantastic storyteller which is important for engaging little minds and little bodies.

But why is yoga important for children? Aren’t they already pretty flexible?

Yoga is so much more than flexibility! And while many children are naturally flexible, it can be like foreign language. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Practice yoga will help children maintain their flexibility while also strengthening their muscles. As they grow, yoga (or other stretches or exercises) will help little muscles stretch more easily.

Yoga helps create a love of physical movement. Children today tend to sit for long periods of time. Either at school or at home, learning or playing video games, our culture has created a pretty sedentary lifestyle. Physical therapists will tell you — movement throughout the day keeps you from getting stiff, creates more energy, and helps your brain function. Children, who are naturally wiggly, are taught to sit still for long periods of time and yoga can help counteract that stiffness that creates.

Yoga also helps to create mindfulness. First, you have to be mindful or intentional about the way you move or the poses you get into. Classes like Cosmic Kids Yoga make those transitions into poses fun and safe for kids. It teaches them to notice how they move and to move in certain ways to protect their bodies. Second, yoga puts a focus on breathing which in turn helps us (adults and kids alike) to create a calmer mindset. This calmness is so important now more than ever. Children can feel the stress of their parents and we are under more stress as a society than we have ever been. Even if children aren’t aware of the problems in the world, they can feel the stress oozing off of their parents. Doing yoga helps them to release some of that stress and restore calm by focusing on their breath.

Resources for Kids Yoga

• Yoga with Adriene has a few videos for older kids (think upper elementary – high school age), but this one for younger kids is good: Yoga with Kids: Play in the Park
• Cosmic Kids Yoga
• Good Morning Yoga by Mariam Gates
• Good Night Yoga by Mariam Gates
• Little Yogi Deck
• Kids Yoga Mat

Do your kids like yoga? What are your favorite resources for them? Let me know in the comments!

• 

• 

• 

• 

Teaching Kids Healthy Eating Habits

This is something that has concerned me for quite some time, actually. Even before I was on my own health journey to combat type 2 diabetes, I made sure to provide healthy, well-rounded meals. We have never been a family to keep snacks or junk food lying around and although we eat out occasionally, it’s never more than once a week (and that often has really only been since the pandemic).

We homeschool now, but when my kids were in public school, they’d tell me stories about their peers and how “weird” they considered my kids to be. Which is fair – my kids are weird! They play D&D and board games and read fantasy novels. But that wasn’t what made my kids weird according to the peers at school. They’re weird because they like fruits and vegetables. <<cue shocked gasps>>

I thought they were overreacting, but they told stories about bartering desserts for more vegetables or fruit. Then we had friends over for sleepovers. We would buy extra snacky things to make it special – soda, chips, brownies or cookies – but once they were gone, they were gone. And in my house we don’t eat snacks if we didn’t eat the meal. That’s the rule for guests, too, sorry, guys.

Some kids were fine with that, but some balked. They couldn’t eat their weight in potato chips if they didn’t eat the pizza I’d made? <<cue horrified gasps>>

So first let me say, if you’re that parent who lets their kid eat what they want, when they want, then this post isn’t for you… unless you want to change that. Also, no judgement. Raise your kids the way that works best for your family. As always, I simply write about what I know or what I experience and I can only write about my family and how we eat.

So how do you raise kids who eat their veggies?

And why is that even important?

Let me first give some background. My husband grew up in a family that had meals together, his mother cooked or made frozen dinners, and they rarely ate out. They kept snacks and soda in the house and my husband and his brother could eat whatever and whenever outside of meals. They rarely had or ate leftovers. I was raised by my grandparents and we ate together as a family also. My grandma cooked a big breakfast every Saturday and Sunday and she cooked dinners throughout the week. Leftovers were had probably once or twice a week. We kept snacks in the house, but it was an equal ratio of potato chips to fruit. I was just as likely to eat a banana for a snack as a handful of chips. We ate out a few times a month if we were celebrating something or if we just felt like it. My uncle worked at Cracker Barrel for several years and we ate there pretty often when I was a teen.

I feel like both my husband and I grew up with a fairly healthy outlook on food and with fairly healthy backgrounds with regards to snack consumption, getting our fruits & veggies, drinking milk, etc. We wanted to raise our kids with that same outlook.

Life happens though. For the bulk of our early years as a couple and then as a family, we didn’t have the money for snack foods. We didn’t have the money for soda. We didn’t have the money for fresh produce. So while it’s nice that my kids aren’t used to having a bunch of unhealthy food in the house, they also aren’t used to fresh vegetables.

Which means adding things like eggplant, zucchini, brussel sprouts, etc. has been a little rough going. But it’s important.

It’s important because diabetes runs in our family. I’m not the first person in my family to have type 2 diabetes and I won’t be the last. High cholesterol runs in my husband’s family. Obesity is a growing problem in America and the health issues it causes can be devastating. I don’t want my children to have to face those issues as adults.

So we start now.

Plan healthy meals and healthy snacks

This is important for everyone in your family. Plan your meals. Plan your snacks. Keep only good food in the house. Do we have junk like PopTarts? You bet. But they’re only allowed on Thursday mornings. And you cannot eat the whole box! Portion control! Still hungry? Have some eggs.

Seriously, though, if you plan and schedule meals and snacks, kids will eat what you provide. I have all meals written down so the kids know what they will be eating. We have a designated snack time so they don’t eat right before a meal and spoil their dinner. We provide fruit and other healthy options for snacks and some less healthy options for desserts. Those less healthy options like holiday candy, cookies, or ice cream are limited to small portions. If the meal plus dessert didn’t fill them up, they’re probably thirsty and just need water. Or they can have a healthy snack.

Eat together as a family as often as possible

We eat three meals a day together. I know that isn’t possible for everyone, but as homeschoolers, that works for us. Maybe you can only eat dinner together. That’s fine. Do it. Do it as often as you can. Having meals together as a family provides time to talk, to learn about each other, and to enjoy each other’s company. Sometimes, we read a book aloud together or just discuss the world around us. It’s amazing the kind of conversations your kids can have if you give them the opportunity! Plus, eating together leads us to my next point…

Try new foods and eat “gross” food in front of your kids

Any time you make your kids try something new, you need to try it, too. For example, I have dreaded trying Brussel sprouts my entire life. I finally tried them a few weeks back. I roasted a big pan of a bunch of veggies to eat with a steak I was making. We all sat down and took that first bite together. Some of us loved them, some of us hated them. But we all ate them.

It’s also important to eat food you don’t like in front of your kids. I think this is doubly true if you have a picky eater. My husband, for example really dislikes mushrooms. But I asked him to eat them in a meal I was preparing (this was years ago, by the way) so that he wouldn’t influence the children’s tastes. If he ate them, the kids would, too. And they did. Three of my four kids just love mushrooms now and regularly ask for them in all sorts of different meals.

Eating food you don’t like is important with picky eaters, too. My youngest is super picky. Actually, my two youngest are very picky. One of them doesn’t like bread, which makes zero sense to me.

Anyway, if you eat food that you dislike in front of your picky eater, they really have no excuse to not eat food they don’t like. Those Brussel sprouts I mentioned earlier? Gross. Super gross. I will never eat them again. But I ate them that day and so did my two picky eaters. They both liked them and will eat them again.

Reinforce good eating with rewards and Discipline bad eating with punishments

This one is hard. I always struggle with it because I want my kids to have a good relationship with food. I don’t want them to hate eating or use food as a coping mechanism.

We try to praise our kids for trying new things. We offer desserts and special treats for eating well. We do control portion sizes on junk food, but no food is considered “bad” in our house.

On the flip side, if a child refuses to try something, they don’t get praise. If a child doesn’t eat well or doesn’t finish a meal within reason, they don’t get dessert. Depending on the reasoning and child’s attitude, privileges like TV time or video games are disallowed.

If a child breaks the snack rule (they eat something after being told not to or they eat outside of snack time), they forfeit the rest of the days snacks and desserts.

We rarely have those problems, but they do happen. My oldest is a sugar fiend and used to steal candy from the bowl when he was little. I’d find wrappers all over the house. He believed the lie that he wouldn’t get any, that there wouldn’t be enough for him, or that I wouldn’t allow him to have any. Once he learned that he would get candy if he ate his meal and that it wasn’t as scarce as he thought, he stopped stealing it. My two picky eaters give us trouble sometimes, but they at least try new food and eat most of the foods they don’t like. They do end up losing dessert though, because I’m a firm believer in not getting dessert if you didn’t finish the meal, no matter how “gross” it was.

Eating Healthy: Important for kids and adults

Eating healthy is so important. I don’t care if you are thin or fat. I don’t care if you are overweight or underweight. It’s not about trying to hit a number on a scale. It’s about how we use food to nourish our bodies. Our bodies need fruits, veggies, grains, protein, dairy, and yeah, even fats and oils. Those all fuel our bodies to do get up and experience life!

But overeating (and under eating!) can cause major health problems that our bodies wouldn’t have to deal with if we just were more careful about what and how much we put into them.

Do yourself and your children a favor – find a way to eat better starting today. Let me know in comments what you’re doing to find a healthy diet!

Check out these great recipes to try! Kid-approved, healthy meals from my kitchen to yours!

Taco Soup

April 20, 2021March 18, 2021

Eggplant Parmesan with Penne and Italian Sausage

April 15, 2021March 25, 2021

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

April 13, 2021October 14, 2021

Steak & Gravy with Biscuits

April 8, 2021February 24, 2021

Chicken Pot Pie

April 6, 2021February 9, 2021

One Pot Pasta

April 1, 2021February 18, 2021