Health and Mental Strength + Recipes

 Well, it has certainly been a long summer break for me and One Girl One God. Today, I am here to talk about how to keep a healthy mind as well as healthy habits. I definitely have cravings for something sweet (all the time), but eating healthy makes a difference. It not only makes a difference in your appearance, but also your mind. Eating right creates healthy habits which effect the way you will start to think about food. 

Everyone deserves rewards for good eating so, reward yourself! When I was in elementary school, one of my teachers challenged me (along with my other classmates) to change something about our every day routine. I used to eat dessert on random nights growing up. A few years ago, I made the decision to only have dessert on the weekend. Every now and then I will have dessert a random day in the week. If you eat dessert five days or more a week and want to make some healthy changes, you don’t need to make them all at once.

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 Starting small:

You can try four nights a week or just eat smaller portions and work your way up the scale to eating healthier. It is never easy to change a routine right away, so take your time. Don’t feel discouraged if you forget or start to fall into old habits. It happens to everyone.

Instead of my personal favorite, ice cream or cake, cookies, cupcakes, etc. maybe try frozen grapes, strawberries, or cherries. They aren’t your typical dessert, but they taste sweet and are delicious! Eating two or three squares of dark chocolate will leave you satisfied. You could even melt those few squares of chocolate and dip your grapes, strawberries, or cherries into them. If you choose to melt the chocolate, the fruits don’t necessarily have to be frozen. Smoothies are great too. If you use the right ingredients it can taste just like a milkshake. 

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My guide to the “perfect” smoothie or milkshake:

Smoothie:

8 oz. of orange juice

1 cups of frozen strawberries (or fruit of choice)

1 frozen bananas

Throw in a handful of spinach.

The spinach won’t change the flavor of the smoothie at all, but it might change the color from pink to green. Spinach alone adds vitamin K, vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), manganese, folate, magnesium, iron, copper, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin E, calcium, potassium and vitamin C, dietary fiber, phosphorus, vitamin B1, zinc, protein and cholin. 

 

Milkshake:

-Instead of orange juice, use milk or even unsweetened almond milk

 

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Salads:

I used to hate salads, but now I prefer it over other vegetables. My personal favorite salad is made of:

(Pictured at top of page) Spinach, fresh strawberries, candied pecans, grilled chicken on the side, and some strawberry vinaigrette.  

 

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My Mama’s “Maple Sugar Pecans” Recipe:

4 cups of raw pecans

2/3 cup of Bobo’s Mountain Sugar “Dark Robust” Vermont Maple Syrup

Just shy of 1/4 tsp. Fleur de Sel sea salt (It has more texture)

*Preheat oven to 350° F. Pour maple syrup into a 5 qt. pan over medium/medium-low heat. Bring to a low boil, stirring constantly for five minutes. Add pecans, sprinkle sea salt and mix very quickly. Immediately pour dividing mixture onto 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for five minutes, then flip the pecan mixture over with a wide spatula. Bake for another three minutes. Pull the baking sheets out of the oven. Slide the parchment paper off of the hot pan (with the pecan mixture) and let cool on counter. Enjoy!

*Feel free to half recipe if desired. However, we go through these fairly quickly in my house!

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Again, eating right does take time so, don’t feel rushed into anything. Make healthier changes to your own timing. Each person is different. My mom was just telling me this the other day, “Madison, never ever compare yourself to others.” We are all made beautiful in our own ways. As girls, we tend to compare ourselves to others and have certain insecurities, but ladies, you are perfect in God’s eyes. His opinion matters most and comparing yourself is only making your mental strength worse. Mental strength is so incredibly important because we can let the lies of the world change how we think of ourselves. What we think of ourselves is so much more important than what others think of us. Because at the end of the day, our opinions matter more (as well as God’s). Our bodies thrive on eating healthy. Those bonus minerals and vitamins that we eat truly make a difference. Whenever I eat healthy I almost feel refreshed and ready to take on anything and everything.

This is a saying that can get annoying to hear all of the time, but it is SO true, “It’s what’s on the inside that counts.” NOT the outside, but the inside. When we eat right, we feel good about ourselves. Eating healthy is not for others, but only for yourself. So I encourage you all to challenge yourselves and change something from your routine. Even if it’s waking up earlier to have more time for some things you never seem to have time for in order to accomplish before going to work or school. You have your own personalized routine to edit. 

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Xoxo,

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Feel free to leave a comment below of what you have decided to change from your routine 🙂