Sense

Have you ever felt like something really good was about to happen?  Thats how I am and actually have been feeling for quite sometime now.  Touching on my post from last night, it is sometimes very hard to wait for it, but you must, you must stay diligent, vigilant and keep on going, keep pushing till you get to what you've been pushing for.   You see the very thing that the enemy wants you to do is stop, get discouraged and move on, deciding for yourself that what you were working towards was nothing more than a whimsical thought.  But you must not believe him!  You must keep on keeping on.

You may have been working so long towards that dream, your head has been down so long that once you decide to look up you can barely recognize the world around you.  It is so important to work towards the things that are in your hearts, your giftings, your callings, but you must remember to stay balanced while your on that journey.

If you don't take care of yourself on the road to becoming yourself then you will wined up feeling so run down and exhausted when you actually achieve your goals that you won't be able to enjoy it like you should.  It will take so long for you to get back into your "original state", the state of mind your suppose to be in, the state your body is suppose to be in, the state your spirit and soul is suppose to be in, that you could miss out on some opportunities that God had intended for you.

I was at a meeting tonight and the man speaking stood strong in his beliefs and took joy in helping people and it dawned on me while I was sitting there listening,  "God can heal us, but it doesn't mean he will, sometimes he wants us to figure something out on our own, He has given us the tools to heal ourselves, to heal our bodies, our minds, our total well-being, sometimes we just have to have enough sense to do it.

I know we all are capable of changing the areas in our lives that we want to change, the question is are we willing to do it.  I know I am, and I like to believe I grow one step closer each and everyday.  I hope you all have a wonderful time changing.  I bid you all a farewell and goodnight till tomorrow!

Warm Regards,
Candace

Roast Beef Salad,

Mixed Greens
Roast Beef, sliced
Goat cheese, crumbled
Dried Cherries,
Pecans
Greek Vinaigrette

Mix all ingredients and enjoy : D

Virtues...

Have you ever wanted something to happen so bad that waiting for it felt like you were going to die or possibly experience a small hernia?  I absolutely hate waiting for things, for people, for days to pass, I was probably the most impatient person that ever existed, until I decided to try and change.  key word: TRY.  I did try and have been trying and it is trying me.  You see I am the type of person that will get so excited about something and so gung-ho that I cannot possibly fathom having to wait for it to happen and if I do indeed have to wait (which happens to be 99.9% of the time) then I lose all motivation and ambition and decide I don't want to wait and if I have to then it means it was never going to happen in the first place...Uhhh WRONG!  

That may sound like one of the most ignorant thoughts in the world and you may be saying "C'mon, haven't you heard that all good things are worth waiting for", and in return I would say to you "I'm sure they are but I'm not willing to find out".  I have since made a change and I am trying this whole "waiting" thing, I guess its not so bad if you like being in agony every waking moment, but no biggie :D 

I will just have to cope and really believe that "patience is a virtue", I just have to remind myself that the longer I wait the more joyful and excited and blessed I will feel when what I'm waiting for actually happens.  There are so many ways we can practice being patient and sooo many ways we show our impatience.  At the end of the day I would like to be one of those people that stood out, while I'm waiting in line somewhere and its apparent that everyone else around me is glaring at the sales clerk, I will be the one who smiles at her and asks her how her day is going.  You just never know what being kind and patient can do for somebody and also you never know when God is testing you, which by the way is all the time, I would rather learn how to deal with this now then regret not doing it when I'm older.  

My wish is that we all would strive to be more patient, more kind, more compassionate and more loving with each other, as that famous country song goes, "I'm in a hurry to get things done, oh I rush and rush until life's no fun, all I really gotta do is live and die, but I'm in a hurry and don't know why."  Lets not mimic these lyrics.  Bidding you all a farewell and goodnight till tomorrow of course!

Warm Regards,

Candace

Mock Chicken Pot Pie

Filling:

3 TBSP of butter

2 cups cooked chicken, diced

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

3 stalks of celery, diced

7 green onions diced

8-9 green olives, chopped

dash of sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, chicken seasoning

1 TBSP of flour

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

Crust:

1/2 cup of almond flour (or almonds ground in a food processor)

2 eggs

dash of sea salt, pepper, garlic powder

1/4 cup of butter

For filling saute celery and onions with butter until soft then add cream, chicken, mushrooms, stock, flour and seasonings bring to a boil then pour in a glass pan

For crust mix all ingredients then spoon on top of filling and bake on 400 degrees for 30 minutes, Enjoy :D

 

Waiting....

"Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.  She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them....Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. (Hos. 2:6-7&14)

This verse has spoken to me, It speaks of how much the Lord is willing to wait for us, to allure us, to get us alone, away from all the distractions and busyness of life, away from all the things that are taking up our time but shouldn't be and all the while he just waits, waits for us to become the people we were meant to be, the very purpose we are walking this earth, and the very things we need to fulfill that only we can.

This verse is true for life as well, it seems we take many detours along the way and all along we were meant to be doing something else with our time.  Do you ever feel like your not really fulfilling what you were suppose to be?  Like all the desires of your heart, all the dreams and miss-accomplished destinies are just lost.  What in the world are we doing here, why have we let ourselves become so comfortable, when did we stop being the person we were meant to be and started being the person we never wanted to be.  It is a sad thing that probably 75-90% of people do.

We are just wondering around and all the while destiny is trying to block our paths that it knows we shouldn't take or build a wall to prevent us from going down a road that wasn't meant for us, but sometimes we are so stubborn or are lacking in what we are suppose to be doing that we grab our broom and our ax and plow right through that blocked off path and that built wall, we end up spending more time and working harder trying to become something we only think we want.  If we would just stand still for one moment and reevaluate our entire being, I think we would find the right direction, but unfortunately a lot of people are too busy doing the wrong things for their lives, that they forget to do the right things for their lives.

How about we don't become those 75-90% of people and we change that statistic to a lot less.  Your life starts with you and only YOU can finish it.  So lets pick up the slack and start thinking about the things that make you happy, that bring you joy, that make others happy, that help people, find out where your passions lie and then LIE THERE WITH THEM!  I can do this, we can do this, so lets do this!  I will bid you all a farewell and goodnight till tomorrow!

Warm Regards,
Candace

Subless Sub Salad

Mixed Greens
Your Favorite Deli Meats and Cheeses chopped (use the kind with no added fillers and no sugar)
Hot Peppers chopped
Ranch dressing or Mayo
Oil and Vinegar
Oregano

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and Enjoy : D

Complete Wellness..

Complete Wellness....hmmm now that's a concept, one that most of us deem as unattainable, and rightfully so, I mean c'mon we live in America!  We are known to foreigners as fast-tracking, over-processed, junk food conasours that wouldn't know how to cook a genuinely nutritious, chemical free, hormone free, wholesome meal if it smacked us in the face!  And I mean can you blame them for thinking that way?...Nope, absolutely not, you know why...because it is the sick truth that we must rid ourselves of and our bad habits and our nasty way of doing the same old thing.

I recently joined a whole sale all-natural, chemical free, hormone free and basically anything bad for you or your body free club.  And can I just say that I love it, I mean who told us that those harsh chemicals that kill 99.9% of bacteria had to slowly be killing us too?  Or that those meal replacement bars and protein shakes had to taste nasty and be unsatisfying?  Well I will tell you what, you all can keep purchasing those high retail priced toxic waste that is going to end up putting you in a small urn faster than you would have, but I am choosing to switch over and live healthier and freer and non-cancer forming as I possibly can.

I mean why do they even put some of these products out on the market in the first place?!  All of those harsh things we let our body just ingest and be around are probably causing a lot of our health problems or making us fatter.  If you want to lose that unwanted pregnancy weight or just that non-pregnancy weight :D then you should consider making a change in the way you eat the products you purchase and while we're at it we might as well make a whole lifestyle change (which by the way is the reason I started this blog in the first place).  To change your results you have to change the way you've been getting them, hmm sounds easy and simple enough to me, but you would be surprised on how many people can't or haven't done this.

Achieving wellness means you have to be WELL in the first place, and being well means you will definitely need to change the things that are making you not so well.  I have made a stand and decided that if I'm changing the way I eat I might as well be eating natural protein bars instead of chemical filled ones, or those morning protein shakes I like to make, I can change that too, or how about those harsh chemicals I just took in while disinfecting the salmonella off my counter.  There is no reason why we can't ALL be WELL and achieve TOTAL WELLNESS.

There is nothing better than feeling your best and to do that you need to actually FEEL your best, so lets all do it!  Let's strive to make a change, let's make our grandchildren proud and still be around and kicking when they enter this world, not lying on our death beds because we spent the last 60 years sticking to the same old bad habits and routines that were only hurting us in the long run.  WE CAN DO IT, so lets!  If your interested in doing the same send me any e-mail and I will give you some advice on how I'm achieving it! I hope you all have a wonderful night and I bid you farewell till tomorrow! (ccherieh05@yahoo.com)

Warm Regards,
Candace

Scrumptious Cucumber Bites

1/3 cup of Goat Cheese
Dash of Garlic Powder, Sea Salt, Pepper and Dill
1 Cucumber sliced
1 Whole Wheat Pita or Tortilla cut into squares (if your doing lower carbs omit this)

Crispify the tortilla or pita in the oven (cut before hand) then mix goat cheese and spices in a bowl and microwave for 15 seconds to get more spreadable, put a cucumber slice on a tortilla/pita chip and spread goat cheese mixture on top, Enjoy : D

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

You know those old Clint Eastwood movies where they are in a stare down at opposite sides of the dessert or corral and this can go on for quite some time, the movie writers make a killing off of you watching at least 10 minutes of two men staring at each other and all the camera does is shoot back and forth between the two mens facial expressions and them acting like they are reaching for their guns.  So after watching intently at these scenes you wonder, "okay who's gonna die here, it can't be Clint, he's the good guy, but still you watch and for 10 minutes you are watching the simplest scene the movie producers and directors could have ever shot, but your still watching...why?....I'll tell you why, because you want to see what happens, even though it may seem perfectly predictable, but then out of no where and when you least expect it...BAM, Clint shoots the mediator, the middle guy, the guy calling the fight and there it is, that moment, the one you didn't expect, thats why you were watching it, for the chance that something unexpected might in fact happen.

I said all that to say this, I think sometimes in our lives, we are a lot like those old Clint Eastwood scenes.  We wait around, and wait around, and wait around till we wonder why are we still waiting around, wether it be at that dead end job when you know what you are really meant to do just to afraid to take the risk, or wether your just waiting around for your butt to get up off that couch and drive it self to the gym, or maybe your waiting for God to move or for the sky to fall or for anything else to happen just as long as it's something so you can finally feel like your actually living instead of just passing by.

The truth is sometimes the Lord calls you to be still and let him do the fighting, but other times, and this I have found out is most of the time, you need to take the gun out of the holster and shoot the mediator, the middle man, you know that voice that tells you to just stay where your at, that the things that you want and wish to achieve will just somehow magically come to you.  Right, if that were the case then why are there all these broken people walking around this earth, with failed possibilities and missed opportunities.... you know why......it's because they listened to that voice, and then just kept listening.  It's like they are in a slumber and haven't woken up yet, all the things they meant to accomplish are still waiting for them because they are only things that they were suppose to accomplish, but instead all those dreams, the goals, they just sit there, somewhere between could have, should have, would have.... but didn't.

Let's not let this happen to us!  There is still time to get it right, to fix it, to become and do those things.  You just have to do it, so lets, and lets promise that we will never give up no matter what the cost.  I hope you are all on the road to achieving all your dreams and more!  I bid you all a farewell till tomorrow!

Warm Regards,

Exceptional Turkey Salad

Left over Thanksgiving Turkey cubed
1/2-3/4 cup of Mayo
2 Stalks of Celery diced
3-5 Green Onion Stems diced
dash of Salt, Pepper, Celery Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder and 1/2 tsp. of sugar sub. (splenda, stevia, etc.)

Mix all ingredients and chill in fridge for a few hours to marinate, then eat as is or put on top of whole wheat bread, crackers or pita, Enjoy :D

I made it!

Okay so one Thanksgiving dinner down one more to go!  Today at the Thanksgiving brunch, I walked through the doors and there are pastries and stuffings and a galore of different kinds of potatoes and waffles topped with strawberries and whipped cream, it was almost too much to take, but as soon as I sat down got some coffee in me and then by 2 relatives asked if I had been loosing weight because I was looking thin, I decided this whole thing was totally worth it!

When you get to the point where people start noticing your progress it makes you want to keep going and not stop till you reach your goal.  It is so nice to be fitting into the clothes that I couldn't 25 days ago, and this Thanksgiving I think I am truly thankful that I have the ability to do something like this, change the way I do something so that I can inspire myself and others by accomplishing something that I never thought I would.  I know, I know, your thinking well how hard can it be to just discipline yourself to eat the things and only the things that will help you lose weight, but until you've done it my friend, well let me just say it can be harder than you think.  Oh yes it may be all jolly and motivational within the first 7-12 days, but let me ask you something, what the heck do you do when you absolutely cannot fathom having another bite of something "good for me" that even grandmas fruit cake is starting to look appetizing.

The point I am trying to make is, what do you do when you reach that moment when you forgot why your doing this in the first place, then you start to talk yourself into stopping because I mean c'mon it's not like your obese or anything, or 20 extra pounds never hurt anybody it's just extra padding for the organs.  So what do you do when you are at your lowest, when you don't have an ounce of motivation or determination left, when your snapping at everyone around you because all you want is a cookie and nobody gets hurt! : D  Yes, yes you may think it's no big thing to discipline yourself to eat right, but it's a whole other story when you have to do it for a long period of time and then some.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and you realize all the things you have to be thankful for, like bread :D  Have a great night and I bid you all a farewell till tomorrow!

Warm Regards,
Candace

Sugar free Pumpkin Pie

4 oz. of Cream Cheese softened
1/3 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
3 Eggs
15 oz. can of Pumpkin
1/2 cup of Brown Sugar substitute (I use the splenda brand or you can use a sugar sub. and molasses)
1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 cup Pecans ground
1 stick of butter

mix cream cheese and pumpkin, add brown sugar sub., eggs and heavy whipping cream and pumpkin pie spice, blend on high till smooth. For crust, mix pecans and melted butter and pat into the bottom of a pie pan for the crust pour pumpkin filling into pan and bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes, enjoy ;D

Thankful

Oh Thanks giving is upon us!  I have just spent the last 3 hours baking pies and stuffing and tomorrow I will be baking sweet potatoes and broccoli salad all of which I cannot have, ohh wait I forgot I can have the broccoli salad, yep so tomorrow I will be going to a brunch at a very fancy Inn with my Dad's side and then on Friday after a LONG 10 hour shift I will be sharing a Thanksgiving meal with my Husband's side, all of which I will be consuming turkey and you've guessed it broccoli salad, Yay!!! : D

It's okay because like I've said before, Christmas is really my thing not Thanksgiving, so tomorrow I will just have to remember that decadent hot cocoa I will be having over Christmas with my mothers infamous brown sugar ham!

Even though Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday I do think it symbolizes a great tradition, the same tradition we hopefully all take time out tomorrow and truly thank the Lord for every great thing he has given us, our friends our family, shelter, food, warm clothing, a chance each and everyday to let people know just how much they mean to us.  You see why is it we have to designate a day such as Thanksgiving to celebrate the blessings in our lives, to tell the people around us that we are thankful for them, we should be doing this everyday, but as we all know life gets in the way, selfishness takes over and inevitably the things we set out to do get replaced with the same old way we always have done things.

How about this year we make a promise to have a heart of Thanksgiving, when we are talking with a friend say a little prayer of thanks, when you are surrounded by all the family members you love and some take some extra "special" love, why don't you tell them how much they mean to you.  When your home and it's just another "night as usual" say thanks, because you've got to remember that somewhere not so far away there is someone else praying for the very thing you take for granted.  If you are faithful with the "small" things then you will be trusted with more, but how about this, how about we  stop thinking about all the things we don't have and all the things we wish we had, and start thinking about all the things we DO have.

I hope you all have a very Thankful Thanksgiving and truly remember how much you do have to be thankful for.  Enjoy some pumpkin pie for me unless your eating healthy then don't  ; D I bid you all a farewell till tomorrow!

Warm Regards,
Candace

Broccoli Salad

1 cup of Mayo
2 shrubs of Broccoli chopped
6 strips of Bacon chopped
3/4 cup shredded Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1/2 cup Sunflower Seeds

Mix all ingredients and chill in fridge for a few hours to marinate flavors, Enjoy : D