Peanut Butter Surprise

Good evening to all of you fabulous folk!  In honor of it being "Throwback Thursday" as the young 'uns like to call it, today's topic is a little throwback to earlier this week, and at the risk of sounding redundant I may throw in the topic of "change" yet again. ;)  I have faith in you my reader, that you are devoted and committed to my blog and will press on past the redundancy to find the golden nugget hidden somewhere in this mess.

Diets...they really stink, right?  (The appropriate answer here is "yes")  I mean, you can be over the moon in one moment, and come crashing down in a blur of sugar-induced frenzy in the next moment, finding yourself enslaved to a demanding scale and those pants that just seemed to shrink overnight.  It's just not right people!  Why do we do this to ourselves?!  Media...why do you do this to us? (Money....they do it all for the money...and don't even get me started on that topic or we will never get to the point of this one) :)

Okay, refocus.  So, after watching an amazing documentary with my husband last week and feeling very enlightened into the food industry, we decided to change some things in our food choices.  Oddly enough, this was not a New Years resolution and was the furthest thing from our minds at the time...but it's funny how God has a bigger plan and better timing than what we can dream up in our tiny minds.  Anyways, we made a decision to kick the refined sugars to the curb....well....as much as we can...(we can't go completely health nuts or I'll go nuts!!!).  So in an effort to better our health (note I said "health", not "weight") we're going to begin making our bread (got any recipes?), replace processed white sugar with raw sugar, find flour substitutes, omit "glucose-fructose" from our diet as much as possible, drink more water, less concentrated fruit juice (I was already doing the water one...yay me!), and eat/drink more veggies and fruits (smoothie recipes anyone?).  (Wow, that was kind of a boring list to say and I'm sure read....)

100% Natural Peanut Butter,
or what I've more accurately dubbed it, "Peanut Slop"

So after being stranded in the house this week for three days straight after a huge blizzard, it was getting to be slim pickings in the house for food, and being consistent with our new healthy eating plan I elected to have a berry/peanut butter smoothie for breakfast.  I'm not sure if any of you have ever had 100% Natural/Peanut Peanut Butter, but if you are a newbie, like myself, please take note that it is NOT, I repeat, NOT, the same consistency of regular smooth, sweet, (I've got to stop, I'm drooling) peanut butter.  After grabbing the jar and opening it up rather hastily, and obviously on an angle that the Peanut Butter was not fond of, I found myself cleaning up this lovely little mess pictured here.

I wasn't even aware that this was possible!  Why?? Why didn't anyone tell me about this?! (Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure my husband may have mentioned something.)  It was in that moment that I thought, "this is going to be much more difficult than I thought."  (This is also further proof that I am a time bomb in the kitchen and should never be left alone to prepare a meal...Ever)  I am proud to tell you all though that I pressed through my setback and ended up with a rather tasty and filling smoothie after all was said and done.

Peanut Slop Fruit Smoothie = Win!

What is the point of all of this you may ask?  Well first of all, and slightly selfishly, I'll admit; to keep me committed to our new eating choices knowing that I am accountable to all five of you readers if I ever give up and quit.  Secondly, and here's the redundant part, to say that change is inevitable, but when we stop changing, we stop growing.  And lastly, our health comes from the inside out, based on what we put in to our bodies, much like our beauty comes from the inside out based on what we put into our heart.  You may feel like a mess right now, or like you are failing miserably, whether it's regarding your health, your beauty, or another struggle altogether; but please know this, just because you failed once or even one hundred times you are not a failure.  You only fail when you fail to try, or better than try, cry out to God for His help.  To see real change we must change from the inside out, and the only One that can truly bring lasting change is Jesus because He is the only One who will never give up on us and Who can see us as a finished product.  He sees us from the inside out and turns our messes into something beautiful, even the peanut slop kind of messes. ;) Check out this song and lyrics, which is really like a prayer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rj6_TVmMWY
Lyrics: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Something-Beautiful-lyrics-Jars-Of-Clay/EFEFDD71FD7D0DA448256BF3002FDCE2

Take care friends.  You are a beautiful work of art fashioned by a loving Father, and the best is yet to come when you let Him in.

♥ Crystal