Your Game to Health (+ Win Chocolate)

I was talking on the phone with a friend the other day about how if I can’t see it I’m not apt to be tempted by it. It being chocolate, cookies, and anything that makes up a picnic ant’s sugar-filled dream. I told her how I can usually just stick to one because I’m all disciplined like that. Then as soon as I got off the phone I lifted the tinfoil and peered down at the killer chocolate chip cookies I’d made. I blocked out the words I’d just professed and quickly consumed not one but two cookies.

Yum.

It’s for this reason I’m offering a little game today. We all want to strive for good health, especially this time of year. So read questions 1-8 and guess away (then review the answers in small print at the bottom of this post. Wish I could write them upside down to make the game that much more authentic).

1. Of the two which is considered a super food on Dr. Oz’s website because it “boasts more antioxidants than blueberries”: sweet potatoes or lettuce?
2. Which is the only one not mentioned in the health.com article, “Finger Foods Under 80 Calories”: pink raspberry champagne, 2 Teriyaki shrimp skewers with pineapple, a granola bar, or 8 pitted green olives?  
3. At livestrong.com you can look up 20 anti-aging foods. Which of these is not included in this list: pistachios, Greek yogurt, coffee, corn, pretzels, spinach, or dark chocolate? 
4. According to this CBS news report, what is the healthiest fruit juice? Pineapple? Pear? Pomegranate? 
5. Which dried fruit is the healthiest for you? 
6. Shape magazine crafted a list of the five healthiest nuts. Which of these I’ve listed is not on it: pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, or walnuts? 
7. The time to run website provides 10 of the worst foods. All of these are on their list but one. Which isn’t considered one of the top ten worst foods according to time to run? Raw oysters, avocados, olestra, alcohol, or soda? 
8. The scientific name for this food is wolf peach, what is it?  

Oh yes, there will be a prize for whoever guesses the most questions correctly (no cheating by visiting links before you guess or getting your answers from the small font…I’m trusting you on this). I will send the winner a massive Trader Joe’s almond chocolate bar. ;-)

Bonus question: What’s the goofy acronym the first letters of answers 1-8 spell?

What are you doing to be healthy this holiday season?

*photo by stock.XCHNG

1. sweet potatoes 2. a granola bar 3. pretzels 4. pomegranate 5. yes, grandma, it is prunes 6. pecans 7. avocados 

8. tomatoes

The World Needs You Awake

Women crave more sleep. But I’d like to argue too many of us are already sleeping through our lives. We are jonesing for our next caffeine fix as we yawn our way through the carpool line or traffic jam. Our heads remain foggy, distracted, and multi-tasked to the brink of permanently fraying our synapses. And it’s as though all this is happening in a daze, a dream—an otherworldly state.

We are asleep.

On this I 8 Wednesday I’m suggesting 8 things we can do to WAKE UP!

Let’s do this together. Let’s awaken.

Becoming awake…

Awake to Silence

If you’re anything like me, you enjoy noise. Music, phone conversations, even a show on the Food Network bound to make me feel like a loser cook…I fill up my house and head with anything that will keep me from getting the quiet I so need.

Challenge: Turn off the radio in the car, exercise once a week without music, turn the TV off by 9:00 p.m. every night for a week, walk around a graveyard (might want to avoid doing this in a week or so), or take a “phone off” holiday, break regularly from social media

Awake to Loved Ones

Relationships are hard, made harder when we seek to be filled by others. It’s easy to begin drifting to la la land when it comes to loved ones. They are usually the folks we tend to take for granted.

Challenge: Write a handwritten letter of gratitude once a week for the next few months, ask a lot of questions and work hard to listen more than you speak, spend time thinking about how those in your life experience love—what communicates love to them?

Awake to Creation

Hibernating in our caves where our schedules our written like some ancient scrawl, we lose the beauty of what’s happening outside. Outside? Yes, Virginia, there is an outside.

Challenge: Take at least two walks a week, share what you see with a loved one, plan a hike, create a collage from what you collect on your walk, find ways to bring the outdoors in by framing a leaf, making your own swag, learn to breathe fresh air again

Awake to What Distracts

What, I was writing a blog post? But I was just on Twitter, then hopped over to Facebook. Oh, yes, I’m here now. All yours (shah right).

Challenges: Commit to starting and completing at least 2-5 tasks per day and check yourself on this, repeat back what others have said, write down your thoughts as they come, make a priority list and allow those things you’ve listed on the bottom the least amount of your time

Awake to What Discourages

It’s easy to think you’re just having a bad day and those surmounting obstacles are merely coincidental. Maybe they are or perhaps there’s something we can’t fathom trying to knock you down and some of those obstacles are really pawns in the plan.

Challenge: Create a list of what tends to discourage you most, think about the people in your life and whether they’re encouraging or discouraging, check out what the Bible has to say regarding this topic, decide which voices you’ll listen to

Awake to Calling

There’s a reason you’re here. Yes, for God’s glory. But I also happen to believe everyone contributes something of specific value. This can change according to seasons, but you have a calling.

Challenge: Experiment with various forms of creativity, pursue your passion, invest time in improving, ask loved ones to give you wisdom regarding your calling, get accountability, think about what gets you fired up, advocate

Awake to Health

We are so good at caring for others. Sick parent. Drooling toddler. Traveling husband. Our bodies are screaming for a little TLC. Mind. Body. Spirit. We are wise to take care of ourselves.

Challenge: Take B12 (ask your dr.), carve out time to exercise this week, pray, don’t go overboard on Doritos, go overboard on kale or Trader Joe’s Powerberries (dark chocolate covered berries…I’m a little addicted), carve out time to think and be still, carve out time to do all of the above

Awake to Mystery & Faith

It’s never been difficult for me to believe there is more going on here than we could possibly understand. There’s beauty in this for me. Release. Freedom. Mysterious faith.

Challenge: Ask the hard questions, try attending church, crack open a Bible, befriend someone of a different faith and start a conversation, trust in an all powerful God—I dare you.

Alright people, let’s jumpstart our sleepy heads and wake the world up while we’re at it.

Do you see evidence many are walking around asleep? What ways are you feeling led to wake up?

*photo by stock.XCHNG