How many times have you started to eat healthier foods, just to feel sabotaged? You get your refrigerator stocked with low-fat cheese sticks, lettuce, lean ground beef, turkey, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables … just to open the freezer and be face to face with frozen pizza and ice cream sandwiches. We know our families love us and want us to be healthy, but why, oh, why do they torture us so? How do we learn to not let those foods bother us? By sticking to your plan! The longer you eat healthy, the less you want all the “bad stuff.”
I made the decision in January to devote this year to my health. Then, I went to see my doctor and realized I had no choice but to devote this year to better health. In years past, I had tried different diets. I had tried reducing my calories drastically. I had tried a popular diet plan where every food has a point. I had tried only eating breakfast and lunch. Every time, within just a few weeks, I had “broken” my diet. Falling off the diet wagon would make me feel depressed, upset with myself, and would break my spirit.
So, we all know we need to stick to the plan and the longer we stick to the plan, the easier it is. But how do you do that? How do you commit yourself to stick to the plan? I read one time that if you do something consistently for 3 weeks, 21 days, it will become habit. I can testify that this is true. My husband and I made a commitment to read a chapter from the Bible every night. We started in the New Testament and are currently reading the Old Testament. We have missed maybe two nights since we started over a year ago. It has become our daily routine, our habit. Eating is the same way. Commit to changing your eating habits for 3 weeks; eating healthy foods will become your habit.
The recipe this week is a shortcut recipe for your busy family. Most grocery stores now have cooked, rotisserie chickens at the front, all bagged up and ready to go. This recipe for Chicken Caprese Casserole takes advantage of this HUGE timesaver. This casserole will please even the pickiest eaters. It combines delicious chicken with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. I’m sure your family will love it as much as mine.
Remember, make healthy eating a habit. Set yourself up for success! If I can do this, ANYONE can do this. The writer of Hebrews wrote about running the race of life with perseverance. This applies to how we approach taking on healthy eating habits, but it also speaks true of our whole lives. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12: 1-3
