A. How to continue in God’s blessing?
B. How Bible reading can actually usher in the Blessing in your life:
C. How to strengthen your faith in God:
D. How to believe and not give up or give in to unbelief in God:

A. How Your Life can change!
B. How to be strengthened from the Inside out!
C. How to get your Reward!
D. How to get your past Washed Away!

A. How Your Life can change!
B. How to be strengthened from the Inside out!
C. How to get your Reward!
D. How to get your past Washed Away!

A. How to get mercy = Give mercy to somebody else:
B. How to get forgiven = Forgive that other person:
C. How to be shown favor? Show favor to another person:
D. How to make a new friend? Be a friend to someone else first!

A. How about a prayer for yourself and your family?
B. How do you SEE with your heart?
C. How to walk more closely with God:
D. How God’s power can be at work in you every day:

1. Things you see are always in the process of changing…
2. Believing with your heart is different than what you see…
3. Did you know you can trust God for a new job and good health?
4. There’s a way to trust God for money you need to pay that bill

A. God spoke to Abraham and God speaks to You Today:
B. What is God saying to You Today?
C. Are you too busy or too noisy to hear God talking to You?
D. Would you get quiet to receive your inheritance?

A. Obedience to God brings blessings!
B. God can work with people of any age – look at Abraham!
C. God is looking for your Faith and Trust in HIM:
D. No fussing, worry, or panic = Faith in God!

A. It matters WHO you listen to: the devil or God
B. The devil deceives with sly lies…
C. When you trust the devil you give away your Blessing
D. The Gospel tells of Jesus dying to take away our sins…

A. Jesus said HE is The Way-The Truth-The Life…here’s why:
B. Help someone you love get right with God by Watching This:
C. How are we reconciled to God: Acts 2:36
D. Baptism in the Name of Jesus is for the remission of sins…

 Let’s start at the beginning. Some definitions of the word illusion are:

1. Erroneous understanding of reality

2. Mistaken perception

3. Delusion

4. Being deceived

5. Something that causes us to be deceived

 You get the idea. Illusions that seem to work well for food are a combination of things that happen almost simultaneously to cause us to believe that food(s) are good for us.  Some of these include good advertising, great pictures of good looking food and pleasurable words to describe food.  You see this on menus and creative advertising nearly everywhere you go.

One of the oldest deceptions in the book is to literally sugar coat items. Think about it a moment. Sugar coatings or crusts are found on nuts, bacon, toast, coffee beans, ECT.  How many items on a menu have you found to be sweetened up?  Ask yourself: Do I need this?

Remember that old commercial jingle about not being able to eat just one? Well, it’s true for sugar coated items as well as salted items. It seems that we have found it important to eat less salt, but not to reduce our sugars until we become diabetic.

I challenge you to find one complete entrée on a menu that does not have some form of sugar in it. Those of you who are suffering with diabetes already have intimate knowledge of this as well as well as which foods turn into sugar in the body.

Think carbohydrates to answer this question. What foods turn into sugar in your body?  (Carbs!)  

Carbs that produce the highest amounts of sugar rapidly are called high glycemics.

Some high glycemic foods are bread, pasta, potatoes and rice. Because of that, many cereals, fruit juices, white bread and white potatoes should make it to your No-No food list.

There are several factors that contribute to high glycemic food: 

A. The amount and type of processing.

Another way to say it is: foods that you digest more easily and quickly. It has been found that whole wheat breads are about equal to white bread on the glycemic index. Another example is fruit juice which has a higher glycemic level than whole fruit.

 B. How long your food is cooked.

 For example, pastas cooked until soft have a higher glycemic index then al dente cooked pasta. Yet, which is more popular?

 C. The type or origin of food may be a factor.

 It is reported that short grain white rice has a higher glycemic level than brown rice and long grain white rice.

D. Combination of foods together.  

Let's use oatmeal as our base example.

OK, Oatmeal can be good for you – but not pre-packaged or instant. (These often have added sugars and salt).

-Limit what you add to your oatmeal, like dried fruit, sugar, honey, brown sugar or syrup.

-Use water or low–fat skim milk to cook oatmeal and not cream or whole milk.

-You may add nuts like pecans, walnuts or almonds. (plain uncoated nuts)

-You can also add berries, low-carb Greek yogurt or even hard-boiled eggs.

-Cinnamon is also a good additive for oatmeal.

So what illusions have you been reminded of today? 

1. Whole wheat breads are better for you than old fashioned white bread. (No)

2. Eggs are bad for you, but fruit juice and toast in the morning for breakfast are OK.  (No - Eggs are good for you-especially the yolks.)

3. Gluten free pasta made with white rice flour is good for you.  (Not really.)

4. Dried fruit is good for you. (No)  Read your labels as some dried fruit can be high in carbohydrates.

Consider – what you’ve come to believe about foods.

Just because - an idea or belief is popular, does not make it true.

How many More people are suffering from diabetes and inflammatory diseases today than ever before?

 Some facts about high glycemic foods:

1.Regularly eating a lot of high glycemic level foods can cause insulin resistance.

-Insulin converts your blood sugar into energy.

-Insulin resistance leads to type 2 diabetes.

 2. If you work out, go to the health club, go for a morning walks or check your BMI (body mass index), you will notice two things. If your diet consists of a lot of high glycemic foods – your BMI goes up.

 -Even if you eat a lot of low glycemic foods, your BMI can rise due to large portion size, which means you are taking in more calories than you are burning.

 3. High glycemic foods can affect your heart. This is otherwise known as cardiovascular disease. It is reported that eating high glycemic level foods increases your risk of cardiovascular disease by 23%.

This doesn’t mean you cannot eat high glycemic foods.

 It does mean :

-You should eat more foods that fall into the low and medium glycemic range.

-You must pay attention to your portion size when eating.

-When you do eat high glycemic foods, try not to add any additional sugar, carbs, highly processed or longer cooked foods to it.

-Eat your non-instant, non pre-packaged oatmeal without using whole milk, dried fruits, syrups, brown sugar or honey.

* Challenge yourself to look at the next restaurant menu through your new lens from this blog.  This can help you make healthier eating choices and stay clear of food illusions!

 Share this blog with someone you love and care about.  I’m here for you!

 Good Day, Good Week and Good Health to you all!

Always See and be Thankful for good results.  No matter what size they are.  One of my own sayings of Encouragement to Self is this:   

“THE MORE THANKFUL YOU ARE, THE MORE YOU WILL HAVE TO BE THANKFUL FOR!” -Kat Heil

If you loved this blog post, get the next one by getting your name on the Your Keto Journey Blog list.  Don't miss out on Encouragement, Love and good information.  Also, get your free Keto Pizza crust recipe just for signing up for this blog!

Visit www.KatHeil.com and check out the “Resources” page.

I also highly suggest you read “Dr. Colbert’s Keto Zone Diet” book.  If nothing else, borrow the book from your local public library.  If they don’t have it, ask them to get a copy that you may borrow.

Share your experiences, good or bad, with your Keto family here at www.YourKetoJourney.com.  Scroll down and leave your comment.

Share this blog with someone you love and care about.  I’m here for you!

Good Day, Good Week and Good Health to you all!

See you next time!

A. God has something for you in John 14:1-3…do you want it?
B. Reconciliation to God has been provided…How do people get this?
C. God will never force His love and protection on people…so don’t you
D. If people don’t want God’s love…let them know the alternative nicely

When you order a salad at a restaurant, it is likely that you receive a small cup of bottled salad dressing with it. Or if you are dining at a fast food franchise, you are offered a choice of pre-packaged salad dressings for your salad.

Maybe you enjoy creamy mayo with your BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwiches, even when you wrap your bacon and tomato in lettuce to skip the bread.

What about those potluck meals where somebody brings deviled eggs?

Why do I bring this up?

If you’ve been faithfully reading your labels, you have read ingredient lists that contain some not good for you oil’s like soybean oil, canola oil and vegetable oil.

If you remember, we discussed Oils in Your Keto Journey #16 – Know Your OILS - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.  Please go back and reread that blog.

A) In this blog you read why canola oil, although a monosaturated fat, is not good for you. I gave you 2 very specific reasons to avoid canola oil.

B) In that same blog you learned the names of eight oil‘s that are popular in commercial salad dressings and creamy mayo. You also learned that these 8 oils are polyunsaturated fats.

This means that you only want 18% of your total fat intake to be polyunsaturated fats.

C) The fat structure of your body‘s cells are composed of:

55% Mono unsaturated fat‘s

27% saturated fats

18% poly unsaturated fats

So if you are eating Keto style, your daily intake should be:

15% green vegetables

15% healthy proteins

70% healthy fats

To achieve 70% healthy total fat consumption, a typical man would use about 8 to 10 tablespoons of fat per day. For a typical woman, she would be consuming about 6 to 8 tablespoons of healthy fat per day.

The estimate to get 18% polyunsaturated fat per day is a little less than 2 tablespoons for a man and for a woman would be a little less than 1 1/2 tablespoon per day!

(Man = 9 tablespoons times 18%. Woman = 7 tablespoons times 18%)

Sorry about all the math, but I want you to know and understand that you should think twice before ingesting commercial and retail salad dressings and creamy mayo!  By the way, we are only talking oil types here.  Not a word has been said about the other hard to pronounce list of ingredients on those labels.  Generally speaking, the longer the ingredient list, the less inclined you should be to eat or consume that particular product!

Now I don’t like pointing out problems without offering a potential solution as well.

So here goes…

BE BRAVE.  MAKE YOUR OWN!

Make your own mayo. You can get a recipe from “Dr. Colbert Keto Zone Diet” book or you can get Keto friendly mayo and salad dressing recipes online.

In good recipes, the ingredients for creamy mayo are simple and include things like an egg yolk, mustard, oil, vinegar and seasonings.

After making the "clean" mayo a number of times, I can provide some pointers for you.

1. Use only the yoke of the egg, not the whole egg.

2. Use a mixture of avocado and olive oil. Use more avocado than olive oil. (Olive oil has a very strong taste).

3. Although different recipes will vary somewhat, keep in mind that when you are told to use a whisk attachment or immersion blender, you can still use your good old-fashioned hand held electric mixer like I do!

4. As you are whisking your ingredients, mix everything well. When they tell you to drizzle oil into your well beaten ingredients, stay true to a slight drizzle, using only a few drops at a time until well incorporated. Go as slow as you can to get your homemade creamy mayo thick.

5. Make small amounts as your mayo will only last about 3 to 4 days in your fridge.

Making your own mayo is quite easy and also very do-able. 

Bravery means: Take the leap!

Don’t be afraid to try making your own creamy mayo. 

Even if you don’t consider yourself a kitchen magician, making mayo is easy and fun.

What is extra special is that your mayo is made with all clean ingredients!

 Share this blog with someone you love and care about.  I’m here for you!

 Good Day, Good Week and Good Health to you all!

Always See and be Thankful for good results.  No matter what size they are.  One of my own sayings of Encouragement to Self is this:   

“THE MORE THANKFUL YOU ARE, THE MORE YOU WILL HAVE TO BE THANKFUL FOR!” -Kat Heil

If you loved this blog post, get the next one by getting your name on the Your Keto Journey Blog list.  Don't miss out on Encouragement, Love and good information.  Also, get your free Keto Pizza crust recipe just for signing up for this blog!

Visit www.KatHeil.com and check out the “Resources” page.

I also highly suggest you read “Dr. Colbert’s Keto Zone Diet” book.  If nothing else, borrow the book from your local public library.  If they don’t have it, ask them to get a copy that you may borrow.

Share your experiences, good or bad, with your Keto family here at www.YourKetoJourney.com.  Scroll down and leave your comment.

Share this blog with someone you love and care about.  I’m here for you!

Good Day, Good Week and Good Health to you all!

See you next time!

A. Jesus was tempted to sin plenty…but did not sin…
B. Jesus sacrificed His life for You – Want to Know Him?
C. Is Jesus your hero?
D. Jesus agreed to pay for yours and my sin…Love Him for it?

When you are on Your Keto Journey you are going to have some challenges to overcome. One of the big challenges you need to deal with is staying motivated and encouraged until you reach your goal.  That can be an issue on any goal.  But when you have a big goal or one that is particularly important to you, you need to have a good strategy to help you. 

 Knowing that these challenges are coming can help you deal with them. Planning ahead allows you to know how you want to react when they happen. 

 Let’s look at the goal aspect first. Start by figuring out what you want your ultimate goal to be.  Your goal could be that you want to lose 32 pounds and 4 inches off your waist. That is a great goal.  Let’s assume you do everything right and you don’t have any setbacks or hit any plateaus. Following the 1 pound per week weight loss guideline, you are looking at working toward that goal for 32 weeks or about 8 months. 

 That is a long time to be working on a goal. 

 So how do you stay encouraged for that long?

 To start with, you need to expect the process to take longer than that. To think that everything will go perfectly is unrealistic. Build in some time for life to happen. 

 Once you build that extra time in, you have a big goal with a realistic time frame. But the goal and the time frame are large now.  Large items can be hard to deal with. You need to break those large items down into manageable pieces. 

 You accomplish that by setting intermediate goals. 

You set intermediate goals by breaking your overall goal into smaller, more manageable sections.  

In the example I gave you of losing 32 pounds and 4 inches off your waist, your intermediate goals could be four sub goals of 8 pounds and one inch off your waist every three months. That gives you both a smaller goal and time frame.

This still gives you a year to achieve your overall goal, while giving you four sub goals that aren’t as large and are much easier to deal with.

As you achieve each sub goal, you can plan a reward to celebrate reaching each mark. Don’t overdo your intermediate rewards, remember the purpose of these sub goals is to help you keep yourself motivated. You still have to keep going until you reach your total goal. 

Avoid the temptation to stop short of the total goal. You had a reason for choosing that goal, don’t settle for achieving less. 

An example of this could be getting new clothes. When you lose that much weight, your clothes won’t fit properly anymore. But if you reward yourself with new clothes every three months as a reward for achieving your sub goal, you may be tempted to settle for less than your goal because you like the way the new clothes look. 

Saving the new clothes for when you reach your total goal, helps keep you motivated to finish. Choose a reward that will make you feel you have achieved something without tempting you to stop short of the ultimate goal.

By not getting new clothes as an interim reward, you will also have additional motivation to complete your goal.  While it is a good sign that your clothes have become loose, it is not fun having to make them look good when they aren’t your size any more.

That will help keep you serious about following the program and minimizing your “cheat days”.

Remember your sub goals are there to help you.  Just because you have set a certain time frame to achieve your goal, doesn’t mean that you have to take that long to achieve it.  Allow yourself to beat the goal and tie the interim rewards to achieving the goal regardless of how long it takes you to achieve it.

The time frame is there to help you, but it shouldn’t stop your journey.  If you happen to run into a plateau that takes you a little longer to figure out, concentrate on figuring it out.  The important part is the weight loss, not the amount of time it takes you to achieve it.

Using intermediate or sub goals is a great way to help you along Your Keto Journey.  Use them to keep yourself motivated and to help you along the way!

If you don’t quit, you will win!

A. Sin looks Good for a reason: Sin robs you of GOOD in your life
B. Hostility hurts--Reconciliation heals – You spend time where?
C. Why doubt God and believe devilish whispering?
D. Time and Talk: Good 1st steps to heal Relationships…Do You?

Probably the last thing that I thought I would be posting about is a Keto eating plan. I have always shed my weight through exercise, especially by running. But after moving and making career adjustments, I found that I wasn’t finding time to get my running in. In addition, I had reached the heaviest weight I had ever been at. 

So when I came across the details of a Keto eating plan from  Dr. Colbert & Brother Copeland on the daily Believers Voice of Victory broadcast (click here for the Kat Heil resource page with a link to the message), I was both encouraged and intrigued. 

We have been working on improving the way we eat for a number of years now. (Had it been up to my wife we would have started sooner.)  But the concepts they introduced, the research they presented and the results people were getting made a Keto eating plan something that we wanted to do. 

My initial results were just as expected. My body dropped weight as my appetite hormones leptin & ghrelin got back into balance from not having to constantly deal with the effects of carbs.  My body wasn’t screaming that it was hungry every four hours.  It was very encouraging.   After several weeks of steady progress, I reached a weight loss plateau, but my waist size was continuing to go down.  I stayed on that plateau for about a month, then I started losing weight again.

So far I was doing well on my journey, and the progress I was making helped keep me motivated. About 15 weeks into the program, I had another change in my schedule.  I was still eating about the same amount, starting my day with our version of a Keto coffee and eating a small lunch and dinner.  But I was stuck.  For eight weeks, both my weight and my waist stayed the same.

When something works well, then suddenly stops working, seemingly, wondering thoughts can come.  It was starting to be challenging to maintain my enthusiasm. 

At that point, I knew that I needed to take a look at what I was doing so that I could figure out what was stopping my progress.  In the book of John, we are reminded that “in the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” John 16:33. That verse helps me remember not to quit.  Trouble comes, but we don’t have to let it stop us.

I looked at the changes that I had made to my eating schedule and one thing stuck out.  Before the change, I didn’t get hungry until about 10:00 or 11:00 am.  So I would have my Keto coffee about that time and have my light lunch a few hours later.   Then I would have my supper at normal time, which confined the majority of my eating to about an eight hour window.  (This is called intermittent fasting.)

When my schedule changed, I started having my Keto coffee around 7:00 am.  I was getting hungry around 11:00 am.  To compensate I would have some nuts or parmesan cheese crisps as a snack to get me through to lunch.  But lunch wasn’t holding me until dinner any more.  I would often need to snack again in the afternoon to hold my appetite in check until supper.

I realized that I was kicking in my appetite by starting to eat before I was really hungry.  I was extending the number of hours I was eating during the day and it was stopping my progress.

At that point, I decided to go back to having my Keto coffee late in the morning.  That adjustment helped me get back on track with my weight loss.  I don’t get hungry in the morning and more importantly, I don’t get hungry between my meals any more.

The main thing that I want you to notice about my experience is not what I did.  The adjustments that I made were specific to the way I get hungry and eat.  You will need to experiment and see what things work for you and what doesn’t. 

What I want you to notice is what I didn’t do. 

I didn’t quit because the Keto eating program wasn’t working. 

I didn’t quit because I was getting tired of not getting any results.

I didn’t go back to my old eating habits that had me 75 pounds over my ideal weight.

You have to stick with your decisions even when it seems like they are not working.  When you are not getting the results you expect,  don’t keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome.  Examine what you are doing and make adjustments.  Give the adjustments time to work, then evaluate your progress.  Keep adjusting until your results return. 

If you do, you will succeed.

Visit my website at www.BudgetingEssentials.com. I help people get debt free!

A. The Blessing of Abraham is 3-fold: Material-Physical-Spiritual…
B. Material means financial-Physical means health-Spiritual means Inside…
C. Prosper and Be in Health even as Your Soul Prospers…
D. Heir = Sharer by lot; an inheritor

It doesn’t matter how many times you say “things are gonna change around here! “ if nothing ever changes.

What really matters are the changes that you implement today. 

Changes For What?

Better health. 

Better fitness.

How to come up with changes?

More imagination. 

More togetherness and your family. 

Doing more things together. 

Spending quality time together. 

Teaching your kids skills that they will carry on into their own lives and family as they grow and go. 

I wouldn’t presume to tell you how to run your life. But I will be bold enough to want to bless you with some ideas worth considering.

So here goes!

1. Involving other members of the family when cooking or making meals is a great time for sharing and caring. Taking the time to relate a story about your day and then giving them a platform to do the same creates a special bond you may not immediately realize. (This applies to both children and spouse).

Doing this also allows you some extra time as each member of the cooking party takes on individual responsibilities. Think: I don’t have to do everything myself!

Remember: try not to “correct“ your family member’s methods or way of doing things - unless he/she asks for help.

This is not about YOU.

It’s about TOGETHERNESS.

Safety:

Try to do all of the knife work yourself. There are usually plenty of other activities to be done in meal making.

Do:

Make it fun. Play music. Put on special aprons or create makeshift aprons using old work shirts or larger dish towels.

Understand that mistakes happen. Keep things light and fun.

No threats, sarcasm or disciplinary actions while cooking. This creates a negative association and family members may steer clear of cooking with you.

2. Be willing to try new recipes. Try to always follow the new recipe exactly as written the first time you make it. Then, at the dinner table, everyone can give his/her opinions of how the dish tastes and offer possible changes that could be made to the dish next time without being criticized.

Let’s spices be your friend. 

Be bold and willing to try new things.

Don’t get set in your ways.

Be creative.

Have fun.

Make it an event your spouse and kids will want to participate in.

Families that cook together often maintain a sweet closeness to each other.

3. If time is tight - start by making salad dressings from recipes you each have found. So many bottled salad dressings are toxic to your body.  Read labels.  Avoid bottled dressings from the grocery aisle as much as possible.  What good is it to eat a healthy salad with salad dressing that creates toxic results in your body?

Have each person come to the kitchen armed with a homemade recipe he or she found.

Choose a different recipe each week to make.

Gradually “make“ more time to cook with your family. Soon and very soon your kids will be graduating high school and creating lives of their own.

It is good to include your spouse in as many of these activities as possible. If you are always with your kids and rarely with your spouse - there is a danger that the two of you will gradually grow apart and distant from one another. You don’t want to have to meet/court your spouse all over again after the children leave the nest.

When the children leave the nest it is time for spouses to enjoy each other in ways that you couldn't when the kids were young.  You don't want to have to start all over again by meeting & courting your spouse.

Fly off and have fun together. Don't be just getting reacquainted after years of neglect.

The time you spend and the opportunities for togetherness you create will help you be the “Hero” in your family.

Time is precious.

Don’t waste time.

I love you Keto Family.  There are worthwhile resources at my website sourced and created for YOU!

 Share this blog with someone you love and care about.  I’m here for you!

 Good Day, Good Week and Good Health to you all!

Always See and be Thankful for good results.  No matter what size they are.  One of my own sayings of Encouragement to Self is this:   

“THE MORE THANKFUL YOU ARE, THE MORE YOU WILL HAVE TO BE THANKFUL FOR!” -Kat Heil

If you loved this blog post, get the next one by getting your name on the Your Keto Journey Blog list.  Don't miss out on Encouragement, Love and good information.  Also, get your free Keto Pizza crust recipe just for signing up for this blog!

Visit www.KatHeil.com and check out the “Resources” page.  There you will find a link to “Dr. Colbert’s Keto Zone Diet” book.  I highly suggest you read it.  If nothing else, borrow the book from your local public library.  If they don’t have it, ask them to get a copy that you may borrow.

Share your experiences, good or bad, with your Keto family here at www.YourKetoJourney.com.  Scroll down and leave your comment.

Share this blog with someone you love and care about.  I’m here for you!

Good Day, Good Week and Good Health to you all!

See you next time!

A. How do you talk when you really trust God?
B. Do you worship God without caring what others may think?
C. Trust in God means you’re not worried freaking out or panicking
D. Will you do what God says without having all the details???