inspiration | Girl Meets Life | a lifestyle blog by Gracie Gordon

it is well | 1.19.15.

19 January, 2015 by Gracie 8 Comments

IT IS WELL {WITH MY SOUL}

One of my favorite daily devotionals is Faith’s Check Book by Charles Spurgeon. I’ll be honest - it’s not the easiest read in the world. I often read mine out loud and very slowly to fully grasp it. But when I do, they’re literally life-changing.

Here is a devotional from last week (January 16th) that really hit home for me, and I thought it might for you too.

IT IS WELL {WITH MY BODY}

Over the past few years there seems to have been a huge shift in the “a calorie is a calorie” mentality. Reading books like The Calorie Myth and It Starts With Food was incredibly eye opening for me. Even though I had heard a handful of times that not all calories are created equal (anymore), I never fully understood why.

Those books were very helpful in explaining it, but this article 7 Common Calorie Myths We Should All Stop Believing from Mark’s Daily Apple broke it down even more. It’s definitely worth a read!

My thoughts - I hate to give the PC answer, but for me it really does come down to moderation and balance. I don’t think there’s one “perfect” way to eat because we’re all built completely differently. Maybe calories do matter more for some people than others. Maybe grains/fat/etc. affect one person completely differently than another.

But no matter how we choose to eat, I still think that balance is key. I’ve been finding that sticking to real foods (less grains, less sugar) is best for me, but that doesn’t mean I’ll never eat pizza again. I think as a society we’ve become so obsessed with weight and dieting that we just keep pendulum swinging from one mindset to another, and maybe that’s an even bigger issue than the mathematics of it all…

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What are your thoughts on the whole “is a calorie just a calorie” debate?

it is well | 1.12.15.

12 January, 2015 by Gracie 16 Comments

I’m so excited to introduce this new weekly series I’ll be doing here on GML.

I’ve mentioned about a trillion times that even though I like to keep GML fun and lighthearted most of the time, it’s also really important to me to use my platform here to inspire and uplift women.

So at the beginning of every week I’m going to share some short & sweet thoughts about being well both in your soul (mentally, emotionally, spiritually) *and* your body (physically), as I really believe that true health/wellness is about tending to our whole selves. I also like the idea of combining inspiration with practical tools/advice - little things that might add some extra motivation to the busyness of your week.

I’m not an expert so this is just based on my own thoughts/experiences, and I’ll often share from other sources So here’s what it will look like!

it is well {with my SOUL}

This is one of my daily devotionals from last week (from God’s Promises Day by Day), and it really struck a chord with me.

I don’t know if you believe in God or not. But what I do know is that the God I believe in…this is His character. He isn’t some inaccessible, unreliable, far off in the galaxies God. He is a God that truly cares about what brings us pain and what brings us joy. He cares more than anything about the condition of our heart.

This God i know loves us on a personal, intimate level, and don’t let anyone or any preconceived notions tell you otherwise. I challenge you today and this week to go to God with everything - your burdens, your desires, your past, present and future. The best advice I could ever give is to get to know Him!

it is well {with my BODY}

I’ve heard a handful of times about how it’s good to drink warm lemon water in the morning, but I never fully knew why. Here’s an article that lays out the 16 Health Benefits of Drinking Warm Lemon Water. Heck, even if only a few of them are true - it’s worth a shot to me!

I’ve read of some people adding cayenne pepper to their warm lemon water as it can supposedly boost metabolism, but that was just too gross for me. Instead, I’ll often add a generous sprinkle of cinnamon to mine, as cinnamon has been shown to regular blood sugar and may reduce immflamation.

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Have you tried drinking warm lemon water in the morning?

life: my word of the year for 2015.

1 January, 2015 by Gracie 19 Comments

Happy 2015, friends!!!! I hope you celebrated well and are having a great first day of the year.

This should probably by my obligatory “new year’s resolutions” post, but I’m trying a little something new this year.

Like most people, I do (as usual) have goals going into the new year. I know the idea of having New Year’s resolutions have become sort of cliche lately, but whatever…I like any chance to have a clean slate and rekindle my motivation in certain areas of life.

This year I have my goals, but I’m also trying to cast an overall vision into 2015. I’ve seen others choose a word for their year and I always loved that idea.

But going into this new year, it seems that a word has actually chosen me.

SIMPLIFY.

You see, I’m a multi-tasker by nature. That can be one of my biggest strengths, but over the past year I’ve noticed that it’s also becoming one of my biggest weaknesses.

I think of the quote - “you can do anything, but not everything.” Well, I’m an everything person. I think that just because I CAN do something…and I may even be quite good at it…that I should automatically do it.

But the truth is that the more things I take on and the more thin I spread myself, the less I do things out a place of excellence.

So this year, I want to do fewer things with excellence rather than a ton of things just okay.

This is definitely going to be a challenge for me, to say the least. As someone who has multiple jobs and streams of income, plus a handful of things I volunteer for and do out of sheer interest/passion…I have no idea where to start cutting things out. And don’t even get me started on how I’m going to learn what to say “no” to when new opportunities come along…

…but I’ve got to start somewhere, and the word SIMPLIFY seems to be the perfect motivation to make this change and take things to the next level in my life.