The Weekend

I was feeling down last week and on Friday I was in desperate need of a weekend focused on self-care. On Sunday night, I was surprised by how joyful I was feeling and I concluded that I’ve finally found some healthy strategies to help me deal with pain, sadness and disappointment in life. During my early twenties, my default way to deal with negative feelings was through comfort eating. Comfort eating feels good in the moment but tend to only add more negative feelings to life over time. This weekend I decided to fill my life with the things that always make me feel better and that are healthy ways to feel better; books, friendship and God.

When I need some good advice, comfort and motivation to keep moving forward during the heavy seasons of life I love reading books about life’s challenges by authors like Lysa TerKeurst, Holly Wagner, Charlotte Gambill and Levi Lusko. Levi Lusko has written a great book about dealing with the loss of a loved one called “Through the Eyes of a Lion”. Charlotte Gambill has written the book “The Miracle in the Middle” about not giving up on the things you are fighting for in life. Lysa TerKeurst has written the wonderful book “Uninvited” about how to deal with feelings of insecurity and loneliness.

On Saturday, I ordered myself the biggest cup of coffee you could buy at the coffee shop and decided to read a few chapters in “Find Your Brave” by Holly Wagner. I’m so glad that I decided to read this book during this season of my life. When you are dealing with sadness, disappointment and pain it’s easy to want to lay down and feel sorry for yourself but what we really need is to get that “warrior spirit” in us to come out. We need that fighting spirit if we are going to be able to choose bravery and choose to keep fighting the good fight in life. Holly’s book gave me a lot of motivation, excitement, joy and hope on Saturday when I was reading it.

The second thing in life that can always get me to feel better is spending time with the people in my life that have my back. We can’t make it through life’s storms alone so good friendships become super important. On Sunday, I treated myself to a nice dinner at Lee restaurant in Toronto. Enjoying some good food with good company can make any problem in life seem smaller than before.

The third thing that makes all the difference in life during both good days and bad days is spending time in God’s presence. I wish I was equally excited about reading my Bible every day but the truth is that it’s during the more difficult times in my life that I seek His presence more than when everything is going great. On Sunday morning, I was very encouraged by pastor Steven Furtick’s sermon “The Power of Pre” at Elevation Church. I’m so blessed to get to be a part of Elevation Church and the current series “Work Your Window” comes at the perfect time in life for me this year. Today it’s Monday and I’m excited to take on this new week with new energy and a lot of new motivation. Let’s go!

Adults Only

My husband and I were watching this sermon about marriage by pastor Leanne Matthesius during the weekend and I kept laughing throughout the sermon because so many of the things Leanne mentions apply to me. Leanne Matthesius talked about how marriage is for adults only, but we tend to bring our childish and immature behaviors into our marriages. We all have certain childish behaviors that we have kept into adulthood that keep messing up our marriages. I can honestly say that I have more issues related to immaturity than my husband, poor him who has to put up with me! Then again, my husband is older than me so I can always blame it on the age difference.

These days I don’t mind being made aware of my own personal issues, I don’t beat myself up over my weaknesses, instead I like to use my issues as motivation to grow stronger and better. You can’t change other people, but when you work on changing yourself you are changing the world, because you are a part of the world.

Leanne Matthesius has been married to her husband for 24 years, I have been married to my hubby for 4 years, in other words there is a lot of time for me to grow stronger and better. There’s no reason for me to beat myself up for what I don’t do, but I like to pick a few things every year that I can work on. If I keep adding one or two new building blocks to my marriage every year over time our marriage is going to be strong and beautiful. That’s my goal!

The Healthy Breakfast

After surfing around the internet for awhile looking for some inspiration on healthy breakfasts I finally found this recipe: organic cereal with almond milk and black berries. This breakfast is exactly what I want my weekday breakfasts to be like: quick to make and quick to eat. There are many great fitness blogs and Youtube channels out there but sometimes I find that the recipes they share are very complicated and takes a lot of time to make.

Eating healthy for me is all about finding new inspiration every now and then on how to make healthy meals. Eating healthy becomes very boring if I have to eat the same things week after week, then I tend to slip back to less healthy meals. The one thing I wish to see more of on fitness and health blogs are more quick and easy recipes. I just don't have the time to make a complicated breakfast or lunch on a Monday.

The Workout

I've had a bad week and on top of that the weather hasn't been very nice lately so outdoor workouts aren't an option. My workouts have still gone surprisingly well this week thanks to great workout DVD:s and Youtube videos by some of my favorite personal trainers.

Cardio kickboxing is one of my favorite workouts during this time of the year. Kickboxing is fun, gives me a great workout and I can do it in front of the TV or computer. If you want to try a new fun workout at home this weekend I recommend this kickboxing workout from Karena and Katrina's Youtube channel Tone It Up. Enjoy!

It's Friday!

All dressed up for Date Night with the man in my life on Monday.

Good coffee + a good book = Self-care

The week started on a good note with a fun Date Night with my hubby on Monday evening, then the rest of the week was mostly difficult, painful and included a lot of sadness. This is life, sometimes it’s wonderful and sometimes it hurts. My main goal for this weekend will be self-care. After a hard week I won’t make any big plans for Saturday and Sunday, I just want to rest and be kind to myself. I plan to spend some time at a coffee shop somewhere in the city this weekend, enjoying a latte and taking the time to read “Find Your Brave” by Holly Wagner. I’ve only read half a chapter in the book so far and I already love it! I wish you all a fun and relaxing weekend!

How we view our problems matters

When we are in a season of confusion and pain in life our perspective becomes very important. God's perspective and my own perspective will be very different. Most of the time I aim for an easy and trouble-free life so it's not surprising that I get frustrated when I hit a roadblock in life. When I find myself in a painful season in life it's always tempting to blame somebody else for my pain, but I can make the choice to let the circumstance make me better rather than bitter. What looks like a problem to me might just be God's provision for my life. What may look like a failure to me might just be what God brought into my life as the training ground where he will make me stronger and better than before.


Pastor Charlotte Gambill from Life Church in England teaches us what we can do when we find ourselves in a confusing and painful season in life. The thing that can save us during a difficult season is the people we surround ourselves with. When we are going through a painful season we are always tempted to isolate ourselves, but in isolation we will only get more angry, more frustrated and more sad. We need to surround ourselves with people who won't only tell us what we would like to hear, but the things we need to hear. It's also important to not let certain people speak into our lives during a painful and confusing season in life. There will always be people who will be quick to tell us why we don't have what it takes to overcome the challenge we are faced with. We need to make the choice to surround ourselves with people who can encourage us during the difficult seasons of life, not people who add discouragement and help us stay stuck in life.


It's important to remember that although the problems we face in life can be really frustrating God's perspective is much bigger than ours.What we view as our life's biggest mistake might just be what God will use to shape us into someone who can help others more than someone who hasn't made that particular mistake in life. What we view as a threat to our plan for the future might just be God redirecting us toward a direction that will bring more good things to our lives than we could ever imagine.


Josef's story in the Bible is one filled with roadblocks but God used all the hard stuff in Josef's life to build incredible character in him. Josef was quite arrogant as a young man but after years of struggle he had become a man of great character and integrity and that's when God gave him a very influential role in the land. Josef's older brothers viewed Josef as a problem and decided to get rid of him, little did they know that the same person they viewed as a problem was going to one day save their lives. Perspective changes everything. If we keep staring at our problems all we will ever see is pain and hardship. We can choose to lift our eyes and trust that God is working in all things for the good of those who love Him. What the enemy sent our way to try to destroy us God can turn around and use it for good.

I Can Handle It

I love this video! Every time I'm starting to get discouraged by my own negative thoughts this video can get me back on track again. I'm reminded that I don't walk through this life alone and that I have access to everything I need to be able to handle every challenge that comes my way in life. This year won't be easy, because life isn't easy, but I can handle it! Future challenges of year 2017, I'm ready for you now!