It’s Valentine’s Day and I am dumping You

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Ash’Leigh Harris

It’s February the month of LOVE. Typically you see new romance blossom and bloom. Love is in the air.

This is no romantic love note my dear. I guess there is no sweet way to say this, so please forgive me for being so blunt, but I don’t have it in me to continue this fling we have going on.

First of all you suffocate me with your presence! Your EVERY WHERE! I can’t go anywhere alone with out you following my every move. I mean your at the store, the doctors office, the dry cleaners, the bank, the grocery mart, my work place, and even hiding out at my friends houses! You only thought you were sneaky, think again!

You make me act like a needy little school girl with a puppy dog love crush. My behavior has turned into one of those obnoxious “I can’t live with out you or I will die” kind of senseless ones. When I am stressed out, I need you. When I am feeling depressed, I need you. When I am happy, I want you. When I am bored, I want you and need you. I could go on with all different sorts of scenarios but well you don’t need to know all my weaknesses! I have become extremely co-dependent!

I can’t concentrate on any one thing because you consistently nag me like a retail shoe sells men working only on commission all the time with your sweet promises to satisfy me which you don’t. Okay I am LYING!! You satisfy me but for like maybe 10 to 30 seconds at a time. I am excited for a whole second until I can no longer taste your sweet delicious goodness on my tongue any more. Our encounters usually end up leaving me with a hangover or a severe stomachache, trying to consume enough of you to fulfill my desires at one time.

You whisper sweet nothings into my ear as I walk by you. YOU Tease!

Don’t you want me baby, don’t you want me OOOHH!? (In my mind I have created this serenade from you to me.)

The Sweet nothings and taunts go a little like this:

“Look at me, I’m so DELICOUS! Just one bite that’s all you need.” “Look at me I am “fun size.” It’s not even like you are getting all of me. Just a little bit of my love wont hurt you girl!” “You have been good all day, you Deserve me!” “No one has to know!”

The hardest part about you to swallow is the cold hard fact that you are a LYING NO GOOD CHEATER!! I heard Courtney talking about how delicious you were to her as well. It’s not even just her, apparently like ALL WOMEN have had some of you! You dog! Here I was thinking I was your one and only, like we had something special.

Your mind controlling powers lead to a serious distraction of my own needs.

I often tend to put your first. Ugh I hate myself!

You leave me with guilt and resentment for days. This guilt and resentment is what drives me to depression which leads me finding you and its a vicious cycle that never ends!

You wreck my self control! I keep telling myself I am going to quit you, but I keep going back for more and more!

You are no good for my self esteem. That’s right, you make me feel FAT! The more of you I consume, the larger my med section becomes. The uglier I feel!

You spike my insulin and can actually cause me to become a diabetic with too much consumption of you. You murderer. It’s like a FATAL ATTRACTION!

After much thought and consideration to the long term harmful effects this relationship has on me, I have decided it is time for me to take you out like yesterday’s trash!

That is right, I am breaking up with you CHOCOLATE!!

Oh, and I don’t need you trying to come crawling back into my life either. You’re not sneaky popping up on fruit, or bacon, or popcorn, so don’t even try to attempt that!

WE ARE OVER!

You are no good, your no good, your no good, baby your no good! (signing out loud)

xoxo

Leigh Leigh

Please follow my BLOG Leigh Leigh Speaks and follow me HERE on Facebook or HERE on Twitter!

chocolate bar photo credit: fanpop.com and picmonkey for edits

Strong is the NEW SEXY! What do you think?

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Ash’Leigh Harris

Have you heard that Strong is the new Sexy!? So now days you can’t even look like you just need to go eat a cheese burger anymore, you have to be buff and stacked, because strong is the new skinny! TALK ABOUT PRESSURE TO THE EGO!

Approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape. Unfortunately, only 5% of women naturally possess the body type often portrayed by Americans in the media. Information taken from http://www.dosomething.org Check out their 11 facts about body image HERE!

Over 60 percent of U.S. adult women are overweight, according to 2007 estimates from the National Center for Health Statistics of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Just over one-third of overweight adult women are obese. Information taken from http://www.womenshealth.gov

As a Christian woman I believe in Spiritual Warfare and how the enemy’s number one goal is to make sure we never know the truth about how God sees us. For one we are created in His image, and two He doesn’t judge our outward appearance, but our hearts! We were not created for some one else’s eye candy enjoyment. We should not have to live our lives revolved around harsh words spoken about our selves from our own selves, or others, or to be at war with everything we put in our mouths!

image found on pinterest

These bodies we have now will age and wither away like the flowers, but our souls will live for eternity.

It is hard to keep this perspective in mind when we are force feed nothing but images of I am assuming the 5% of our populations women, or some very good air brushing skills! ( Might I add, ever notice how all these beauty magazines are RIGHT by the Impulse JUNK FOOD! GASP!!- A true nightmare for any emotional eaters!)

And what is it with the NEW SEXY!!? Since when did the beautiful healthy design God created our bodies to be for his glory be used and cheapened in todays society as market tools to make a buck with labels such as HOTT and SEXY? I do believe God created our bodies to be Beautiful, Strong and Healthy! Sexy? Well I believe that is where the opinion of your spouse comes in!

Let’s take the focus off of being SEXY and focus on being HEALTHY, FREE from self condemnation, and WHOLE, made right by Christ!

Let’s not just be Healthy as in physical health, but also our spiritual and emotional health as well.

It is not SEXY or HEALTHY to have what society calls the perfect body if you are trapped inside your own hell you have created in your mind of striving for perfection, self love, and self acceptance, and never obtaining it. Never looking or feeling good enough for your own standards. Not to mention over exhausting your physical abilities, or creating unhealthy eating disorders!

Eating disorders, depression, substance abuse, and early sexual activity in adolescents spawn from poor self body image that is linked to self esteem.

I am not saying it is not okay to find some motivational pictures to help encourage you to lose weight or gain size, however as long as you are totally aware that the picture of them and their body is a direct result of a long hard road of hard work, and dedication they spent on themselves. Don’t expect to achieve that with out doing what they did to get that, unless of course they are the 5% of the population. 😉 Your results may not look the same. There is thing called genetics, and so you may just not have the genes to shape your body exactly like theirs, and that is okay!

Why?

Because you are special and unique, fearfully, and wonderfully made! Who wants to have the same exact everything as someone else on this planet? I know I for one do not! It wastes the beauty that was made on me when I was created in His image. It wastes the beauty that was made on you when you were created as well!

Your body was created in God’s very own image.

Back to the spiritual warfare: So how can we beat Satan at his own game? See I just recently learned that when Satan whispers things to us they are only half true. It is masked with sort of truth, but then there is the ugly lie.

The World wants us to see other women who are strong, athletic, and lean, as nothing more then hot SEX symbols, and that our self worth, value, and happiness is all rolled into looking and feeling SEXY, but God want’s us to be healthy and strong so that we can have longevity to live out his works he has planned for our lives. He wants us to get our self worth, value, self love, happiness from Him and his love for us!

How can we continue to live out our calling and stay healthy, if we are constantly staying still and stagnant while consuming fake food, processed junk food, and load of sugary drinks? This makes us feel like junk ourselves! You have to get moving and you have to start making better, cleaner eating choices!

Stop pursuing vanity and start pursuing health and wellness and growing in your faith. What is the bonus? A more alert, energized, revitalized, strong, healthy, loving, and fit you!

1 Timothy 4:8 For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

You can be the most beautiful woman in the world, but if your inside is full of junk, lies, jealousy, envy, hate, bitterness you are not beautiful at all!

God sees our hearts! He is constantly looking at the hearts of people searching back and forth across the whole earth, looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him, so that he can show his great power in helping them (2 Chronicles 16:9 TLB). Notice I didn’t say he is searching the earth looking for the most attractive, slim, skinny, buff, hunky, beefy, stacked humans to carry out his work.

image found on pinterest

Change your perspective and your motives that are the driving force of your desire to change your weight or you body image, and you will see something beautiful happen! Self love, and Self acceptance.

image found at word-picture.org

You ARE BEAUTIFUL AND…

image found on pinterest

Drown out the lies of the world and Satan with some LOUD music…..while you are out running or getting your work out on!

They may say Strong is the NEW SEXY….

but……

JESUS IS THE NEW HAPPY!

xoxo

Leigh Leigh

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You may also like She doesn’t love herself, and my Fitness Transformation.

Follow me on Facebook HERE and Twitter HERE!

Something Free for YOU in 2015

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Ash’Leigh Harris

I work out, I run, I watch what I eat (for the most part), and I take lots of gym selfies and bathroom selfies of my body. (Vain I know right?)

I put in the work and then a month later I reflect on the changes. Did my arms get more toned? Muscle growth in my legs? The proof is in the picture remember? Check out that blog post here… Proof is in the Picture!

I am wired to think that I have to put in, put in, put in to gain my rewards. Maybe your thing isn’t working out. Maybe you love to crochet, or paint, or sew, or fish, or hunt, or bargain shop!

You still have to put in, put in, put in the time and the energy and effort, the “work” to gain a finished blanket, beautiful painted canvas, that deer rack for your wall, lots of money saved on clothes, etc. To get what you want you have to work really hard for it!

That’s why my flesh has a hard time believing that I can’t work my way up on God’s good girl list. I can’t earn his love, mercy, grace, favor, etc.. The truth is he will never love me more then he does in this very instant. I can’t even earn salvation. Salvation is a free gift that God gives us because he just loves us and wants us to have a life of victory!

Ephesians 2:9

image found on pinterest

Don’t let the stress and pressure of pursuing a new you this New Years take your mind and attention off the one thing that truly matters the most, your SALVATION. The best part is, it’s free! All you have to do is acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of a savor, believe Jesus Christ paid the price for your sins when he died on the cross and then rose again, ask for forgiveness and then repent, turn away from your sinful ways. Invite Jesus into your heart to be the Lord and Savior of your life. There will be an eternal inheritance awaiting those who follow Jesus.

If you have never said a prayer of salvation but are now being lead to you can say this little prayer below out loud.

“Dear God I know I’m a sinner, I know I am not where I want to be, and I want your forgiveness! I believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for my sins. Please wash me clean from all sin, shame, and guilt, come into my heart Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. I ask this in your name Jesus. Amen!”

John 3:16 For God so loved the world he gave his one and only begotten son that who shall ever believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 10:9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

All you have to do is believe it and by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, you will be saved!

If you said this simple prayer and by faith believe it, you friend are now a child of God forever and my fellow sister or brother in Christ! It’s that simple!

Now continue 2015 getting to know more about God, His son Jesus, and his Holy Spirit! The bible has several translations, find one that helps you understand the text the best. (I like the NLT version myself.)

Remember:

xoxo

Leigh Leigh

Follow me on Twitter here and Facebook here 🙂

7 Reasons why your New Year Resolutions Fail

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Ash’Leigh Harris

#1 You are just not that serious about it. Well you were in that moment when you were caught up in the whirl wind of the ideal of accomplishing something spectacular this new year. You were pumped and excited and feeling like Super Woman!

#2 You are being deceived. Your inner demons are chattering away a million reasons every second of the day as to why you are not going to succeed.

#3 You are Lazy.

#4 Your adult ADD has kicked into high gear and you have completely lost interest, however you are already dreaming up a new resolution you are sure to follow.

#5 You are a procrastinator! I have 12 months to see this goal through. I will start again in March, May, October…..umm next year!?

#6 You are impatient. If you are trying to change your body or eating habits, the results are just not fast enough! Changing your eating habits will not help you lose 20 plus pounds in two weeks.

#7 You have a million Excuses: not enough time, not enough dedication, not enough motivation. I have 10 kids, 2 jobs, etc…

Read my no excuses post here.

Did you notice the common denominator in all the reasons? They all begin with YOU!

Don’t let YOU DEFEAT YOU!!

Have patience, ignore the doubts, don’t give up, be dedicated, keep your faith, and find ways to enjoy your new journey along the way!

YOU GOT THIS!

xOxO

Leigh Leigh

Follow Me on Facebook here and Twitter here!

*Check out my transformation story HERE!

The Ugly Truth about Empty Calories

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Ash’Leigh Harris

Although they taste Delicious…Mostly… They are NOT GOOD FOR YOU!

Stay away from EMPTY CALORIES!!!!!

Empty calorie foods and drinks are foods and drinks that contain high calories with little or NO nutrients at all. They are made up out of processed carbs, ethanol (alcohol), loads of sugar, bad fats and oil! Sodas, cakes, cookies, chips, candy, pastries, processed sugar snacks, alcohol beverages, some condiments like syrups, mayonnaise sports drinks, punches, whole milk, frozen milk, fast food, crackers, frozen foods, microwave popcorn, etc.. There are also empty calorie foods that do have amounts of nutrients in them, but the number of empty calories is so high that it doesn’t make it any healthier for you. This would be your ground beefs, fried chicken, etc.

Especially if you are active and you are trying to count calories, you want to avoid these empty calories as your body is craving nutrients not just food to fill you up! I have been learning this the hard way. This happens to be the reason why I have been researching on the matter. I am so hungry in between meals that I am grabbing empty calories thinking that the calories count toward my total for the day, meanwhile I am not satisfied because I am still starving!

Instead of empty calories snacks aka junk food, I will be carrying around protein packed almonds and string cheese.

You don’t have to swear off empty calorie foods for life, just be smart and eat and drink in moderation. Obviously if your daily diet just contains empty calorie foods you are never going to drop those pounds you are wanting to!

Make sure you are drinking plenty of water, making healthy eating choices, and finding ways to stay active!

* I did my empty calorie research on http://www.livestrong.com and http://www.WebMD.com

Smart Calorie on!

Leigh Leigh

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The scale is a LIAR

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Ash’Leigh Harris

Being female, and utilizing the Women’s locker room at my gym a great deal, I am always bound to walk in a see a beautiful lady on the scale. Every time I pass by I want to whisper,” That scale is a liar!” Sometimes I do, and we giggle, but most of the times I just keep quiet.

For YEARS the scale was not my friend but my enemy! I literally let what those numbers told me each morning dictate how I would feel about myself for the rest of that day. It consumed my thoughts, exposed my fears, and deceived me. It told me I was ugly, fat, not good enough, not skinny enough, that I didn’t try hard enough, it often made me feel like a failure.

Until I got a hold of the cold hard facts that I am loved, I am fearfully and wonderfully made, I am Special, I was thought of way before my existence became known, I am included in the ALL of God’s grace, love, mercy, redemption to whom He gives it to. I was created in my creators image, and that He has a good plan for my life. I couldn’t get past my own insecurities to see me through the eyes of my creator, how he see’s what he has created.

I let my identity stem from how I felt about myself and the harsh criticism and opinions of others. This is dangerous as we may feel all kinds of things about our selves from a day by day basis. Jesus is the Truth and therefore all Truth comes from him. What’s so different now? What was that pentacle moment for me to realize the scale had no control over me anymore? I learned my identity is no longer of myself, but rather who I am in Christ Jesus. What is so awesome about this is what he feels about me or thinks about me, never changes! He doesn’t deceive me, rather he is very upfront about how he feels about me along with all of his creation!

If you have a love hate relationship with your scale like I use to have, can I just tell you that there is hope in Jesus? THERE IS! You don’t have to be a slave to those numbers you are so desperate to read one day. There is freedom were there is no bondage. Don’t allow yourself get deceived into thinking that scale dictates any happiness in your life. Instead let your happiness develop through your relationship with Christ!

Give what ever you are struggling with, body issues wise, to Jesus and ask him to change your thinking about yourself. Ask him to give you more desire to take good care of your body. Let him guide you through your eating choices with self control, which is a gift of the spirit. If you are not happy with your weight, then by all means change your habits but don’t ever just be stuck in the same place, doing the same thing, getting the same results!!

When I stopped focusing on my failures and my disappointments the scale brought me each day, I began to focus on me through Jesus’s eyes. I created good habits and started thinking more positive thoughts about my body. This caused a rippling effect of positive results all around, and now when I step on the scale I show HIM WHO IS BOSS! I know now I control those numbers by my own actions. The SCALE DOESN’T CONTROL ME ……AND….IT DOESN’T CONTROL YOU!!! You are more then a conqueror in Christ Jesus, and you can do all things in Christ who gives your strength. But the key ingredient in this equation is JESUS! 😉

HE is > then me

xOxO

-Leigh Leigh

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Leigh Leigh Speaks

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Tag Archives: diet

It’s Valentine’s Day and I am dumping You

It’s February the month of LOVE. Typically you see new romance blossom and bloom. Love is in the air.

Don’t you want me baby, don’t you want me OOOHH!? (In my mind I have created this serenade from you to me.)