Egg muffins are my jam. I forget sometimes that not everyone has heard of or made them. They have been in my recipe rotation many times, and are just second nature to me!! If you haven't tried them, you need to!! Such an easy meal option (doesn't have to be breakfast!!)  You get a super nutritious protein AND a veggie in one neat, cute, portable package.  These can be refrigerated and thrown in a lunch box, eaten cold, at room temp, or warmed up.  Kids can pick which ingredients get added and are therefore more likely to actually eat them, even with veggies!  You can totally swap out any veggies your family likes - broccoli can be a fun one, just cook it first.  You can use any kind of cheese - even making them mediterranean with feta and olives.  Possibilities are endless!  Give them a whirl and let me know how you like them!
Egg Muffins
Ingredients (double the batch if you want!)
1 bell pepper (your favorite color)
3 green onions
4 little cherry tomatoes/one normal tomato
6 eggs
A good pinch of salt (about ¼ to ½ tsp)
Optional - these all go great. Add whatever you fancy!
2 slices cheese
Handful spinach/green leaves
2-3 splashes of hot sauce or curry powder
Baking paper or muffin cups (only if you don't have a nonstick muffin tin - my silicone tin works perfectly)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 390°F.
Wash and dice the pepper, onions and tomatoes and put them in a large mixing bowl. You can saute your veggies first if you want them even softer. If you do a lot of spinach/greens, you will want to cook and drain some of the liquid first.
Add the eggs and salt and mix well. Crack the eggs separately before adding. That way if you get a bad one, it won’t ruin the whole thing.
Optionally add some hot sauce, curry powder...whatever you like. 
Grease the muffin tin with oil and pour the egg mixture evenly into the muffin slots. (If you think they might still stick to the pan use some muffin cups or cut out some baking paper and to use as cups - definitely saves time on cleanup.)
If you’re so inclined then layering some cheese or sprinkling some grated cheese over the top of each muffin before they go into the oven is a delicious addition! You can also mix in the cheese to the batter.
Pop the tray into the oven for 15-18 minutes or until the tops are firm to the touch.
Bon Appetit!!

I barely slept a wink last night. And when I say barely, I mean 1 1/2 to 2 hours, tops.  Crazy, I know.  It wasn’t because I was sick or had a sick kiddo.  It wasn’t because I was worrying about said kiddos.  No, it was just because my mind was BUZZING.  The thoughts on this page were flying around in my head.  Now, when this has happened to me in the past, I have panicked.  I usually watch the clock, and with every passing minute, I get more worried about my lack of sleep and what that will do to me the next day.  I’ll be exhausted.  My immune system might tank.  I probably won’t be able to workout.  On and on and on….I’m exhausted just typing it out.  But not this time.


If any of you have been following me for very long, you probably know that our family has had a myriad of health struggles over the past ten years.  The last four months have been especially grueling.  It got to the point where I wasn’t sure how much of my life to share on social media because it was simply too depressing to recount.  We were a mess.  Who wants to hear about that?  It was truly hell on earth in so many ways - both physically and emotionally.  If there was a real pit of despair in Dallas, we were in it.  I had built my business on a base of hope, and yet I felt almost none myself.  How could I ever share what I did not have myself?   


About a week ago, Matt and I saw a counselor for the first time in our marriage.  Not because we were on the brink of divorce, but because we were desperate.  We had tried everything else we could think to try.  And I thank God that we took that step.  Because our eyes were opened to the most powerful thing that we had left almost entirely out of the picture.  God. 


It’s not that we didn’t pray.  Oh we had prayed.  I had prayed to the point that I was numb.  I didn’t know another way to do it.  And it had accomplished nothing (that I could see), and so I had been reduced to occasional prayers that felt like a chore.  Like something on my to do list.  And who has time for another item on the to do list when they have “real work” to do?  I was resigned to asking other people to pray for us because my prayers felt dead.  Is that sad, or what?  


We had been trying to get God to move in our lives by something we did.  Everything we tried was of this world.  I thought I could fix enough potions and shakes, research enough supplements and juice enough celery to save Matt myself.  I could raise my kids myself.  I could run my business myself.  I was relying on myself for virtually everything in my life.  And let me tell you, that pressure is suffocating.  I was drowning.  And that was the last thing Matt or our kids needed.  I was there, but I wasn’t whole.


After meeting with our counselor, he explained some life changing truths that I had just never really experienced in my life.  I have been a Christian for over 25 years, and yet, I don’t think I have ever felt what I have experienced in the past week.  God has already moved in my life.  He has already provided everything I have or will ever need.  He is so much bigger than my problems.  I professed to believe that, and yet I expected nothing of him.  My heart was full of fear to the point where it had hardened to the possibility of anything happening outside of me.  How could I accept grace or healing when I was in that state?  Well, I clearly could not.  


As we came to these realizations, I started getting more and more hungry to read the bible and pray in a way I never had before.  With confidence and belief that these truths were meant for me.  That my life was not meant to be one of constant suffering.  That I had joy and peace in my heart that could spring up if I would just let God do that.  And it has made all the difference.  Matt and I have had hope before, but it was in things of this world.  They very well may have been sent from God to us, but they were not supernatural.  We would find a new book or remedy that would help us for a while.  But none of those brought lasting healing or wholeness. 


Until now.


Now we have hope from a spring that never runs out.  Joy everlasting.  And let me say, that a few weeks ago, I would not have understood this.  I would not have believed it.  My eyes were shut and my heart was hard.  I would have thought this was a little “over the top.”  Which is sad to me.  But if that’s how you feel reading it, I’ve been there.  I’ve been the judgy girl thinking people who talked like this were just spouting off something they heard someone else say.  There’s no way they could really feel like that.….except now I know.  


So, all this is to say that the “hope” is back in Hopeful Fitness.  I am renewed in my mind and spirit, and Matt is too.  Our bodies may not always show it on the outside, but we are healed.  We are whole.  A massive weight has been lifted, and we are now living like we haven’t in a long time.  In his rest.


Proverbs 4:20-23

My son, pay attention to what I say;
    listen closely to my words.
Do not let them out of your sight,
    keep them within your heart;
for they are life to those who find them
    and health to one’s whole body. 
Above all else, guard your heart,
    for it is the wellspring of life.

Chronic illness is a tricky thing.  My husband and I both have chronic, autoimmune conditions, but with a very different severity.  Mine comes and goes.  If I am eating well and taking care of myself - I’ll have periods of no symptoms, and then an occasional flare.  Matt’s is daily, forever.  I read a really good article that my sister-in-law shared with me a few weeks ago.  It talked about chronic illness  in terms of spoons.  Everyone gets a certain number of spoons per day, and everything you do in a given day costs you in spoons.  Need to get dressed?  That’s a spoon.  Have chores to do around the house?  They are each a spoon.  Commute to work, take out the trash, cook a meal…..spoon, spoon, spoon.


A normal person has pretty much unlimited possibilities for their day.  All the spoons you could want.  Ours are limited.  Right now, for Matt, they are very limited.  In addition to his diabetes, he is dealing with pretty severe GERD (reflux), and resulting esophagitis that has been going on since early November.  He has to eat small meals exactly every 3 hours.  And the meals can’t be just anything - they have to be either a liquid meal (shake) that is prepare and measure (gotta get in enough calories), chicken and veggie soup, or cod and sweet potatoes.  That is all he is eating right now.  If we want to go for a date night, eating a meal is out of the question right now.  If we want to see  movie, we have to consider what time it starts, how long it is, when we can squeeze in one of his meals, and whether his blood sugar will have any problems during the movie.  It’s the height of spontaneity, let me tell you.  If his blood sugar goes too high, he has nerve pain and other complications. If his blood sugar goes too low, he will crash and feel terrible until he eats or drinks sugar, which is difficult given his reflux.  If he has too much fat, his gall bladder spasms.  If he has too much protein, it worsens the GERD.  If you have followed all that, you can pretty much tell that he doesn’t get to eat much of anything.  He has lost a significant amount of weight (he was thin before this), and is trying as hard as he can to gain it back, with little success thusfar.  


When he was first diagnosed with diabetes, it felt like our number spoons was cut in half.  He was on some pills, and it was fairly minor.  Then he became insulin dependent.  Wait now…needles?  Lots more blood testing daily?  Definitely had more spoons taken away.  Next came his neuropathy diagnosis.  Lots of pain and more pills.  Spoons gone.  He has had other complications, but the latest struggle with GERD has probably been the worst.  We feel like we are down to about 2 stinking spoons.  We have adapted over time, and make it work, but man, is it hard to explain.  People will ask how you are, and you have no idea what to say.  Do you say how you really feel?  If you say you are barely hanging on for dear life and some days you really don’t want to go on….well, people will generally want to run in the opposite direction.  So, you lie and say you’re okay.  Even people who really know you well, generally want or expect to hear that you are doing better.  Sometimes I think they are afraid to ask because of what the answer will be.  You don’t want to be a downer, but then again, you also can’t do stuff.  So, at some point, you either have to keep making up excuses, or just come out with why it is you can’t do stuff.  


There is a lot of uncertainty about what the future holds for us.  We try not to think about it, and just deal with what we have going on today.  Make the best of it, enjoy what we can….take nothing for granted.  Looking back, we had no idea how great he had it just being on a low carb diet and shooting insulin a few times a day.  That would be a cake walk now.  On the flip side, we take time to enjoy very simple things now.  If there is a day he is feeling good - we will really try to make the most of it.  We are more intentional about spending time together as a couple and as a family.  We don’t sweat the small stuff.  


I guess I write all this to say, if you are a normal, healthy person, and have a friend or relative who is dealing with a health crisis that you don’t have experience with - sometimes the best thing to do is to just give them a hug.  Tell them you are sorry they have to deal with it.  Let them know you are there, and if you are willing, that you have a spoon to give them.  Cause there are days we run out of our own.  

For more on our story, click here.