Mid-week Worship: Imagine Me

Imagine me, Lord! Being free, trusting you, totally. Finally, I can imagine me!

Do you see yourself the way God sees you? Completely?

I can't say I've always been good at that, and if I'm honest, I'll say I probably still am not 100% there.

But imagine how God would feel if we ever finally saw what He sees and acted according...

Peace & Blessings,
Patricia

Help with Healthy Living

I've found two faith-oriented blogs that center around healthy living. I read them regularly now and thought I would share them:
Faith First Fitness
Faith and Health Connection

Also, this month, one of the writing blogs I frequent, is focusing on healthy living. When you can combine a couple of your passions--writing and for me, getting in shape--life just starts to sizzle! Even if you're not a writer, find some helpful tips over at The Wet Noodle Posse.

Peace & Blessings,
Patricia

Weekly Check-in: September 22, 2008

Week of September 15, 2008:
Weight Loss: -2 lbs. (Woo-hoo!)

Average water per day: 4 cups

Number of exercise days: 4

Total min exercised: 165 min (avg of 41 min per day)

Last week was a good week! I'm down 2 lbs. It was actually 3 lbs in the middle of the week but I ate a little more on the weekend that I probably should have.

I'll take the 2 lbs!

I was soooo hot last week. Not because the temps in FL still run in the mid-90s this time of year or because I've found a way to be fresh, chic, hip or anything faintly resembling that.

Noooo...I was a walking furnace!

Chalk it up to the B12 supplements I'm taking. 41,000% of the daily recommended dosage. Doc said it would rev up my metabolism. I think she was right. The only times I ever felt this warm internally were during pregnancy. (And I am very much not pregnant now or ever again!)

I attribute the weight loss to this and to swapping my lunch and dinner meals. By eating a bigger meal mid-day, I'm less ravenous at dinner time. By eating salad for dinner, I'm comfortable rather than stuffed at bedtime. I like the feeling and will continue eating this way.

I was soooo tired and out of sorts last Monday that I didn't start the week off with exercise. I had hoped to make it up over the weekend but that didn't happen. No big deal. I got off to a good start today.

Let's see whether I can drop another lb this week by simply continuing what I'm doing. No other major changes.

That would be really nice.

How'd you do? What are your goals for the week?

Peace & Blessings,
Patricia

What Really Is An Evangelical Christian?

It's tempting to get into mini-debates with people right now, especially given our overly charged political atmosphere.

In fact, that tends to be the source of the controversy, what with possibly the first ever African-American president, a unknown and arguably untested Alaskan governor as possibly the first female vice president (should the AA candidate lose), possibly the oldest ever man to be sworn in as president (should the AA candidate lose), and a highly charged media and electorate which will only get worse, in my opinion, should the AA candidate lose.

Yes, I'm voting for Sen. Barack Obama.

And I don't mind saying so.

What I do mind, which is occuring with greater frequency, is being challenged in my support of him because I'm a Christian.

Why not challenge me because I'm a woman? Should I have supported Hillary or should I now flip over to the McCain-Palin ticket?

Who says that all Christians are or should be Republicans? I'm sick to death of hearing about the religious right, the evangelical right, or whatever they're being called these days.

Don't get me started on Dr. James Dobson or a host of others who have offered so much invaluable information and comfort to believers...as long as they stay within their callings and out of the political arena. Again, just my humble opinion.

But wait! In many ways, I could be categorized as an evangelical Christian, although I am decidedly more center than most of the representatives of evangelical Christianity seen or heard regularly on the airwaves or Internet today.

Is that possible?

Well, yes it is. In my heart of hearts, I believe there are more Christians like me than like them, the people who I would call not "evangelical" but "fundamentalist". We're just less vocal and we need to start speaking up!

See evangelical Christianity has to do with having a personal relationship with Christ that begins with being "born again". I believe in that. It also has to do with "going out into the highways and by-ways" to tell of the goodness of Jesus. I believe in that too. It has to do with believing the Bible is the infallible, inspired Word of God. I believe that. And finally, it has to do with believing in the death and resurrection of Christ, and that He will come again. I believe that.

These are the things that make someone an evangelical Christian. After that, trust me, the waters get pretty muddy. Visit a Southern Baptist church vs. a Pentecostal one vs. a Lutheran vs. a non-denominational. The rest is either man-made church doctrine, which may or may not be Biblically-based, or personal interpretation of the Scriptures.

I think my pastor's wives card is about to be revoked.

Christianity has never been a religion about exclusion. Christ's grace is available to all who believe on Him as the Savior of the world, who confess that belief with their mouths, and who repent of their sins. Don't believe me? Start with the popular John 3:16,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Then read Romans 10:5-12 Here's a portion:

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

I'm saddened by just how much foolishness is attributed to Christians and just how much some Christians try to hold their chosen brand of Christianity up as the Christian faith. The rest of us are supposedly non-believers or delusional, at best.

The Bible, that infallible source, warns us about judging others. This would include judging the faith of others.

It also says, in Romans 12:3,

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

This admonishment causes me to pray for others who seem to feel they are the arbiters of the Christian faith.

I won't win any awards for this post and I may very alienate a lot of people who I would hope one day might purchase and read my Christian fiction novels, some of whom I've gotten to know and I on the many writing-related blogs I frequent.

Now I know why my mother used to admonish us to never talk about religion, politics, or money in "polite" company. Chances are the conversation will be anything but polite.

Peace & Blessings,
Patricia

Mid-week Worship: Shout Joyfully

Hubby stumbled upon an artist that we'd not heard of before over the weekend. I love his sound! So this week, my featured artist is BJ Putnam.

Peace & Blessings,
Patricia

Weekly Check-in: September 15, 2008

Week of September 1, 2008:
Weight Loss: 0 lbs.

Average water per day: 2-3 cups

Number of exercise days: 5

Total min exercised: 150 min (avg of 30 min per day)

Sorry I'm so late posting today but it took me this long to wake up! Never mind that I've been at work since 9.

I have a 3 yo who would not sleep thru the night this past weekend. "I'm hungry." "My stomach hurts." "I'm thirsty." Things that required actually opening my eyes and putting my feet on the floor.

Perhaps tonight I could tie him down or bribe him with an extra cookie after dinner?

Pray for us.

My third straight zero-lb-weight-loss week. But still not getting down on myself.

I think my body is adjusting. To what, I'm not sure. LOL!

Could be those B12 tablets that are (no exaggeration here) like 40,000% of the daily recommended dosage. Guess my doctor was really serious about getting a major change within a month. Good news is that the body doesn't store B12. Whatever isn't utilized is flushed out of the body.

Could be switching my lunch and dinner meals. In theory, this is a great idea. In practice? Easier said than done. Because although I kind of like finishing off the day with a salad and I'm definitely not as ravenous when I get home as I used to be, I think that overall I'm consuming more starch than I used to. For me that translates into gaining, not losing, pounds. But since I'm working out consistently, there's been no change.

Then again, could be a response to the antibiotic I'm taking for a minor sinus infection.

Who knows?

Medicine is definitely a mystery to me.

Really gotta get away from the snacks. Did very well during the week. Not so good on Saturday. Lousy on Sunday. But I'm very cognizant, even in the midst of my snack attacks, so there's hope.

How'd you do this week?

Peace & Blessings,
Patricia

Is Your Will Keeping You From Losing Weight?

One of the topics that's been turning over and over in my head is the notion of will or willpower vs. discipline.

All dieters at some point talk about an increased need for willpower or discipline to help them in their weight loss quest.

But I had a revelation about this recently. I've come to realize that not understanding the difference between willpower and discipline is preceisely what hems up a lot of people who sincerely want to make a change in their weight/health/fitness.

In fact, not having clarity on this difference impacts the ability of people to accomplish just about any goal in life. (Boy, I wish I'd gotten this revelation about 20 years ago!)

Roget's Thesaurus classifies "willpower" under the main topic of "decision". It defines willpower as "unwavering firmness of character, action, or will". Synonyms include determination, discipline, drive, grit, self-control, decidedness, resoluteness, resolve, toughness, will.

I love Roget's Thesaurus but on this one, they've got it only partially right.

Unfortunately, just as many of us do, Roget's is intermingling two completely different terms.

Will and willpower are not the same as discipline.

When I look up "discipline", there are all kinds of references to punishment. We'll ignore those because there's nothing healthy about perceiving activities to increase one's health and fitness as "punishment".

But other definitions include:

• training to act in accordance with rules
  
• the rigor or training effect of experience, adversity, etc.
  
• behavior and order maintained by training and control
  
• to train by instruction and exercise
  
• to bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control

What it all boils down to is this: having the will or willpower to do something simple deals with your desire. What do I want? What would I like to have? What do I envision for myself?

The truth is most dieters have willpower, or the desire to lose weight, in leaps and bounds. We overdose on willpower. We never stop wanting to lose weight, not even when we're plunging our hands into a bag of extra large potato chips sure to add a few lbs to our hips or when we're salivating over the buffet table for our second or third plate of food despite having a full stomach or when we're laying on our butts watching exercise shows on TV and thinking about all the exercise we should be doing.

We've got will. For some folks, the will is weak and they never do more than think about what they desire. For others of us, it's strong enough to push us into action.

So we start a new diet or a new exercise program or some other activity designed to help us lose weight.

But is our willpower, our desire, strong enough to keep us doing what we know we need to do to get the job done and the pounds to come off?

Nope. It's only strong enough to keep us adding to our personal lists of "new starts". We try something for a little while. When we start out, we're excited. This time will be different! We're going to finally achieve our goal!

But then, a little while later, we take stock of ourselves and realize we've slacked off or given up all together. We still desire to lose weight but something happened to knock us off course.

Remember all those New Year's resolutions?

Because we still have a strong desire, we then decide it must have been the program or regimen we tried. Yes, it worked for others but since it didn't work for us, something must be wrong with it. It's just not the right thing for us.

So we find another program and the cycle starts all over again.

Don't get me wrong. All diet and exercise regimens are not created equal. Some are in fact dangerous while others seem to provide minimal results at best.

Bottomline, there is one thing takes us from desire to result. It's not education or knowledge. It's not the support of family and friends. It's not even the ideal environment, be that a paid-in-full gym membership, an in-home personal trainer, a personal chef, a spa retreat, or any other things that we dream about, wrongly believing "if I only had..."

That one thing is discipline.

In the next couple of days, we'll examine the concept of discipline and how to develop it in order to push our health and fitness routines over the top.

Thoughts?

Peace & Blessings,
Patricia