Ok, so I’ve been thinking about and observing some things since my last post. One thing in particular that I’ve noticed is, the weight isn’t moving. But, neither am I. And therein lies the rub, as they say.

I’ve been eating very well throughout the day, but at night, not so much. Jason and I have been eating a lot of fast food (oh, that Wendy!), and, couple that with virtually no exercise, it’s a recipe for disaster, if you’ll pardon the pun. The Lord has really been emphasizing this to me in the last few days. Eating right is VITAL! Portion control is VITAL! But, from what I’ve truly and finally realized in these past several days is, exercise is the KEY! Not only does it benefit your body and mind, it accelerates your weight loss. I’m ashamed to admit this, but until recently, I’ve never really understood HOW important exercise is. My focus has (always) been on food. Gotta eat right! Gotta watch portions! Gotta eat right! Gotta watch portions! Well, like I said, God has been opening my eyes to the “that’s not enough” aspect of a healthy lifestyle.

Dr. Don Colbert is a Christian doctor (He is Kenneth and Gloria Copeland’s doctor), and I’ve been following him for quite some time. His practice is based on Biblical principles. I’ve gotten his books “What Would Jesus Eat”, “What Would Jesus Eat Cookbook”, “The Rapid Waist Reduction Diet” and most recently, I’ve ordered “The Bible Cure for Memory Loss” and “The Seven Pillars of Health”. I haven’t gotten the latter two yet, but I’m excited to read them. I’ve also watched several episodes of Believer’s Voice of Victory where he was a guest on the show. Here is the link to all of those: http://www.kcm.org/bvov-media/archives?keys=Dr.%20Colbert&date_filter[value][date]=&tid=All I’ve learned so much in watching these episodes and reading his books, and I highly recommend signing up for his newsletter.

Anyway, the reason I brought up Dr. Colbert is, he said something that I had never heard or even considered. Think about a body of water. A lake or stream. There are currents moving that water, and that water looks beautiful and clean, right? Now think about a pond. No movement. What happens to that water? It becomes stagnant and riddled with fungus and things I don’t even want to think about! Same thing with OUR “body of water”. These precious vessels are made up of mostly water. If we don’t move, our bodies of water become stagnant. How interesting is that?? It really got me thinking, but even at that point, I still didn’t truly understand the concept of how important exercise is – until now. Not seeing the scale move and not feeling the clothes get baggy has really opened my eyes.

Which brings me to the reason for my post today. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine and I read a book called “Never Say Diet”: http://www.amazon.com/Never-Say-Diet-Decisions-Break/dp/0307444937/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407080972&sr=8-1&keywords=never+say+diet FANTASTIC book. Chantel Hobbs is the author, and you might see her posts on my Facebook page periodically. The basis for her book is how we need to exercise EVERY day – NO EXCUSES! I won’t give too much away in case you want to buy it, but basically, she had what she calls a brain change. She came to a point where she had had enough of being overweight. She hit her rock bottom, if you will. She said when she made up her mind to do something every day, things started to change for her. For example, one night, she got home really late. Maybe 10 o’clock or so. She hadn’t worked out that day, so she put on her shoes and walked around the block. She did SOMETHING.

And that, dear friends, is where I’ve got to be. I have to get to the place where nothing keeps me from doing some form of exercise every. single. day. Once I do (and by God’s grace, I will), nothing will stop me. Nothing will keep this weight from falling off and staying off. When I first started reading her book, I thought it was really strange that her focus was on the exercise. Don’t get me wrong, she was making better choices with food as well, but her main focus was movement. Well, (keep in mind, this was a couple of years ago) as I started to do what she suggested and exercise every day, the weight came off of me in a big way. Unfortunately, my time-frame to go from gung-ho to hum-ho is about 2 weeks. Needless to say, it ended there. But I did learn something: the reason I believe she focused on the exercise more than food is two-fold: The first is something we already know – exercise is the key to getting the weight off, and second, once you see that weight start to come off, it motivates you to want to eat right and eat well. Once your clothes become baggy, you won’t want anything to stop you from continuing. Unfortunately, I did stop, but that’s OK. I’m going to continue to keep my eyes in front, focused on Jesus.

So, here is what I feel God is wanting me to do: I need to set a goal. Not something huge, just a small goal to start. Not only that, I need to set my goal and post it. Once it’s out there for y’all to see, it will hold me more accountable to do it. If I say I’m going to do something, I don’t want to have to come back on here a week later and say I didn’t. My goal is to do some form of exercise EVERY day this week. Going on what I know, aerobic is important, but to really get that fat burning, I’ll need to do some muscle toning, too. I record a show called “Body Electric”, and I have something that my mom and I used to do years ago called Callanetics: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=callanetics&sprefix=callan%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acallanetics

Please understand, I’m not saying y’all have to go out and buy these, I’m just showing you what I’ve got to give you some ideas. There are gazillions of muscle toning exercise videos on Youtube that are at your fingertips. In fact, I have several bookmarked. I’m also considering doing some Yoga in there, too.

Like I said, my goal is to do something every day this week. Dr. Colbert said it takes 30 days to make something a habit and 40 days to make it a lifestyle. Right now, I’m starting small. I need to get thru a week. Then another, then another. I also have a weight goal, but I don’t have a time-frame to get it done. I want to set my first weight loss goal at 10 pounds. Once that’s accomplished, I’ll set another. Remember, small steps are better than no steps! Exercise is accumulative. Something is better than nothing. Look at it this way: Pennies are only worth 1 cent, right? But they add up! When you get change from the store, more often than not, you get more pennies than any other coin. I guarantee, your penny jar fills up faster than any other coin jar you have! Same with exercise. Even if it’s going up and down stairs a couple of times, it’s still movement!

So there you have it! I pray you all have the best week of your life, and always remember: God is in love with you!

Your Sister In Christ,

April