Monday, January 31st

Good Morning, Blog Readers!

Let me just say this about my fast yesterday.  It was easier said than done.  I ended up feeling the hunger right around 3:30pm.  I kept eyeing the clock at 6 minute intervals.  I started to lose my edge.  Then I thought, "You're only supposed to do this whole fasting thing for 18 hours.  When can I eat?  My last meal was at 11pm last night, so that means 5pm is meal time."  That's exactly what I did.  I had an open-faced turkey sandwich on homemade sourdough bread, a banana, and peppers with hummus.  It was a "clean" meal, I think, and it was quite enjoyable.  I was offered some goupy dessert by my loving husband, but I was able to decline.  Maybe it's because I had OVER OVER indulged the night before.  I went to bed around 8pm last night, exhausted.  I had made the decision to fast after I had burned 500 calories in the gym that morning.  Next time, I'll skip the workout for the fast; can't do both.  When I woke up this morning, I felt just fine.  I got ready to do my Biggest Loser workout and was only able to do the warmup. I'm so sorry Bob.  I decided that it was a combination of working out too much on a day when I was going to fast, then eating a small amount the night before and trying to workout the next morning. The bottom line is that I decided really and truly to do the fast because I had been such a horrible dieter the day before.  You can't fix yesterday's mistakes today.  So here is my plan for this week:

Monday - Day of Rest
Calories: 1200

Tuesday: Biggest Loser Boot Camp - Level 1/Elliptical (10 minutes) @ School
Calories 1350

Wednesday: Elliptical (40 minutes)@ School
Calories: 1350

Thursday: Biggest Loser Boot Camp - Level 1/Elliptical (10 minutes) @ School
Calories: 1350

Friday: Elliptical (40 minutes) @ School
Calories: 1350

Saturday: Biggest Loser Boot Camp - Level 1/Elliptical (10 minutes) @ School

Calories: 1350

Sunday: Biggest Loser Boot Camp - Level 1/Elliptical (10 minutes) @ School

Calories: 1350

Dear God,

I have felt a gap growing in my heart, Lord.  I have put my focus on other things in my life instead of on You.  I have felt myself become less satisfied in life recently and I think it's in direct relation to the amount of time I have spent close to you.  I have forgotten, or more appropriately over looked our prayer time in the mornings, and I have ignored your love during the times that I need it the most.  I am sorry for turning away from you, and the love that you offer me unconditionally.  You are the source of all the goodness in my life and yet I have stopped giving you the credit.  I ask for your help when I need it, but don't include you on the rest of my life the way that I should.  It is my goal to embrace you more, the way that you have always embraced me.  

You are the source of all that is good in my life and I wish to thank you for my amazing husband, my wonderful parents, my family and friends who support me and inspire me, my job, my home, my co-workers, my students.  These are all gifts that you have given me.  I thank you with everything that I am.

I want to praise and honor the other gift that you have given me: my body.  I have not done this lately.  I have poured unhealthy amounts of food into my body to satisfy an unknown.  When I needed to reach out to you most to save me, I turned to more food.  Please God, help me to stay mindful and present of the things that I need to do to honor the body that you have given me.  I ask you to save me from doing damage to your gift.

Please make today one filled with love and miracles.  I ask you to help make me the most effective in the lives of my students.  Many of them are feeling the emotional drain from the results of the trial.  Help me to best serve them.

Today is the day you have made.  Please help me to make the most of it.

Amen