Day 20 Update! And, change...what are you waiting for?

Wow, only TWENTY DAYS UNTIL THE PHOTO SHOOT! :)

Exercise:
Rooting for the Bears!!! :) LOL, its my day of rest!

Eating:
5:30am Egg white omelet with spinach, green, red, and yellow peppers, and onions, and 12 almonds
9:30am Fudge Graham Zone bar (first time trying this flavor--it was DELICIOUS!)
12:30pm Easy Fajitas
3:30pm 3 oz baked chicken, Crystal's Sweet Potato Delight with 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil
6:30pm Baked Chicken and Sweet Potato Fries (cut sweet potatoes up into shoestring pieces, place in plastic ziploc storage bag, add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, shake to coat, sprinkle cinnamon, shake to coat, bake in oven 375 until desired crispness) [this was basically the same meal as the 3:30pm meal...LOL]
9:00pm Strawberry-Blueberry Smoothie (1/4 cup frozen blueberries, 4 strawberries, 10oz almond milk, 1 scoop protein powder)

Drinking:
128oz h20
10 oz almond milk

How I feel today:
I feel encouraged and blessed, especially from church (Jennifer Holliday, think original DREAM GIRL, came and sang at my church today!) and from a devotion I received via e-mail today. The devotion was about change. What struck me most is that many of us say its so difficult for us to change our habits, especially unhealthy ones. Really, the first step is wanting to change these habits. So many of us are defeated because we don't really want to change in the first place. We pay lip service because though these habits are bad for us, they make us feel really good--in the short term. Let's be honest, we know we need to change. We know change is hard and it hurts. We also know that many of our bad habits will hurt worse, in the long run, if we continue them. Despite this, its so hard to take the first step towards transformation. But, we can do it.

So, here's the devotion that blessed me. It was written by Jon Walker of Purpose Driven Church. If you like it, you can sign up and receive daily devotions to your own inbox, just like me! Just click on the title of the devotion and it will take you to the web site and you can sign up.

Do you believe God or do you just not want to change? by Jon Walker

We should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Romans 6:6–7 (NIV) "You are free, no longer a slave to unhealthy choices. You can choose to let God transform your life and be confident that he will." There’s an amusing story of a businessman who, at the end of a long day of travel, climbs into bed at a hotel. As he begins to nod off, he feels something crawling up his legs. Leaping up and fumbling with the light, he throws back the sheets to discover the bed is full of bugs. Changing rooms is not enough to satisfy the man’s disgust. When he gets home, he writes a letter of complaint to the hotel’s corporate headquarters. Weeks later, he receives a reply directly from the president of the company: “We are absolutely appalled that a man of your position and reputation should have had such an experience in one of our hotels. We are deeply embarrassed, and we assure you that we are working diligently to correct this problem. It will never happen again.” As he reads the reply, the businessman feels great! The hotel management has heard him; they’re committed to making a change; and now every customer will benefit from his initiative. But when he folds the letter back into the envelope, a small Post-It note falls to the floor. Picking it up, the man sees in a hand-written scrawl, “Send this guy the bug letter.” This week Pastor Rick showed me I’ve been sending “bug letters” to God. In other words, I’ve developed some standard responses related to God’s commands and directions. It’s easy to say I’ll get serious about my health, to say I’ll press on to God’s goals, to say I’ll make the changes necessary to follow Jesus toward my destiny, but the hard part is actually following through on those commitments. Are you with me here? We tell God we can’t change, but what we really mean is we won’t take our health seriously, we won’t stop overeating, we won’t follow Jesus toward our destiny. So we pull out our form letters – our standard responses that allow us to appear sincere when, in truth, we have no intention of changing. Do you believe God can’t change you or do you just not want to change? You are free, no longer a slave to unhealthy choices. You can choose to let God transform your life and be confident that he will.