Day 1 of the Best of My Life

Today was Day 1.  I have stepped out in faith this year with a new job.  A new harvest of kiddos.  I plan to do right by them.  This is day 1 of  Action toward my goals.  I am no longer going to sit on the sidelines of life and let it pass me by.  Here are a few of my first steps.  They will be small to begin with, but I will take them.  
My day as follows:

• at 5am I had a snack and quiet time
• At 6am, Fit camp for an hour
• Gym-Cardio for 20 minutes
• Began my first full day in my classroom
• Began this blog post and fell asleep typing

These are baby steps.  No more talk.  It's time to walk the talk.   I look forward to see where my decisions take me this year.  

Walking by faith,

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
~Hebrews 11:6

BLOG in all CAPS

I had the privilege to create a dream/vision board for my life with a friend in early January.  On that board is BLOG in all caps.  It is about time that I put that into action.  I have experienced many things in these first two months of the year. My word for the year is RENEW.  I am trying to make it real in my life by examining my thinking and replacing the lies that I believe with the truth.  I truly want to transform my life this year and become the best me.  I want believe in myself and trust God with my circumstances.  He is in control, and I am learning to turn my fears into faith.  A moment that stands out was Valentine's weekend when my friend and I volunteered at Tim Tebow's Night to Shine, a prom for special needs people.  I got to be a buddy to Courtney, a really awesome girl.  We danced, watched karoke, got our pictures taken together at the photo booth.  She got to take pictures with pageant queens and Disney princesses.  Mascots and football players made appearances and posed for pictures.  It was a wonderful experience.

I have also made a few leaps of faith within the last week.  I have registered to take the Early Childhood Education Teacher test in April which would allow me to teach Prekindergarten and Kindergarten.  My past experiences in education have not been smooth.  I attribute the difficulties to my ignorance of teaching and failure to educate myself on how to become an effective teacher. My present experience with my four-year-old kiddos has encouraged me to take on this endeavor.

I have also been striving for a major health goal-my -100 pound party.  I am 8ish pounds away and can't wait to blast through that goal.  I have been using Herbalife products for the last two years now, and I absolutely love them.  I had some recent success on the business side of things which gave me the boost that I needed.  I see this as an opportunity to help others get their dreams and also give back to those that have helped me in my journey.

My blog is something that I want to develop over the course of this year.  I want to chronicle my actions rather than dole out advice that I don't apply to my own life.  I KNOW a lot but it's time to put what I know into ACTION.  Check back soon to see what's been happening.

For God's Glory,

Application

"Ignorance on fire is better than knowledge on ice."

It is time to change.  I need to work harder on myself.  I need to become the person that I want to attract.  I need to act.  I have dreams, and I want them to come true.  If I do nothing, nothing will happen.  It is time for me to put action to the knowledge that I have gained over the course of my life.  I know but don't do. My primary focus is getting to my 100 pound party.  It has been a long time coming.  I will post my action steps toward that goal and the many other goals I have.  It is time for me to be transformed and to follow my heart and not my head according to the will of God.  I am looking forward to the next steps in my journey to wellness and whole living, and I give glory to God for all that He has done and is going to do.

Dreams turned Accomplishments (Documenting the Journey)

I KNOW many different things.  I have great ideas about how things should go in life (read my other posts).  The downside to all of this wonderful knowledge is that it has STAYED knowledge.  I have not successfully applied it to my life.  Check out this post Consistent Consistency.  I have thoroughly outlined my dreams and the steps to follow to turn them into accomplishments.  Have I done them?  That would be a big fat NO!  I have not applied action to my dreams.  In April of this year, I was evidently painfully aware of my lack of action that I had to blog about it in Actions Speak Louder than Words.

I did finally begin to act in May.  I decided to get to my -100 pound party.  I was 15 pounds away.  I  I worked hard for two months and was three pounds away from my goal, when I hit a major obstacle.  I went on a trip and most of the hard work that I had accomplished vanished in one week, seven days, a fraction of what it took to get to my goal.  I was devastated and I haven't quite recovered.

Long story short, it is time for me to actually act upon the knowledge that is within me and that has been so eloquently expressed in this blog.

I have been thinking, and I have decided to log my progress.  I want to turn my dreams into goals and my goals into accomplishments.  

My current goals and my daily action steps are as follows:

1.  -100 pound party-deadline September 30th (15 pounds to go)

           -Track my food on Sparkpeople.com

           -Drink 64+ ounces of water

           -Exercise 10+ minutes daily

2. Read 1 book per week

           -Read 1-2 chapters

3. Practice Rosetta Stone Spanish for 1 to 2 hours per week

           -Practice for 15-20 minutes

4. Write my personal history for 30 minutes to 1 hour per week

           -Write for 10-15 minutes

I plan to post my progress, positive or negative, each day as I transform my dreams into accomplishments.

Today was not the best day toward my -100 party.  I hit the snooze twice and had no desire to exercise, so I took a shower instead and readied myself for work.  I did pick up my Herbalife order today at lunch and grabbed a shake and tea, so that was good.  After work, I ate an a apple and protein bar on the way home.  Dinner did me in.  I don't even want to talk about it.  As I ate a not so very healthy dinner, I decided to keep munching.  I definitely hit, grand-slammed, my calories for today.  I knew this, and therefore; I did not even log it in Spark.  I drank a measely 32 ounces of water from Sonic with Sunshine Berry (strawberries and lemons with peach flavoring).  Tomorrow I will definitely kick it in to high gear.  

As for reading, I have discovered audio CDs and am in love.  I listened to an entire book that would have taken me a week or month or even year to read in 3.5 hours in the car on my commute to and from work or whenever I happened to be in the car.  So technically, I have "read" a book this week.  I have started 2 books that are supposed to be finished by now.  I haven't read today, but I plan to after I publish this post.

I haven't practiced Spanish for several weeks, I will do so beginning tomorrow. The same goes for writing my personal history.

This is my time to act, and I plan to document my progress for grins and giggles and maybe just maybe to encourage someone else to go and make their own dreams come true.  

For God's Glory,

Consistent Consistency

I want to get married someday, speak Spanish, write a book, travel the world, and know God and make Him known.  These desires seem so big and far away at times.  These things are all good things, but they require smaller steps of consistency over time to accomplish them.  If I were to make more friends, study my Rosetta Stone for thirty minutes a day, write for thirty minutes to an hour a day, save a few dollars a month for traveling adventures, and study and share the Word of God over a period of time; I would most likely be a whole lot closer to accomplishing the desires of my heart.  My dreams need to become goals, and in turn my goals will become accomplishments.  The bridge between my goals and accomplishments is a consistent consistency of  little steps of action that align with the direction of my goals.

My Dreams are the roles in which I seek to become.  My dreams will not be fulfilled and handed to me on a silver platter or delivered by the postal service delivery man.  God will not just hand me a husband, or allow me to speak Spanish fluently.  I won't wake up the next day with a best-selling book on the shelves of every bookstore.  I won't be able to hop on a plane tomorrow and go overseas.  I won't be spiritually mature ever this side of heaven, I will always be growing into the disciple and missionary God wants me to be.  There will not be this magical day where all of these desires are automatically fulfilled.  Every role or aspect of my life requires work on my part.  This is where my dreams must become my goals.  If my goals are to be a wife, a fluent Spanish speaker, an author and so on.  Then I need to break down these roles into small actions that can be executed consistently over time to get me to my goals.  These steps of completed consistency are the stepping stones for my goals to become accomplishments.  Once these goals turn to accomplishments, the journey is not over.  The role of wife will bring on new dreams such as mother and the steps of consistent consistency begin again just with another goal in mind.

My dreams turn to goals when I PLAN action steps to turn them into accomplishments.  My goals become accomplishments, when I EXECUTE those action steps consistently in accordance to my goals.

Dream BIG. Turn your dreams into goals and accomplish them!  Small steps lead to great accomplishments.

This is the Stuff!

Have you had one of those days, weeks, or even months where nothing seemed to be going right and everything drove you crazy? Well I have been having several "This is the Stuff" moments as Francesca Battistelli so poignantly puts it. I got a new job, and I jumped into a new health and wellness company called Herbalife. Since then my water pump went out in my car, my second paycheck was messed up (but fixed), several unexpected or rather unaccounted bills came up, and my car insurance was due. I used my credit card a bit too much. I also made a "mud pie" decision to step a little too hard on the gas pedal which resulted in half of a "Reese's cup" consequence of a lesser fine for my ticket. I have also committed myself to an Herbalife training event with no way or money to get there. All of a sudden, I feel like I have been slammed with so many things all at once. I got a job to make a difference and also have some money to call my own to a degree. But even in this mess, I can see the blessings. My tax refund hit my account with perfect timing. My car insurance is paid. My life has been forever changed through Herbalife with new friends and an awesome, positive community (Oh yeah, I am also 10 pounds lighter and have more energy also). Because of my lead foot and speeding ticket, I changed directions and was blessed to see one of my kiddos from my first harvest of kiddos at my old church. Not so great things can happen but still lead you to some great things.

I have some choices to make.  Do I quit?  Do I give up?  NO! The bills will still come.  I have the choice to get up and do something.  I can either wallow in self-pity, or I can share my story and make something awesome happen.  With Herbalife, I can help others lead healthy, active lifestyles and turn their goals into accomplishments.  In the end, the stuff that gets to us most is what we benefit from most.  I will survive these setbacks and persevere to get out of my rut.

For anyone interested in my Herbalife story, here goes.  Before Herbalife, I was super stressed out, looking for a job, gaining weight from home cooked meals, facing some health issues, and exhausted.  I found Herbalife through an old high school friend.  I was skeptical at first.  I began with attending the FREE Fit Camps and getting to know all of the people.  My first shake was Cinnamon Roll, amazing!  My tea was cherry limeade, delicious!  This was the best tasting shake and energizing tea I had ever had in my life.   I learned a whole lot about myself, and that I am capable of completing something such as a Fit Challenge.  I participated in the January Fit Challenge and completed it 30 seconds faster on my mile, and I lost several inches.  I am now down 10 pounds and have so much energy.  I have signed up for the April Fit Challenge, and I look forward to finishing strong.

 For the Glory of God,

Operation Faithfully Fit

Today is the day, no more excuses, no more waiting for tomorrow, no more if onlys, Operation Faithfully Fit begins today.  In keeping with my alliterative streak, my plan focuses on the following areas: Food, Fitness, Finances.  The plan is to make some baby steps in each of these areas until they finally become routine and I can do them without thinking about it.

Food
Read Faithfully Fit Devotional daily and apply lessons learned
Make menus
Login to Sparkpeople.com
Drink 64oz of water daily
Log water intake on Sparkpeople.com
Track food intake on Sparkpeople.com (1500-1700 calories)

Fitness
10 minutes of exercise daily
30 minutes of exercise 3 days a week
Gradually increasing that to more as goals are reached

Finances
Make Budget
Stick to Budget
Don't make any unplanned or off budget expenses
Budget for groceries not convenient unhealthy fast food

This may look like a lot or not enough.  For me this is just right.  If I can't obey or make the little things important then the important things will be mismanaged and suffer.  I have done more at once, but for only a short while.  The plan never became a routine or part of me.  I am ready to be faithfully fit in these areas, and I can't do it alone.  God is my strength and my family and friends are my accountability.  I can do this, but not on my own. True change comes in surrender, and with surrender comes true freedom.