It is that time of the year.  We have made our resolutions and we are beginning forget our intentions.  So here’s something to think about……

On the first of every month, reset your goals.  Completely and honestly revisit what you resolved to do this year.  Whether it is to manage your money, time or food better this year, just take a moment on the first of each and every month to re-evaluate.  Review your progress.  Make necessary changes.  Eat the elephant one bite at a time……

Just yesterday, I had a conversation with God.  I felt ashamed that I had lapsed in my diet area.  I have been working out on a pretty regular basis but that is about it.  I think my sabotage techniques were working in over time.  I guess I was trying to pave the way to give up.  Feeling down about the whole thing, I went to aerobics class last night and God spoke up.  Winded, heart pounding, felt like fainting…..I heard Him.   Take one step at a time, one day at a time, and you will accomplish it.

I almost fell off the aerobic step.  Okay, so God IS in my corner……and He won’t let me fail as long as I listen.

If we give up now, we will only be making the same resolutions in 2011.  Remember, and keep reminding yourself, that 2010 is our year!!

God bless……

Oh dear, my words are coming back to haunt me.  ”Check back on Monday for my weight loss plan.”  I hate to disappoint you.  There is no plan.  I have read my heart out, researched and well I got nothing new……

In every book I read on the matter…. trust me I have a library of weight loss books….I found that there are four keys to  successful weight loss:

1.  Exercise

2.  Balanced Diet

3.  Soul Searching

4.  Accountability

As unconventional as that may seem, there is my plan.  Sorry to disappoint you, but all the experts on my bookshelf basically say the same thing.  You have to exercise, eat right, learn why you eat, and to be accountable.   There, now how more simple can that be??

However, I would like to invite you on my journey to a slimmer me.  I have always been overweight.  I was the chubby 3rd grader, overweight Middle Schooler, and Obese High School student.  In college, I dropped down 5 dress sizes and loved being an active young woman.  However, over the years I have once again become obese.  I hate to even say that word…..obese…..I am a walking death sentence.  It is true.  No matter….. I can no longer sugar coat the concept.  I am eating myself to an early grave.  Grim…. huh?  Yet, it is true.

Over, the past couple of years, I have made many positive changes in my life.  I am content with our family’s lifestyle of frugality and I love to help others live a life of financial contentment.  I left stressful careers in order to pursue God’s calling.  Then it hit me…. I am still not living a fulfilled life.   I know, I can’t believe I just wrote that……

But, the reality:  as long as I am carrying emotional baggage around my waist, I am wasting my life.  I can not be “free” in every sense of the word until I understand why I am obese, forgive myself, and take full responsibility in changing my lifestyle.

I must overcome the excuses I have placed in my life to prevent any success in losing weight.  I have clung to the idea that losing weight is expensive.  I can prove to you that healthy foods are expensive.  But, I am clever and creative enough to let go of that excuse.  I joke about how I injure myself while exercising.  The real joke is that I hide behind that excuse.  I do walk for an hour each day…..let me rephrase that…..on the days when I don’t have any plans.  But my caloric intake is much higher than the calories burned when I walk and thus not helping me a bit.   And I hide behind the “reason why.” Only because it is so painful to really free myself from it….. guess it is easier to stuff my reasons with cookies than to face them.

I know the diet pitfalls that I use as a crutch.  I hate bad tasting expensive health foods.  I hate difficult exercise programs.  Let’s face it, I tend to injure myself.  And I can’t afford counseling.  So, my plan is to present affordable, healthy, and delicious foods and recipes throughout 2010.  I will create an exercise program that is affordable and safe while showing results.  And I will be uncovering my “demons” and inspiring others to do the same in order to find freedom from this bondage.  So 2010 is going to be the year of a slimmer healthier Regina and I hope you will join me.

As always…. God bless…..

I just realized something……  2009 is almost over!  Where did the year go?  New Year’s Day was just yesterday.  Time flies…..I don’t understand that expression.  The calendar ticks away at the same rate every day.  We’re responsible for making  time seem to slip through our fingers.  Just yesterday, I chuckled at my sarcasm while telling a friend that I didn’t know how I got everything done when I worked a full time job.

Like every year before, millions begin with New Year’s Resolutions.  And like every year, many do not commit to their resolutions and well…by February, everything is back to the way it was before Jan. 1st.  I am just as guilty of doing it.  Every year I say to myself that this  is the year that I am going to lose weight, get rich, and turn the clock back.  Well, perhaps, I set my self up for failure or have the wrong definition for my resolutions.

Like for every success story in weight loss, financial planning, or even time management, there has to be a plan put into place.  A plan can insure your success by making goals…. reachable goals…. and committing to a “brain change.”  New Year’s resolutions can be successful if we would just take the time and plan how we are going to obtain those goals.  We are talking about baby steps.  Not jumping into it with both feet, running and putting blinders on…. that will only set you up for failure.  Like I do every year……  BUT

2010 can be lived out to the fullest and it is my resolution to do so.  I am working on several plans to begin my new year to conquer weight loss, saving money, and becoming more energy efficient.  Over the next few posts I will be talking about my plans.  Check back on Monday my plan for weight loss.

Until then…….

God Bless

Life would be so much easier if we just did rule number 10.

10.  When angry, count to 10 before you speak, if really angry count a 100.

Speaks volumes!  Think about it!

This next rule caused me to stop and to think about what TJ is telling us.   Honestly, I had no idea.  This led me to do some extra research.  Exhausted after reading a zillion commentaries and this is what I found…..

8.  Take things always by the smooth handle.

This little rule was stated by TJ in efforts to produce peace,  harmony, and consolation.  Apparently, wise old TJ did not like to argue.

To argue for or against a stand, a purpose or a point worth arguing over will eventually lead to someone being hurt.  Whether or not it is a physical hurt or an emotional hurt, someone always loses in an argument and feels defeated.  I mean let’s face it.  When we argue our point, the augment isn’t over until someone is “right.” Or at least someone feels as if the have gotten the last word in and therefore is deemed “right.”  Someone will lose causing a strain in a relationship.

Jesus teaches us to love and respect one another.  “Love one another as I have loved you.”  So why do we argue?  Why is it that we get our tail feathers ruffled?  God wants us to have loving relationships with one another so why do we seek to be right all the time?  Why don’t we just agree to disagree on matters.  Turn the other cheek, possibly? Have you ever argued with a smug “I know I’m right so I will let them argue their point then I will calmly nail them to the wall” person? I have and that is the worst kind of argument.  They sit there until I get so angry I ready to hit them…. then the smug…… OHHHHHH  See I’ve been hurt!  Ouch, should have listened to TJ’s advice.

When we argue, we lose sight of the Jesus kind of love.  We end up angry at others and sometimes ourselves.  Ultimately, losing a relationship or tainting one beyond the repair of trust because we don’t want to be burned again.

Wouldn’t it be easier just to listen long and to not open our opinionated mouths.  I have a long way to go on this rule.  See, I like to argue.  I am a freak in nature I guess.  I like to debate.  But I hate to lose friendships.  So if I lose a friendship, am I really winning an argument?  Ponder on that one.

So this year, I am going to stop arguing as much.  I will put my debating on the back burners and listen to the others without being smug and pouncing on them in the end.  I will turn the other cheek and will stop arguements before they get heated and someone ending up hurt.

Looking back over the years with my Grandmother, I find such admiration for her life and the example she was for me.  In her younger days, I could picture her as the feisty, full of fun, young lady she was in the 30′s and 40′s.  By the time my brother and I were around, she was living up to the “coolest” grandma title.  Later in her life when her health and its toll on her emotional health was affecting her, we saw a change.

She repeatedly said to my mother and later to me after Mom’s death, “I’m such a bother” or “I know I am causing you so much trouble.”  Huh, perhaps, Mom and I should have quoted today’s rule:

7.  Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

But I think TJ was hinting at something more that a child or grandchild caring for an aging parent.  I think TJ was referring to simple acts of kindness that are random and worth every moment doing.

Think about it.  Is it trouble for someone to hold open a door for someone? Is it a bother to look in on someone who needs tending to?  Is it troublesome to clear your schedule and just spend time with someone you love?  Not if we are willing to go that extra mile…….

I watched how my mother do exactly that.  She never resented going to her parents home and helping them out.  Whether it was to do laundry, cook supper, or to pay their bills, she never complained.  She simply loved doing it for them.  I saw it when she worked with her students.  She was patient and never grew tired of making a difference in a child’s life.  She never thought of  it as troublesome to go over the lesson one more time for little Johnny who was having trouble understanding.  With her friends, she always did little special things for them.  Leaving cookies and a sweet message on their desk.  Calling them every evening when they were sick.  She loved being a “secret pal.”  She lived up to the task at hand and never once complained.  And she never got tired to telling Grandma, “You are not a bother, mother.  I love you.”

So, be willing and do something nice today for someone who needs a pick-me-up.