Day One ~ it's a Start

My plans don't always go as planned but through it all I know Jesus has my back.

We were not on call last night and had just fallen asleep when the phone rang at 10:14; Ron got up and answered it and the grandson of one of the residents needed into the building (we lock the doors at 7:30 pm ~ residents have a key card to get in) so Ron got dressed and let him in.  While he was up he checked to see why we received the phone call and not George & Jackie...the switch was flipped to them but it still rang in our apartment...who knows why but it did.  Ron came back to bed and I rolled over into his arms and said I sure hope I fall back asleep quickly...he started to pray and I don't even remember hearing an Amen.  Thank you Lord for answering prayers even before they are fnished.

Slept all night till about 4:17, got up for a few minutes and back to sleep I went.  My alarm went off at 5:25 and I sat right up, got on my exercise clothes, grabbed a bottle of water and headed up to the exercise room.  Thankfully no residents were up that early.  And I got on this monstrosity

Set it for Level 1, 15 minutes, turned on the news and began riding.  At one point I thought I can't do this and looked and I had only been on the dang thing for less than 5 minutes.  How was I ever going to make 15 minutes.  At 11 minutes I checked my heart rate ~ good thing for my Fitbit ~ it was 128 and I was sweating...that's all a good thing right.  I finished up my 15 minutes, watching the last 60 seconds crawl slowly down.  Whew ~ day one of exercising down!!!  1.87 miles, 1087 steps, and 16 oz of water drank!!

Not much but 

Made my way back to the apartment and grabbed my Bible and my pen.

And God didn't surprise me ~ he met me right where I am ...

For the month of March the theme is 

and that's what I need most right now...hope that I can stick to a new eating plan, a new exercise plan and hope that I don't feel discouraged when my blood sugar numbers are all over the board....this morning's fasting 179 should be between 85 - 105...um lots of room for improvement...but God is faithful and I have hope that I  no, we can do this together.

So I began reading and verse 2 Chronicles 14:11 jumped out at me

Then Asa prayed to God, “O God, you aren’t impressed by numbers or intimidated by a show of force once you decide to help: Help us, O God; we have come out to meet this huge army because we trust in you and who you are. Don’t let mere mortals stand against you!”

Immediately I felt so encouraged!  I am not on this journey alone!  God is here to help me, he can wake me with the energetic jump out of bed attitude, he can encourage me when after 8 minutes riding the bike I just want to stop and crawl back into bed.  

Continuing in my quiet time with the Lord, I turned to James 1:2-4

and encouragement continued to fill my soul.

"In time of trouble say:

First, God brought me here.  It is by His will I am in this strait place.  In that I will rest.

Next, He will keep me in His love and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child.

Then, He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me lessons He intends me to learn and working in me the grace He means to bestow.

Last, In His good time He can bring me out again ~ how and when He knows.

I am here by God's appointment, in His keeping, under His training, for His time."

by Andrew Murray, 1895

And today I am

that though I feel overwhelmed at the daunting task ahead,

exercising at least 3x a week,

eating a low carb/high protein diet,

eliminating sugar & refined flour from my diet,

drinking at least 64 ounces of water,

totally eliminating pop even when I just want it

I know I can do it

because