Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing!

OK. I admit it. I've been avoiding the whole diet and exercise conversation. Why? Well, I've been a bit...umm...off track. Oh, I've been working out. I even participated in a week-long Boot Camp Blast designed to jolt my system into burning the fat again. I'd fallen from my routine of going to the gym and I felt like a little pick-me-up would do the trick. The week of intense exercise was great. My muscles were screaming at the end of the week, I'd re-conditioned myself to running (w/o feeling like I was going to pass out), and my body clock was going off at 5am faithfully.

So Saturday, I took off to go the gym and weigh in. I was crossing my fingers and hoping for a one pound loss. I stepped on the scale and the scale showed a GAIN of two pounds. WHAT!?!?!?

I'd been working hard, burning calories, and drowning in water. How did that happen?

And then a fundamental idea came to me...I'd put in a lot more work, effort, and movement but I hadn't actually done my best with the nutrition side of things. Really, deep down, I knew this to be true. This is probably why I've avoided weighing in for three weeks (I'm supposed to weight in weekly).

Exercise doesn't mean much when the food intake is lacking or ...should I said...in excess.

I'd spent a lot of energy moving around and not enough effort and time planning my meals and eating well...

My spiritual life has been a mirror of my journey into better health and hopefully a lighter physique. I've been busy DOING for the Lord. Church, discipleship, and even ministry to family have been keeping me on my toes. I am definitely busy doing a lot of great things. I haven't been putting quite as much energy on the nutritional side of things.

Diet and exercise. That is what's required, huh?

A very healthy and in shape friend once told me that losing weight and keeping it off is 10% what you do and 90% what you put in you mouth. I think this works just as well with my walk with the Lord. It mostly depends on ingesting the Word and then letting the Lord "finish the work that He's started in me". I expect that all of my efforts in pleasing Him would go a lot further if I was on a regimen that he prescribed for getting me into shape.

So my prayer this week is focus....the ability to focus on putting first things first. Physically and spiritually...but in the reverse order.