Submit to God Daily & Ignore Junk Food

Daily Devotion: Submission - I'm going to be honest.. I don't like that word! Maybe it's because of what we as society have attributed or defined it to to be, but it's a very difficult thing to do and it requires practice. Surrendering our lives to God means that we must be willing to follow his direction, we must be willing to accept his discipline when we are wrong, and we must we willing, quite frankly to do things we would prefer not to do. Submitting out lives to God is a daily event, we may find that we have submitted our ...lives in one area but still clinging to the world in other ways. God accepts nothing from us but total surrender. However, what is wonderful about our living God is that we can surrender ourselves to him over and over again IF we have pure intentions and a willing heart. Every day that we are blessed to be alive on this earth, we are given the opportunity to surrender to God again. Our challenge is not to think of surrender/submission to God as a one time thing and then go about living in the world as if nothing happened; it's to remember that every morning we wake up, give God thanks and praise and re-submit our lives to him and allow him to work in us and through us, transforming us into the masterpiece we are created to be. Have a wonderful, blessed day.

Daily Motivation: Maya Angelou said that all great achievements take hard work (adapted). I adapted her quote to include the extra motivation that it takes time - we can't expect everything to happen overnight, it takes patience and perseverance. We have to put in the time, and hard work to get the results that we want. If you have scolled through my pages you will see this as a running theme and constant reminder to myself and hopefully to others.  This is to drive home the point that NOTHING is achieved by sitting on our butts and dreaming about it.  It takes a dream put into action with perseverance and hard work to make it come true. 

To often we forget to look at what we are accomplishing and how far we have come and where we are going and give our selves and God credit for what we have done.  There is nothing wrong in taking positive pride in your accomplishments as long as you do not put yourselves above others. Have faith in yourself, believe in yourself and be proud of the masterpiece that God has created you to be. Each day, we must remind ourselves that God loves us exactly as we are and so we must love ourselves. It doesn't mean that we cannot strive to be healthier, or improve our lot in life, it's making sure that we do it the right way, do it with our eyes on God and not on the world approval. Work for God and not for man in everything that you! and most of all, pray to God each day and ask him to come along with you on the journey that is life.

Daily Workout: This was a rest weekend for me with all the allergies floating in the air.  However, I did manage to get up this morning and do a treadmill interval workout.  35 minutes of hills and sprints that burned about 412 calories, then did 10 commando pushups, 12 tricep kickbacks and a 2 min 30 sec plank hold.  Tonight its back to fitness blender bootcamp and on deck is the following workout

 here is a great 800 rep Total Body challenge to get the blood pumping and burn some serious calories!! When I did this workout, just the pushups and the kettlebell swings alone were enough to wipe me out. I made it easier on myself by breaking it down into sets of 25 - Mentally made it easier to get through :)

Meal Prep: This was my snacks and Lunch on Friday and I just got around to downloading it and posting it.  My phone has been acting up :) I am not tech savvy so my Iphone is about technical as I get with pictures. The Southwestern Quinoa -Vegetable Casserole tasted AWESOME!! (the recipe is on the Healthy recipe page!

Here is just a little reminder to keep healthy snacks on hand and clean our the cupboards and pantry of the junk foods. Doing so will remove temptation and give you a clear shot at eating healthy from the start.  I constantly have to remind myself of this, but I am getting better every day.  In fact, I now shop with a smaller grocery cart, because I don't fill up on so much unneccessary food items anymore.. Yea me!! (I found these cards on tumblr so around the web so some of the sources are unknown, if I have used your image and you want credit just email me so I can give you credit)

Finally, I hope everyone woke up this morning feeling healthy and blessed. Remember to give God the Glory and praise that is his due. Each day that we are blessed to be alive is another chance to surrender to God, no matter how difficult it may be.  Only in surrendering to God, will we find true freedom and joy in this life that we so desperately seek and need.  Have a wonderful and blessed day.  (JJ)