FITNESS FRIDAY: THINGS THAT MAKE ME FEEL GOOD

This week whizzed by so fast, I can't believe it's Fitness Friday time again. Can you? Our assignment was to think about the habits and things in our lives that make us feel our best.

I feel good when I look good, I'm having a good hair day, and I have found time to do my nails and polish them. I also feel good when I can wear clothes that look nice on me rather than the frumpy looking ones that are all that fit right now.

I feel even better when I finish something I set out to do instead of procrastinating and having to add it to my to do list, yet again. And I feel best when I get up early enough so I don't have to rush through my devotions, which then messes up the whole rest of my day.

Yesterday I had an early morning doctor's appointment and had to leave my apartment when it was still dark. As I drove into the dawn, I thought about how much I love the stillness of twilight, those moments just before the sun rises and a sleeping world gets ready to face a new day. It is the time set apart for my appointment with the Lord, and yet too many times I miss it because I allow my flesh to gain the upper hand and talk me into going back to sleep for another hour or two.

My biggest battle is not the battle of the bulge, although I do want to lose the extra inches and pounds I've gained and keep them off for good this time. My biggest battle is the battle to gain mastery over my flesh. I'm thinking everything else will fall into place once that battle is won.

I decided to start the New Year by going back on Weight Watchers for a couple of weeks so as to rekindle my perspective of what a normal amount of food for a person my size. would be. This is something I seem to have totally lost sight of, and what a shocking eye opener it was to discover how much more I had been mindlessly packing away over the last several gluttonous months. No wonder I gained all that weight.

I was so hungry (because of poor meal planning choices) that by the end of day four, I had used up all my bonus points for the week--plus the extra points you can earn by exercising. Not only that, but the next day was a pizza and dessert party that I had been really looking forward to. What to do. Maybe just forget about the three days left and start over again next week? But that would just be repeating the same old cycle I've been repeating for over half a century now, which is why I didn't make any resolutions this year. So what then?

Well I'm happy to report that the Lord came to my rescue in an unexpected way. The pizza and dessert party got canceled and with it went my excuse for starting over next week. So I kept on keeping on, one day at a time, and by the grace of God, and by His grace alone, I made it through those last three days. And I have to say, the feeling of that victory was truly one of the very best feelings I've had in a long, long while.