Bah, bah, bah....humbug

Living in a tourist destination city, I have plenty of time to be stuck in traffic. That means I listen to a lot of talk radio. What I have discerned is that the common person is expected to be a good little lamb. We are to just go along with anything because tolerance has been touted as a must need virtue. When I complained to the condo authorities that I found it repulsive that spring breakers left stool and urine in the elevators, I was told we were to overlook and tolerate them because the city needs their money. When I try to get on the elevators with my kids, I am supposed to overlook the drunken, foul mouthed punks waiting on the elevator. And when I notice graffiti on the doors of the stairwell, one of the smiling suits told me it was "innocent", even though one clearly resembles graffiti attributed to the Crips.

Why do we as Americans tolerate stuff like this? I did a little research and found the combined Democrat and Republican Presidential race in 2012 cost more than $1.7 BILLION. Really? Could at least half of that moey been spent to do something, anything productive? But that would mean these wealthy contributors taking care of actual people and not their own special interests.

Why do Christians just sit and take the dung flung at them? Is it really a "turn the other cheek" activity or is it fear? Are we as Christians not supposed to rock the boat? Are we not to be confrontational? I was accused the other day of being too confrontational because I held drunken college students accountable for their language in front of my kids...at my house!

A few years ago, everyone wore WWJD bracelets. For some reason, people think Jesus was a wimp and was always passive. On the contrary, he was quite radical and confrontational. Ask the money changers he threw out of the Temple. Ask the religious leaders he challenged every day.

Our rights are being challenged daily in a country founded on freedom. Facts and opinions are twisted and torqued to fit the whim of whatever political side is trying to exploit it. Politicians, most of which have never had a real job,  make decions that fit THEIR agenda. The politicians do not care and cannot relate to a normal person.

We, sadly, are like sheep. We follow mindlessly and no one comes up with real solutions. Common sense escaped years ago. Some of us are readily willing to allow illegal behavior and actually rally to show support of ILLEGAL activity.

WWJD? Yes, he would love all people. No, he would not love all behaviors, in fact, he called out certain behaviors. Again, ask the religious leaders if he called them out on certain behaviors and actions.

I just don't get it. I put a post on Facebook telling how almost $2 billion was spent on the Presidential election. That is a travesty. Could one of those busy body supporters have given money to fund the White House tours? I just don't get it, but I plan on being the one sheep bucking the idea of going into the pen. Who is with me?

I Give Up....and that is how to win

Wow, it has been months since I have blogged. Hmm..let's recap. I have moved again, this time back to Panama City Beach. I have been very under-employed.. I have rarely looked at social media as most of it is not social, but political media. I have been humbled, if not humiliated by the events of life. I have laid pavers on the road of good intentions just to find roadblocks and traffic jams. It has given me too much time for self reflection.

I have been a good dad, and I have been a bad dad. The same could be said for my abilities as a husband, friend, nurse, employer and entrepreneur. I have consistently been a procrastinator and at the same time been a worrier. That's like being a diabetic and having a chocolate feast daily. I have been depressed and I admit in a very, very dark place the last couple of months. I mean a really dark place.

It dawned on me that there has been too much emphasis on "me". Look at the previous 2 paragraphs and you will see more than a dozen references to me. I am making a mess of my life. I have made decisions that have jeopardized my family's stability. Anytime there is that much "I " crap, selfishness rules.

My focus is out of whack. My rabbit ears needs some aluminum foil. Panic attacks began waking me in the middle of the night. I must say, being underemployed sucks. One morning, the scripture in Luke came to me. Luke 12:22-34 has been weighing on my mind a lot. Being the great procrastinator, I have been putting this off with the idea I can make things better. I sit here with the flu and I am publically admitting I am not capable of making anything better. I quit. I surrender.

And I will win! I am giving up the daily grind of life to God. He is not going to let me starve. He provided a job for me that starts in 2 days. I am one day closer to freedom. We all want freedom, whether it's financial freedom, freedom from worry, or freedom to bear arms. Humans desire freedom. I cannot produce freedom, and only God can provide true freedom. I have sadly seen so many Facebook arguments about the existence of God. I know He exists. That defines faith. I pray for those who mock believers. I even read a post where a guy called the disciples "sheep herders". That is expected and although I can make no sense of such comments, that person is free to believe that. I know and admit I have done a lot of terrible things but my faith tells me I am not perfect, yet I am forgiven by grace. Granted, I do not like it when others point out my sins, but they are sins regardless.

I don't know about you, but I want to be free from a lot of stuff. Stuff that gets in my way and stuff that may require supernatural intervention. I desire a true transformation. I guess I am back and I will chronicle my quest for transformation and freedom...Freedom Acquired through Supernatural Transformation.

Self Inflicted Nonsense

We had a weekend in which we were traveling quite a bit in the car. When that happens, I usually am a poor planner and we end up eating the dreaded fast food. Yes, I should know better, especially since I made a bold prediction of losing a boat load of weight. There is actually "good news" on that front. I had a couple of body compositions done using different formulas and my absolute lean body weight is 213 pounds. So, unless I amputate body parts, I will not be getting below 200 pounds anytime soon.

On Sunday morning, the exercise ritual began with a lot of aches and pains. The knots in my thighs were so huge and painful and referred pain into my hips. I set out on my bike ride after stretching and moving to get things loosened up a bit.

As I started on the bike, I thought to myself, "You know, the pain is your fault because of your food choices." I could not argue with myself. Everything I was feeling was certainly self inflicted. Self Inflicted NONsense..As I was pedaling, I shortened "self inflicted nonsense" to SIN.

What? SIN? And you know what? Sin is also self inflicted nonsense. Think about it for a second. No one forces us to sin. Take Adam and Eve for instance with the first sins against God. Adam TRIED to blame Eve but Adam was more than well aware of the instructions they had received from God. Adam did it to himself, or self inflicted the act. And, the act was for a nonsensical reason. Adam and Eve LIVED IN PARADISE. and they threw it all away for nothing.

The opportunity for us to sin WILL cross our path. There has not been a person yet who was not faced with sin. It can be a great big sin, or it can be a little, itsy bitsy sin. However, sin IS sin and it is not graded on size.

Now back to my muscle pain..I KNOW that my aches, pains and myofascial problems can be worsened with poor dietary choices. I know that eating with Kings and Clowns will only bring me down. Instead of planning and making a wise choice, I settled for the convenient choice and paid the consequences. I am talking about 20-30 minutes of hard labor with a foam roller and "The Stick" and take it from me, that is no fun.

Choices and consequences go a lot deeper than muscle pain. Kind David, like the rest of us, had a choice when it came to Bathsheeba. He could have walked away, but instead he really made a tangled mess of things. He certainly had consequences to his actions. If a person eats crap, then their legs will hurt and if a person commits a sin, then there will be a consequence and/or a punishment.

You know what is really bad? Chocolate tastes so sinfully good. It lures me in and I indulge only to feel the pain in the muscles and at the scales. Temptation is attractive. If sin was not attractive, we would never fall prey to it. Knowledge sounded good to Adam and Eve. It represented power. Temptation and sin will appeal to us on some level.

How do we deal with Self Inflicted Nonsense? First, we need to RECOGNIZE that it exists. The allure of cupcakes looms in my future and I must recognize that a cupcake will not kill me, but I can assure you that the foam roller will be needed. Next, I must UNDERSTAND my limitations. I know my weaknesses and need to know that I am vulnerable to those weaknesses. And finally, I need to firmly and emphatically say. "NO" because there is too much at stake. Oh, look, to deal with SIN (Self Inflicted Nonsense) a simple strategy is to RUN...sometimes as fast as one can.

On that note, I break in a new pair of running shoes in the morning..

You have done it now!

I write a blog to rid my mind of the many thoughts that bounce around in there. I write my blog to help anyone that I can. I am, by nature, a nurturer. I have belonged to the sisterhood of nursing since 1986. Honestly, I think I would love to stop being a nurturer but unsure if I can do that.

In the last 10 years, I have met and talked to some people who have made me think deeply. Some of those people have been those I was supposed to help and bless but they helped and blessed me. Some have been co-workers who have expand my ability to see a situation. And a couple have been higher profile individuals who remain pretty real despite their success. Two, in particular, encourage others to seek their passion and the money will follow. In a sense, if you do what you really love, then the rest will take care of itself. They proclaim that if you are making a living doing something you love and would ordinarily do because it is fun, then work will not seem like work. Paul Finck and Annie Armen are motivators with different styles--like Sanchez and Tebow. I know, the Jets are not having a great year but both qbs have been successful and both are different.

Now I have gone and done it. Not by comparing Paul to Sanchez and Annie to Tebow, but by sitting here and typing this, I am finally jumping off into the deep end of the pool. My LIFE, PROFESSION and REPUTATION are at stake.

I posted this on Facebook a second ago:

Some of you know, I dabble in a blog. Yesterday, I shared some views about accountability strategies for changes we want in our life. Little did I know that Mathias would have an epically horrible day at school yesterday. Both Denise and I know he will struggle throughout his life with behavior and with his weight. Funny how one can locate one's inner hypocrite during quiet reflection. I am going out on a branch of the limb of the tree that I am not sure can support me. In a sense, I am yelling from the mountaintop that NOW is the time I begin a serious battle against my personal obesity because I am a walking and talking hypocrite to a little boy who will be nagged, monitored and chastised for his weight. January 18 will be a Friday and is 100 days away. I will weigh 100 pounds less than I do 
 now.

Sure the goal sounds like a bit much. I will separate the chaff from the wheat and see who are my real supporters and those who, well, aren't. How does my challenge apply to my passion? If you ever want bored for hours, let me sit and talk to you about fitness, health, and exercise. I am the mega-nerd when it comes to that stuff. Geez, I got a 100% on my nutrition final in college, a sad but true statement. During these 100 days, I am viewing myself as my own client and I am aiming to seek completing of the American Council of Exercise (ACE) certification as a Health Coach. THAT is my professional passion. That is where I feel I have been given gifts.

So, now, I sit back and see who stands with me and who does not.

Ready, set ACTION

Roll up your sleeves, tighten your belt and take a big snort of ammonia, it is time to get things started. You and I want change, but not change for change sake. We want a defined change and we want that change to redefine our life. Since we want the change, then all we have to do is say "poof" and it will happen. OK, that was far fetched a bit so all we have to do is pray about it and God will make it happen. Again, God is not a Genie in a bottle nor is He Santa Claus. Well, dang, the easy, no sweat ways won't work so how do we take action.

By now, you know I like things that run in threes--Stooges, strikes, Musketeers, etc. As for taking action, yep, I have got a 3 step plan.

DREAM
All good action plans begin with a dream. I find that people (including me) tend to dream way to small. The best part of a dream is that it can be huge. There should be no limits to a dream. Take for instance a bench press. Let's say that you have 100 workouts in a year and you start at a reasonable weight. In most gyms or the weights sold in stores, the smallest weights available are 2.5 pounds. The weight you select is easy enough to do 10 times without much effort. Every other workout, you put the weight equivalent to a sack of sugar on the bar. In other words, you will add 5 pounds every other workout (or 50 workouts) in a year. In theory, that would yield a 250 pound increase. Now some of you are screaming, "John that is not possible." I ask you to tell me why it is impossible. What if you only reached half that amount a year (125 pound increase) and you did this for 2 years (the same impossible weight in 2 years). Again, even if you only met that by 50% you will still have a 190 pound increase in 2 years. I have heard people say "shoot for the stars and you may still hit the moon". Do not suppress your dreams. And write them down. We will learn how to use that against you later.

GOALS
From dreams come goals. I see goals as the stepping stones to reach your dreams. Setting goals deserves a full blog to do it justice. Goals must be small, measurable and obtainable and once they are reached, can serve as a springboard for the next goal. The old adage "Inch by inch is a cinch and yard by yard is hard" fits here. Maybe the goal is to read your Bible 10 minutes a day. This may seem like an insurmountable goal but build on what you can do. For instance, maybe it is read a chapter a day and increase a chapter every week. It will be no time that you are reading those 10 minutes or more. I had a patient once that said she could not get out of bed in the morning. She started by setting the alarm and forcing herself to walk out of the bedroom. Sure, for a week or so she immediately crashed on the couch but she applied the same approach and eventually found herself walking to the mailbox. Her "dream" is to walk with her husband in the mornings and she is a lot closer than she was in the beginning.

RESOLVE
Good ol' Stonewall Jackson comes in again to save the day. As mentioned in previous entries, I do like me some Stonewall. "Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve". This sort of explains New Years Resolutions. We START with the dream and the goal, and then resolve to make the change. For me, they usually last until about 9pm New Year's Day. Resolve takes, well, resolve. Resolving to change takes hard work and dare I say, accountability. Accountability requires creativity and the next blog will show some creative ways that I plan on injecting accountability into my life.

What are your dreams? Can you manufacture goals to reach them? Then what are you willing to do to reach your dreams (that is where we get stuck)

It's easy as A B C..lifestyle, that is.,,

I am channeling my young, inner Mike Jackson here and going to simplify my approach to a healthy life style. The framework for my "being" is defined by this blog. A person has 4 distinct dimensions: Heart, soul, mind, and body. The simple ABCs will be applied to each of the dimensions. All that discussion is gravy so let's get to the meat and potatoes of today, which is the ABC.

A lifestyle change is a big deal. Heck, just about any change more involved than changing underwear can be a big deal. Change, or the process of change, alters life. When a young 18 year old goes off to college and is introduced to freedom, they end up dancing on a table wearing a lampshade. When a young couple gets married and have to live with another person and share the same bathroom, that change affects them. True change in a young marriage comes when the passing of gas flows freely without inhibition between the 2 parties.

I digress. It is suffice to say without any more flatus innuendos that change of any kind needs a plan or format. We all learned our ABCs at an early age. We can usually remember our ABCs. I will take advantage of that and explain the needed parts of a lifestyle change.

A. "A" is for the Action that is required. For instance, the Body Dimension requires action in the form of activity in order to thrive. Action makes things happen. Things happening result in change. There are certainly barriers to action, like fear, low self esteem or a lack of confidence.

B. "B" is for the Balance needed to keep the peace. Just like Yin and Yang, Scooby and Shaggy, and Peace and Quiet, there must be a balance in a lifestyle. Too much emphasis in one of the 4 dimensions means that another dimension will suffer. Then your dimension will look like one of those guys in the gym who have bench pressed heavily for years but the thought the squat rack was for decoration. The "upper body giants" look ridiculous when they wear shorts. Zoiks!!

C. "C" means Consistency. I can raise my hand and say AMEN when I talk about the previous inconsistent changes I have made in my life. I have been consistently inconsistent in regards to diet, exercise and a million other projects.Consistency, when done appropriately, naturally builds in accountability.

See, as easy as ABC..I will resist the Michael Jackson puns I could throw out there. In upcoming blogs, I will dig deeper into the application of the ABCs.

The diet is coming, the diet is coming

I know, this title makes me sound like Paul Revere or maybe Chicken Little. And the title might be a bit misleading as it should be more about "lifestyle" than diet, but "the lifestyle is coming" is way too long and may provoke a million other controversial thoughts that I really don't need right now. To make one thing clear, I am not Chicken Little. I might better depict "Chicken Fat", and some of you my age might remember that exercise album they played in school.

I do have a great Chicken Fat story. I started out as a PE major at WVU and had a class called "Elementary Rhythm and Games" in which college students played tag, redlight/green light and the dreaded Chicken Fat song. Once an elderly man was walking past our class and loudly protested that higher education was a waste.

Now that the intent and title have been clarified, let me tell you the WHY a lifestyle change is in store.

REASON 1: Change is growth. My household is about to undergo a huge change. My wife is re-entering the workforce.  I will put aside all the reasons I need therapy for this and focus on the fact it can potentially help our finances and God placed an opportunity in front of her. Life around here will change and I need to change with it. This change may be the boost I need to get my ever growing butt into gear literally and figuratively. I will not disclose ALL my thoughts here as that will rob me of future blog material. All I can say is do not be surprise and be very afraid.

REASON 2: Reality. Height and weight charts do not lie. I can rationalize all day long but the reality is I am way too large. I did pray for a growth spurt last night and hoped to awaken at a little over 8 feet tall but that did not happen. Also, my frame is what it is. I know the truth of my frame size. It is time to accept the height and weight chart and do what it takes to get to that weight range. Also, recently I met a cardiovascular surgeon who gave up surgery to help people change their lives. We had a nice discussion but I could the excitement in his eyes as he was mentaly doing my open heart surgery. It is time for a change.

REASON 3: Do what I say. For the love of Pete, I am a nurse practitioner with a strong background in exercise and exercise physiology. I read Muscle and Fitness when it was in black and white. I have read countless, boring exercise and fitness sources FOR FUN. I have a huge knowledge base and I seem to hide it pretty well. It is as hidden as my abs.

Are there others like me? Statistics say yes. My observations say yes as well as I find myself quietly comparing my girth to others I see. I sincerely want to help them. I know where they are and how they feel. I first must "walk the walk" if I want others to get healthy.

And by initially announcing this on a blog, I am risking public humiliation and accountability. But, on the other hand, not too many read my ramblings. Yet.. there is so much more to come.

I want to wrestle Shute

You hard core movie buffs from the 1980s may recognize the quote from Vision Quest. I can relate to Louden Swain. Well, except for the obvious differences: he was young, lean and, as the movie plot summary says, Louden "comes of age" in the film. I have certainly already come of age and I am a long way from lean.  In the opening scene, Louden is jumping rope and his hair bounces with each jump. When I recreate the scene, everything but my hair(s) bounces with each jump.

Louden wanted to make a dramatic impact and ended up facing Shute in an epic wrestling match. Shute represented a challenge that would take a superhuman effort to overcome. Hollywood assured that Louden defeated Shute.

In life, I am ready to do something worthy of a real legacy. It is time to face the Shute. I can relate the nuts and bolts of this blog to making a template to beat the Shute.

If you have seen the movie, everyone thought that Louden was nuts. If a person embarks on a life changing adventure, their sanity should be questioned. Chris Columbus--remember he was nuts to sail off into the sunset. Charles Lindbergh was crazy too. Throw Henry Ford and Bill Gates into the deep end of the Looney Pool.

I am ready to take the body, soul, heart and mind mantra to a new level of crazy. And, I since I have little sense, I am going to chronicle the whole journey. It will apply to everything--job, exercise, diet, family...every thing that gets in the way of my maximal experience with my family, my God, my job and my life will be viewed as Shute.

And, if you have never seen the movie, the full version can be found on YouTube. If you have seen the movie, do you remember Louden's best friend's name? And you get bonus points for knowing Shute's first name.

Rubber rafts, a king, and the Byrds

I thought of my dad yesterday. Buck, as he was known to his friends, loved to hunt and fish more than anything. He owned about 12 guns and no one ever could have counted his fishing poles accurately. He also owned a military-like and quality rubber raft. He made some simple adaptations to the raft and used it for fishing and duck hunting.

Dad spent hours planning and calculating what he was going to do and how he was going to enrich his outdoors experiences. He reminded me of a mad scientist or at least a Thomas Edison of hunting and fishing. Picture a room in the basement that was dimly lit and one of the nastiest rooms I have ever seen. This was his sanctuary and his fortress of solitude.

He spent an entire winter planning his biggest adventure. He was determined to enter the Atlantic Ocean from the shore using his raft. He had calculated the best way to get out over the breakers. He used tide tables and tried to control all variables. He decided he needed someone on shore to help him by using a rope tied to the raft. I think he felt it would add stability and he picked my aunt to man the rope because she possessed brute strength. However, she did not have nerves of steel and never fully followed his direction which led to an amazing home movie of dad and raft getting absolutely wiped out by waves. He never tried again after that.

When dad died, we found countless notebooks with ideas, inventions and plans he devised to enjoy his hobbies of hunting and fishing. I also found the raft, which because of inactivity, had dry rotted.

King Solomon wrote a famous passage in Ecclesiastes Chapter 3. Later the Byrds released a folk classic based on this passage:

1. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;
3. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6. A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.   

The memories of dad sparked a realization. Do we spend too much time preparing, procrastinating, or over analyzing things in our life and actually never doing them? I have heard people say that this can be called "paralysis by analysis". Life is unpredictable. Life is short and there are so many things that each of us want to do and experience. We need to realize that time does matter. Do you have a "bucket list" of any kind? I do. I want to spend the night at Alcatraz, I want to go to Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. I want to go on a Bigfoot expedition. I want to sing the National Anthem at a ball game. Maybe I will find time. Maybe I will make the most of my time. And I am sure I could find some more "time cliches" to write. But now is not the time.

Full Bore

Today is the day the experiment starts. I explained to my wife and daughter that I would be doing periodic fasts so they could know that I was not going to eat for a couple of days. My wife informed me we had a dinner obligation Thursday night so I will honor that previous commitment. I probably will fast all day until the dinner so it will be mostly like a “normal” week.

What defines “normal” these days? I believe the definition varies a great deal. Is it normal for someone to get out of bed at 4:30 AM ON THEIR OWN, or is normal to have a tattoo? More would feel a tattoo is more normal than my early morning awakenings. But the thought of someone slowly dragging a needle connected to ink across any part of my body does not sound normal to me. As a Christian, normal can lead me down a bad road. Take movies for example. I guess it is normal for the language to be foul in most movies and that does not even mention the innuendos and scenarios that years ago would be deemed questionable.

I must say “normal” does not describe the sounds my body made as a result of a forced kettle bell work out this morning. It has been a little while since I worked out and experience has told me that starting slow today means I can walk tomorrow. The pops, creaks and unholy sounds that my body made as the kettle bell swung almost made me chuckle, if it didn’t hurt so badly. My “temple” seriously needs a makeover.

Heart-wise, I am continuing to focus on my heart and my mouth. Ever since Sunday’s sermon, I have realized exactly how sarcastic I can be. I have always been able to get a laugh or giggle from people, but I need to be more graceful and realize that the giggle I produce must not come at the expense of someone else. At least that leaves self-deprecating humor and there is more than enough material I can glean from myself. Gosh, the size of my head alone would be worthy of a couple joke books, a kid’s video and a PowerPoint presentation.

Soul and spirit work today focuses on prayers to help my tongue and some prayers for family members. Plus I will sneak time in between patients this morning to get my Bible study done. I am a huge fan of Bible Gateway.

Mind training would better be accomplished if I could somehow take out my brain, wash the junk out and put it back. I have made some affirmations and that is helping. I know that confidence will one day outweigh fear, but the nasty fear guy is a big ol’ bully these days. Plus, I know I need to focus more and expect potential setbacks, roadblocks and a good, old fashioned crisis. Don’t look now, but there is an entity and his minions that really want Zealous Intentions to be a complete and utter failure and for things to be even worse for me than they are now.

Here we go

This is the plan that I intend on following. To me, it seems a bit daunting but isn't being a radical zealot all about being over the top? I figure that the experts who say it takes 21 days to create a habit did not understand my ability to procrastinate. So, in order to account for the John Factor, I am going to allow for 30 days.

My zealous efforts will tackle ALL of my issues at the same time. I am taking into account as many variables as I can and I have 7 distinct focal points. Funny how that works out to match days in a week, but God knows how I operate.

Sunday. Day of REST. No thinking about work. I will conduct no business at all and will devote my day to my family and maybe a nap.

Monday. I am calling this my "prep" day and it will be a day I focus on prayer, fasting and seeking God. I am hoping to get involved in a men's group at church as well.

Tuesday. Love Day. You know, Jesus also commanded for us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. When I listen to the self talk going on in my head, I am not too loving towards myself. So, I am falling short of loving others as well. This day will continue the prayer and fasting because I need all the supernatural blessing I can stand.

Wednesday. Soul Day. This begins the "Big 4" of soul, mind, heart and strength. Since Soul Day requires exploration with my Heavenly Father, I believe a day of fasting and prayer are in order.

Thursday. Heart Day. This day also takes into consideration the tongue (read James) and sadly, I have a sarcastic and bitter tongue and this area of life needs a whole lot of work. This will be the last day of the week that I fast, but prayer and lots of it are necessary for growth.

Friday. Mind Day. The week has been long, the candle is being consumed on both ends and my JOB week is complete. My business week has been plugging along and I know I will need a day in which I focus on my disposition, outlook and witness. And I eat today so that should help.

Saturday. Body and Strength Day. I chose Saturday for a reason. I plan on doing 5K runs in the near future, both as a way of measuring my efforts but also as a witnessing tool and opportunity. I plan on eating today as well as on my Sabbath.

That is the rundown of how I will approach my life with Zealous Intention. So, each topic gets a day of the week and each topic needs 30 days to sink in my big old hard head, so I am looking at the experiment lasting 30 weeks. Basically, I will be fasting Monday through Thursday. Fasting, for me, has significance and its purpose is to teach me humility, bring me closer to God's will and lean on Him during this time when I am discouraged by setbacks in my physical, personal and financial life. Also, by being totally dependent on Him, I can more enthusiastically follow his 2 commandments.