A New Body for A New Mind

Soo...

As I continue to embrace this transformation of my mind and spirit, it was only a matter of time before my body would have to join the new-new party!

Spiritually speaking, God is pleased when I honor him with my body. And that means more than just no drugs, no drinking, and no sex. It also means no junk food, excessive eating, and laziness. However, this can be a little difficult if you are like me and lack a significant amount of self-control.

Without going into a whole exegetical study of Christianity, in short, if you are a Christian, then it's safe to assume you have a very important deposit called the Holy Spirit. And if you have this Spirit, then you also have access to its power (and its a whole lot of power!). Now, with the aid of God's Spirit, we have the power to subdue our flesh and control our bodies. Some people get all nuisance-y in regards to this but I simply take it as the will and ability to say, "No," and stick to it. And not just no for the sake of no, but no because we are training our minds and bodies to say YES to what's good for us.

Now back to my body. Wait.. not like that.. but... well you know what I mean. Back to the subject at hand!

I used to have pretty solid eating habits. But over the last few years I've either gone without meals, eaten very little, or over-indulged. Sometimes, I'd eat pretty healthy and other times I'd totally go on a week long "I'm going to eat all the take out, ice cream, and cookies I want!" diet.

But NOW all that has changed. Just for kicks, I'm taking this month to try the new nutrition craze, Herbalife. My cousin hipped me to it and his results are pretty amazing. And his team is called Renewed so.. I mean, considering my guiding scripture, it seems so right.

Part of the Herbalife nutrition plan is a very important practice called "meal prepping." Now this is new to me. Probably not to you. But for those of you like me - meal prepping is basically taking one day to prep all the meals you'll eat for the week. The idea is to eliminate any reasons to make unhealthy food choices and to encourage eating enough meals a day - 5-6 small portions.

Today was my first meal prep day. With a budget of only $40, I went grocery shopping for this stuff:

March is here. The madness is not.

Aaah. The month that all basketball fanatics join together to strategically map out their favorite team's journey to the final four. The madness! The insanity! The chaos! (But not really lol).

This isn't a post about college basketball.

As I reflect on the first two months of 2014, I'd have to say that my mentality and habits weren't much different than they were all last year. I just became much more indifferent. However, after adopting a new 2014 slogan (Romans 12:1-2), a shift began in the concluding weeks of February.

To my surprise, my mind is, in fact, being renewed. Everyday for the past few weeks I am able to gradually adopt new perspectives on God, my life, and my purpose. The "madness" that resided in my thoughts is slowly giving way to peace of mind (and by slowly, I mean painfully slow). I'm excited about March. Not because I have some fond connection with this month or because it's women's history month (which, I must say,does make it cool) or because I like college basketball.

I'm excited about what new changes are going to come about in me and possibly through me this month. I start classes at CSU-Global on the 10th and as far as physical health goes, I've already started changing my diet. I just feel like new habits are going to be formed and old habits are going to die. I'm excited about that.

I'm also excited about what new spiritual things I'll learn. One of my best friends bought me a book by Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in NC called, "Crash the Chatterbox." I've been listening to the sermons in a series by the same name and I'm eager to read the book. And if that isn't enough, I've rekindled friendships with people I've known for years who have made the same decision to follow Christ and renew their minds too!

The one thing I can do without in March is the snow. I really, really am about tired of the snow. But other than that.. bring on the new month!!

-ElleBee