Preparing for March

Okay, I've decided I'm stupid about calories, and I THOUGHT I was so smart! I have been happily typing in 3 oatmeal cookies from McDonalds about twice a week and they've been popping up as 189 calories on my sparkpeople website, and today I discovered they are over 200 calories apiece! We won't even talk about the Macadamia nut cookies from Subway! I had those today with my dinner, and let's just say, without them, I would have been under my calorie limit for the day! SO I've decided to let Sparkpeople plan my meals for me and see if I lose any more than the 2 lbs. I lost in Feb., when my goal was 10! I've lost 14 lbs. total, which isn't bad, but I can do better, and I will. Actually, I feel pretty good about getting in reality about my calories and about giving the responsibility of planning my meals to the professionals. That way I won't start telling myself silly things like I must be different from the rest of the world and unable to lose large amounts of weight. As much as I have been working out, I should have at least lost 10 lbs. in Feb. I'm sure it was because of mistakes like I made with the cookies. I just typed in "oatmeal cookies" NOT McDonald's oatmeal cookies. Today I noticed they had Subway cookies specified, so I typed them in and was shocked--AFTER I had eaten them. The sad thing is I did really well all day long, and even on dinner. I just really underestimated the calories in those cookies. I eat an ounce of mac. nuts every so often, and they are 170 calories....and good for you....not to mention good!

Anyone out there who will pray for us, we really would appreciate prayers. Don really wants a job that he applied for a while back. We thought they had hired someone else, but tonight when I checked email, there was an email from the contact with the subject matter "Great news" and it said "Don, call me as soon as possible."
So we are hoping this is a yes answer to our prayer about Don's job. He also applied for a job in DC that paid a LOT more, but this is the one that he wanted, because it's closer to home. Both of us were hesitant for him to apply for the one in DC, but the recruiter really wanted him to apply. So he did, and he got down to the last 3 candidates, but Don thinks they hired someone else. We were both kind of relieved. This one is a longer contract plus it is so close to home that Don could ride his bike there.

Also, please pray that I will stick with the Spark plan. People have lost hundreds of lbs. with this plan. I really want to lose my 10 lbs. for March and the six I didn't lose for Feb. in March.

I had a great Bible study today....kind of an epiphany for me. I was reading a scripture that said, "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of Heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. (From Acts 17) I was puzzling over this scripture--if God doesn't need us to serve Him, then why does He keep us here after baptism--serving Him? Then I realized something probably everyone else already knows, but it was an epiphany for me....He wants us to serve Him, because WE need to serve Him. Because that is the only way we can partake of Christ's nature and become like Him...relate to Him as a brother....and relate to God as children...is by becoming a servant like Jesus. Simple and I'm sure I should have known this already...but enlightening to me. God could raise up stones from the ground to proclaim His name, but He uses us so that we can have a relationship with Him and Jesus....I think. What does anyone else think about that? (I'm assuming people are reading my blog, but Mike Miller does that....so I decided to take a chance.) Actually, people keep telling me they are reading my blog, and I really appreciate knowing you're out there, whether or not you leave comments. It keeps me honest. (Okay, I have been eating McDonald's oatmeal cookies more than twice a week....)