01/07/11: God As Process

Yesterday's food:

01/06/11: Bed at 10:30 pm/up at 8:00 am

Banana

Apple

Egg white

Kashi cereal w/ skim milk

*McDonald’s Angus Snack Wrap

Pop Secret popcorn (x 1 snack bag)

Stuffed cabbage

Plain yogurt w/ Polaner All Fruit

Nightfood bar (x 2)

Skim milk (1/2 c)

Water (5 c)

Hi everyone <waves>. Or maybe that should read just "one," LOL. Food shopping went pretty well today. I craved after the orange jellies in the candy aisle, so I bought and ate eight of them. It doesn't seem to have triggered any cravings, at least not today. Normally I would start slacking onward to sugardom after doing that, but I'm trying to take each "slip" (planned or not) as it comes and treat it as a one-time occurrence, not another shimmering pearl on the necklace of sugar insanity. I ate a bit more today than I have been since starting the experiment, or maybe I just feel more full, but I find that I definitely feel better when I'm a hair's breadth away from hunger than having that awful overstuffed and bloated feeling I usually live with. I continue to feel a bit tired when I wake up in the morning, even after sleeping well, and I attribute that to coming off the white sugar and flour.

I wanted to tell you about another resource I use to connect with God, and that's a book called Starting Your Day Right: Devotions for Each Morning of the Year by Joyce Meyer. Her devotions, which start off with a Bible verse (of course) are succinct, pragmatic, and down-to-earth. Nothing smarmy, cheesy, or Pollyanna-ish here. Not pious or preachy, either. Just very useful thoughts on the Bible passage of the day.

Lest any of you think that I might be a Bible-thumping, proselytizing, pious, preachy type of Christian, I'm not. It's important for me to communicate with God in a meaty, real kind of way. He hears the tears, the curses, the pleas, the ugly rants, everything. I cannot hold myself back for God once I start connecting, and it's the "starting" part that's been eluding me; hence, this experiment.

My adult Bible study at church is doing a college-level survey of the New Testament, and there's HOMEWORK! To get the most out of this course, I'm going to have to read two chapters in the New Testament each day, one book at a time. I imagine that will bring me much closer to the Lord, and I'm loving my pastor and the other people in the class, so I consider this a good thing I'm doing to improve my relationship with God.

By the way, I also do not care a whit whether or not you have a Higher Power or what you call Him, Her, or It. Although I use the terms "God," "Lord," etc. here, deep inside I believe that God is an ongoing, everlasting process of growing, healing, and learning to love myself and others. It just facilitates communication to use terms that a lot of people are familiar with. Feel free to tell me about your Higher Power and what you imagine Him (Her or It) to be.

I leave you, until tomorrow . . . adieu (to God).