Take the step through

   These are thoughts about how God leads us on a daily basis, and how Satan uses our faith against us.   I can only speak for myself and my experiences as I share these thoughts. 
  I believe in a God that takes care of us, knows us, and wants great things for us. How do I achieve these great things? Do I wait for an obvious sign to pursue something? In my opinion we don't have to wait for this obvious sign from God, there is no door that we are supposed to walk through. This is where Satan gets us, and makes us think we shouldn't take chances. 
   Satan wants us to wait for as long as possible for an answer from God about a specific opportunity. I believe he wants this because it takes away the power of our self confidence and creates confusion and doubt when we don't get the answer we are looking for. On the opposite side, God is so much more dynamic and "multi-leveled" that He can move with us when we make our own decisions. He is us, we are Him. Step through the door you want to go in, and He is there with you. Changing, molding, strengthening, etc. 
   Satan leads us to believe that we have to possess strong enough faith in God and wait for Him to usher us into whatever we are looking for. When this happens it creates a mental divide between us and God. We then become alone, waiting, watching, unsure of what's next. A sniper is only effective in picking off a single target that is unaware of his presence. Satan is the sniper that creates a target by using doubt of ourselves and shattered self confidence. God, on the other hand, creates a community with Himself and us when He gives us confidence and assurance that the Holy Spirit is there at all times. This neutralizes the threat of a sniper, and Satan can no longer pick out the unsure individual that is lost. 
   I guess what I'm trying to point out is that when you want to do something, don't be afraid of waiting on an answer. If there are multiple doors opening, then focus on each with confidence in yourself (which is actually a community of the Holy Trinity) and step through. Your journey might change along the way, but God changes with you. He created this life and let's us choose. So make a choice and enjoy it as He moves along with you. 
   

The EPL Boys

This is a brief and comical breakdown of the dudes that love the EPL.  This is to be treated as lighthearted and not meant to be mean. Jokes all around! The people are listed in alphabetical order of their favorite team, and I will pick where I think each team will finish by the end of the year. 

      Aston Villa - This is tricky because there are 2 fans.  First we have Michael Priest.  You can bank on the fact that Michael will tweet a cheer after Villa scores the opening goal, but quickly follows the cheer with a statement about giving up the lead.  Sure enough by the 93rd minute...a draw...You can feel the frustration emanating from his twitter account and start to feel bad for the guy. He now waits for KU basketball to fire up again.
Craig - It is almost impossible to talk trash to this dude because of how freaking nice he is to everybody.  It could be that he is just more mature than the rest of us, but then again, he can instigate some dirty conversations if the opportunity presents itself.  He barely talks about Aston Villa and sometimes I wanna rag on him for it, but when I see him on Sunday he is talking to an elderly woman and making her feel like a million bucks. Just too freaking nice! Prediction - Middle of the table, won't be in the relegation zone.
      Chelsea - Mike has put up with more crap about being a Chelsea fan than anyone rooting for any other team of any other sport that I know, and guess who gives him all the grief...  Mike gets to enjoy things like winning the Champions League when the ENTIRE world gave them no chance.  Still can't believe that happened.  When The Blues win a game I want to blow up my tv and turn off twitter forever, yet the next day when I see Mike he is in the mix of a conversation with pretty much whoever, and I can't help but feel happy for him. Not his blues, just Mike, get that straight. Prediction - Winners of the EPL.
      Fulham - Chris W. I remember when we went to Honduras he randomly bought an Inter Milan jersey and decided to follow them. This has nothing to do with the EPL, but thought it was funny. Now that Chris has decided we are not suitable for his life, he has moved on to a career in Kansas Missouri City State-ville, or wherever he is now. Seriously though, not being able to chat about games on Sundays is crappy. Anyways, I find myself pulling for Fulham sometimes.  Maybe its because they play in a Cottage and that just sounds warm and fuzzy.  There would be many Sundays when his talks about Fulham would end with "oh my gosh what are we doing?" or "its just so frustrating, you know?" Prediction - Lower half of the table
      Liverpool - Chris M. This guy is a f&*#ing douche. Prediction - 6th
      Tottenham - Shane picked The Spurs not too long ago and I was very happy to have him in the mix. That was until his team kept beating LFC all the time. You can pick someone else...its not too late! Any time I think about talking noise to my bro about Tottenham, I am afraid he is going to write a blog about Jesus and somehow he is going to tie me into it and it will 1) blow my mind and rekindle my spirit. 2) put the fear of God in me and never say a bad thing about Spurs again.  Prediction - 2nd...assuming they keep Bale
      West Ham - Eric.  Good luck stringing together 2 sentences with this guy when talking about soccer. If Eric was a playable guy in FIFA '13 his top stat would be "Interruption".  This guy shows more passion about his team than any of us, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me.  Even when The Hammers were relegated he was proud to be a West Ham supporter and that pretty much captures why the EPL fans are the best in the world.  Eric has this way of making you feel better about your team too.  He will randomly ask how LFC looks this year, and when I tell him, I walk away feeling good.  This could be a jedi mind trick and he is inflating our heads so that when things don't go as planned he can watch the meltdown.  Prediction - 7th


      So there ya go.  Some random thoughts about my friends...or maybe after reading this, former friends. Enjoy the season boys!

     

Personal training that is designed for you, to help overcome the barriers that have stood in the way and have never been broken down.  My goal with personal training is to develop a relationship with you while working to get into shape and live a healthy lifestyle.  Exercising and nutrition are two of the hardest words to talk about when trying to develop a consistent lifestyle change.  It is my goal for you to feel comfortable talking about these important issues and give you what is needed to be the person who others can look at as an example of what hard work and belief can achieve.  The path that leads down to a healthy life can be very complicated.  People encounter emotional, physical, and mental issues that prevent them from any type of success.  Because of this hard road it is often times impossible to even try to walk it by yourself.  I want to give you an opportunity to let me walk with you.  A new journey to a better life doesn’t have to be intimidating or instantly looked at as impossible.  Your life is already full of possibilities, so let me help you find them.  

Shut it

So for a long while now I have been struggling with being judgmental.  Since I've been eating healthier and doing Insanity it seems like this problem gets worse.  I have done better about not telling people what I think but I still find myself thinking about it in my head.  I'm constantly bitching about people who eat fast food, drink coke, etc.  I have tried to just focus on myself and it does help but it seems like Satan likes to work his way into my head.  Its like the better I do for myself, the more I point the finger at others.  This is not a good combination.  So I guess I'm writing this to get it out there, and if I do say something to anyone I apologize.  I feel like I can help people with health, fitness, etc but I've gotta help myself first.  I don't know if I can make a career out of any of this but I have been able to help a couple of people and it feels awesome! However, Satan attacks when he sees some kind of threat, and I believe that personal health and overall well being is a threat to him.  Happiness equals positivity, positivity equals strength for others, these are things Satan doesn't want us to have. 
   So, I just wanted to get that off my chest. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Later peeps
  C-May

The Start

  I don't know if this will last long at all but I'm gonna give it a shot and see what happens.
  I guess I will start by giving a run down of the year so far.  Its been really good for me personally, nothing to complain about at all, which I am very thankful for.
  I'm not much for making New Years resolutions so instead of trying to start P90X again in the new year, i thought I would start in December.  I tried it earlier in the year and did OK for the first month, my main focus was wanting to look better physically and that was about it.  This quickly lead to me failing because I had the wrong motivation, it became easy for me to drink more coke products and eat a bunch of fast food.  This, in turn, gave me no energy to work out and therefore I stopped doing the workouts. 
So fast forward a few months later and after going to the gym with my brother 2 nights a week, I wanted to step it up and do more.  I started by reading Tony Horton's new book called Bring It.  What I read in this book has pretty much changed my life drastically.  The things I learned about nutrition and overall well being was astonishing.  After reading the book I decided that in order to achieve my goals physically I had to change my focus from just wanting to look good, but also (more importantly) feel good.  So, I decided to completely change how I eat.  This has lead me to an awesome way of life. 
  Here are a few of the things I would deal with on a normal basis : depression and anxiety (I overcame these a while ago mainly due to Ryland being in my life plus working out at the gym once or twice a week), headaches (I used to get them about 3-4 times a week), migraines ( once a month usually), fatigue (tired after work and naps during the weekends).  After just a couple of weeks of eating very healthy and exercising, all of these things are GONE. 
  Its amazing to me that people try so hard to get into shape, complain and worry about their own ailments, but don't change what they put in their bodies.  From my personal experience in just several weeks I have noticed HUGE changes for me just because I have cut out coke products, gluten, sugars, sodium, and other things that are harmful to me.  Don't get me wrong, its not easy, about 90% of the things in my kitchen have these things in them, but with some research, will power, and a desire to live a better life, I have increased my intake of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and water.  Its not nearly as tasty as what I might like, but considering I don't have to deal with all the ailments I listed earlier, its more than worth it. 
  This blog won't always be about healthy foods and working out, its just what I wanted to share right now, so I hope it was worth your time (if anyone actually reads this).  later peeps

C-May