A phone call

For those of you that really know me know that I am not the best person to talk on the phone with. I actually detest speaking on the phone. Tonight, I spent about two hours on the phone with two people that I don't know if I've ever spoken on the phone with one of them. The other I had never spoken on the phone with.

These two conversations were two of the best conversations I've had in awhile. The first was with my cousin whom we conversed about my family and then we talked about something that I had been struggling to deal with. It's hard to share with certain people in your family and you just have to find that common ground between you two. I've been focusing on so many other things, that I didn't think about the things that we have in common. That was something that I've needed to hear for awhile. We can't hang out on the things I just want to do.

Second conversation was very emotional for me. Last summer in 2010 there was a friend that I shared my faith in Christ with. So did a few other members of my team. Well, a lady had a been trying to get a hold of me who met with that person. I was a little wary with the country we went to being closed. Well the good news was that my friend had accepted the Father into her life. It's the best piece of news you can hear and another door may have been opened for me to go back. I just keep praying, because when you receive bad news it's always going to be outweighed by good news. You always have one thing that separates you from everyone else. The love of our Savior. I'm excited that I'm going to see my friend after I die and I hope to see more, including those I'm currently afraid to talk about Jesus with.

Until next time...

The worst part of our lives can lead to the best...

Flashback 4 and a half years ago. I've talked a little about this, but I was able to talk about it with my dad today. Something happened in my family that I won't talk about. There are maybe seven people in the world who know that aren't my immediate family. However, the thing that happened was rock bottom for my family. It led to my parents' potential divorce, it partially led to a relationship ending, and it led to me thinking it was okay to drink and party my sorrows away.

Well, let me start this with saying that I wanted to write about the big decisions that I've made in my life and what effects they would've had. I will list the decisions that I've made though. and just some things that happened.
#1 California State University Fulleron, University of Nevada Las Vegas, or Victor Valley College. I chose VVC.
#2 Staying at Verizon or Going back to school - I chose going back to school.
#3 Going to CSUSB or Wichita State University - I went to CSUSB
#4 Investment banker or teacher - I teach
#5 Popping the question - I'm still single
#6 Staying at Encore or going to Victor - Still at Encore
#7 Losing weight
#8 Going back to church
#9 Going to East Asia
#10 Leading a group

The last few were just commands that I followed.

Back to the subject at hand. This isn't going to be long, but had my family not hit rock bottom a lot of things would've never happened. I would've never seen how a man can come back from the dead and resurrect a marriage with the help of God. It was intense to see how high you can bounce back. My dad's renaissance and resurrection in God led me to so many different things.
I. He allowed me to see that going back to church makes changes.
II. I started eating healthier and lost 120 pounds.
III. I started attending a small group.
IV. I went to East Asia.
V. I began leading a small group.
VI. I went back to East Asia.
VII. I started to realize what I want in a woman.

There were other things that happened, but this was what happened to me because my dad hit rock bottom. His life is so much better now because that one thing happened. I could never be more thankful for that one. So thanks Pop for showing me that hitting the bottom is much more than just the end. It's a beginning and it's the chance to bounce back up.

Part III

The day after the second training was a nice day of recovery. People were feeling sick and getting over their remaining illnesses. When your bacteria changes it’s not fun and if you’re either not prepared to it or not used to it you can feel a little sick. It was nice to sleep in and get a little opportunity to lounge around. Since our first two trainings were a day short each we had a few extra days to recuperate. God was really on our side because as I’ve said we had done everything we can to spend time with our newfound friends as we were burning the candle on both ends. Days like today allow us to explore the town and hopefully meet new people. A couple things happened on t his day. We found a restaurant that served some amazing soup. The soup was slow cooked in a ceramic pot that sat out in the sun. It had the broth, a ham bone, and corn or mushrooms in it (at least that’s what we tried). It was seriously the greatest soup I’ve ever had. We ate that almost every day for the remainder of the trip. You have to remember that each day is extremely hot. At least 95 degrees Fahrenheit and 90 percent humidity; it was how I imagine Miami would be if I were into that scene. However, we each ate it and devoured it. By the end of the trip we knew the guy so well that he took some pictures with us.

The next day we took a trip to a place that our friends’ company received their logo on. We got to see some beautiful scenery and saw the border with a country. I say saw because we wanted to cross the border over to that country. Honestly we just wanted to say that we visited another country (too bad if we didn’t get a stamp on our passports). However, we did have an opportunity to go up stairs to either some artillery (what’s up?!) or to a Kung Fu Dojo (so said our field worker). Stephanie, Daniel, Aaron, Rose, Stacy, and myself went to the artillery (dude a cannon!). The stairs were a little steep and it’s not like they had building codes and regulations back then. You have to understand that these stairs were at least a thousand years old, but the scenery was beautiful. There were stairs that had tree roots grown over the stairs. One of my favorite things on the trip was being there for my teammates. I am glad that I met them and I do consider them to be my family. When someone in your family has struggles you step up and talk to them. You step up and be there for them and when they’re accepting of your assistance it is a great feeling for both of participants. The partnerships and friendships that have been forged over these last two years have been amazing and I look forward to forging and fostering more relationships with different people as we move forward with our trips. With that being said when you think you’re doing the helping you are sometimes the one helping. So thank you Aaron for being that guy for me this trip as we both assisted each other on things that we had no clue we could handle without God’s help. That actually goes to the guys on the trip, it was a different trip this year because of the conversations I had with every single person I had on this trip especially guys.

Okay, sidebar over. One thing that was fun at the artillery portion was pretending to fire the cannons. We’re not always the most mature, good times right?

We had another killer lunch in this town and enjoyed our ride back with honking and everything. I did forget to mention one thing. On our way to the spot we had a random guy get in our van. We had no clue who he was. What did our leader, Stephanie do? Asked me to pose for pictures with the guy. RIDICULOUS! I’m kidding, you know I willingly attempted to take pictures with him, sometimes your maturity goes down.

A benefit for our next training was the fact that we got to see the teachers before the training. This would give us an excellent opportunity to meet our new friends and to forge and foster new relationships. It was nice to walk around and some of us were able to meet with new people and converse with them. They had us try a fruit called “skin of the chicken fruit” and it was awful! We found out later that we were supposed to peel the skin off. I ended up attempting to have a conversation with a teacher who was older and he had no clue what I was saying. Something in me told me to speak up that night just in case we were being watched. It turned out to be an oversight because this man had beautiful writing, but had not spoken English with a native speaker for so long that he had lost all of his confidence.

The people that we had in this last training were amazing. We had a student with us that was there last year. It was amazing to be with her and we actually got invited to her house for a traditional meal where we enjoyed a great time of fellowship. The people and the friends that we met were so amazing, but I want to highlight two specific things.

One of the men that I met was awesome and loved hearing everything I had to say. I don’t know what it was in the man, I am going to say it was the Spirit leading him to listen. We were in a crowded restaurant for dinner and everybody was screaming, yet we could hear each other just perfectly. I was able to share a lot with him about the gospel, my life, and how God has changed my life and was even able to give him a Bible (which I later termed hand sanitizer). I told him that I had a gift for him and that I was curious if he had a bag. He said he did and left for almost twenty minutes. I was worried and nervous as I prayed to God for him to return. What happens next? There he is. I took him outside to give him his gift and he was very honored. After we left we walked back to our hotel room as a team and prayer walked the town on the way back. I did forget to mention that one of my students gave me a ride to the restaurant on the back of his scooter and I don’t think I’ve ever been more scared for my life. No helmets equals no bueno in my book.

The next day was very trying and there were private issues and conflicts that hit our team, but a few of us were able to go out with our friends to buy spices and just go shopping. Daniel, myself, Chad, and Rose went to go buy cutting boards… Okay, Daniel negotiated to get a few of us cutting boards. Good times though. You could clearly see the shopkeeper’s frustration. We went to get some drinks (non-alcoholic of course) and we got another opportunity to witness. Last year another one of the people there received a Bible and had no clue what was going on with it. I asked her if she would like to hear some stories from the Bible and that was the opening that God provided for me. Nicole and I were able to speak with her about some of the amazing that God has done for us since creation to the time that Jesus died so that we could be reunited with Him in heaven. I’m not sure how well she received it, but it was very inspiring to be used by the Spirit with words and knowledge that I wasn’t sure I had. I will leave a little anecdote. Again, this conversation started because they asked if I was single. Chad said, “No, Nick’s not single!” thus almost ruining my testimony! Thanks man!

I will say one thing about that night, if you are ever around me or Aaron ask us about the rotating choirs. We are immature.

Our next few days were filled with some awkwardness, tension, and anger. It’s hard because there were a lot of frustrations that we experienced that I feel followed me home. I needed to refocus myself on Jesus coming back home and honestly had some amazing friends and resources who didn’t even let me go into a shell. These people are some that I truly love with all my heart and they know who they are.

One conversation I had on this trip was with Rose about becoming a leader. I feel that God wants me to lead, but I need to rely on Him to help me put my life in the right place. Flying home we missed our connecting flight in the capital city. We then had our team split up too. The married people: Chad, Nicole, Stephanie, Daniel, Aaron and Rose; went through Tokyo to LA. The singles: myself, Mike, Kim, and Sarah; went through San Francisco. I was tasked to lead us home. Not so difficult right? Follow the leader, take some planes, etc. God put a few executive decisions in my hands like having us go home together instead of splitting us up again. Trust me, the thought crossed my mind. I may not be a complete extrovert or introvert, but by this point in time I would’ve been okay with putting three people on a flight and letting myself fly home alone. God calmed me down of that immensely. What was nice is that our bags were already at LAX when we got there (we weren’t able to get on the first flight, but our bags did, whatever). We walked out of there in ten minutes. It was glorious. I will say that my favorite part coming home was seeing my parents and us finishing as a team still. One thing I will take away from this trip is how close I feel to these people. They are forever ingrained in my life. I love them like brothers, sisters, and a father and a mother (haha). It is frustrating that they live so far, but also makes that time we spend together that much better.
Coming home I have been able to hang out with them and that helped me come home. I’m ruined though. How? Well, for this life that we have in America. I love where we went. I love the people. I love God most of all and have to trust His plan and not try to forge my own. I would love to make overseas projects my life. However, asking God what His plan was is what got me into teaching and His plan is going to take me so many different ways and it’s going to be amazing. I can take away so much from this trip. How to handle conflict and the highs and lows of a trip are very important. Being a single man and learning from these amazing men has been tremendous. I just have to remain obedient. Chad said it best, pray for our obedience to God. If He wants me or us to just do summer projects then I am great with that; if he wants me to go overseas full time then I have no choice. It’s all according to His plan. I can listen and be His good and faithful servant or I can serve a different master and not reap the rewards of being with Him in heaven. There’s only one place I want to be and there’s only one path I want to take.
Thanks for reading too. If you’re interested in doing something like this let me know. If teaching isn’t your thing then maybe athletics are. I would love to take you on this journey that God has provided for us. The journey to understand that ordinary just isn’t good enough for us anymore.

Blessings -
Nick

Part 2/In the midst of it all

7/8 - Wow, the movement from one city to another is never uneventful. I know I had hoped to sleep on the bus as I had been burning the candle at both ends. Something I hadn't done since my pre-following days. Most of you who know me know that I really don't like going out at night and really don't like doing it when I have to get up early the next morning. However, different times call for different circumstances. As we were riding on the bus I tried to sleep on the bus, it didn't happen. The bus driver laid down on the horn a few times and I was generally awestruck by the beauty of this drive. EGP is a beautiful country. The vastness of it allows you to see that it has a similarity to America in which there are parts of it that are untouched by the masses and there are people who truly live off of the land. We did get there and got to our hotel in these little motorcycle carts (which were legit). One thing that was exciting was that we had a shower divider in our bathroom. We ate dinner/lunch at a place that served the worst tofu ever. It was like soup and I adhered to my, "I'll try anything" motto. I feel this might have been my downfall.

7/9 I woke up feeling pretty bad today. My stomach hurt, my head hurt, and some other stuff was going on. I was left to do one thing. Pray to God for strength and have Him get me through the day. As I've talked about before it's hot in EGP, but it's so beautiful and I love the people. Our leader Stephanie had also decided to give us a fruit of the spirit to practice for the day and it corresponded well with my reading of Galatians 5:16-26 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%205:16-26&version=NIV. When I received my fruit for the day it was joy. My thoughts were not that good. How can I be joyful when I feel like garbage I thought? How can I be joyful when there's a gnat of a problem affecting my happiness? Here's how, God. Mike and I were first presenting our lesson that day and we needed to give some energy, happiness, and joy. Flat out I had to leave my physical nature up to God and I'll be honest. Other than the time I was teaching I had little to no strength (I don't want sympathy by the way, I want you to realize the power that the Holy Spirit truly holds). A few days later Nicole told me that I should've sat down when I was up there and let Mike do everything. Funny thing is that after the first five minutes I felt fine. Yeah, I messed up in some of the introductions, but Mike covered for me and we got through it. Unfortunately though the room felt a little flat. Daniel, myself, and Chad had a group together as we had under 20 students, but it all worked out. That night we had people come visit us at the hotel so we could spend time with them. At lunchtime I had to shower and lay down while blocking out some of the frustrations that accompanied me in the room for the trip. There were a few interesting conversations that happened for me that night. Although I was still feeling a little down (eating crackers helped) I wanted to speak with our new friends.
One person, Stacy, had a vast knowledge of he Bible as she related Aaron's rod (Moses's brother) to Aaron. Interesting right? She even related Nicodemus to Nick. I doubt there are many Christians in America who could replicate that knowledge. Mike was able to share his testimony with her and was able to ask a lot of leading questions while Aaron gave his input too. Aaron utilized a passage from Ephesians 4 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians%204&version=NIV) talking about how him and Rose do not go to bed angry. It was absolutely amazing, but as I excused myself to utilize the restroom I ran into a security guard. Steve was a very nice man and introduced himself to me. He was so eager to practice his English with me and I wish I had his heart language to speak to him. It was very frustrating to me though as we spoke over the next few days that I was only able to have a simple conversation with him. Maybe it was my lack of faith that God would allow him to understand more difficult words? I truly yearned to know his language so that I could share with him. He knew maybe 150 English words. As I exited the restroom I excused myself to go to bed as everything was a little uneasy so to speak.

7/10 Halfway there/Going down the mountain
As I was going through this trip I was reading Forgotten God by Francis Chan and Christian Beliefs by Wayne Grudem. They were two books that I had wanted to tackle for a long time. There were things I was going through and one of them was divine election. The idea that God has selected people to be with Him in His kingdom. Then I realized that God has decided to use us to find the next person He's elected. I wanted to be really intentional as today was our last day with the teachers. We wanted to make sure that we could have conversations that would help guide them. My fruit today was love and what better demonstration of love then to share our faith?
And with that we went into our last day. Unimportant things happened like we chose who the top students were, but some cool things happened too. The girls scheduled that night to spend time with the females from our class as they went to "The Square". I still have no clue what happened there. However, the guys played basketball with them. I wish I could tell you that we dazzled them with our American skills, but we didn't. We lost, although we had some good plays. We were supposed to hang out with our friends after the game, but something got lost in the translation. It wouldn't be our last game with them, but we were able to do one thing. Show our patience and fruit as we had numerous calls go against us with fouls and turnovers.
One last thing, I saw my friend the security guard that night. I didn't know what to do to show him love, so I bought him a drink. Sometimes gifts go a long way.

Until next time,
NG

Are you glad to be back?

The ultimate question anytime you come back from a long trip is, "Are you glad to be back?" After two plus weeks in el grande pollo (I can't say the actual country for security reasons) I don't know how to answer that after being back for a few days. Am I glad to see my friends and family? Sure. Maybe once the school year starts we'll be on another level, but this year is much different than last year. How so? Well, this year I'm going to blog about my experiences in EGP. Names and locations will be changed in order to protect those in a closed country. There will be some other coded language that if you have a question about I suggest you e-mail me at nicholas.gaspar@gmail.com. If you know the country I went to I would ask that you don't talk about it in the comments section or on Facebook. And you may experience a little (or a lot) of immaturity. I mean c'mon, you had another version of me on this trip. Without a doubt though this will have to come into chunks though. Today I'll cover the first few days including travel.

7/2-7/4 Traveling - We started off at the Globe at CBU and then left for LAX. Leaving at the Globe last year was very special for me as a lot of friends and family came to see me off, but this year was more intimate. It's amazing to have numerous people talking to the Father about your trip and laying their hands on you. If you want a feeling of the Spirit on you then that's it right there for me.
On the way to the airport we talked about how each of us had changed over the past year and what we expected to see on the trip in addition to watching Nyan Cat in a toaster and me singing the national anthem.
At the airport, Aaron licked his gummy bears and offered them to Sarah. The plane took off on time and we got to the airport in the capital of EGP after 13 hours or so. It was an uneventful flight of semi-sleeping, reading, talking to the Father (well that's never uneventful) and hanging out. We all were getting ready and preparation seemed to be going well. We got to the airport, went through customs and went to our second plane of the day to increase our travel time to 16 hours total. Again, not too bad. However, our spirits jumped when we got off the plane as the city we arrived in was not hot like it was last year and we saw our Friends from last year, Sam and Stacy. The elation from seeing those two was immense for all of us. We then took a 90 minute bus ride to the same place we went last year and went for a walk on the town. It wasn't as hot as it was last year, which was glo-ri-ous. I was goofy and wore my shower shoes and we played on some of the gym equipment that was randomly in front of a bridge. It's pretty sweet. You'll notice we lose a day there. Apparently, we dislike July 3rd. I think we only experienced 1 hour of it. Oh well right?

7/5 Preparation - It's always a blast to enjoy fellowship with the team. This was something that allowed us to get focused. We got a presentation from other Friends that talked to us about the people we were meeting and some things that we could say or be specific with. I loved singing songs to the Father with our team and Friends. It was beautiful and a bonding experience. We were able to prepare for the next day as it was the start of our 3 day training. Mike and I were slated to lead us off, which is something I was pretty excited about. After getting dinner we talked about how we wanted to be more intentional with our conversations and have the opportunity to spend time with the trainees. You never know what you have in store.

7/6 The First 1st Day - Let me tell you, there couldn't have been a better start or a better first day. We started off strong by separating our students into groups. Daniel and I were a team while Chad and Sarah, Nicole and Stephanie, Aaron and Rose, and Mike and Kim were the other teams. I'm going to reveal something that I haven't yet revealed to the team. I placed my team near the air conditioning unit. I apologize, hahaha. Okay, in all honesty it was wonderful to get to know the people in my group immediately as I felt an immediate connection with them. We were all able to deliver some significant teaching strategies to our trainees and were also able to make personal connections with them. As we discussed spending the time with the trainees we invited them to go for dessert by meeting us at our hotel lobby that night. We didn't know what we were in store for.
We had about ten students show up to go out to dessert with us that night. While being intentional and asking leading questions I was asked a question that seemed to follow me on this trip. "Nick, are you single?" No, not questions about my faith or how old I was, but if I was single. Well, this was interesting because I had made a promise to the Father that I would remain single and focus only on Him while we were prepping for the trip. Last year I didn't do that and I feel it took my focus away. I explained this to the trainees and was able to share A LOT about my back story and my relationship with my Father. What was interesting was that it seemed like we all got to do that in one way or another. It's exhilarating sharing about something I'm so passionate about so I wish I could express that to you in blog form. As the night drew to a close we took pictures and generally enjoyed each other's company. When you instantly connect with people you don't want to leave them, but we knew it was time. I only wish we could've stayed a little longer.
7/7 Pardon the Interruption - Indeed after coming off a high and knowing that we were going to get to spend the next two days with our trainees. Thus able to have more conversations with our students. Well after lunch during the last session of the day it seemed that the Father had different plans for us. We were informed through midway through the final session that the second day was going to be our last day. It was like being punched in the gut. It was also interesting because we had signed all of the certificates for our students that lunch, discussed who our top students would be, and discussed what we were doing that night. It was perfect actually. It was just sad that we only had one night left with them as some of the connections were so big. We informed the trainees that it would be the last day and the energy left, but we also gave our awards, gifts, and certificates. I gave my trainees a CD of some of my favorite songs which were by Switchfoot, MercyMe, Jars of Clay, The Almost, Hawk Nelson, and Sanctus Real. That night we knew we had to be purposeful and again planned to meet in our lobby.
Unfortunately it was raining outside pretty hard. We were sitting around the lobby just hanging out when we started to sing some songs. Chad brought out his iPad and had an interesting conversation with a few trainees that I'll let him share on his own blog. I felt prompted to put on a song to our Father called Divine Romance by Phil Wickham. All of the Americans started singing the song and we sang other songs to the Father after that. It was beautiful and magical and was a metaphor for our trip as those songs seemed to calm us down from tense situations. We went out again and had many great conversations with our trainees. I was able to have a very encouraging conversation with Daniel (our leader Stephanie's husband) that really motivated me for the rest of the trip. We hung out at our hotel and some received a Gift (capitalized for a reason) while some of trainees gave their American teachers their own gifts. It was a special and beautiful night that could only be captured by being there. It was very sad to see them go and as we went up to our rooms I realized that I wasn't going to be able to go to bed immediately. Mike, my roommate, had gone our Friend's house for an interview he had the next morning and I immediately fell into praise. It's amazing to be alone and giving all thanks to the One who created you. I was filled with emotion while talking with Him and He immediately calmed me down by letting me know it was time for us to move.

Until next time...

How I did it Part II - The exercise

How I did it Part II
The exercise

Well to start off the exercise had to build up. I knew I had to do at least thirty minutes a day since I wasn’t on the biggest loser, but wouldn’t be able to do a lot of cardio. One of my best friends used the elliptical at 24 hour fitness in Victorville and I felt that sweat would be part of what would change me. I started doing 30 minutes and I would increase this by a couple of minutes each week until I got up to an hour. I then changed my workout up and started walk/jogging in order to keep my body in shock and would do some weights along the way. I’ve never been too big on bulking up so I kept it down a little bit.

This was probably the first two months of my journey and then two things happened. The first was that I would wake up just a little earlier and would run a mile in the morning. Also the new 24 hour fitness opened up and I started to swim at night too. I would swim about a 1000 meters and then ride the spin cycle for (on hard) about 25-45 minutes depending on how I felt.

When it came to weighing myself I waited about two months until I started weighing myself. I knew I was 270 and when I stepped on the scale in July (3 months later) I was about 230. I was pretty ecstatic, but knew that I had a lot to go.

After this I wish I could say there was something more I did other than staying on my diet, but it was staying on my diet and increasing my exercise frequency, intensity, and length. Saturdays were designated for longer periods of exercise like a 5-8 mile run or playing soccer.

The more weight I lost the more I was able to do and the more energy I had to do everything. Let me fast forward a little bit to today. Right now I’m up to 7-10 miles in the morning and a 45 minute spin cycle ride and ten minutes of the treadmill at night with abs and pushups.

I weigh myself every day still as a barometer of where I’m at and to keep myself in check. If I gain some weight the day before I think about what I’ve eaten. There would be some weeks where I lost 5 pounds and some where I lost 1. I had to never be discouraged.

It helped that along the way I kept myself accountable with God and our relationship grew. When I noticed a plateau I would pray about it and He would give me an answer. There were two big plateaus I hit. The first was when I was about at 185 and needed to lose more. I started to drink a two cold glasses of water in the morning to jump start my metabolism. Then I would eat fifteen minutes later. When your body has to bring its body temperature up then it starts your metabolism. The second thing I did was cut out all kinds of alcohol. It was a personal choice inspired by Ephesians 5:18 and I knew I wasn’t being a good role model to my students if I continued to drink.

That’s it, if you have any questions send me an email or a comment.
Nicholas.Gaspar@gmail.com

How I did it part I - The Diet

I was asked by a coworker to describe what I did to lose the weight I did. For those of you who don’t know I’ve lost about 115 pounds over two years time and have been in the best shape I’ve ever been in my life. I think I’m just missing abdominal muscles (ha!).
The first thing I did was change my diet. I knew what was bad for me and what my digestive system had a hard time dealing with; breads, cheese, and red meat. I ate flatbreads and got rid of cheese and red meat altogether. I had to go out on a limb and tried the meatless burgers and patties. I started to snack more frequently. Every two hours I would have something, whether it was a 100 calorie pack, fruit, fruit snacks, or something else I always made sure to eat something. I also changed my drinks from sodas and other drinks with calories to diet drinks and stuff without calories while also adhering to the serving size. All of my portions adhered to the portion size. This way I could keep track of my calorie intake for the day. I tried to hit about 1200-1500 calories a day.
My breakfasts would include either – egg whites and an English muffin; fiber one cereal with fat free milk or silk (I’m lactose intolerant); an English muffin with peanut butter; whole grain pancakes with sugar-free syrup; or an assortment of fruits.
My lunches would include – a sandwich with one piece of bread, mustard, and turkey or chicken; salads with fat free dressing or light dressing; or leftovers from dinner.
Dinners – Poultry was my main staple. A half a chicken breast with brown rice or some other vegetable; spaghetti with marinara sauce and turkey balls; turkey burgers on flatbread with sweet potato fries; salads with chicken or turkey; chicken or taco tacos(baked corn tortillas) with black beans;
Never did I fry anything, put any additive or condiment on my food that included fat or calories, or put anything in my food that changed the caloric value. Take away butter from rice, don’t put cheese in your beans, and remember that vegetables are God’s way of adding flavor. You like spice? Add peppercinis or banana peppers. Different flavor? Add Tapatio, honey mustard, or vinegar. There are low or no calorie alternatives to adding taste to your food. Find ways to marinate your chicken or ground beef.
Last thing I did was cut out alcohol. It was a personal choice, but alcohol is generally empty calories.
Next time I’ll talk about my workout, exercise, and weigh-in routine. Also I want to point out that when I decided to do this I had also made a huge commitment to God. I knew that my body was a temple. Yeah, being healthy is probably the way to spend more time on earth, but it also gives me more opportunities to share. As I’ve gotten healthier my relationship with my dad and God has grown immensely. It’s just now time to adapt to this new role I have.

Finally...

The Rock would always tell his fans in a new town that "FINALLY THE ROCK HAS COME BACK TO (fill in the city here)." Well, I've finally returned to blogging. What's been going on? What have I been up to? Short answer, a lot.
A brief synopsis: I got a girlfriend, went to East Asia, returned, started year 3 of teaching,started a small group, brother had a baby, started a men's Bible study, lost a girlfriend, and grew closer to God. The most important of those things is growing closer to God.
I was going to title this blog, "What do you do after 28 days?" However, I felt that since the Rock came back I should steal from him. What am I referencing with 28 days? It's how long it's supposed to take to break a habit. We all have our own sin and eventually on our walk with God we have to ask ourselves if we love the sin more than we love God. It's always been something that's hit home with me and last week at church we talked about how we eventually celebrate our sin.
Why would we do that? Why would or do we celebrate those things we do wrong and put them on display and celebrate? Even if you're not a Christian, what's the point?
There are things that I struggle with and I have worked hard and have been seeking God in over to overcome them. So what do we do after we have conquered one sin? We find the next in our lives to conquer and overcome. We are not perfect. We strive to be perfect, although sin is expected we should work our hardest to not sin.
Last but not least I'm going to strive to come on this more often as a tool for accountability. What do you want to see or here? I do feel that the next blog will be about coming back home and seeing things in a different light.
Until then folks, the love is there for you.
NG