{Day 1}: An Ordinary Night

Today is the day it all begins!

25 Days of Fitness, physical and spiritual.

The first thing we need to do is make a plan. Those of you joining me on this journey to prepare ourselves for the arrival of our savior, what are you going to do to get physically and spiritually fit this Christmas season?

As I told you before, I am going to do something to pursue physical and spiritual fitness each day for the next 25 days.

More specifically, I am going to do some form of exercise each day. It will be a combination of cardio and strength-training. Most likely I will do a little cardio {walking, jogging, treadmill, elliptical, stairs, etc} everyday and will add in some sort of strength-training {squats, abs, push-ups, free weights, etc}  every other day, or at least 3-5 times a week.

As for spiritual fitness, I am going to read through One Incredible Moment: Celebrating the Majesty of the Manger by Max Lucado, adding in the scriptures surrounding Christ's birth.

One Incredible Moment is a fantastic little book that I read each year at Christmastime. One year when I spoke at a women's Christmas event, I actually used excerpts from this book. I highly recommend it. It really brings to light the entire story from the manger to the cross. I just love Max Lucado. Don't you?!

I am also going to be watching what I eat these next 25 days, following this eating plan {option #3} and also counting calories using the Livestrong calorie calculator, so that I do not overeat at the enormous amount of holiday parties we will be attending over the next few weeks.

Be sure to leave me some comments here or on our facebook page to let me know what your 25 Days of Fitness plan is.

And don't forget to "like" our sponsor's facebook page, Tower Promotions and Planning Solutions, LLC. We will have some fun stuff taking place there as well, which I will fill you in on tomorrow! :)

Remember, I will be linking all 25 Days of Fitness posts to the original post so that you can follow along. You can find the button linking to it on the left sidebar of the blog. You will also find the button code on the original post if you want to put it on your blog as well, making it easy to get to each day. I have also put a linky party on the original post in case you want to link-up any 25 Days of Fitness posts of your own. Just be sure to link back to the original post in your post as well.

As for today, here is my workout:

100 stairs
10 super-slow squats
10 super-slow crunches
10 super-slow reverse push-ups
30 quick calf raises {straight, in, out}
1:00 plank

**If you need any help/advice on finding a workout/eating plan, feel free to ask me! I am not an expert by any means but I can at least point you in the right direction and fill you in on my experiences.

Disclaimer: Make sure to consult with your physician to get approval before beginning any type of diet or workout plan!!

And here are my thoughts from today's One Incredible Moment reading:

Have you ever felt like God forgot about you? Like there is simply nothing special about you?

That you are just ordinary.

If so, I encourage you to think about the night that Jesus was born and, take heart!

An ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. And were it not for a God who loves to hook an "extra" on the front of the ordinary, the night would have gone unnocticed. The sheep would have been forgotten, and the shepherds would have slept the night away.

But God dances amidst the common. And that night he did a waltz.

...The night was ordinary no more.

God has a special plan for each one of us. And it is bigger and better than we could ever have imagined.

Who would have thought that the savior of the world would have been born in a stable to a lowly carpenter and his wife, who was pregnant before he married her?

And yet it is a beautiful picture of the fact that "man looks at outward appearances" while the Lord "looks at the heart."

Many at that first Christmas were so busy looking for a "political savior" that they missed God's best...his bigger, better plan...the birth of his son...not the one that would save them from the government...but the savior of the world, the one who would conquer the grave!

Don't miss out on what God has for you this Christmas because you are distracted by the busy-ness of the season or because you are looking for something spectacular.

Slow down. Seek him. And notice what he is doing in and around you this season.

And don't forget that people are watching you too. And you just might be the only Jesus they see.

And can I just add...thank goodness God uses the ordinary. Otherwise we would miss out on the privilege of being apart of his glorious work, bringing us closer to him and making us more like his son.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. {Isaiah 55:8-9}

Be still, and know that I am God. {Psalm 46:10}