Rick Warren + the Daniel Plan

Seems like I am starting off 2014 with a lot of Rick Warren. I'm reading his daily devotional on my Bible App reading plan, and loving it, and now Eli and I are starting to read The Daniel Plan.

 NOTE: This is NOT the Daniel Fast - which I have read, but not attempted in it's full glory - I know it is a "fast" but 21 days without meat or dairy products might have to wait until I'm not cooking for a 1 & 3 year old every day!  ;-)  Though I did do a strictly water-to-drink and no sweets mini version to start the year, and enjoyed reading the 21-Day Devotional part of the book during that time.

 I should also note that I am a big Rick Warren fan. You may know him from his famous book "The Purpose Driven Life."  He pastors a very large church in California (Saddleback) and is pretty influential in many ways.  When "The Purpose Driven Life" made it big, he paid the church back all his salary for 25 years!  WOW!  I think that is so cool!  (You can read more at Wikipedia)

 Anyway, Rick Warren's "The Daniel Plan" is named for Daniel, but not necessarily based on his all-vegetable diet of the Bible (he was refraining from meat that had been sacrificed to idols). Reportedly, he realized that he was not treating his body as "God's temple" and asked if anyone in his congregation was interested in losing weight with him.  Well, it took off and Saddleback got a lot healthier for it.

But this is not just a weight loss book, which I like... he focuses on five "Essentials" which I will outline and comment on below since we are supposed to access where we are before we get really started!  ;-)

1. FAITH:  This is an area that I don't believe we should ever be satisfied in.  There is ALWAYS room for improvement if we are striving to follow Jesus.  
2. FOOD:  Probably my WEAKEST area.  Eli & I do NOT eat healthy.  We have good intentions, but get busy, fail to plan, and succumb to macaroni-and-cheese more times than we should!  ;-)
3. FITNESS:  Believe it or not, I actually like to exercise.  Love to find time to get on the treadmill.  Love to visit our gym.  Love fitness DVDs.  Love to take the double stroller and dogs out.  However, unfortunately it gets pushed out just for lack of time too often.  My Jawbone helps keep me motivated these days.  
4. FOCUS:  I tend to have a pretty positive attitude and always remember to SMILE.  :-)
5. FRIENDS:  So thankful for an awesome Grow Group and church family, we are not doing this as a small group though... so biggest props to Eli for being my best friend AND spouse AND motivator.