Day 1 - The Daniel Fast

I am fully committed to becoming the woman God intended me to be; so this year one of my resolutions was to have a closer connection with God, so in order to get myself mentally right I've decided to take part in the Daniel fast. My church participates every year usually the fast is for 21 days but this year we are fasting for 10 days (12-22).

**The Daniel Fast is a spiritual fast intended to honor God; the Daniel fast comes from Daniel 1:8-14. **

The purpose of the fast is to get yourself where you are mentally and physically stronger. Usually when you think of a fast you think of "oh, I am about to starve myself for so many odd days" the Daniel fast you are allowed to eat but only natural products; which means NO MEAT and NO SWEETS, nothing artificial ALL NATURAL. Now, this will be tough for me since I am considered a meat eater but like I said in order to succeed in life, I will have to make sacrifices and I am up for the task.

So my focus for the ten days fast will be not only to abstain myself from food but to focus and spend more time on the following:

Reading the Bible
Praying
Physically working out
Limiting myself to only 1 hour on the computer at home
No alcohol
No caffeine
mentally focus myself (stop stressing out)

**please pray for me :) **

2011 - Where Do I Begin??

So it's a new year (2011) - and of course like everyone else I have my New Year's resolutions (finances, sanity, career, etc, etc). Every year I jot down what I would like to accomplish in the upcoming year and I am very fortunate to have a 85% success/completion rate. The one that I always have trouble with is losing weight. Now, for the past 2 years I've said that I wanted to lose weight - tone up, get right blah, blah, blah for the new year; which of course I always renig on my yearly resolution.. As I was talking to my mother today she kept repeating to me "You're 30 years old now; the fat doesn't slide off of you like when you were younger; be/stay active". So this year I will go about my Get Fit 2011 challenge in a different way.

CONFESSION!! I hate working out - let me say it like this; I detest working out, always have even when I played basketball in college but I loved the way I felt after a good workout or practice. Running was not a joy of mine, I was always quick on my feet and pride myself on being the fastest but when we would have track workouts I would come in 3rd or 4th and of course my coach would get into my a$$. Which now that I'm older I understand why she would chastise me - "if I was the best athlete out there why wouldn't I display that talent in every aspect of the game; including track workouts" - HARDWORK pays off.

So my new "Being the best you in 2011" drive I plan to get back into sports - be active; participate in activities. When I lived in Oakland I had a variety of choices; I use to play anything and everything (kickball, basketball, capture the flag, run the stairs @ Lake Merritt etc, etc). So the ending of 2011 I signed up for a gym membership at the local fitness center (AGAIN). But this time you will not see me trying to kept up on the bike exercise or running on that horrid machine called a treadmill. I will start off slow and make it fun - so my mission is joining those cute exercise classes that I use to laugh at when I walked by when I was in college and before the back fat. I think that is a good way to start and keep me interested in my goal and hopefully by being active I will be inspired and get involved in local activities around my area.

Soooooooo.. I will post my 2011 New Years resolutions and check back when it's Dec 31, 2011 and see what have I accomplished this year - I think this is more for me to stay on track:)

-Be financial stable in 2011
-Be active
-Find a new job/new location
-Regain my inner DeeStar
-Start a new life of happiness
-Continue to have God as a strong presence in my life/faith
-Get involved within my community
-Be happy
-Find a hobby besides shopping
-Less stress
-hope to be promoted by Dec
- stay committed to my sanity

Day 3 - 31day Challenge

Publish Post

Day 3 - Identify Your Values

So today you are suppose to identify your life Values - so here's my list of what's important to me....

Faith
Love
Family
Success
Financial security
Healthy relationships
Social life
Happiness
Location
Job advancements
Friendships
Community Involvement - public service
Physical fitness

31 Day Reset Challenge

So, I've decided to take the 31 day reset your life challenge - thanks to Ogonnaya who passed along this amazing blog by a young woman name Rosetta http://happyblackwoman.com/ , Rosetta placed a challenge to women everywhere to reset your life before 2011. We all know how we like to start new for the new years but like Rosetta said you should start to prepare yourself before hand so you know exactly what goal you are trying to attain. So with my notebook in hand I will try to share as much as I can on what I am learning about myself and what I plan to achieve physically and mentally in the year 2011.

So they are already on day 5 into the challenge this being day one for me but since this is my day 1 I will try to keep up with the other ladies :)

Day 1
What's your 31 day mantra for the challenge?

My focus is to "Live life free with no worries or stress and enjoy happiness within and find my outer joy"

DeeStar has returned....

I'm backkkkkkkkkkkkk and believe me I have a lot on my mind. My friends, Lodz and Ogonnaya; have reconnecting me back into this secret society of random blogging on the internet. (Check out their blog @ http://travellingwomanists.wordpress.com) My last blog was dated back in 2008, and let me tell ya, A LOT has happen to me in a span of 2 years. I am in a new town, new job, new friends, new hairstyle and LOTS of unusual experiences I could ever imagine myself being connected to in my quest to have dinner with Oprah and em. So please sit back, pull up a nice chair, stop cringing with all my grammatical errors and entertain yourself with the introspections of a lost soul. Some might be amused, others might be annoyed but this is one way to keep my sanity in a unfamiliar world.

DeeStar vents

I am not deep nor do I pretend to be, I am not the smartest person in the world but I'm not the dumbest tool in the tool box. I am me and I am trying to be the best me I can be. So f*ck your standards of perfection because perfection does not exist. You, yourself are not perfect so how can you expect the next person to be. We are student in this world learning new things everyday so just take life as it is, one big learning lesson with more things to come.

Love Sucks

How can you turn LOVE off? I have learned in my life that LOVE is the most powerful drug known to man. LOVE can hurt you in ways you will never imagine but some people say LOVE can be the best thing in life. If LOVE is suppose to be the best thing, why does it hurt so bad when it's over? It's like a pain you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy but maybe you would. I have always been afraid of LOVE. LOVE makes you do and think differently, things you have always warned your friends, for some reason you end up doing them when you fall in LOVE. Why? Why can't a good girl as myself find somebody to love but also not make a fool out of myself in the process. Example; I have strong feelings for this guy but my LOVE defense is to avoid it and run away. As a runaway I will be able to shield myself from any LOVE disappointment that LOVE might throw at me. But in the end you can't run from LOVE, LOVE finds you when you least expect it(which sucks). So in reality in order to experience everything in life you have to experience LOVE. The joys, the pain, the hurt and also the disappointment that LOVE might bring. So hopefully when the right person comes along you will be able to LOVE them unconditionally with no hold bar.