Portion control. That’s step one to a healthy diet. While a lot of your weight loss depends on the quality of food you eat, portion sizes have just as much if not more of an impact on weight loss. How do you know you are over eating, or not eating enough? Well look down at your hands and let them be the judge. Simply cup one hand and place the other over and there you have it. Your own measuring tool that’s unique to you. Here’s the portion control my Nutritionist suggested:

2 Handfuls of Fruits/Veggies

2 Handfuls of Grains

1 Handful of Protein

-3 meals a day with low calorie snacks and you’ll be on your way to having a higher metabolism and feeling more energized.

Then it hit me, while I’m gaining more discipline in my diet, How’s my spiritual portion control? Am I over eating? What I realized was that I WAS “over-eating”, satisfying my soul on earthly pleasures (“junk food”) rather than spiritual fruit (“healthy foods”). My portions were out of wack. While I was spending time with the Lord, and learning to be more Christ-like, I was more consumed with little things of this world. The bible tells us to “Set [our] minds on things above, not on earthly things.” -Colossians 3:2. In Christ Jesus, we are a new creature. We shouldn’t live in the sins that Colossians 3 describes in verses 5 & 8. Instead we should feed on the Word of God which I call the “healthy foods” and not on the things of this world, the “junk food”. While the junk food might taste good for a while, it can take a toil on our Christ-likeness/”spiritual health”. The more out-of-shape we are the more susceptible we become to the attacks of our enemy Satan.

So I ask you today, is your portion control out of wack? Are you eating more “junk food” than “healthy”? I urge you to join me in reevaluating not only what we put into our bodies but our minds as well. Don’t let the junk consume us. Feed yourself with the Word of God and become “healthy” in your spiritual walk. You can never have enough of it. EXECUTE!

1. When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
   When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
   Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
   And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
   • Refrain:
     Count your blessings, name them one by one,
     Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
     Count your blessings, name them one by one,
     *Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
     [*And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.]
2. Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
   Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
   Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
   And you will keep singing as the days go by.

• Just recently, I have raised enough money to pay off all my student loans! BOOM! I am debt free. I am so blessed to finish college with no debt at all!! In total, it was $6000 and it took about 2 years! If you have any debt, I’d encourage you to find a steady way of attacking it. Save, Save, Save and soon enough you’ll be able to say I’M DEBT FREE!!!!
• I started my job as a Winshape Camps Apprentice today. Let me tell you, it was awesome! We (there is a total of 5 apprentices and the supervisors/directors) started the day with a brief job description of the Leaders in Training Program, learning about the Winshape Foundation as a whole and a tour of Home Office and Oakmont. Then we continued our meeting with simple guidelines and expectations such as attire, professional etiquette, and other procedures. After the morning meetings, we went to lunch. The food was sooo good. I had coconut shrimp, rice, green beans, pizza (so good), and of course a peach milkshake! I have a feeling I may be gaining some weight if I don’t utilize CFA’s workout facility. After lunch I had a couple more meetings and ended the day saying good bye to the Boys Camp and C3 Apprentices. This is only a glimpse of what my year will look like. I’m blessed to have the great opportunity to work for an awesome organization full of awesome people. I don’t know much about what I’ll specifically be doing, but that’ll come in a future blog.
•  I’ve been blessed with a great family. I love my mom, dad, and brother. My mom and dad are always providing for my needs, loving me, and challenging me. Mom and bro are always challenging me, giving me things to think about, sending prayers my way, and loving me when I don’t deserve it. It’s awesome to have such a support group. While we may have some differences, we’re still family and we’ll be there for each other till the end. God has definitely challenged me to love and respect my family and friends more. One passage of scripture I want to leave out more is 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. I think we all need to learn how to love more than we do. (Check out this blog about love from my friend Stephen Howard)

Thanks Mom, Dad and William for all you do. You are awesome!

Well, I am going to stop here not because I’m done counting my blessings, but because you probably don’t have time to read each blessing God has sent down and this might be my longest blog yet. I challenge you to count the daily blessings that you receive from the Lord. Let us never take for granted everything that God has given us!

Thanks for taking the time to read about my life. Feel free to give comments.

P.S.-It’s official-

Have you heard of it? If not, I’d encourage you to check it out. Why let money control your life when you can have total control over it? Mint.com has done just that for me. See, most people lose control of their spending because they don’t have a system to manage their money. Nowadays, people use plastic (credit or debit card) more than cash. With plastics, you aren’t able to see where your money is going (unless you have a habit of balancing your account). The psychology behind paying with cash is that it hurts to see money leave your hand, thus having the tendency to hold on to it more. With Mint.com, the website will combine all of your accounts, set up budgets, provide investing options, and give you a great start to budgeting your finances.

Here’s a glimpse of what my budget consists of:

Gas, Rent, Utilities, Groceries, Restaurants, Savings, Tithes

A couple things you must realize the first few months you have a budget:

1. Be flexible- It’s probably not going to balance out the first few months. It’s ok to tweak the categories you have set up.

2. Be Disciplined-Once it’s settled in, abide by the allotted amount. Let’s say if you allotted $20 for Restaurants don’t go over! Once that money’s gone, then no more eating out.

3. Budget all of it- Do you mean every last dime? Yes! That’s the point of budgeting. Give all of your money a category.

The awesome thing about Mint.com is that it’s so user friendly. Let’s say you eat out at Chick-fil-a, and your total is $6.87, Mint.com automatically categorizes that into your Restaurant category. And if it doesn’t you can easily do it yourself. Same goes with any other purchase. Gas @ BP, Rent, Utilities, etc. So, you really have no excuse on checking this website out. Additionally, you might want to check out Crown Financial Ministries @ www.crown.org or Dave Ramsey’s site @ www.daveramsey.com to some tips on saving and spending. I know these two organizations have really helped me out.

Don’t forget, everything we have comes from God. Let us be good stewards of His blessings. I encourage you guys to start a budgeting plan. Let me know how things end up. Feedback is GOOD!

A lot has happened since my last blog. I had the opportunity to serve with Winshape Camps this summer as the Apache Tribal Leader. I tell you what, the experience was amazing. I had a wonderful group of guys and girls to work with. It was awesome to see dedicated, Godly college men with one unified focus: To enable young men to recognize and develop their God-given potential. It was awesome to have two Apache Sweethearts who not only provided us with a lot of encouragement, but baked us unbelievable treats

From my perspective, the summer flew by. I wish that we had a real-life remote control where we could rewind time, and slow down time just to capture everything that happened. The role definitely allowed me to develop into a stronger leader, and to know my weaknesses and improve them. For example, Don’t leave your radio around for even a minute. If you do, a friendly individual (Jimmy) might hide it from you. Or being a task oriented person can easily take the fun out of any situation. So make completing your tasks fun.

I really can’t thank God enough for placing Winshape Camps into my life. The full-time staff, leadership team, counselors, and non-cabin staff have made a big impact on my life. Thank you Speedy, Keenan, Jimmy, and Ms. Deb for believing in me. Thank you God for allowing me, no matter how many problems I have, to take part in your Will on Earth.

Be on the lookout for another blog as I move to my next location. CFA Home office

1. WSEM- coed (With Someone Elses Money)

2. Note Worthy

3. Accidentals

• University of Pennsylvania – The Penny Loafers
• University of North Carolina – Clef Hangers
• Michigan State University’s all male – Accafellas
• Brandeis University (assumingly all male) – Voicemale
• Johns Hopkins – Mental Notes
• Penn – Chord on Blue
• Duke – DejaBlue
• Cornell and Oberlin both have - Nothing But Treble
• University of Connecticut – Chordials
• MIT – Chorallaries
• UC Berkeley - DaCadence
• CalTech - Fluid Dynamics
• University of Michigan - Compulsive Lyres
• Cornell - Key Elements
• York University - Wibijazz’n
• UC Berkeley – Artists in Resonance
• Emory University -Aural Pleasure

This blog was taken from….http://lifetussle.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/a-capella-groups/

March 2009

My little in PMA: Matthew Goings

SAI Formal 2009

Work weekend 2009

Cousin's from Taiwan

Sousaphone Chippendales

Jeremy Camp Concert

Redcoat and PMA Benefit Concert 2009

First Away Game as a Student

Flagline and Sousa dinner @ Harry's 2009

Jeremy, and Hilary

RIP UGA VI

Parent's day 2009

Vince Dooley!

Senior Day 2009

Independence Bowl Ballers

Georgettes 2009

That’s all for now……

Lord willing, may my next year be just as prosperous.

Proverbs 3:5-6

2) Intro to ballroom dance class.

I’m adding a 5th year to my education, so my class load is not too bad. My Secondary practicum is about to start for school, and that should be a really good experience.