It's been a Mandisa kind of week

As I have stated here before, I am on a mission to lose a large amount of weight. I have currently lost 51.4 pounds and am thrilled but still have quite a way to go. Unlike many other times that I've dieted, I finally feel as if what I am doing is just part of my life. I no longer see it as something that I'm doing short term; it is a complete change of lifestyle. I am not one to pat myself on the back normally but I have been working very hard....working out 4-5 days per week.

Anyway, I didn't start this post just to boast but did want to update some of you who read and have asked about how my diet is going.

Now to the "meat" of my post:

I don't watch American Idol (I know, I know) but I have heard of Mandisa. To be honest, I couldn't have told you if she was from a past season or the current season (I would've guess "past"). I couldn't tell you whether she'd won or lost but I had heard her name. Well...Wednesday I jumped in the car to run some errands and caught the tail-end of what turned out to be a new release by Mandisa. Really, I only heard a few seconds of the song but they took phone calls following its play and people were raving about how good it was.

Fast forward to Thursday....I went to get my nails done and right there at Hana's I met Mandisa's personal trainer. By the way, I visit my own personal trainer on Thursdays and was going straight there from the nail salon (just thought that that was a neat tidbit). Come to find out, Mandisa has lost 80 pounds in 8 months with the help of this trainer (named Tina). Now, I may be the only person on the face of the earth that didn't know this but humor me. This trainer (whose business card reads, "Your Body, His Temple" - so cool!) was talking about what a beautiful person INSIDE and OUT Mandisa was and I left there wanting to learn more about this person who had now come up now twice in the same number of days.

Later on Thursday I came home to find that a sweet, sweet friend had left me a little "happy" on my front porch. A sweet devotional book titled, "Jesus Calling" and the all-time sweetest, most humbling note I believe I have ever received. Anyway, while communicating my thank-yous to this friend she shared with me that she'd had a date with God that day (a little alone time with Him) and that she'd spent it praising his name in unison with, you guessed it, the new Mandisa CD. (She didn't know of the incidences above). She was beside herself about how awesome this new work was and wanted me to have a copy.

Being that I am the impatient person that I am (and also being that I have an Ipod and never know what I want to put on it or how to do it even if I did), I decided I wanted to put the album on my Ipod so that's exactly what I did.

Mandisa's new CD is titled "Freedom" and it is really, really awesome. I also found the following video on Tangle where Mandisa shares a little about her journey to lose 100 pounds. I've enjoyed getting to know Mandisa this week and look forward to following her in the future as she reaches her goals and praises His name.

Sorry....I'm having trouble embedding the video but you can see it here.