Start your day right... or else...

Today I'm looking down at my calorie counter and bumming out.  The numbers are correct, the amounts are accurate and the end result is what I expected, but not what I wanted.  You see, today I started out my morning with a handful of yummy, chocolate goodness.  

I grabbed a few M&Ms and without much thought tossed them back and smacked my lips with enjoyment.  A few moments later I returned to the scene of the crime, grabbed three more and sent them the same way of their cousins or siblings.  You know what I mean.  As the last few pieces slid down my throat I thought briefly of the cost, and then I got started with my workout.  

Normally the workout gets going and before long my joints are loose, my heart rate is up, and my energy is on the incline.  Normally, I walk with a decent pace, enough to break a sweat and get a few calories burned.  But today, I could only slog through the miles on the treadmill.  One foot plodding in the air before falling without flare and much excessive labor in front of the other.  

It took over thirty grueling minutes before my energy level began to increase, and even then only minimally.  As I exited the treadmill I punched in my time and then added to my food tracker my morning treasures.  Whoa!  Really!  It was that much!  The sight of the numbers threw me off and for a loop.  All my exercising had barely scratched the impact of my morning sugar friends.  My day was in a quandary.  The numbers impacted my breakfast, my snack and will most likely carry over throughout the rest of the day.  At lunch I was sluggish, and the afternoon blahs arrived early.  

Starting the morning right is essential, not just with food and exercise, but with faith.  Have a morning where you are angry, distracted, stressed, anxious and full of worry?  How did you start?  If you look back with reflection you probably started out with the wrong thing.  Chances are a bad morning are most often, but not always, the result of plopping out of bed, having some sugar (morning news, pop culture, or television), and then trying to work off the tough start.  Instead of a solid staple of scripture, prayer, meditation, or thanksgiving you may have just jumped headlong into the day.  

Today's sugar rush and sugar crash were a nice reminder that starting the day off right is essential.