Routine

Sometimes it is hard to keep up with out routine because of circumstances that may arise in our daily lives. Today, I was busy with so many other things, I was tempted to skip my planned strength training session at the gym. As soon as I got there, the lovely woman at the door complimented my dress. Great! Thank you very much, I am ready to go! I donned my gym clothes, pulled on my sneakers in place of my sandals, and put on some tunes. Now I am ready to hit the floor. Any of the reservations I had about coming in today slowly melt away as I challenge my muscles with heavier weights, and deep smooth breathing fills my lungs and my mind. I am soothed and ready to tackle the second half of the day. Thank you Lord for the gift of a strong and healthy body. I am truley blessed.

Good morning friends! Today I want to talk about how certain things should not be optional in our daily lives. For me, it is not optional to wake up and pray every day. To ask God to reveal himself to me in a new way, and to read the Bible. It is mandatory to exercise every day. It can be running, walking, swimming, weight training, anything. I need it. To feel awake and alive and ready to conquer each new day.

It is not optional to tell my husband that I love him. We need to tell the people that we love that we love them. It should not be optional. It is a "have to." :)I have to be positive every day. It is not optional. I must greet each day with a greatful heart that I am alive, I am not starving, I have a God who loves me, and allows me to live in this world one more day.
I must eat healthy. It is not optional. While the occasional junk makes its way into my digestive system, overall I am determined to use the cleanest burning fuel I can find. I want to be efficient and healthy, and I am determined to stay on track, even if it means making things "un-optional."

I feel a little under the weather today. I thought that if I pushed through and made myself go to the gym I would feel better, yet I still feel exhausted. The culprit: junk food. I don't normally eat anything like cheeze-its, fritos, or m&ms, and I ate all three yesterday. I need to keep in mind that just because I am on vacation does not mean I need to make myself sick by eating crap. You are what you eat. The old mantra ringing in my brain snaps me to the reality that even one day of gorging on foods that are awful makes you feel awful. I went to the store and stocked up on some delicious fruits! Now I am ready to get out of the two day slump that have encomapssed me, and get back on track!

Helpful hint for today!

Don't skip meals! It may seem like a way to lose weight, or to "save" calories for later, but really it just slows your metabolism down!

Running is a moment when all of the world and its trials melt away from my shoulders and splash onto the pavement. It is a time when I can thank God for a strong and able body. A time when I am amazed to discover that all of my muscles, joints and bones are working in unison to get me to where I am going. How can I take that for granted? If my entire life is compared to this moment in time that I am running, then I should be amazed that I am getting up to a fresh new day, the sun is rising, the car is running, family and friends are all around. My everyday life is miraculous.

Hebrews 12:1-2Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2: Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Is it a "have to" or a "want to"?

When did fitness become a chore? Every day I wake up and say, "I have to go to the gym." Once I get there, I am feeling great, the sweat pouring down my back is like an invigorating shower, the faster and harder that my body can work, the better. So why the dilemma and dread each morning? We have conditioned ourselves to believe that everything in our routine is a "have to" instead of a "want to". I have to clean the house, do the laundry, wash my hair, dry my hair, straighten my hair. Yet, I like to clean, I really don't mind the laundry, and my hair isn't too shabby. What is the answer? Why do we feel that unless we are watching something, spending something, or shoving something in our face, we are not having fun?
It is time to put a stop to all of this negativity surrounding our daily lives. When we continually push through the hours of our day, waiting to finish everything that we "have" to do, to get to the things that we "want" to do, we waste precious moments of our lives. We forget that we used to like to jump rope when we were a kid, that we used to beg to use our mother's make-up and hair straighteners. We used count down the years, days, hours and minutes until we could get our driver's license, and yes, we longed for a job.
The solution is simple, in theory. We take time to remember who we used to be. Find that kid inside of us that used to enjoy everyday moments, then we run, sweat pouring down our backs, to catch that brilliant child. For we have much to learn from her. She is our resource, our fountain of youth, and the ideal that we have been searching for. And she will be the one to teach us that staying in shape isn't a chore, it is simply this fun game that we play called life. And the killer body and contagious, energizing spirit are merely delicious side effects.