I'm Pressin' On

In an earlier post, in respect to this weight-loss challenge, I said, "as I discipline my body, I pray that God will use it as a parable in my life as to how I can better run the race He has set before me."

I've been thinking a lot about the different areas of life we set goals in and how we plan to achieve them.  Whenever I have a physical goal to meet, I always worry that I am going to get too focused on how I look and get caught up in my external person, rather than cultivating my inner character.  So, when that started happening this time around, I decided that I was going to stop obsessing  about it and just put exercise and eating right in its place. Then I felt like I started failing--big time. Exercising was going well, but self-control toward eating? Not so well.

So, I asked myself, "How do you strive to meet a goal?" You visualize the finish line, you think about all of the hard work and sacrifice it will take to get there. In your mind, you measure out how you should be doing at each mile marker if you want to finish the race in time. It is okay to think about what you would like to look like or what you want your "final number" to be. In fact, it is important to mentally pace yourself and set smaller goals or milestones along the way that help you to understand that you are on your way toward meeting your goal (you just can't get so focused on one goal that you lose sight of all others). That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:26, "So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air." We have to have something to strive toward.

Likewise, I think that in our Christian walk we have to have something to strive for. We cannot go aimlessly about performing tasks that seem "Christianly" or hope to soon reach that plateau where we have "arrived" and can now relax in our mediocre Christianity.  An athlete always reassess his body to make sure that he is in the shape he needs to be for the next race. This means he is always living in light of the next race. We should saturate our minds with Christ and be living in light of heaven. If our minds are not saturated in this way, how are we going to be motivated to take the hard paths of self-sacrifice and others-focused living? If our minds are not saturated in this way, how are we going to have the strength to choose honoring Christ over honoring self? Our hearts and minds need to be trained up to that like-mindedness of Christ so that, just as the athlete's body will react to the stimulus without any instructions, we will be able to respond to situations as Christ would without thinking. Not that we won't stumble or suffer injury. We just might be able to run without getting one of those terrible side aches. :)

Ah, Yes, the Random Catch-Up Post...

Busy, busy, busy!

And, at times, lazy, lazy, lazy!

It always seems like a lot is going on, and then, when I am home, I just want to catch up with Jordan or on housework. What's been happening? Well, lots of working and ministry stuff, then one weekend, lunch with some of my favorite ladies, then a girl's night out with my friend Jessy! Sunday, of course, was the Super Bowl. This past weekend, more working and getting together a travel care package for one of my friends that is moving across the country. This Thursday, I am having one of my best friends, Ruth, and her husband of five months, Matt, over for dinner. Hopefully, I can remember my camera and document some of my kitchen adventures. :)

With all of this busyness, the dieting aspect of the challenge has not gone so well! :(  My original thought was to have five to six meals a day for a total of 1200-1500 calories a day. At first, I thought, "This is easy!" But, as usual, life gets in the way, and it's hard to be social when everyone is eating and you're not; however, I did see something today that encouraged me. It said that, while eating less more often works for some people, it does not work for everyone. The key is making smart choices, cutting calories, and making sure that the calories you do eat are the kind of fuel your body needs.

On another note, there is a video I have wanted to share with you all for awhile. It has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but perhaps you will find it as funny as I did. It's good to make fun of ourselves every once in awhile, right?

The Feminine Touch

I was watching TLC's "The Lottery Changed My Life" while doing some laundry today, and this thirty-something millionaire bachelor was showing the cameramen the house he upgraded to. He told them he liked his house--he thought he had made good choices in designing it--and that he was "very neat", but he conceded that it was lacking "the feminine touch". He would gladly have a woman in the house to spruce it up a bit. :)

My house--or apartment, rather--is not fit for a millionaire, but I would like to think that I am learning to add those feminine touches. I have some flower arrangements around our place that I decided to update, and this is what I came up with:

This was something I had in my kitchen with some coffee beans and similar flowers, only in blue. I didn't put them away very well when I decorated for Christmas, and my husband unknowingly threw them away. :) Now this is in my main bathroom that has some orange in it. I like it for the color and for the scent it gives (French vanilla roast!). In the kitchen, the smell of the coffee beans was kind of lost.

Originally, I had one, large, light blue lily in here, but it was starting to fade and I didn't think the color was saturated enough anyway. It's hard to pick up all the different colors in here, but I really like the color and the added fullness of this arrangement.

This is my personal favorite. Again, pictures don't do all of the little color variances justice, but I found this hydrangea and fell in love with it. It took me quite awhile to decide on the filler to go behind it, but I think it really fits together.

I also picked up these but still need to find a shallow bowl for them to go in so they can be the centerpiece on my counter.

On another note, I lost another 1% (yay!) and worked out for three hours and 15 minutes last week! The dieting is going really well during the weekdays, but I will admit that weekends are proving to be somewhat of a struggle. Ah, discipline. :)

Well, It's A Start

I promised you I would update you on our challenge, and update I will. I don't know why, but I have been feeling anti-internet lately, and stayed away from facebook and blogging for the past week. :-/

I have been super excited about one of my birthday presents--Zumba for our Wii console.

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It has been fun and challenging to start working out with this game. It is fun for me to try something that is upbeat and makes me learn new things. And I think that even when (or if) I become competent at the dance moves, I will still enjoy the challenges they give you of "increasing your party energy" to get to the next stage. I am glad to be able to say that I went from zero workouts per week to four. :) I hope that I can stick to that number! For now, I am doing 20-minute workouts, but my goal is to build up to (Oh, Lord, please help me) 60-minute workouts.

I am also "dieting", by which I mean that I am making healthier food choices and decreasing my caloric intake. I abhor diets that completely cut out a food group. Moderation, right? I was hoping to see a decrease of 2% this week, but only saw 1%. ...However, it was the first week, so I am not too bummed. Someone at work told me that I should take measurements of myself so I can see what I lose in inches, which is more telling, but that does not sound like a fun evening activity. :P

How are you all doing on your goals? Having a plan is the first step!

Competition

I have seen a fair amount of resolutions thrown about lately. Some of them are valid and based on real goals that can be accomplished. Many of them stem from truthful challenges. Some are...well, unlikely to be seen through to the end. Personally, I wasn't thinking about any resolutions for this year. While I think that "turning over a new leaf" is a noble sentiment and sometimes needs to be done, I don't like being guilted into things. I tend to make promises to myself that I do not keep and later feel sorry about.

However, we have a little--or not so little--competition starting at work this Friday. The employees within our company have been challenged to a "Biggest Loser" competition!

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Those who wish to participate will "donate" a certain amount of money to "the pot". The winner of the challenge will win the entire collected amount; also, our location is competing with other locations for a supposedly sweet trophy.

I am getting pretty excited about this prospect. If there is anything that I would say I need to work on most, it would be discipline. Discipline in my daily devotions, in my exercise, and in my housekeeping habits. I tend to roller coaster or yo-yo between "running a tight ship" and being extremely lackadaisical. I think it is an awesome reminder that the word "discipline" has the word "disciple" at its root:

dis·ci·pline 

noun, verb, -plined, -plin·ing.

–noun

1. training to act in accordance with rules; drill: military discipline
2. activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training: A daily stint at the typewriter is excellent discipline for the writer.
3. punishment inflicted by way of correction and training.
4. the rigor or training effect of experience, adversity, etc.: the harsh discipline of poverty.
5. behavior in accord with rules of conduct; behavior and order maintained by training and control: good discipline in an army.
6. a set or system of rules and regulations.

First Corinthians 9:24-27 states it this way, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified."

In this chapter, Paul speaks of giving up his rights for the sake of the gospel. He knows that the ultimate goal is to glorify Christ and help people to understand His good news. Here, he uses the analogy of the athlete who sacrifices immediate gain or pleasure for a future goal. So the disciple of Christ must do--learn to exercise self-control toward the distractions of everyday life, preach to himself everyday before preaching to others, and develop a single-mindedness toward his future goal, the imperishable wreath. Which, of course, is the "Well done, good and faithful servant" he longs to hear from his Father.

I plan on participating in this challenge. Every week, I hope to update you on my progress (and I have a lot more to say about that, but I'll save it for another post). But as I discipline my body, I pray that God will use it as a parable in my life as to how I can better run the race He has set before me. I think that is a resolution anyone can make.