It's almost Wednesday, but I couldn't let "Training Tuesday" go by without a quick update and a few thoughts. You'll remember that last week we decided to hike the Grand Canyon in April and so I began training in earnest.
I have to admit, I felt kind of ornery the first couple of days. I didn't really want to put extra effort into training. I didn't feel like walking on the treadmill and bumping up the incline to 10 or 12%. It didn't feel good! I didn't feel like drinking mostly water and staying away from Pepsi. I didn't really want to walk up and down the stairs until I was out of breath. But I did it all anyway.
I huffed and puffed on the treadmill and tried to eat less sugar and drink more water. I did exercises to strengthen my core and I even worked a little more on the weight machine (something Gary has been urging me to do for a long time).
On Monday morning I weighed myself with the WiiU and braced myself for no change or even a slight weight gain (all of that flab turning to muscle, you know?). Imagine my delight when this result showed on the screen: I lost 2.9 pounds in one week! This surprised me, especially after no exercise on Saturday aside from walking around at Blake's district speech contest for part of the day. For supper I ate a large order of onion rings at Culver's and then made the mistake of buying a package of mini powdered sugar donuts on the way home (the rest of the family helped, but I ate most of them by Sunday evening).
Anyway, I was happy with my weigh in, and all of the work suddenly seemed worth it. It's still tough, but when I know results like that are possible, I can endure a little pain. As I think about it, I'm wondering if this was a little gift from God to encourage me as I begin this training journey. I'm not expecting a drop like that every week, but I'll keep making healthy choices and see where it goes from here.
One thing I noticed (and I'm assuming that others struggle with this, too) is that I got a little discouraged a few times when I compared myself with my hubby. He trained for most of this week by wearing a backpack (with a big jug of Canola oil in it) while he was on the treadmill. He walked for 35 minutes straight...at 3 mph...at a 12% incline...without holding onto the handrails.
I can't do that. I tried the backpack full of Canola oil for a day or two but I was trying to go too fast and I noticed my back feeling weird after the second time. Since I had back surgery last May, I decided I'd better drop the pack and try just walking first. Maybe I'll work up to that in a month or so.
In exercise or any other area of life, we cannot compare ourselves to others. It just discourages us and plants seeds of resentment toward someone we think is better than we are. We just need to do the best we can and seek to improve in the things we're working on. Also, we can't try to improve in everything at once! Pick a few things and concentrate (dare I say, "focus?") on those areas first.
I'm a little sad to not have much to report on my spiritual training, but I have been thinking about it all week. It's not that my relationship with God is bad, not at all. I love Him and He loves me, but I'm trying to figure out what I should be doing right now. Just reading a chapter of the Bible at bedtime and doing devotions with the family at the supper table doesn't seem like enough somehow. Next Monday night I'll be starting a Bible study with a great group of women from church. We'll be doing a video study of Lysa TerKeurst's book "Unglued." Maybe that will get my spiritual muscles pumping again.
Please comment if you have any suggestions or questions about training. I'd love to pray for you if you're training for something specific (physically or spiritually). Keep on keeping on! ~Robyn
No comments:
Post a Comment