I could feel the eyes rolling after I posted the picture of my weights at the gym. I couldn't help but post. Working out is my jam. I remember talking to Jackson's teachers before I left teaching and moved to Texas. They could see that I enjoyed doing and being active. They encouraged me to find my thing after we moved. They knew I'd need it; I'd need something for me that challenged and moved me. After three babies, I had to find something for this mama. I've always been active so working out wasn't foreign. I started with a goal to run a half marathon after I had Wyatt and I accomplished that goal. My knees, however, did not want me to keep running so back to the gym I went. Scott and I found a little gym in our community and began working out together. We grew attached to our little gym family and I could not get enough. I enjoyed the challenge and the drive to push myself a little further each time. I was hooked.
I was talking to one of our trainers recently. I felt I had plateaued and needed some advice on how to get over that hurdle. He told me to slow down, add more weight, and don't worry about completing the reps. Well, this goes against everything that I am. I am a completer. I love crossing things off my list. I will make a list after I have completed tasks just to have the satisfaction of crossing those things off the to-do list. Crazy, I know. I am also very competitive. I will never forget the class where I was the first one to complete all our laps. I was high-fiving myself big time that day. I like beating the boys and completing the class before others. I also like to get my workouts done. No time for chit-chat. Get 'er done, I say. This whole concept of slowing down was a huge challenge. I don't do slow. He had a point, though. If I slow down and add more weight I am challenging my body more than rushing through. I will build that good lean muscle enabling my metabolism to work faster and more efficient leading to better results. I knew I needed to slow down but I didn't want to. I knew the pain would lead to the results I wanted. I knew that I didn't need to be concerned with the people around me. What they were doing wasn't what I needed to do for myself. So, I slowed down. I added more weight. And I added Epson salt baths to my regimen. I saw and continue to see results however small they may be.
Doesn't life seem to mimic this sometimes? We want to rush through things to get them done, cross them off the list, avoid the pain. We run our fastest pace to get through the trial. We rush to complete our tasks so we can finally sit down. We scurry our kids to finish coloring the picture with us so we can finish folding the laundry. We dash, bolt, and dart through life never stopping to take in the scene. We speed from task to task surviving instead of living. We sprint through the challenging to get to the light at the end of the tunnel all the while missing the opportunity to strengthen our souls. We run, rush, and zoom never realizing that slowing down may make us stronger, happier, healthier. We jump from one thing to the next missing the opportunity to live the in between. There's blessing there, in the in between. There's grace, beauty, stretching, peace, and pain in the in between that needs to be lived but we are to hurried to bother living that part.
One thing I have learned on my fitness journey is that results don't come from how fast you are. Results come when you push through the pain, when you go when you would rather take a nap or eat a burger, when you slow down doing three good heavy hurtful reps instead of twenty light and easy ones. Life is the same. I see more, experience more, taste, feel, hear more when I slow down and let life unfold slowly. There's something uniquely beautiful when we slow down and let the pain wash over us, let the mundane speak to us, pause in the blessing of the moment. I want to run my race well. My prize doesn't come from how fast I run. My prize comes from how well I run each phase of the journey. I will slow down. I will allow life to happen and unfold in it's time not mine. I will push through the painful moments slowly and with care eyes wide open in awe and wonder as to what I am going to learn this time around. I will pause and admire the beauty that is in my son's face as he concentrates on building those Legos that frustrated him yesterday watching him master them today. I will breath life in; all of it all the time. I won't be in a rush to finish. I will persevere and endure. And at the end of it all, I will receive the prize of a life well lived.
Love & Blessings,
Meg
"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.…" Hebrews 12:1-2
I was talking to one of our trainers recently. I felt I had plateaued and needed some advice on how to get over that hurdle. He told me to slow down, add more weight, and don't worry about completing the reps. Well, this goes against everything that I am. I am a completer. I love crossing things off my list. I will make a list after I have completed tasks just to have the satisfaction of crossing those things off the to-do list. Crazy, I know. I am also very competitive. I will never forget the class where I was the first one to complete all our laps. I was high-fiving myself big time that day. I like beating the boys and completing the class before others. I also like to get my workouts done. No time for chit-chat. Get 'er done, I say. This whole concept of slowing down was a huge challenge. I don't do slow. He had a point, though. If I slow down and add more weight I am challenging my body more than rushing through. I will build that good lean muscle enabling my metabolism to work faster and more efficient leading to better results. I knew I needed to slow down but I didn't want to. I knew the pain would lead to the results I wanted. I knew that I didn't need to be concerned with the people around me. What they were doing wasn't what I needed to do for myself. So, I slowed down. I added more weight. And I added Epson salt baths to my regimen. I saw and continue to see results however small they may be.
Doesn't life seem to mimic this sometimes? We want to rush through things to get them done, cross them off the list, avoid the pain. We run our fastest pace to get through the trial. We rush to complete our tasks so we can finally sit down. We scurry our kids to finish coloring the picture with us so we can finish folding the laundry. We dash, bolt, and dart through life never stopping to take in the scene. We speed from task to task surviving instead of living. We sprint through the challenging to get to the light at the end of the tunnel all the while missing the opportunity to strengthen our souls. We run, rush, and zoom never realizing that slowing down may make us stronger, happier, healthier. We jump from one thing to the next missing the opportunity to live the in between. There's blessing there, in the in between. There's grace, beauty, stretching, peace, and pain in the in between that needs to be lived but we are to hurried to bother living that part.
One thing I have learned on my fitness journey is that results don't come from how fast you are. Results come when you push through the pain, when you go when you would rather take a nap or eat a burger, when you slow down doing three good heavy hurtful reps instead of twenty light and easy ones. Life is the same. I see more, experience more, taste, feel, hear more when I slow down and let life unfold slowly. There's something uniquely beautiful when we slow down and let the pain wash over us, let the mundane speak to us, pause in the blessing of the moment. I want to run my race well. My prize doesn't come from how fast I run. My prize comes from how well I run each phase of the journey. I will slow down. I will allow life to happen and unfold in it's time not mine. I will push through the painful moments slowly and with care eyes wide open in awe and wonder as to what I am going to learn this time around. I will pause and admire the beauty that is in my son's face as he concentrates on building those Legos that frustrated him yesterday watching him master them today. I will breath life in; all of it all the time. I won't be in a rush to finish. I will persevere and endure. And at the end of it all, I will receive the prize of a life well lived.
Love & Blessings,
Meg
"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.…" Hebrews 12:1-2
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