Tag Archives: exercise

The Word of the Day

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If you want to keep moving, you have to keep moving. My determination to be strong and keep moving as long as I can motivates me to really dig in and work out regularly. The trick has always been getting into a habit of it.  Once I do that, the rewards of exercising keep me from wanting to break the habit.

I happily discovered Daily Burn last year when we bought a Roku and dropped cable television. It’s an exercise channel with lots of workout choices, one of which is called DB365: a live workout every day of the year, always new, taught by an array of fun, down to earth trainers who take turns. The energetic, positive host, JD Roberto, does the workout along with the rest of the class which is filled with ordinary people. Through website chat during live workouts, facebook group interactions, Twitter responses, and Instagram posts, DB365 has really connected with its “people” and cultivated a sense of community and fun that keeps us coming back day after day.

Every once in a while they play the “Word of the Day” game. However many times the trainer for that day says the word of the day, Continue reading →

Breakthrough

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I like the band “The Rocket Summer.”  It just so happened that the last two mornings as I drove to work, the iPod on shuffle, I heard one of his songs each day.  This morning I listened to his song that has these words in the chorus:

I need a break, but I’d rather have a breakthrough

Can I say that today?  I definitely have felt like I need a break, or my family does.  Could it be that if we hold out long enough, keep believing through strain that we’ll break through to the next level of growth God planned for us?  Continue reading →

Fighter

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I’ve talked so much about Zumba class and how much I love it that my friends and family are probably tired of hearing it.  Let me just say that God brought it to me when I needed an outlet, some fun, some community, and of course some exercise.

Right now one of the songs we dance/exercise to is Christina Aguilera’s song “Fighter.”  We do some kickboxing during the chorus:

It makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

Christina Aguilera “Fighter” ©2003

She’s singing about someone who cheated on her and did her wrong, but I when I hear those words I usually think of something I’m struggling with (or friends and family are facing) like temptation, feeling down, disappointment, challenges, etc.  Yesterday I was thinking about cancer.  Continue reading →

Strength Training

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Have you never heard?
Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.  Isaiah 40:28-31 NLT

I enjoy working out.  Seriously!  I don’t enjoy running so much, but I like weight training, walking, and most recently Zumba which is basically dancing your rear-end off with friends for an hour at a time to fun, bass pumping music.  Over the years I’ve learned that strength is gained not only in jumping, running, or even necessarily repeating a motion over and over.  Sometimes it’s gained by assuming a position and holding it for a long time, completely still.  Well, almost completely still.  Continue reading →

Days 21/22 – Zumba!

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We walked into the gym greeted by friendly faces.  We were about to try Zumba.  I’d heard so much about it and was dying to see what it was all about.  My daughter and I knew that it involved dancing and probably some hip action and knowing that isn’t our forte made our way to the back row.  The music started, nice and loud with an infectious tribal sort of beat, and we began to warm up following the motions of the teacher way up front.  She stopped after that song and said she couldn’t hear well – the speakers were right over her head.  So she grabbed her stuff and marched through the crowd of ladies to the other side of the room and instructed the group to turn around.  That left Kaitlin and I on the front row!  I think I heard her say, “Oh crap.”   Continue reading →

Snippets

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Just a few recent thoughts…

Last week I went through an awful day of emotion and wrestling with God over the possibility of going to a town or church where I didn’t want to go, where I didn’t think I would be happy, where it wasn’t my “style.”  As I vented to him all the way driving to work, I pretty much heard him say, “So, are you saying you refuse to go if I ask you to go there?  You refuse to obey?”  I remembered that if God’s promises are true, and I believe they are, then going where He says to go will be good in the long run because He promised He has good plans for me and my family.  I also remembered, with his help, that this is not about me!  How many times do I have to learn that lesson?  Sheesh.  I’m sure that is what He is wondering, too.  Just when I think I’ve learned all about surrender, God takes me to a deeper level.  It hurts and it’s hard.  It was a difficult, emotional day but it ended in peace when I finally, in my heart, submitted to Him and said “Uncle” once more.  Whatever you say, God.  Seriously.  I give.   I joked with a good friend that afternoon that sometimes surrender feels like the “S” word to me.  I don’t mean that disrespectfully, just being honest.  Sometimes it stinks (at least it seems to at the moment).  My friend asked, “so what you’re telling me is you’re standing in a big pile of surrender right now?”  We laughed really hard and the day got better from there.

I’ve been thinking more about loving people in their own love language.  Lately God’s been showing me how to love my girls in the way that shows love to them the most.  I’m still trying to figure out one of my girls – I think I know but am not sure.  The other two – I’ve got them nailed.  John and I took assessments this past year and one was the love language profile.  One of my big love languages right now is “acts of service”.  When someone helps me with something it makes me feel loved.  I also love hugs and attention and words of affirmation but at this point in my life, acts of service speak loud and clear.  Once John found out, he’s been helping more around the house and showing more thoughtfulness…and you know what?  It’s true!  I feel so loved and valued by him, more than before.  The biggest reason is that I know he’s doing those things purposefully to show me love, knowing it means something to me.  John’s biggest love languages are touch and time.  I’ve been trying harder to pay attention to him when we’re at home and not get too absorbed in the computer or other things that I just exist in the same house or room with him.   What are the love languages of the special people in your life?  Try to find out and then show them love that way.  Watch what happens!

Yesterday I blogged about this wonderful time of rest God is giving us and how good it felt.  Well, today, I felt restless and kind of weird.  Pesky, fickle emotions!  I think sometimes we rest out of obedience.  God actually tells us to rest and we need to obey, on purpose, and rest…be still.  I feel like He’s telling me that today.  Rest, be still, but don’t just sit there…draw nearer to me, Mimi.  I’m going to work on that.  Wait…wrong choice of words.   I’m going to try more intentionally to just be close, dwell near and in Jesus right now.

What funny, odd, silly creatures we humans are sometimes.

We went to see my grandma on Sunday afternoon.  She was actually pretty perky, sitting up in bed, watching TV.  Rather than greet us when we got there she first asked, “What channel is the game on?”  So we helped her get on the right channel.  She is starting to show some dementia because she asks the same questions from time to time.  She joked about getting her phone and remote (both laying next to her hand on her bed) mixed up and John teased her about pointing the phone at the TV by mistake and accidentally calling someone.  She laughed.  At one point she said, “Too bad I don’t have any games we could play” to which I replied, “That’s okay, Grandma, we’ll just watch the game.”  Then she asked us about our church situation (very coherent and sharp).  John answered her as she turned back toward the TV and seemed to zone out for a moment.  Then she said, “Too bad I won’t have any games for us to play, we could make one up” to which I replied, giggling to myself, “That’s okay Grandma, we’ll just watch the game.”  I love her.  I could just imagine what kind of game that would be.  She’s become thinner and tinier, her blue cowl-neck sweater swallowing up her small shoulders and little frame, but she welcomed our hugs and kisses just as warmly and as we left said, “I love you.”

I better go to bed so I can get up and workout with my Wii coach on the game “Active” which is my new favorite thing.  This simulated personal trainer business reminds me of stuff I saw in Tomorrowland at Disney World when I was younger and thought “Yeah, right, that will never happen.”  🙂

You’re special and God loves you very much.  Good night.

Miscellany

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This morning I forced myself out of bed when the alarm clock sounded.   I planned to get up and jog to start the day but felt like doing anything but jogging.  As I groggily walked to the dresser to get my stuff I argued with myself, telling myself I would feel great when I was done and just to keep moving.    I walked out into a cool, still-dark morning and when I rounded the two-story townhouse building where we live I looked up and saw a deep blue sky not yet faded by dawn, a bright white sliver of a crescent moon with a few twinkling, very bright stars nearby.  How beautiful!  I started off walking, turned on the iPod, started to jog and before you know it I realized I was right:  I felt great!

My middle daughter has been working hard this summer at a nearby grocery and saving just about every dollar toward a used car.  She should get her license this Friday, if she passes the driving test of course.  She has had her heart set on a Geo Tracker as her vehicle of choice and has been looking them up on the Internet, seeing them around town, etc.   When Kaitlin sets her sights or heart on something she has laser focus.  (If only I could get her to set her heart on a 4.0 GPA).  We told her to keep an open mind because it may not be a Tracker that God sends her way but an equally good, reliable other used car.  Well this weekend a church friend called to say one of his relatives is selling a 1997 Geo Tracker wit a soft top (convertible!) – only 70,000 miles, one owner and it’s going for $1200.  Kaitlin just has $1200 in her savings!  Continue reading →