Is it just me, or does life itself keep us fit? I as thinking about this as I worked out today...pardon the rambling trail~try to stay with me...
I've been doing the Chalean Extreme program now since September. It's a 90 day program of weight-lifting and cross-training the way the "pros" train. These can be "work until you puke" kinds of workouts. Sometimes I can't brush my teeth because I can't lift my arms. But I LOVE the challenge, and I LOVE to see the results and feel how strong I'm becoming. So, I keep doing it over and over again.
I told Jeff the other day: "Each time I do these workouts I think to myself...'This workout feels different because now that I'm stronger, I hold my posture and positions differently which then makes the exercise even more effective so then I get stronger still!'"
Isn't that just the way life is? We have been woven together by our loving God who designed us in such a way to grow stronger and stronger as we undergo duress so that we come back and can fight again another day.
God didn't just throw WAGR Syndrome in at me and say, "Here you go! Let's see how you handle this!!!" Instead, he gave me a family that had my Uncle Joel...a family that had chosen to take home their baby boy with Down Syndrome even when it wasn't the typical way things were done. I grew up going to my mom's room at Washington, and then Lake Elmo and working and playing with the kids who lived with multiple disabilities. My sister and I danced at the ARC dances with Kyle, Joel, Lisa, Jerri, Alice, Kathy, Mary Kay...and so many more awesome friends.
Stronger...then I was in school, and I was picked on. I was awkward and nerdy and quick to cry~the perfect target. I wanted to leave school. I would wake up in the morning crying because I didn't want to go. I enjoyed talking to my teachers more than talking to the other students because I was scared. I knew I was different. I knew that I wanted to bust out...I wanted to be fun...I wanted to not be awkward, but how do you change the way people already see you?
You become stronger...you go to college and join EVERYTHING! And I did. I tried to go to a school where there would be very few people who already knew me. I didn't want to be the nerd...I wanted to be "fun"! I think I was, too!!! And, having been picked on in High School hopefully helped me become nicer to others~and maybe someday it will help me when I see other kids who are picked on~I can help them realize that there is hope for tomorrow, if they just can get through today.
Stronger...I went to grad school and learned to read statistics and data and lots of research. Well...that certainly helps when learning about WAGR Syndrome. :) Not an accident. Not "for nothing." Am I using my degree? You betcha. Oh, and that's when Jeff and I started dating. So, had I not gone to grad school...would there even be an Evie Jo?
This leads me to one big philosophical point...we are forever in training...we are NOT a product of evolution...I am not something that developed from a blob...I am an interconnected amazing system of DNA and RNA and replication and regeneration. Oh my goodness. God gave me a body that would store fat so I could nurse my baby girl and keep her healthy with my own antibodies~but then when she didn't need that anymore I could lift weights, breakdown muscle, metabolize that extra fat, and then build muscle back up again? Are you kidding me?
I learn more and more every day. And, I become stronger and stronger every day. I am forever in training...mind, body and spirit. Messing up, asking forgiveness and trying again. Learning more about the God who made me, learning about his love for me, and learning how best to serve Him. It's never too late to start getting F.I.T.
