So It Was a Long, Rough Day...

I'm sitting in bed.  It's just past 8:30 and Lena is curled up, asleep, to my right.  She was worn out today.  Lena is such a hard worker and, from what I've seen, does almost everything 100%.  She can be tired early if she needs to.  Sweet thing.



I did *not* feel like working out today.  Actually, I felt kinda whiny, and I wasn't feeling great.  But I went anyway.  Looking at myself in the ladies' room mirror at the gym, I noticed my back fat and love handles poking out, and I did not want to go let everyone see that, but I did anyway.  I was scared because, the last couple of times I've done box jumps, I have gotten hurt... and today's workout incorporated box jumps... but I did step-ups instead... and I did it anyway.

And, when everything was over, I was glad I had gotten out there and sweated my brains out with everybody else.



There are some things I really hate about my body; more, the older I get.  I was thinking about that today, and about how other people at Crossfit don't have those... features, shall we say... and after the workout, when I was putting up my ab mat, I thought, "Well, I'm just going to have to keep working.  Because nothing will get any better if I don't."

Those are true words.



Work was ok today.  I finally felt like I found my groove, and I feel good about tomorrow; I feel positive, like I'm going to get a lot done.  Which is good, because a lot needs to get done!



Today I ate more calories than I burned.  Someone cooked eggs and biscuits and bacon at work this morning.  Even if I didn't say no, I still could have... moderated... and had less... but I had a big spoon of scrambled eggs and two biscuits with jelly.  That threw my whole day off.  I didn't eat *that* many more calories, but it still put me in the hole.  Hindsight, hindsight...

After Crossfit, I had a "FORK IT!!" Smoothie, because I was still over, and I was pissed.  And now I'm working on a can of PBR to properly round out my failed food day.  Ta-freakin-dah.  Tomorrow is a new day, and my Fitbit and I will start fresh.



I like my Fitbit so much.  It congratulates me when I reach even small goals.  I really absorb that; it makes me feel increasingly motivated.

OK.  Time to wind down and get ready to join Lena in the land of sleep.  (Ha - I almost said "the land of Nod" because sleep, nodding off, you know... but I thought I'd better make sure what that meant, and I'm glad I did!  Because the land of Nod is in the Bible as the place to which Cain was exiled after he killed Abel!  Nope, nope, that's not where Lena is, haha...)

She does look so peaceful, though.  I'm glad she's getting a good rest.

Night, all, and have a great tomorrow!

Sunday Afternoon Storytime

Let's read the Bible together.  Okay... I will type it; you read it.  Deal?  Deal.

Oh yeah, and since I get to type, I get to comment along the way.  😄  Alright, here we go!
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II Kings 16

Ahaz son of Jotham began to rule over Judah in the seventeenth year of King Pekah's reign in Israel.

(I am glad my name isn't Pekah... haha...)

Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years.  He did not do what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord his God, as his ancestor David had done.

Instead, he followed the example of the kings of Israel, even sacrificing his own son in the fire.

(SACRIFICING???  his SON????  in the FIRE????????????  Seriously???  Some people are just sick.)

In this way, he followed the detestable

(ya think?)

practices of the pagan nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.

(Right, so... God got rid of these PEOPLE so His PEOPLE could live in their land.  But some of the PEOPLE stuck around when God's crew moved in... and since the PEOPLE remained, so did their PRACTICES.  It's hard to separate the two - people and practices - without something radical and even miraculous.  So the PEOPLE, who still practiced the PRACTICES, influenced God's people, who probably grew curious about all that was going on, tried these practices out, and soon became PRACTICERS of the PRACTICES.

What I'm trying to convey here is... if you want your life to be different, if you want to get rid of something/someone/whatever, and be free of it/them/whatever, then you have to get COMPLETELY RID of everything associated with him/her/it/etcetera.  No reminders, no keepsakes... a true, clean break and a 100% fresh start.

Isn't FRESH a great word?  Like a deep breath of clean, cool air.  I love it.)

He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the pagan shrines and on the hills and under every green tree.

Then King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel came up to attack Jerusalem.  They beseiged Ahaz but could not conquer him.

At that time the king of Edom recovered the town of Elath for Edom.  He drove out the people of Judah and sent Edomites to live there, as they do to this day.

King Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria with this message:  "I am your servant and your vassal.

(OK, dictionary moment... I do not know what vassal means.  Let's see...

vas·sal

ˈvasəl/

noun

historical

1. a holder of land by feudal tenure on conditions of homage and allegiance.

   synonyms:

   serf, dependent, servant, slave, subject, bondsman, thrall, villein; More

   • a person or country in a subordinate position to another.

     "a much stronger nation can also turn a weaker one into a vassal state"

Okay, got that... moving on...)

Come up and rescue me from the attacking armies of Aram and Israel."

Then Ahaz took the silver and gold fro the Temple of the Lord

(*raised eyebrows*???)

and the palace treasury and sent it as a payment to the Assyrian king.

(In other words, I guess he was saying, this is my last option; I'm all in.  I am at your mercy.  Here is all I have; please help me.)

So the king of Assyria attacked the Aramean capital of Damascus

(I learned that Damascus is in Syria nowadays... that was just interesting to me...)

and led its population away as captives,

(Dude led an entire city's POPULATION away as captives!  He wasn't playin'.)

resettling them in Kir.  He also killed King Rezin.

King Ahaz then went to Damascus to meet with King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria.  While he was there, he took special note of the altar.  Then he sent a model of the altar to Uriah the priest, along with its design in full detail.

Uriah followed the king's instructions and built an altar just like it, and it was ready before the king returned from Damascus.

When the king returned, he inspected the altar and made offerings on it.

He presented a burnt offering and a grain offering, he poured out a liquid offering, and he sprinkled the blood of peace offerings on the alter.

Then King Ahaz removed the old bronze altar from its place in front of the Lord's Temple, between the entrance and the new altar, and placed it on the north side of the new altar.

He told Uriah the priest, "Use the new altar for the morning sacrifices of burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king's burnt offering and grain offering, and the burnt offerings of all the people, as well as their grain offerings and liquid offerings.  Sprinkle the blood from all the burnt offerings and sacrifices on the new altar.  The bronze altar will be for my personal use only.

(I wonder what deeper meaning there might be, underneath the surface of that story.  Nothing is jumping out at me, but I have a strong curiosity.  Hmmm...)

Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz commanded him.

Then the king removed the side panels and basins fro the portable water carts.  He also removed the great bronze basin called the Sea

(Solomon had that installed and now this guy is changing it up?  That just doesn't sit right with me.)

from the backs of the bronze oxen and placed it on the stone pavement.

(He put it on the FLOOR????  Holy smokes, Batman!!)

In deference to the king of Assyria, he also removed the canopy that had been constructed inside the palace for use on the Sabbath day, as well as the king's outer entrance to the Temple of the Lord.

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So that's the end of this chapter.  I hope the story carries on in the next chapter, because I want to know what happens and if there are any repercussions for his... remodeling... of the Lord's Temple!  The whole concept makes me feel very anxious.

God's word is full of good cliffhangers to keep us reading, huh!

Hope you keep reading, too!

Body, Mind and Spirit

Okay, so this is where I am, currently:

Body:  I have recently purchased a new Fitbit which is helping me to set goals, monitor my eating and stay active.  I have been to Crossfit 5 days this week.  I'm trying to put in effort.

But the fat is a stubborn adversary.  I want the fat to GO AWAY!!  Yet it remains.  Doggoned codependent fat, I detest you.

One thing I believe I have heard my coaches say about Crossfit is, you don't gauge your fitness by numbers on the scale.  This is because you are gaining muscle, and muscle is heavy.  Instead, you judge by how your clothes fit and how you feel about your body.

In Fitbit land, I set a goal to lose 15 pounds over a reasonable period of time.  This week, I have been excruciatingly careful about my calorie and water intakes... yet I gained 3 pounds.  Kind of discouraging, but may I refer you to the paragraph just above this one... so anyway, this morning I am doing a little research and am about to copy and paste random lines from random websites that I find interesting/inspiring/potentially helpful.

Here goes:

Keep carbs low-ish much of the day, but use carbs before and during workouts. 

You can increase the amount of brown (good) fat you have by working your butt off. Similarly, you can activate brown fat by eating spicy foods and getting some sun.

Lifting heavy and lifting often is a given if muscle building is your goal, but if you're a fatty you need to take a slightly different approach than the 150-pound scrawny kid. High-volume training that keeps your heart rate elevated is perfect for guys (and girls) who lean more toward the endomorph somatotype.

(Okay, for all our benefits, let us now define endomorph somatotype, because that, at present, resides outside my realm of knowledge...)

• Endomorphs, on the other hand, have lots of body fat, lots of muscle, and gain weight easily. "Football lineman tend to be endomorphs -- they're heavier and rounder individuals," says Colby. "And they don't have to necessarily be overweight. Both Oprah Winfrey and Marilyn Monroe are classic examples of endomorphs."

Marilyn Monroe?  Cool- I can dig it.  Okay, continuing...

The absolute immutable truth about meaningful weight loss…as demonstrated by thousands of controlled weight loss trials conducted over the last 100 years…is this: you must burn more energy than you consume.

Ok... the Fitbit app has me on a program to burn more calories than I eat... which is surprisingly easy to stick to, once you're motivated.

Every day your body moves in and out of postprandial and postabsorptive states, storing and burning fat.

This is why meaningful fat loss requires that you burn more energy than you eat.

Okay, got that.  A peek inside my world, here is my Fitbit heart rate

This says to me, my fat-burning heart rate starts at 89 bpm.  So I need to get (and stay) "there" as much as possible.

Continuing...

When you’re restricting your calories to lose fat, you must ensure you’re eating enough protein.

Some form of cardio should be done 3-6 days per week, and alternated between longer, slow-duration cardio and HIIT cardio. Walking on a slight incline for 45 minutes is an ideal form of the longer-duration cardio which should be performed on weight-training days (up to 3 times per week). Sprinting outdoors and cycling are ideal forms of HIIT cardio which should be done on weight-training off-days (2-3 times per week).

(So... maybe I need to alternate cardio days with Crossfit days?  Something I need to talk to Amber about.  Mental note...)
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Next... MIND... my mind is wack, jacked and cracked a lot of the time, lately.  I have trouble with my attention span lasting as long as I need it to, like for my job, and I forget things if I don't write them down.  Also, I often find myself standing frozen with my mind off in daydream land.  Like, standing in at the bathroom sink... for not too long of a time, but then I "come back" to myself and spend a moment wondering why I am standing there in the first place... oh yeah, I was going to grab the toothpaste... I do that pretty often.

Y'all know I am a aware of my heightened predisposition toward developing Alzheimer's one day.  Yeah, kinda freaked/scared about that.  But seriously... I am FORTY-ONE years old.  Jiminy Christmas.  I hope I don't psych myself into that state because (admittedly) I do obsess over it somewhat.  Meh...

Honesty, y'all.  Maybe I share it too much sometimes, but this is just me.

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SPIRIT:

My spirit is learning and, hopefully growing.  In my quest to read through the whole Bible, I have made it to II Kings chapter 13.  So, I feel I am learning from reading about the lives of others, and how God was active in their lives.

I have been feeling a desire to worship more.  I have incorporated a little more worship into my days.  However, I still feel like I need to set aside some focused, mindful worship.
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So, that's me lately!  Hope all of you are learning, growing, and not shrinking away from challenges but facing them and chipping away at obstacles with tenacity!

Take care and God bless you - deeply and enormously  💞