Hey, I did it!

Sixty days! I did it!

Saturday I climbed on the treadmill after pick-axing the driveway clear of ice (I've had no time to shovel the driveway since Monday's storm) and, using my fancy new heart monitor I received as a recognition award from work, proceeded to stomp out a good two miles.

With that effort I finished my 60 day task and will soon be off to buy a new bike!!

Woo hoo!

Exercising for the Soul

Last night Caren read an article from the January 2008 Ensign to me. She later did a little write up for her family and I thought I'd share.

[The article ] was a really good one about a woman who had long neglected her physical health and at 120 pounds overweight decided to finally do something about it. Her attitude was right in that she was focused on improving her health and making long-term lifestyle changes, not just losing weight or dropping sizes (though that came eventually too). And over the next few years as she made this physical transformation she realized how much these principles apply as spiritual lessons too. That everything that's true about taking care of our physical bodies is also true about taking care of our spirits.

These are the points that she shared:

• Natural laws govern all things
  
• Pacing yields endurance
  
• Resistance builds strength
  
• Lengthen your stride
  
• Plateaus will happen -- continue anyway
  
• Variety helps
  
• Toning happens through correct form -- not just additional repetitions
  
• Our natural state is not our best state
  

As she discusses each of these things and how they apply to getting in shape physically, she also makes great comparisons with how they apply to getting in shape spiritually.

Over the hump

Three weeks to go to hit my exercise goal.

As I've previously mentioned, I'm not the most consistent person in the world. Generally my efforts in achieving a goal start strong and finish early. Two to three weeks into it and I'm ready to move onto the next big thing.

I guess proper motivation really holds sway for me.

The other night, Caren and I were talking and marveling that this goal didn't end like so many of my other efforts do: prematurely. It's now easy (or at least easier) to exercise than ever before.

A couple of things have contributed to my success:

• Proper motivation(Doesn't everyone say that rewarding yourself is an excellent idea?)
  
• Not pushing myself too hard (it's much easier to want to hit the treadmill when I know I'll feel good afterward)
  
• Focusing on being consistent, and not expecting physical results (which I have seen in endurance build-up. I've seen virtually no weight loss. That's a future goal.)
  

It's been an interesting um... exercise... in goal setting and achieving.