End of Week 5: My Restoration

No, this is not me, but I wanted a picture for this post and I was not going to put one of myself after a workout.  Trust me when I tell you it would not be a pretty sight!  Scary!

I am pulling up on the end of week 5 of my 2013 Physical Restoration.  I am averaging 4-5 mornings in the gym each week for about an hour each workout.  I am actually having a good time and enjoying myself in the gym.  It is my time and my time alone.  I can work as hard or as little as I choose to.  I put my earphones in, turn on my praise and worship music ... every now and then a little country music to get my blood flowing on that elliptical machine...and just concentrate on the music and the workout. 

I now have an app on my phone that lets me track my workouts, set exercise routines, log my stats, and all that good stuff.  It has a huge database of exercises, both machines, body weight, free weights, yoga, and even exercise balls.  It helps me to enter the exercises I have done each day because the app puts a little dot on the calendar that tells me I have worked out that day.  I really like the app.  I am not going to promote the app here today, but might at some point...who knows? 

I am learning to ignore the other people in the gym, but that can be tough when you are as self conscious as I am.  (Maybe sometime I will share why I am so self conscious.)  I do believe if you are already fit and in shape and cut and ripped, or whatever the terminology is, then please do your workouts at a time when you can be among your own kind.  Please leave the 5:00 a.m. time for those of us that are not all cute in our little workout clothes and have a little extra padding and are a little more awkward and less graceful on those medival torture devices they call exercise machines.   I promise you, I believe I am the only person in the gym that sweats.  And the ladies let me down on a daily basis!  I usually end up in the gym with 5-6 men all lifting their heavy barbells and all that stuff.  There are just some exercises and machines I will not do with all those men in the gym....

I have not revealed my weight to anyone and I probably won't.  I do have about 95 pounds to lose to be at my goal weight.  They say that I should be losing 1-2 pounds a week.  Yeah, whatever...I have managed to lose a total of 2 pounds in 5 weeks...but I feel better physically which is the point, right?  I am also beginning to tell that my clothes are a little looser than they have been.  I did read during my exercise research that after beginning an exercise routine it takes up to 6 weeks for you to tell a difference in your body, 9 weeks for family/friends, and 12 weeks for everyone else.  Those stats mean that once you begin an exercise regimen, you need to continue for no less than 6 weeks to keep from becoming discouraged with the results...or lack of. 

I also know that Phillipians 1:6 says:

6 - being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. 

So...this process of restoring my body to a physical state of a healthy dwelling place for the Holy Spirit will be ongoing.  I can get into shape physically, but I will need to continue to rely on the Lord for my nutritional advice, for my training advice, and to encourage me when I begin to get discouraged.  My job is to remain faithful to the commitment I have made and continue in the way the Lord is showing me to improve my health and well being both physically and spiritually.