Keep the vision in view

The last thing I wanted to do this morning was exercise but I had given myself  a 30 day weight loss challenge and it was just day two!! Day two and I lacked motivation to move!! Then I remembered the reason for the weight loss journey in the first place and this got me off my lazy ****** and back on track.

Sheroes Award night, an annual event organised by the multi talented broadcaster Yemi Adenuga is coming up in October and I want to look my absolute best.

Sheroes 2016

The award night is to celebrate women who inspire,impact and influence in Ireland and beyond in different spheres. Last year was amazing and this year will be more so knowing Aunty Yemi as I do

Yemi Adenuga

I had the perfect dress and have the picture of how I want to look come October 2016 and that "picture" was all the fuel to get me going

Exercise mode

Weight loss experts tell people to have a vision of their anticipated end result for the weight loss journey to be successful. The picture of the end result serves as fuel when you lose motivation, the vision will help you back on track. For me its the silver/black dress in my wardrobe

Hebrews 12: 2 "Looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith". The vision is ahead not behind. It is an onward and forward outlook. So look ahead. Every goal is a future driven event and your vision fuels your goals.
It also pays to write the whys and hows down. These will serve as reminders along the way.
Habakkuk 2:2 "write the vision down; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it".
Don't just envisage the dream run with it!! Bring to life whats on paper! Don't just write it down, Give wings to your dream.
While trying to lose weight for Sheroes night, I am enjoying the daily walk, watching people as they go about their business and getting inspired along the way. These makes it all worth it. Aside your primary motive, as you give expression to your dream you will start to achieve even unidentified lesser goals. Remember its ok to start small and work it up from there. Just never lose sight of the vision. Now time to shed more flabs!

What I wore last year

TIPS TO REMEMBER

• Have a goal
• Picture it
• write it down
• keep it in view
• be committed
• Focus
• Determination
• have a strategy
• have a time frame
• break it into small achievable bits
• run with it
• it wont always be convenient but it will be worth it

Mind your pace

During my morning walk, a young lady jogged past me with such gusto that I literally felt the wind rush past..lol. For a brief moment, I envied her. I wished I could run like she did but I couldn't. I couldn't because of a knee injury I sustained during exercise some years back.

 Any form of serious exercise would be foolhardy  on my part as it would only aggravate my already sore knee.  So you see, I can't run or jog like my 'friend' but I could walk and walk I did! NO EXCUSES!! Imagine my surprise a couple of miles later when I ran into my jogging friend ...Again! Remember she'd jogged past me but fast forward a couple of minutes later  and we meet again. She was running while I walked but we still managed to run into each other. If i'd known I would eventually catch up with her,  I wouldn't have wasted that brief emotion envying her! ....although I was not in competition with her neither she me.  Envying her was not even necessary

 Though we are strangers, the ultimate goal is the same- KEEP FIT. She was jogging her way to a better and healthier lifestyle while I was walking to mine. She might get to her destination faster but as long as I dont give up and maintained my pace, I WILL GET THERE TOO. Life is a journey and all of us are on that journey. While some are walking, others are running, jogging or even sauntering along the way. The most important fact is to keep moving and never forget the destination. Dont get stuck in a rot, keep moving and MIND YOUR PACE.

• Acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses.
• Keep step in tandem with your strength and abilities...yours not another. Remember we are framed /wired differently.
• Don't envy or give room for Jealousy. 
• You are not in a competition with others.
• Your journey is personal 
• Remain focused on your path.
• Mind your pace.
• Make no excuses make use of what you have no matter how little or insignificant it might seem to you..IT MATTERS.

Choose HAPPY.

No, the lady in the first picture is not me. I wish!

The next picture looks more like it..lol.

The battle of the flabs is taking too long abi? I get frustrated sometimes too.

In a bid to shift the belly flab, I went for my normal exercise this morning. Exercise for the body, music for the soul remember? At least according to my Physical Education teacher back in secondary school. I was so engrossed putting one leg after the other that I did not notice the man on the bicycle until he shouted a boisterous greeting that startled me. He rode away barely missing a stride while I mumbled a response in return. With a smile, he busted into an Irish melody and whistled away oblivious to the cold weather.

Many things came to my mind as I continued my walk and top on the list was the whistling stranger.  His high spirits did not match his appearance. He looked very unkempt with very shaggy beards and somewhat dirty clothings. It wasn't a work-dirty look, more like a lack-dirty-look. There was nothing about him to even suggest "secret millionaire", I would have known(I have an inbuilt raider for these things..lol)

He was singing this very catchy lively song but his circumstances was contrary. It didn't matter that the weather was cold and nippy, my new friend chose happy over dreary. He could have chosen to be morose despairing on whatever was wrong with his life but instead he chose to enjoy the day and spread his joy by shouting a warm greeting to a strange woman battling to shed her belly fat. 

This strange encounter reminds me of what scripture says about happiness. It is devoid of the circumstances around us whether good or bad but founded on the truth of God's Word "Whoever trusts in the lord, happy is he"Proverbs 16:20.

 

If happiness was determined by circumstances and stuffs, what poor fellows we are indeed. For such people life will be frustrating because circumstances change. "weeping may last for a night but joy comes with the morning" psalm 30:5. Basing your joy on transient situations is an unstable way to live. So instead of wallowing on what you have or don't have, the storms that are raging in your life, the situations you may not be able to handle at the moment, chose Happy.

I finished my walk with a new bounce to my feet grateful to be alive belly fat or not. Instead of complaining I am spurred to LIVE HAPPY.

Who Knew?

Who knew I would someday be running instead of jogging? Not me? I am the queen of strolling, walking and gliding, NOT RUNNING. As a typical teenager, I did my fair-less than average- share of running during school sports or the few times I was chased by the local dogs in my area but running was never my forte more so since I gained weight. To worsen the situation, I've got skinny legs and a muffin type upper body so my legs just couldn't carry the rest of me...think of an egg on match sticks Despite the afore mentioned, I suddenly found myself running instead of my usual gentle walk in the mornings. So what happened? The transition did not happen overnight nor by magic rather was the result of gradual progress steeped in consistency and determination. More than ever before I'm determined to shed the flabs(my son finds my wobbly stomach funny and tries to hide stuffs like coins in them but after a while it was no longer funny but embarrassing!) . I started with a short twenty minutes brisk walk and the impact on my body felt more like a one hour fighting bout with Mohammed Ali but I was not giving up despite the pain. I didn't mind the temporary discomfort rather started enjoying it as part of my daily routine. Today, I proudly run instead of dragging my feet. Spiritual growth doesn't just happen but like every exercise its a gradual build up before the more tasking routines. The more you pray, the more your faith muscles are built up.Simon peter is one of my favourites amongst Jesus' disciples. He'd been dragging his feet in ministry until he metaphorically started running with the vision. like me peter had a lot working against him. He was uneducated, uncouth and brash with a past filled with noticeable failures. However before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit whereby peter spoke before a teeming crowd and over three thousand were added to the church, he'd stood before a smaller audience in Acts 1:15 "In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty). That small private audience was the training ground for a larger audience. Who knew Peter could ever reach his full potentials, I'm sure he never did but God knew. All it took was for him to embrace the little and it enlarged with usage and time. Don't let your past mistakes and weaknesses hold you captive. If my skinny legs can carry my muffin top, there is so much you can achieve if only you will try.

Journey to a healthier me

I woke up this morning feeling *frisky*(it’s that feeling you feel when...you know what I mean...and Yes! I still have those feelings-I'm human albeit one abstaining from SEX b4 marriage). So I decided to soak this hungry body in a luxurious bath complete with candles. After setting the perfect scene, I got into the strawberry scented bath and bring on heaven! Haaaaa! However, before I could enjoy my much anticipated gratifying soak, I faced two problems. 1. I could barely fit in the tub. 2. There was absolutely nothing sexy or flattering about my folds floating above the water! Seriously. That brief experience dashed my dreams of having a scintillating bath and flushed that sexy feeling right out of my head. I REALLY NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. My excess weight is not only cramping my style but crushing my libido and crashing the fantasy of a SEXY ME. I'd started a journey to a better me last year but my effort went down the drain because I was not serious enough. I completely lost the plot during my visit to Nigeria (I just could not resist my sister-in-law's cooking). Beyond the urgent need to be SEXY again or more importantly fit in my bath tub, I need to lose weight because of my health. I went for a medical examination yesterday and the result was ALARMING. The results showed that I NEEDED to drop a WHOPPING 60kg!!! So right now I'm logging two of me around. I realised my organs were created to carry a single me so the other half is definitely EXCESS LUGGAGE. Today, I have decided to start another journey and this time with the element of COMMITMENT AND SELF RESTRAINT-commitment to my weight loss goals and self-restraint from indulging in every food that catches my fancy. Joel Osteen in a sermon titled "SAY NO TO YOUR FEELINGS" made a cogent point that caught my attention. He said "you can’t follow your flesh and expect victory". Romans 8:8 "Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God".

The truth is you can’t live a victorious healthy spiritual and physical life if you don’t exercise SELF RESTRAINT and be committed to your goals. Jesus achieved his success because he was committed to the vision of reconciling man back to God if not he should have given up and made a dash for his dear life when the first flesh ripping lash landed on his back(I know I would have and would not even look back. Lol) but he was committed that's why he bore the shame and indignity of the cross for you and I. Exercising self-restraint by sticking to a healthy diet and giving up on junk food is really going to be PAINFUL but the end result is so gonna be worth it. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.2 Cor 4:17. So I'm setting aside scriptures to encourage myself on this new journey and enlisting the support of a dear friend (I need an accountable partner with the help of THE HOLY SPIRIT). If Jesus could suffer that brutal beating for the joy of a better glory that was set before him, then I can endure eating less junk and exercising more. Bring on the TREADMILL *SOB*SOB*SOB*....nobody said it’s not gonnna be painful *sob*