Lessons from Week 1

I am still alive!! In the middle of last week I wasn't sure that was going to be the case! The thought of having to go to the bathroom about sent me to tears because my legs hurt from all the squats that we had been doing. But oh no, the bathroom is inevitable due to drinking an entire inground pool of water each and every day! I have never become so intimate with my water closet in my entire life. I contemplated just bringing my pillow one night when I was up for the 4th time. (Sorry to be so personal)

There have been several lessons I have learned this week that I would like to share with you guys.

Lesson 1: My idea of a piece of chicken and the 'Plan's' idea aren't the same. I am not sure where they are getting their chickens but these chickens are also on a meal plan, that is all I have to say. I have often tried to get a vision of the actual chicken that had this kind of breast --- well let's just say I would have recommended an implant of some kind.

Lesson 2: Getting up and down off of a gym floor is not one in my repertoire. I have known for quite sometime that I am a systematic kind of person. Even back in the day when I taught aerobics we did all our standing items/stretches, then went to the floor completed all of those items and then gradually came back to standing for dismissal. NO, for those of you who are wondering, that is not the way of this wave of exercise. We are on the ground, then stand up do something, then back to the ground but then hopping up in one swoop -- Jesus take the wheel and drive my tail back to the 90s.

Lesson 3: I feel stronger! Not sure if this is a genuine measure of strength or just in my head but my muscles have awakened from their 16 year hibernation and have thanked me for movement. I have conquered some mental mountains as well as the big hill in my neighborhood that I walked UP on Saturday. Now I am not going to tell you the conversation that went on in my head in order to accomplish that one!

Strength comes in different forms. Am I physically stronger, I think yes, even after one week. But more than anything else I am becoming mentally stronger, emotionally more resilient, and definitely spiritually awakened. With each step in the right direction whether uphill or down I am moving to become a person of strength. I have come to realize that the bravado in which many of you saw as strength was actually some compensation so you would not see my weaknesses. Not to say that I do not have areas of strength but my over compensation in many areas was to disguise or divert attention from what was really happening on the inside.

Ultimately my strength can only come from the Lord (Psalm 118:14) Each day as I fold back the layers of this journey, facing many of those giants of my past and my present it is only by His hand holding me up that I am able to say:

But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. 
 2 Timothy 4:17

Not only is the Lord supplying my strength but He has a purpose for me beyond this adventure that I need to fulfill. I shared with a friend this week that I feel as though I am in bootcamp. I have absolutely no military knowledge but to my understanding once you survive bootcamp then you receive your assignment. I am in bootcamp. It is grueling at times, I don't like it, it is hard, I think very not nice things about the trainer, but ultimately I know that I will be given an assignment that I need to fulfill from this training. This training is making me able to do what I am called to do. I don't know what that is but I trust the one Who is assigning it to me.