Got Love? Is it Genuine or just a Second-Hand Emotion?

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love-inspirational-daily
Happy Valentine’s Day! Enjoy your loved ones today…and give yourself a hug too! Whether or not we feel it or believe it, our Creator is LOVE, and LOVE made all things in LOVE and for LOVE. And since we have been created in LOVE, we fulfill our destiny and purpose each and every day when we love the ONE who created us and when we love the OTHERS placed within our lives. Be careful then, how you live and how you love. Is your love life authentic? Or are you loving with the ebb and flow of your emotions? Not sure? Then you might want to review the definition of TRUE LOVE as defined by the AUTHOR of LOVE.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
(from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language)

Keep Love in Circulation

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It’s nearly Valentine’s Day and everywhere we look we are reminded to actively engage our loved ones; whether we buy flowers or candies or cards to express our love, wouldn’t the world be a happier place if we lived ‘in-love’ every day of the year? Is that even possible? I think so…but we have to make loving others our primary intention for every day. Here are some wise words from other’s which can help us to better live our lives in LOVE:

John 3:16 For God So Loved the World That He Gave…

No matter what your idea of heaven is ~ heaven on earth is about love ~ the biggest, most powerful, all-encompassing love you can imagine.
Marci Shimoff from Love for No Reason

For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow.  Antoine de Saint-Exupry, 20th Century French writer and aviator

Love only grows in the world when we all share love. Love only grows by giving, by being broken and given like bread. We all only get more of the lives we want by giving away bits of the lives and love we have.  Ann Voskamp ~ The Way of Abundance

By its very design, the physical heart is made to give and to receive. It takes blood in from the body through one side and then pumps it out from the other, circulating it throughout the body. A healthy and open heart center does the same thing with love. It sends love out into the world and receives it in equal measure; it keeps love in circulation.  Marci Shimoff in Love for No Reason

Where there is love there is life. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

 

Forgiveness…A Repetition Worth Repeating

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This morning I was considering the fundamentals of strength training and how weight training plans are designed to build strength into our muscles and our physical body. Weight training jargon always uses ‘sets’ and ‘repetitions’ to describe how many times an exercise participant should lift, push or pull a given amount of weight to obtain the desired fitness outcome. In weight training, muscles can be trained for power, or strength or endurance. The amount of weight used and the number of sets and repetitions varies depending on the participant’s goal. For some unknown reason (maybe inspiration?) when I thought about how many sets and repetitions are required to build endurance in our muscles, I immediately thought about a question that St. Peter once asked Jesus: “How many times do I forgive my brother who has wronged me? Seven?” (Matthew 18:21-22). In weight training, seven times (or repetitions) is the range that a participant would use to build power in their muscles: fast, ballistic, scary big muscle power. In a sense, Peter was flexing his big, powerful ‘faith’ muscle by suggesting a forgiveness repetition of seven times. He knew it took a lot of strength to forgive the SAME person, for the same transgression, seven times in a row; but his forgiveness building goal was too short sighted. It was a short term goal that could not overcome a long term problem. Jesus wanted to teach Peter something about endurance, because that’s what a repetition range of seventy times seven will build! Those kinds of repetitions are designed to build stamina into our muscles, wherever those muscles are located, body or soul. Realize this: the weight required to build endurance is LIGHTER THAN the weight required to build strength or power. Forgiveness repetitions are meant to be light enough that you can forgive those who transgress against you many, many, many times throughout the days, weeks, and years of your life. Some heavy forgiveness repetitions are required in every life too, but overall, if we practice high repetitions we lay a foundation to build strength into our muscles as well. So the next time you flex and extend your muscles, think about how this translates into your relationships:
FLEXING = receiving forgiveness  ~  EXTENDING = giving forgiveness

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Exercise Intensity…It Matters!

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Seeking the Illusive Runner’s High? Want to lose fat and build muscle?
Then you need to try High Intensity Interval Training  or HIIT.

While it currently might be considered an exercise fad, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has gained merit and momentum in gyms across the country. What is HIIT? It is an exercise format that uses timed intervals for periods of intense exercise together with timed periods of active rest intervals. Often using the principles of circuit training (5-8 different exercises performed in circuit, one after the other) HIIT workouts allow a tremendous about of higher-intensity work to be accomplished beyond what could be accomplished (at the same intensity) in a continuous workout. This translates into several key physiological benefits. First, caloric burn is increased during bouts of high intensity exercise. Second, high intensity bouts of exercise activate fast twitch muscle fibers better than steady state bouts of aerobic exercise. This is especially important to adults aged 40 years and older because as we age these fibers go dormant unless they are actively recruited on a regular basis. And lastly, HIIT does not require special or additional equipment to one’s current exercise routines. Any way you look at HIIT, it increases aerobic and strength fitness levels it a shorter amount of time than a traditional strength or aerobic exercise session.

Here are some safety tips from the American College of Sport’s Medicine when planning your HIIT program:

1. Always warm up before starting intervals and cool down afterward.
2. Be cognizant of your current physical fitness; start conservatively and
gradually progress the work interval intensity.
3. Keep the number of repetitions realistic and gradually build the number
over time.
4. Only modify one variable at a time (e.g., increase intensity or duration but
not both at the same time).
5. Set the recovery interval duration and intensity to allow your heart rate to
come down below 110 BPM.

Here’s an on-line link to 7 HIIT training programs:
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/hiit-workout

Don’t Look Back

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I finished my first half marathon (13.1 mile) race with a smile on my face on March 23, 2014. I can still recall nearly every mile of that event and it was all so magical! That’s not to say that it was an easy run. I was 52 years old and this was my first long distance race. This was a fitness challenge that tested my resolve to finish with every mile that I completed, especially as I neared the last three miles. I had never run 13 miles before race day. The longest run I had completed in my training was 11 miles, and I wasn’t confident that I would be able to run that distance without stopping to walk. The course was indeed challenging; a rolling out and back with few straightaways. I did not bring music to distract myself, only my thoughts…and the two thoughts that kept me plodding forward that day were: don’t look back; cross the finish line. In the year since I’ve completed that race, I continue to use those two thoughts as my ‘living’ mantras, especially when I face the ups and downs of everyday life. I have found the ‘don’t look back’ mantra especially helpful when I am enduring a stressful, over the top work day. Backward glances on difficult or stressful moments, might look or seem like productive conduct to the untrained, but I’ve realized that such behavior uses precious energies (physical and mental) and causes a loss of momentum. The only time I allow myself to go backwards is when I’m aware that I may have breached a relationship with an unkindness. Then I will revisit that event, that place in time and make it right with the one I have wronged.
A backward glance is not usually an action of confidence but rather a movement that symbolizes uncertainty, fear, and anxiety. I cannot change or improve upon the ground that I have already covered…it has passed. I am most productive, most positive, most available to others when I keep my eyes on the intentions I have set my sights on for today. There will be time to review what I have done in the accumulated milestones of today; that time is after I cross the finish line with the setting of the sun. Then I can review, and critique, and plan for the next day’s journey.

It takes more energy to twist yourself around and look back than it does to face forward. Twyla Tharp in The Creative Habit

Philippians 3:13-14  Brothers and sisters, I can’t consider myself a winner yet. This is what I do: I don’t look back, I lengthen my stride, and I run straight toward the goal to win the prize that God’s heavenly call offers in Christ Jesus. (from GOD’S WORD Copyright 1995 by God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society. All rights reserved.)

 

The Hard Work of Recovery – Part 2 – Believe

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A week ago I tackled this topic from the perspective that a period of rest is foundational to one’s physical recovery from the exertion of exercise training. After mulling about this idea for the last few days, some additional perspectives came through and I want to further discuss ‘recovery’ from the perspective of our belief system. When I thought about the word ‘recovery’ I realized that the term usually infers to some sort of trauma or breakdown (in the body or in the psyche); that something has been lost or taken away. And in fact, when we exercise hard, there occurs micro-traumas to muscle tissue. The repair or recovery process of these tissues can only occur when we allow those muscles to rest. This happens when we sleep at night or when we take an active ‘recovery’ day of exercise which does not engage the previously worked muscles with intensity and force. Either way, whether we sleep or move restfully, we allow our body to do the work of muscle repair. What makes recovery hard work? Our belief system! If we think (believe) that a period of rest is going to take something away from us (strength, stamina, athleticism) or that we will be diminished or reduced in body or spirit, then we find it very difficult to allow ourselves adequate recovery time. It is what we BELIEVE about rest and recovery that makes recovery hard work. Our beliefs are powerful; they have the ability to hinder our recovery and our peace of mind. If you can change your  beliefs about the value of your ‘recovery’ periods, then you can and should expect your periods of rest to rejuvenate you in body, mind and spirit.

It’ may look like I’m doing nothing, but at the cellular level I’m really quite busy. ~Roger Ramjet

 

Rules! Rules! Rules!

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Who likes rules? Why do we need rules? What are they good for? Why do we like breaking them? Must we have so many rules? Are we, in this enlightened 21st century still in need of endless lists telling us what to do; where, when and how and why to do something? Have you noticed that no matter your profession or station in life…there are rules (either implied or written) to live by. No matter your age or stage, rules are everywhere erected. If you’re a driver of an automobile, there are rules that govern how you must move your vehicle about the streets. If you engage in sports, there are rules that guide your chosen game of play. If you are a writer, a teacher, a lawyer, an engineer, a scientist, a parent or a child, there are rules for you to behold and live by. If you are the least bit interested in having a healthy body, there are rules that tell you what to eat, when to eat, how to eat, and where to eat. And of course there are rules that tell us how much sleep and awake time we should take as well as how much movement (exercise) we should engage in compared to our non-moving activities. Rules….rules…rules…they are everywhere!
The sheer magnitude of rules must give evidence to the fact that they are necessary and helpful in guiding us how best to live; but honestly, if we believe that rules are so important, why do we take such fiendish delight in breaking them? Ah, this question does strike at the very core of human nature does it not? We crave rules! We want some thing, some one, some code to tell us what is right or what is best in regards to conducting our lives. As much as we like to have choices, we also want security in knowing that a certain decision or behavior is supported by others. As much as we push against rules, we really do seem to need them don’t we? Having rules to live by means that many people down through the ages have thought long and hard about what it takes to make living together in a society happy and safe; whether it be a team sport, or club, or business or? When we look at rule making from this perspective, having rules to live by really does provide us with a sense of security and safety…especially if we know and believe that those with whom we interact also value a shared set of rules. It seems to me that we love rules so much because they show us that we are capable of thinking, perceiving, and reflecting about what matters to us. If we were automatons without intellect, we would have no need for rules. Our existence would be ‘guided’ by lines of code written onto our hard drive memory banks.
So I guess rules aren’t so bad after all. Maybe we should learn to embrace the rules of life with a positive perspective rather than with disdain. Should we try never to break a rule? Probably not…but at least we can appreciate that they are in place to add to our happiness and not take away from it.

“People who play by the Rules seem to bring their luck with them, light up a room when they enter, have more enthusiasm for life, and cope better.”
Richard Templar, in The Rules of Life.

Rule Reading Fun:  The Runner’s Rule Book by Mark Remy
The Rules of Life by Richard Templar

 

No Gym Membership? No Worries!

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You can achieve your weight loss and fitness goals without the expense of a monthly gym membership. Your body on gravity provides ample resistance for you to burn calories and sculpt muscle in as little as 10 minutes at a time. Get out your timer and set it to a 30 second stop/start increment to complete the following 10 minute cardio/strength circuit!
4 – 30 Second sets to Warm Up – Jumping Jacks and/or Jump Rope
2 – 30 Second sets of Walking Lunges
1 – 30 Second sets of Mountain Climbers
1 – 30 Second sets of Push Ups
2 – 30 Second sets of Basic Squats
1 – 30 Second set of Front Plank
2 – 15 Second sets of Side Planks (2 sets each side)
1 – 30 Second set of Mountain Climbers
1 – 30 Second set of Push Ups
1 – 15 Second set of seated Russian twist
1 – 15 Second set of Reverse Crunches
2 Minute Cool Down
2 – 30 Second sets of Bird Dog
2 – 30 Second sets of Walking High Knees

Here is a link to 50 Bodyweight Exercises:
http://greatist.com/fitness/50-bodyweight-exercises-you-can-do-anywhere