Hello, all! I pray each of you had a wonderful weekend and fantastic fourth last week! Ben and I visited East Texas to celebrate and had a blast of pyrotechnic proportions catching up and working out with friends at our original CrossFit box, Premier CrossFit, where he and I met just fourteen months ago. Needless to say, a LOT can happen in very little time! 😉

Stealing one of the trendy new compound word adjectives, I’m going to dedicate this post to a “Fitspirational” story that I received from one of my book’s editors, Donna. I pray her testimony encourages you or someone you know! Without any further ado, here’s Donna in her own words, edited for space.

I remember you said something about waking up in the morning with sore muscles and being proud of that because you knew what it represented – just a small comment of yours, and it has stuck with me for a very long time. I also remember flipping through your book back when I was promoting you and always wishing I could embrace fitness the way you did, and when you had written your second book, I read most of it to give the company a review of possibly publishing it, and I was inspired all over again.

 Anyway, about a year ago, I found out I was pregnant again. I had just had two miscarriages in a row, so I wasn’t allowing myself to act any differently emotionally. I ate healthy in the interest of giving the baby the best chance, but I wasn’t holding my breath because I had been so emotionally devastated with the loss of two babies, one of which was pretty far along. At about halfway through my pregnancy last year when the heartbeat was still healthy and it looked like we were going to get to keep it (and the “it” turned out to be a “her”), I started being even more conscious of my eating habits. Because of a pinched nerve I had, I was barely able to walk.

I had repeated your words in my head over and over and decided with vigor that when I was done having kids, I was going to get in shape. I don’t care to be skinny, don’t care what I look like, and don’t have rose-colored glasses on pointing me to some faraway future as a physical trainer… What I DID want, was to be able to spring out of bed in the morning with energy, be able to run/jog on a treadmill, use an elliptical machine without tiring out in the first minute, and bulk up the “functional” muscles. You can’t even comprehend the sadness I have experienced seeing my little boy (who is now two years old) run and play and come grab my hand and coax me to come with him, only to see that I could “play” for five minutes and have to recover for three days. It wasn’t a life. My kid needed me to be healthy for him. But since the day he was born I have been perpetually pregnant. Hormones always high causing more and more weight gain, more and more sedentary lifestyle. I have heard a lot of excuses from people who stay unhealthy, but mine was legitimate. Even when I COULD focus on it, my doctor had me perpetually staying away from vigorous exercise because I don’t carry well as a mama (and because, well, DUH, pregnant women shouldn’t exercise vigorously). 

SO:

Here I am today. I’m 59 pounds down (300 to 241, still got a long way to go), and for the first time in my adult life, fitness is feasible. By diet alone, I lost somewhere in the mid-forties. Since then, I have been on the postpartum weight gain train, and I was so determined not to allow it to happen again that I’ve lost an additional 10-ish pounds!

At a time when my body is storing every calorie I eat because of hormones, I’m actually LOSING! I work out at the gym twice a week, I take martial arts  twice a week, and I lift weights at home.

ANYWAY, I said ALLL that to say this: MANY mornings I have awakened and drug my creaky bones and muscles to the crib to take care of Althia and thought to myself that I didn’t need to keep making myself ache. But then… enter Diana: “I’m proud of the burn when I wake up in the morning with achy muscles because I know that the ache is temporary and represents ultimately feeling so much better and stronger in the long run.” I know that’s not exactly what you said, but I can’t remember your exact words. I just remember the logic behind them.

You can’t possibly know how many times I have sat down in a chair lately, laid my hands on my lap, and had to look down, blinking because there is someone else’s legs there now. It’s not even ME anymore! My body is slowly but surely tightening, and it’s worth EVERY MOMENT of the burn and the ache that follows. Each time this happens (happened even yesterday when I folded my arms during a meeting and had to look down and flex my own bicep to believe it was even me), I think, “You’re right, Diana…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much, Donna, for giving me permission to post your amazing story and photos.  Your unyielding resolve to get fit for your children, to care for them with strength, vigor, and vitality, glorifies our own Maker and serves as a beautiful example of Christ-centered fitness. Thank you for sharing this with us!

 

Stay fit, stay faithful ~<3 Di