Most people would probably agree that food can be good (as in natural, healthy). Some might question my use of "evil" as a modifier for food. Read on and see if I don't make believers of you...
After a morning of working feverishly to complete last-minute, under-the-gun details for Spa Day (ahhh, wonderful grace-filled Spa Day), I threw on some clothes and rushed out the door for a meeting with my pastor. Along the way, I dashed through the McDonald's drive-through to get my " need it in a pinch" moderately healthy stand-by: a grilled chicken sandwich and a fruit and yogurt parfait. By the time I pull into the church parking lot, I was famished and I almost tore into the bag to devour the meal right there in my car. But then it occurred to me that it would be much more enjoyable to savor this inside at my desk. Almost panting from hunger, after I got into my office I opened the bag and saw, to my horror, A BIG MAC and LARGE FRENCH FRIES. Maybe this isn't on the order of serial-killer evil, but I challenge anybody to argue that sandwich wasn't malevolent and sinister. (OK, maybe a bit exaggerated, but then again you didn't hear it whispering sweet love murmurings as it tenderly, craftily wooed you with its seduction.)
Even in small matters such as this, grace is so prevalent. Just as I decide to trash the bag of vile food, my neighbor's son walked in with my weekly delivery of locally grown produce. (I had to google some of the green leafy mystery plants. I mean, really now, does anybody know what Swiss Chard looks like? And mother, if you are reading this, dad was right, turnips are delicious. He was right that all your veggie soup needed was the addition of a few root vegetables!) It was surreal looking at that basket brimming with nature's goodness juxtaposed against a grease-soaked bag of "food". I popped a juicy strawberry in my mouth and slam-dunked that soggy bag of goop into my wastebasket.
And that's my tale of good triumphing over evil. Small victories, people, small victories.
PS I am soaked in grace when it comes to overcoming temptation. Last Sunday, I was headed to the Family Life Center for the Senior Banquet when I got locked out of the church in the interior courtyard far away from the festivities. I sat there for one hour and forty minutes! dreaming of the hot dogs and hamburgers that everybody else was happily devouring while I sat desolate, alone, and barely alive in that dreary courtyard. While I wasted away, they were feasting on sheet cake and God only knows what matter of delicacies. By the time somebody happened along and found me (Jim, you are an angel!), not a scrap of food remained. I went home and ate salmon and a salad, and called myself "blessed".
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Intoxicating Grace
Some very good things that are happening in my life right now related to my journey towards better health and well-being:
1) Tomorrow I finish with therapy for the lymphedema! My lower legs are smaller than they have been in ten years. I have shin bones! Really. It's true. They are beautiful! AND if that isn't good enough, I wore shoes today for the first time in about 8 months! Glorious, glorious, glorious shoes off-the-rack from the store.
2) I'm getting a 1/2 bushel of organically-grown produce once a week from a nearby farmers co-op. Every week, we pick up the produce at a drop-site in a nearby neighborhood. There is something primal about this and I feel this odd connection with ancient ancestors who foraged for herbs and berries. It is so cool to eat what nature is producing during any given week. Straight from the ground without preservatives,waxing and trucking across the country. In the past few days I have eaten fresh spinach, baby lettuce, breakfast radishes, green onions, strawberries, lemon balm, basil, oregano, and some other delicious green things that I couldn't identify! From the grocery, I've also had sweet potatoes, white potatoes, honeydew, apples, oranges, bananas, cabbage, avocado, peppers, cucumber, blackberries, raspberries, and carrots. I'm rounding out my diet with yogurt, peanut butter, 9 grain bread, oatmeal, salmon, and chicken. (Oh, and not to forget fairly frequent grilled chicken salads or sandwiches from fast-food joints.)
3) I am exercising for 60 minutes a day, 9 days out of 10! I've exercised more in the past 2 months than I did in the previous 5 years combined.
4) Spa Day. Ahhhh. Spa Day. There aren't enough words to describe the JOY I've experienced in planning this ministry event. As I'm beginning to recognize (finally) that my body is the glorious temple that it is, I'm so excited to share this perspective with other women. The synergy of taking care of myself while planning this event has been intoxicatingly wonderful.
These first few months of 2009 have been some of the most special of my life. Made all the more special because this comes on the heels of a very low valley. Grace so concentrated that my spirit is dazzled. Did I mention I wore shoes today!!!! Grace, I'm telling you, pure, pure grace.
1) Tomorrow I finish with therapy for the lymphedema! My lower legs are smaller than they have been in ten years. I have shin bones! Really. It's true. They are beautiful! AND if that isn't good enough, I wore shoes today for the first time in about 8 months! Glorious, glorious, glorious shoes off-the-rack from the store.
2) I'm getting a 1/2 bushel of organically-grown produce once a week from a nearby farmers co-op. Every week, we pick up the produce at a drop-site in a nearby neighborhood. There is something primal about this and I feel this odd connection with ancient ancestors who foraged for herbs and berries. It is so cool to eat what nature is producing during any given week. Straight from the ground without preservatives,waxing and trucking across the country. In the past few days I have eaten fresh spinach, baby lettuce, breakfast radishes, green onions, strawberries, lemon balm, basil, oregano, and some other delicious green things that I couldn't identify! From the grocery, I've also had sweet potatoes, white potatoes, honeydew, apples, oranges, bananas, cabbage, avocado, peppers, cucumber, blackberries, raspberries, and carrots. I'm rounding out my diet with yogurt, peanut butter, 9 grain bread, oatmeal, salmon, and chicken. (Oh, and not to forget fairly frequent grilled chicken salads or sandwiches from fast-food joints.)
3) I am exercising for 60 minutes a day, 9 days out of 10! I've exercised more in the past 2 months than I did in the previous 5 years combined.
4) Spa Day. Ahhhh. Spa Day. There aren't enough words to describe the JOY I've experienced in planning this ministry event. As I'm beginning to recognize (finally) that my body is the glorious temple that it is, I'm so excited to share this perspective with other women. The synergy of taking care of myself while planning this event has been intoxicatingly wonderful.
These first few months of 2009 have been some of the most special of my life. Made all the more special because this comes on the heels of a very low valley. Grace so concentrated that my spirit is dazzled. Did I mention I wore shoes today!!!! Grace, I'm telling you, pure, pure grace.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Come on, Ol' Grandma
Back when I was a child, my body always seemed to betray me. The other kids could easily skate down the neighbor's steep driveway while I was lucky if I landed on my bottom instead of my knees. Other kids would sail up the hills on their bikes while I'd get off and walk. Oh, and the worst betrayal of my body by far was its performance in gym class. Gymnastics... torture. President's Physical Fitness testing... worst torture of all.
I always threw up on days when we were tested on the 600 yard dash. Not from the physical exertion, but from knowing that I was about to fail miserably. In the 6th grade, most of my classmates had already finished the run when one other girl and I still had 200 yards to go. As we entered the last lap, she looked at me as if to say, "I am SO not running this lap with a loser like you!", and she took off leaving me gasping for air, and struggling to walk/jog the remaining 100 yards. My gym teacher, Mr. Mac, a burly former football player/military type, had little use for the weak kids, least of all for me. He started loudly chanting, "Come on, Old Grandma". One by one, my classmates joined in until I staggered across the finish line to about 50 voices jeering me in unison. (Lest you think he was a total monster, he didn't know I had an underlying, then-undiagnosed, neuromuscular disease, and who knows? maybe his taunts were motivated from a desire to spur me to become more physically fit. Mr. Mac, wherever you are, I forgave you a long time ago.)
In many ways forgiving Mr. Mac has been a much easier journey than forgiving this traitorous body of mine which never allowed me to just be average... normal. Never allowed me to be the athlete that I secretly desired to be.
Never, that is, until a few weeks ago! Climbing onto my Nustep exerciser has opened a new world to me. How utterly ironic that the lowest physically fit level of my entire life would open doors to being the athlete I always have wanted to be. Relatively speaking, from where I started to where I see it may be possible to go, a minor (?) miracle is at work. (Tennessee is ranked 47th of all the states based on percentage of the population who exercise at least once a month. Here I am a seriously disabled, overweight Tennessean who is overcoming the odds by finding a means and the discipline to exercise, and combining that with very healthy eating!)
Tomorrow marks 8 weeks since I started using my Nustep exerciser. I'm continuing to increase the resistance level, length of the workout, and speed at which I cycle.
8 weeks ago: 20 minutes, level 4-5, about 70 steps/minute.
This week: 60 minutes, level 7, about 140 steps/minute!
My personal best this week was on Wednesday: 100 minutes, level 7, 13,300 steps, 520 calories burned.
I'm acquiring some serious muscles in my upper arms and legs. I'm perspiring! Tightening abdominal muscles. And I'm having a ball! I close my eyes and it feels l like I'm soaring around that elementary school running track, and instead of jeering classmates, I have all of you cheering and high-fiving me as I smile a face-splitting grin while crossing the finish line.
There's just one thing left to say in this post: "My dear wonderful body, I forgive you and I ask you to forgive me for not recognizing before now what a treasure you are."
I always threw up on days when we were tested on the 600 yard dash. Not from the physical exertion, but from knowing that I was about to fail miserably. In the 6th grade, most of my classmates had already finished the run when one other girl and I still had 200 yards to go. As we entered the last lap, she looked at me as if to say, "I am SO not running this lap with a loser like you!", and she took off leaving me gasping for air, and struggling to walk/jog the remaining 100 yards. My gym teacher, Mr. Mac, a burly former football player/military type, had little use for the weak kids, least of all for me. He started loudly chanting, "Come on, Old Grandma". One by one, my classmates joined in until I staggered across the finish line to about 50 voices jeering me in unison. (Lest you think he was a total monster, he didn't know I had an underlying, then-undiagnosed, neuromuscular disease, and who knows? maybe his taunts were motivated from a desire to spur me to become more physically fit. Mr. Mac, wherever you are, I forgave you a long time ago.)
In many ways forgiving Mr. Mac has been a much easier journey than forgiving this traitorous body of mine which never allowed me to just be average... normal. Never allowed me to be the athlete that I secretly desired to be.
Never, that is, until a few weeks ago! Climbing onto my Nustep exerciser has opened a new world to me. How utterly ironic that the lowest physically fit level of my entire life would open doors to being the athlete I always have wanted to be. Relatively speaking, from where I started to where I see it may be possible to go, a minor (?) miracle is at work. (Tennessee is ranked 47th of all the states based on percentage of the population who exercise at least once a month. Here I am a seriously disabled, overweight Tennessean who is overcoming the odds by finding a means and the discipline to exercise, and combining that with very healthy eating!)
Tomorrow marks 8 weeks since I started using my Nustep exerciser. I'm continuing to increase the resistance level, length of the workout, and speed at which I cycle.
8 weeks ago: 20 minutes, level 4-5, about 70 steps/minute.
This week: 60 minutes, level 7, about 140 steps/minute!
My personal best this week was on Wednesday: 100 minutes, level 7, 13,300 steps, 520 calories burned.
I'm acquiring some serious muscles in my upper arms and legs. I'm perspiring! Tightening abdominal muscles. And I'm having a ball! I close my eyes and it feels l like I'm soaring around that elementary school running track, and instead of jeering classmates, I have all of you cheering and high-fiving me as I smile a face-splitting grin while crossing the finish line.
There's just one thing left to say in this post: "My dear wonderful body, I forgive you and I ask you to forgive me for not recognizing before now what a treasure you are."
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