Lesson 24- Walk It Out
I haven’t written a fitness blog in a long time. My guess is that you may have noticed this and wondered what is up? The reason is I have not had much to say, not a lot of new lessons really. However, I do not want you to mistake my silence for apathy or lack of motivation. Quite the contrary, I am more motivated than ever to take my life back. The momentum is driving me forward. I do not quit. I do not give up. For any reason. Period. I have my good days and bad days like everyone else, but I have found that if I keep going they all even out sooner or later.
Yesterday I had a moment. One of those I get sometimes while huffing and puffing on the jazzercise floor. First, I must tell you that when I go to work out I give it all I’ve got. And though I have lost nearly 70 lbs., I still have a ways to go. And since I am pushing around probably 50 more pounds than most of the ladies in the room, I have to work harder to make my body cooperate. I am better at the moves, but still feel that what happens in Jazzercise should stay in Jazzercise. Let’s just say that getting this body to move like Brittany is not pretty in any way, shape, or form. Not only that, most of the time it is painful for this old body to try, and between that and the extra skin now hanging off of me I resemble a flying squirrel who could glide just by lifting my arms up. All the flopping, and jumping around is humorous to watch I am sure, but I am determined to do what is best for my body no matter how unbecoming it may be to see.
So back to my moment. It was a leg song. I hate those. After the first minute of lifting and lifting and lifting, the Charlie horses start. My instructor (love you Sonya) smiles as if we are all having tea. The cramps move from my hip to my butt causing me to feel as if someone has twisted my muscles into knots. I want to either scream or stop…or both. But of course, I do not because this is supposed to be what “helps” my muscles, so I push to keep going. Then comes the part of the song where we do a downward dog. Let me just say that when I first started, I could not even do this move. Now I put my arms out in front of me, like a push up only with my butt in the air. My legs are up under me, and I look like an inverted V. Then the song (I have no idea the name of it) says, “Walk it out” over and over while I bend my knees like I am walking. This causes my calves to stretch as well as my hamstrings. It relieves the Charlie horses and actually feels good, until we go back to the dreaded lifts. This “fun” repeats itself several times on both legs until they are like jelly and nearly impossible to stand on. My moment came in the stretching, “Walk it out” part of the song. I heard it again and again…only it had a new meaning other than just lyrics while pushing through the pain of the moment.
It is my latest fitness lesson. Walk it out. I am to the place where I know what to do. I have had wonderful new revelations along this journey. My mind has been transformed as much as my body has. I have fought to take my life back. I see everything in this new light and I know that I am living it by the grace of God. Now, it is a matter of walking it out. Doing what I know to do. No excuses…just walk it out. If I keep going, the weight will eventually come off. If I keep going the medicines will drop away. If I keep going my energy level will continue to climb, even as my ability to be active increases. All it takes is walking it out.
The life lesson is similar. Do what you know to do. Live the life God has put in front of you. Embrace it and walk it out. If he has said to go, you go…take the steps. If he has said to sit and wait on him…do it. Walk it out. The life you have been given has a purpose, and when we watch from the sidelines instead of chasing the passion he put within us we will not live our best life. Walking it out, in the pain, and in the triumph, in the fear and in the victory will transform us. We know the truth. We know what he has spoken to our hearts. Now it is simply a matter of walking it out.