Forgiveness

Without forgiveness life is governed by...an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.

- Roberto Assagioli

I got this quote this morning in my inbox from SparkPeople.com, a really useful resource tool for weight loss. I thought it was interesting and timely (nothing happens for no reason in my life, I'm telling you!) considering that I spent much of the day yesterday reading through my blog on SparkPeople. There are at least three major "start overs" since 2006, where I've dropped off on my journey but come back with a renewed vigor. There is a lot of "I can't believe that I let myself down". There is a lot of really good, inspirational stuff there, too. A lot of methods that worked that I had forgotten about. Goal setting week by week has really helped, etc. The fact of the matter is that while I was reading through all of the "I've really let myself down", and "I can't believe I did this to myself... again!", and then even the more positive messages that I was writing for myself, one thought kept running through my mind... Fall down seven times, get up eight.

I think that is probably the mantra of my life, and probably what I should have named the blog. Fall down seven times, get up eight. Particularly in this venue in my life, as long as I keep trying, I get credit. And so, with that in mind, I got a 3 mile workout in last night with one of my Leslie Sansone DVDs -- I almost fell prey to many of the issues that impede my workout - sometimes there is a lot of work to do in the barn and I don't get a chance to do much to myself until quite late at night. Last night, for example, we were drenching sheep and lambs and it was about 9 when I got into the house - too dark to go for a run AND nobody had had supper yet, plus I had to do a load of laundry.

The first thing I did was get on my workout clothes. I find if I am at least in my clothes, I have less of an excuse, and I feel silly putting them on and then NOT working out. Then I put on the DVD and let it sit at the splash page so Leslie was watching me as I started the washer filling, put on supper, filled the washer with clothes - by that time, supper was mostly cooked so I could turn the stove and the Foreman grill off and let it finish itself with the residual heat while I got my workout started. Reasonable compromise, I think! And I felt pretty dang good even though I was seriously dragging at the end of it, and sweating like crazy! Funny how I look at sweat like an accomplishment now, and before, I didn't like sweating at all, and that was part of my aversion to exercise!

In other brief news, I feel like my clothes are fitting too tight lately, and my face looks like a teenage boy's. Also, G has lost something like 11lbs in the last couple of weeks so I need to seriously step up my game!