Day 5

Day 5- 1/5/2010

The Heart Part:

“The way you see your life shapes your life.”

How you “picture” life is your life’s metaphor. Remember in my first entry that I said I was a pessimist? I try not to venture to dark places, but with this life’s metaphor challenge, I must admit, I did. I’m not proud of this, but here is my life’s metaphor:

I picture life as a dark valley with things always lurking in the shadows. Those things are pain, failure, disappointment, fear, etc. The lurking issues never hurt me, they just scare me. There are bits of light… fragments here and there, in which I stand. But the darkness is always close. I see myself enjoying the warmth of the light, but never the security. For there, at the edge of the light is the darkness, waiting for me. And I know at any moment I could be thrust out into it. And sometimes, to get to the next bit of light, I must walk through the darkness.

Downer, huh? I know! Wow, it’s amazing what one finds out when she takes the time to inspect her life a little. Basically my life’s metaphor accurately describes my life- enjoying the moment while waiting for the “other shoe to drop”… which means, I’m not really enjoying the moment fully. I need to work on that! Remember my blanket New Years Resolution, "Change me"? Well, it's front and center today.

Rick Warren describes biblical metaphor’s for life. He writes that God has 3 life metaphors in the Scripture:

· Life is a test.

· Life is a trust.

· Life is a temporary assignment.

He is very encouraging in his text that as I embrace God’s life metaphors my own faulty metaphor will be replaced. I believe that. As one of your posted recently, "small changes over time."

More on those life metaphors tomorrow!

Update: reading through the Bible in one year… 2 days behind.

The Hard Body Part:

I did my 5^th day workout this morning at around 8 a.m. That was good, but still not on my desired schedule. With Quinn being sick our nights are interrupted and so getting up at 5 to exercise has been a loosing battle. Nonetheless, I did the mega “Hard Body Extreme” with Marco workout (Body By Jake on exercisetv.tv and Cox Freezone). This workout is so hard I almost never do all of the sets completely. It’s only day 5 of my exercise and though I have been making some very bad food choices I can already see results. One-half an inch has left my waist and one-quarter has left my derriere. I’m encouraged!

Some friends have posted good ideas for nutritional help. One is eating vegan until dinner. I assume that means whole grain and fruit for breakfast, big salad for lunch with probably some legumes thrown in for protein, and snacking on fruits and veggies. I can see how this approach would definitely lesson one’s caloric intake if one doesn’t over indulge in the snacks or cover the salad with high-calorie dressing. Another option is several small meals through out the day and a very important point: do not deny yourself. I like that!

The Head Part:

Well, I am cramming for my Cset, which is no small feat, especially with Quinn at home. I keep getting distracted because I am completely overwhelmed (so Quinn is not to blame... even if her weren't here I would find reasons to do other things). I checked into postponing my test but the next one isn’t until March and I need to work in February. So, ready or not I will take it. I have about 150 more pages of science to go and 70 more pages of math. I am completely out to lunch on graphing linear and quadratic equations. I never took any type of science in high school so that periodic table? Never seen it. Nice, huh? Right now I am praying for a miracle.

Thanks for checking in today! The next few days will be brief, though I will not neglect my commitment to my spiritual life or physical health. I’ll just spend less time blogging and more time studying. And my blog will probably contain more typos and comma splices than usual!

Loving you (on purpose),

Natalie