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 |    We live much of life amid unique choices. Joy is anchored in The One beyond our life. |
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“There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for labour in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. . . . Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God's Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord. . . .” ― Charles Spurgeon “Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.” ― C. H. Spurgeon “Hope itself is like a star- not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.” ― Charles Haddon Spurgeon “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.” ― Charles Spurgeon “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” ― Charles Spurgeon “Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.” ― Charles Spurgeon “When your will is God's will, you will have your will.” ― Charles Spurgeon https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2876959.Charles_Haddon_Spurgeon (Philippians 2:13, KJV)    |
| Lent, 2019 has given me the benefit of resetting my circadian clock. When I opened my WDC profile in the summer of 2016, I started writing in a whirlwind around the clock, but most often between the hours of 11:00 PM and 3:00 AM, (local time, of course.) In the fall of 2016 GabriellaR45  gave me the invitation to join the Rising Stars program, which fanned the flames of writing, even more, with all of her wonderful writing exercises.WDC offered so many excellent opportunities for writing, like a personalized blog for my profile, contests, weekly & daily challenges to write from prompts, and reviews with double GPs, that I was a "kid in a candy store." However, as we are all aware, eventually the "sugar-rush" wears off and the body starts to crash with greater and greater needs to rest. The funny thing was, that by the time I realized my need for greater rest, my circadian clock had changed to going to bed around 3:00 AM and getting up around 10 or 11 AM. My recent studies of body physiology, which included watching some videos on YouTube on the subject, has convinced me, that one of the reasons I am currently over 200 pounds in body weight and dancing on 30 BMI is due to the fact of having inappropriate and less-effective sleep patterns. When the graphics showed the difference in weight between a person, who got out of bed at 6:30 and another, who got up at 8:00, I was staggered and my behavior was checked. The point is simply this, during the 40 days of Lent I wanted to return to a more normal (or possibly better expressed, "more effective") sleep cycle, but many nights I was still going to bed around 2:00 or 3:00 AM. (The struggle is real!) However, I started to take heart in the nights when I would get in bed at midnight or even at 1:00 AM. Finally, last night I went to bed at 11:30 PM and popped out of bed at 6:30 AM to take the dog for a walk of nearly a mile. (She needs the exercise as much as I do since she has gotten arthritis in her hips in the past year. This is apparently typical for an Australian Shepherd, but we stopped exercising her to let her rest, and then she put on some weight. (Oh, MY! The struggle is real for both of us!) Now that the vet gave us some pain meds for her, we are trying to get back some of the youth, that she and I have both lost in the past couple of years.) My hope and prayer are that my new standard of sleeping will be firmly established and that I will see a great improvement in my weight, especially, since I have been exercising to the tune of walking at least a mile per day and often two and three miles. They say that exercising, sleeping right, and eating right are challenging no matter what age you are, not to mention the fact that genetics mitigate against some people's efforts at maintaining good health, but I can say that at 58 restoring my standard of health from 20-30 years ago will require the strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jack LaLanne or more. In the early years of my marriage I could eat anything I wanted, and just go out for a four or five-mile run, while still looking great (almost to the point of being skinny from about age 15 - 30.) Yeah, I get it! There really is a big difference between a 28-year-old body and a 58-year-old body, but I am unwilling to stop trying to find the combination to help me lose at least a solid twenty pounds of excess fat. I was about 150 pounds from the time I was in high school, until my early 40s, when my wife became pregnant with Jade Amber Jewel  . I had only heard of "sympathetic pregnancies" up to that point, but I apparently had one. Frustratingly so, I gained 40-50 pounds, whereas my wife maybe gained 30 or possibly 40. Within about six months after Jade Amber Jewel was born, the dear lady had lost her extra weight. I still haven't. I've struggled to get below 190 pounds for the past 16 years. I've been on a gluten-free diet for nearly six years. I've run road races. I walk. I was even a member of a Body Pump class of weight-lifting to aerobic-style music until I got discouraged because I didn't seem to be losing any weight. The struggle has been nearly maddening at times because, even though people don't point fingers at me, calling me "fatty," like my classmates did when I was in junior high, I know that I am not at my optimal weight for my age, and I WANT IT BACK! I guess by now you can tell that I have struggled with healthy body shaping pretty much all of my life, since both my parents had issues with weight, too, but at least my dad did the best that he knew later in life. Dad walked about 45 minutes every day, even if he had to walk around a Wal-Mart, during the colder months. This he did all the way up to two months before he died, even though he was still between 190 - 200 pounds. Finally, pneumonia and COPD took him to an early grave at 73 years of age. During those last years, his encouragement to me was, "Son, take care of the body!". "Sorry, Dad, but I am still trying to do just that." Maybe I'm not aging graciously, but I don't ever want to stop struggling against the effects of advancing years. 1. I have my first viola solo in less than two weeks, having taken up this new instrument just after Mom died. 2. I started adult ballet classes last fall in hopes that the stretches and movement would help me with my weight issues. 3. I am committed to going to bed on one calendar day and waking up in the next. 4. I've been teaching myself to embroider cloth, work with other forms of needlepoint as well as creating artwork with soft pastels in order to keep my mind as sharp as possible. 5. I successfully crossed the finish line of NaNoWriMo 2017 & 2018 with two rough-draft novels. (Now, I hope and pray, that I can exercise the mental self-discipline to finish a publishable couple of books.) 6. I have maintained the discipline of writing new poems on most days. (Again, this is for the purpose of mental exercise.) 7. I continue to search and try out new things for the purpose of finding the right combination to help me lose weight down to the 170 to 180 range. (Will a 58-year-old body at 175 pounds be as athletic as a 28-year-old body at 150 pounds? Arguably not, but it will most certainly be healthier than what I am now. THAT is my goal!) You see changing my sleep pattern was started during Lent, but it took about four days after Easter until I was able to see a little glimmer of hope. If new sleeping will even spot me 10 -15 pounds of weight loss, then I'll take it and REJOICE! Oh, I forgot to tell you that I now eat fresh spinach leaves with great enjoyment, (THAT'S HUGE!) and I eat other vegetables with self-discipline as opposed my earlier years when I ate only green beans from a can. No longer do I munch on uncooked hot dog links and sugar by the spoonsful as well as ice-cream with Karo syrup on top and cakes and doughnuts and peppermint candies. (I haven't done those bad habits in nearly six years.) I'm not giving up! I will press on! The Lord being my Helper, I will be successful,...one day! by Jay O'Toole on April 25th, 2019 |
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