The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director. Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year. God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
"A man's health can be judged by which he takes two at a time - pills or stairs."
Joan Welsh
Joan Welsh
Continuing on in my "weight loss journey" blog series...
One thing I've discovered I have to talk to myself a lot about on this journey is exercise. I don't love exercise in and of itself, but I do love what it does for me. My worst days for exercise are Mondays and Thursdays. And on those days I must push myself harder and talk to myself all the more to convince myself of what is right.
To lose or maintain I personally have to exercise at least 5 days a week, preferably 6. (I always take Sunday off.) Mondays are a horrible day because I'm slammed at work with a million things to do, plus it's our late day to work because of staff meeting and sometimes after coming home, cooking supper and eating it's 8 pm or thereafter once all that is wrapped up. The last thing I want to do is go work out. I just want to lay down. Thursdays is another day where I'm slammed to get any undone projects done if I want to truly have my day off on Friday. I know I have Saturday to work too if need be but that's also my day to get my house in order, unless I'm going to do nothing but house/yard work on Friday all day, thus giving me absolutely no down time or date time with the Teeb and my kids. So, Thursday I am usually exhausted and then by the close of work I'm in the mode of relaxing and preparing for my day off, not working out. But I know it's not best for me to do that. Tonight was one such night...
I had a bazillion projects going at the office today and was on deadline. I told Cathy (my assistant), "don't let anyone interrupt me unless it's a real emergency." We got different projects done, had a meeting at the Hilton for our upcoming conference and some other stuff and although Larry and I have work to do on Saturday to wrap up things for Sunday it looks like we'll take some time off tomorrow. Well...
Larry took Jordan and Savanna to see Prince Caspian tonight and Dustin and I are home together. We're going to watch a movie we already have at home. I just wanted to lay here and do nothing but rest the entire night but I know I needed to get myself up and exercise. I had started to talk myself out of it because it was getting late and almost dark. But I began to use self talk to remind myself of what was best for me. Because it was getting dark I didn't think it was a good idea to walk but decided to take my bike. I always feel safer on the bike if it's later at night.
Upon going down the driveway I could see it was sprinkling. First thought... "oh no, it's raining - go back in..." but on second thought I said to myself, "it's not so bad. It might stop in a minute. And besides, why not? This might be refreshing." It was only sprinkling for a while and stopped mid way through my ride. I forgot how beautiful my neighborhood can be at night. The street lights come on. I can look out at the lakes riding by and it's so peaceful and breezy. Hardly anyone is out on the sidewalks and it's a clear path to ride without having to move to the left or right for other people or bikes. It was a wonderful ride, for my mind and my spirit.
I came home and once again had the same self-talk that I normally do after such a night:
"Wow, this was so worth it...."
"I'm so glad I talked myself into that..."
"The atmosphere was so refreshing..."
"I would have regretted not going later on tonight when it was time to go to sleep...
I feel proud of myself for having followed through and done that... Exercise is vital to my weight loss or maintenance efforts and to my health in general. There are times I know due to our evening schedule it will not be possible to walk, bike or go to the gym in the evening and in those cases I set my alarm earlier than normal and do it before work (I dread that but have done it when I have to), or find time during the day. My days are normally crammed but in the case of having to find some mid-day exercise time on rare occasion I will eat lunch at my desk while working. Then instead of taking a lunch time away from my desk I take that time to exercise by either shutting my door and doing my Leslie Sansone Walk off the Pounds Power Walk DVD or I will go outside if it's a nice day and walk for 30 minutes and then finish up with 15 more minutes at home before I go to bed.
I have the Walk off the Pounds DVD's that are 1, 2 and 3 mile and can tailor them to whatever time I am aiming to utilize. (1 mile - 15 minutes, 2 miles 30 minutes, 3 miles 45 minutes). You can get these DVD's at Walmart, Target or wherever. I love them and use them when the weather is bad, or when I am traveling to a place where there is no gym or safe place to walk. As long as I have my laptop, I have an exercise program at my fingertips.
I have learned that doing what is best for me often requires me talking myself into it time and again and reminding myself of WHY I am doing it. Try this technique the next time you are giving yourself all the reasons why not - make a list and review it daily about why you should follow through and get your body moving! It's worth it even if you have to do it in the rain!
Comments
Re: the sausage recipe...sorry, I forgot you asked me (and I'm looking up your articles too...please shoot me an email and remind me which ones you wanted. I have just transferred a bunch over from my old decrepit (sp?) computer to my laptop so this should be easy to send them to you know.
Okay, the recipe is so simple, it's not really a recipe, I just throw it together --
1 pkg. of Italian hot sausage - it comes in a big roll in a package and I slice it down into pieces that would fit on a hot dog or hoagie size roll.
1 large vidalia onion
1 large green pepper
Then I slice up the onions/peppers and throw them in the crock pot with the sausage. Then I take a jar of spaghetti sauce...whatever your favorite is...I think this time I used Bertolli and one of their "specialty" sauces which made it even a little tastier...and I throw that on top of the meat and peppers/onions and cook on low all day.
I serve it on soft hoagie rolls.
Really, that's IT! Seriously, it's so easy. My husband LOVES this. He grew up with this being one of the main things they ate where he is from...(Pittsburgh) and he's crazy about it.