No, I’m not crazy!

Where and when I grew up, school started the Tuesday after Labor Day. My big brother started school when I was about 3 and I couldn’t WAIT to start school myself. I was enamored with school. I wanted to go and I remember waiting for him each and every day to come home. I remember my mother finally relenting and sending me to nursery school the next year, because I was so insistent about SCHOOL.

I spent the next 19 years in school – 2 in preschool, 11 in elementary, junior high and high school, 4 in college and 2 in grad school. When I graduated from college, I married a guy who worked in the school system. Before he left, we had a son who was ready for preschool, himself. He spent the next 19 years in school. Until he was in college, school began either right after Labor Day, or at worst, a few days before the holiday weekend.

From the time I was three till I was 47, the year began in September, ended with the end of June and then there was the summer – a time out of the regular year. Fall was always a time of new beginnings. Shopping and new clothes. New subjects, new teachers, new friends, fresh chances. Enervating summer heat gave way to new energy as the air turned crisp. Reinvigorated, we both embraced our new academic challenge and reveled in our free time, now scarce and precious in a way it wasn’t at the end of summer.

This year, even though I’ve left academics behind for a while, a number of things have changed in my life, and I’m feeling the same reinvention of myself that I felt in years past. I’m ready to get moving, get things done and feel the newness of a “New Year!”

So, I challenge you to feel the freshness in the air and renew your commitment to yourself and your personal growth, spiritually, mentally, emotionally and in physical health. Get out, enjoy the weather, enjoy new and old friends, enjoy God’s creation!

Happy New Year, everyone!

You see, the first weekend in April is the last time I did any exercise that didn’t result in at least mild discomfort within hours. Somewhere in the week preceding Easter, I did something, or more likely a combination of somethings, that caused pain in my lower back.

It took 5 or 6 weeks of chiropractic and medical care to be healed enough for me to resume most of my activities. Long enough to lose most of my cardio conditioning and a fair amount of muscle tone. And, even though I’m able to do almost everything I used to be able to do, there are many more limits on how much and how often I can do things like run 6 miles or ride the trails on my mountain bike.

Add that to a crisis in my home life and what I got was depression. An ever deepening fog that sucked me in and blanketed my days. Makes it tough to do the basics, almost impossible to do what moves you forward and blind to the light at the end of tunnel.

Fortunately for me, my business is fitness. So, sooner or later, the basics of my day includes exercise. Hard, sweat inducing, heart-pounding, muscle-tiring exercise. Daily! Because I advertised the classes in the moments I was lucid enough to realize I had to. And slowly, the daily dose of endorphins are performing their magic. The fog is lifting.

Not all day and not every day. But enough to see the path that God seems to be leading me on. Enough to see encouragement in the response to my running classes (still a month away). Enough to be grateful for my friends and students (often one and the same) and, finally, enough to put fingers to keyboard to write again.

So, now, I’ll shut down for now, get myself out of the car, drag my bike out of the back and thank God for this gorgeous, slightly cooler and drier morning and go get me a dose of endorphins —- and since I’m riding alone, maybe even a bunch of adrenalin!

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Trees probably don’t get scared because they KNOW that you won’t really damage them if you do hit them. In fact, they’re pretty sure that you’ll walk away the loser. And, you know something, THEY’RE RIGHT! Running into a tree hurts!

How did this come to mind this week? Well, you see, it all started when I couldn’t find my biking gloves – something which actually happened months ago, and I stopped riding with hand protection. But, yesterday, out riding with a friend, I managed to get a briar vine running through my fingers (ring and middle) as I was riding. And it was doing a pretty painful thing to my hand. So, my attention was pretty well diverted.

And so was my direction. To the other side of the trail and a bit beyond… and there was the tree.

It didn’t move.

My brakes didn’t stop me fast.

I screamed at the tree.

It still didn’t move.

My brakes still didn’t slow me fast enough.

Lessons learned?

1. Protect yourself. My head was fine. I had a helmet (never ride without one, road or trail!). But my arm is scraped, my wrist is jammed, and of course, there’s a nasty tear between 2 fingers. If I’d had gloves, or even mentioned it to my friend and she’d lent me a pair, this wouldn’t have happened.

2. Pay attention. Don’t be distracted by small discomforts. Especially when bigger, nastier dangers lurk.

3. Trees don’t move. Rocks are gonna be there. The planet doesn’t care. Adventure sports can be a blast. But sometimes, you come out on the short end. Be ready for it. Anticipate it, but don’t fear it. Minimize the damage and move on. I rode for another half hour, then went running on those same trails for another hour. Had a blast. Feel a bit stiff and sore this morning, so I’m going golfing.

Stay safe out there!

I stepped on the scale yesterday morning and saw I had passed the NO PASS zone… those of you who have lost weight know what I mean – the number you never wanted to see again. I was doing great through Christmas. I even did pretty well on my vacation. But, last week was the pits. A combination of hormonally and emotionally induced eating, travel to Houston (lots of good restaurants here!) and the creeping bad habits which has been going on the last few months combined to push me over the top….

So, I’m officially putting out a challenge – I’m gonna lose a minimum of EIGHT pounds in the next month. 31 days. (I’m not going to lose more than 13 pounds, since that would reflect to fast a weight loss.) I know how to do this. I know how to bring myself under control without going crazy. And I’ll be doing this!

So, what’s the challenge part? I’m challenging you, wherever and whoever you are (you don’t have to be a current client), to beat me at my own game! Lose more than 7 pounds or more than I do (if I fail to lose 8), and win. It’s that simple….

Johnny, tell ‘em what they’ve won!!! Well, if you win, not only have you won better health and better fitting clothing (or in some cases, the right to a shopping spree for clothing that fits!), but you’ve won your choice of the following:

• A one hour personal training session, either in the gym or at your home (you must live within 30 miles of Wetumpka – sorry, Karen!)
• One month of online training programs with feedback.
• One month personalized running coaching

Even better, just for doing well at this, I’ll give you a $10 discount on any service from Ignite! (that’s right, running, climbing, biking, training, whatever you like!) If you lose at least 4 pounds, just one pound a week, I’ll give you a $10 discount to use however you like with Ignite! (excepting products in the store – sorry!)

So, here are the rules:

1. You have to accept this challenge within one week (by January 21, 2010). You then have 31 days from the day you start to complete your challenge.
2. You must accept the challenge here, as a comment to this post. You can either post your weight or send it to me in an email, but you need to publicly accept the challenge!
3. Post back weekly to tell me how you are doing. I will post my progress weekly so you’ll have something to post to.
4. Lose between 8 and 13 pounds and you win! (If you lose more than 13 pounds, you may have been going about it in an unhealthy way. I don’t want you doing that, so if you lose more than 13 pounds, I won’t be awarding a prize, UNLESS you can justify it. If you do, we’ll talk and decide!)
5. Select your prize!

Remember, if “I” don’t stick to my plan and lose 8, you may win by losing a lot less! I’m starting yesterday – January 13th – at 151 pounds (UCK!). Come on! Beat me at my own game.

AND, when the doctor told her a week before the race she could run, she opted to go. We talked before and she agreed to take it easy. And she went. And ran. The whole thing. And finished. Slow, and one step at a time, she did it.

Did that make a difference in the next part of the story? I don’t know. I believe that success breeds success; that we learn to succeed. I also believe that the more courage we find in ourselves, the more we have in there to find.

She got an invitation to go mountain biking with friends. She called me up to take her riding BEFORE so she could learn the basics. After an intro to the basics, we rode the first mile and I could see her growing skill and confidence.

Then, we headed over try one of the bridges. They are a bit tricky and I wanted her to try them in a controlled setting, rather than with a group of experienced friends. I showed her once and then walked down to coach her. After a couple of successful attempts, we both started relaxing. Of course, that’s when everything went wrong.

The next time across she slipped out towards the edge of the bridge and all I could do was watch as she came off the bridge, hit the bank of the stream and went over her handlebars. It was clear that this was not a good thing. Minutes passed as we dealt with the aftermath, with Nicky’s foggy memory of what happened and with the physical realities of her fall.

But here’s where Nicky shines! I could only talk her into promising that she’d go to the doctor or ER if the fog didn’t lift. After checking the basics, we walked our bikes out to the road. And then, she really surprised me. She insisted on riding back to the cars, and then to trying just a bit of gentle off-road riding. Then, she insisted that she was ready for another lesson in just a couple of weeks!

While I don’t recommend by-passing the doctor (and Nicky has been to see the doctor and is again following the doctor’s instructions!), I am in awe of Nicky’s courage and grace. What could have been a disastrous crash, she turned into an adventure and a learning experience. What could have turned her off forever, she turned into a gateway. Her last words to me as I left her with her family were “I was having fun right up to that point. And I’m looking forward to going riding again. Promise we’ll go?”

Find your courage! Dare to try! Follow Nicky’s lead!