Today starts the first day of Lent. Lent, in Christian tradition, is the period of the year leading up to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial.
It is described as being forty days long, though different denominations calculate the forty days differently. The forty days represent the time that, according to the Bible, Jesus spent in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured temptation by Satan.
Some Protestant churches do not observe Lent, but as a Methodist we do observe it.
The idea is to "give up" something that will be hard to do without. Caffeine is something I have given up many times. This year however I decided to do something a little bit different - I am giving up my excuses for not exercising....specifically my excuses for not using that eyesore that sits in the corner of my living room...the treadmill (aka coat rack)
To help I enlisted hubby...I asked him to have it cleaned off so I wouldn't have an excuse today - much to my amazement it was clean when I got up this morning.
So after taking my kid to pre-school (late...but that's another blog in itself) - I got Iz breakfast and left Eve in her car-seat asleep and I lowered the treadmill to start my journey. My goal is to do 30 minutes every day for the next 40 days.
8 minutes into it my foot started hurting
10 minutes into it I was having trouble walking because my 3 year old kept asking me if she could step on the back
12 minutes into it I decided I amend my goal into just doing a mile.
What came next may sound silly, but my treadmill flashes info on the screen...one of the screens it shows the distance...so here I am thinking I should give up on my original goal and up pops the distance - .666
That there made me realize that this goal is attainable, it's just satan's voice telling me I can't when really - I CAN!
So I did...I did 30 minutes, 35 seconds, 1.22 miles, 206 calories...on day 1
I discovered Lent when I went to a Lutheran High School. I discovered I actually benefitted from observing it in college. Our church doesn't observe the Church calendar but I try to observe Lent and Advent.
ReplyDeleteWay to go on your first day of "fasting" excuses. I hope everyday is as successful as today was. And yes, you CAN!