Thursday, April 30, 2009

PSYCHE!

On cardio days, I literally wake up telling myself, "Today's a cardio day. You can do it. You can do it." I spend all day, thinking about myself up on the eliptical machine, working my hardest, doing the best that I can. Imagining myself accomplishing my goals. It's a contant reminder ALL day long.

Today was no different. I woke up sore actually, from Body Flow two days ago. So I knew today would be extra important to encourage myself throughout the day. I usually get to a point where I'm super excited to go work out. Oh, I know the pain will come, but boy do I love the high when I'm done. Totally worth it. Plus, setting and reaching new goals is fantastic!!

I think for far too long I've allowed myself to be average, when low and behold, if I put my mind to something, there's no stopping me! Well, I always knew that, but not when it comes to working out. I never thought I'd be a YMCA rat. Or as my friend calls me a "Yazi". (Get it?)

Anyway, back to me geering up for tonight's cardio work out. You see, to my complete shock and utter amazement, I did a 10-minute mile on Monday. I wasn't sure 'how' good that was until I asked my runner friend how quickly she runs a mile... usually between 9-10 minutes she said. Holy smokes! So, my 10-minute mile was fantastic for me!!

I wanted a repeat performance tonight... I knew I could do it and I was ready.... one slight problem, I packed my gym bag last night right before bed and I was exhausted. I forgot to pack a key and vital part of my clothes... my sports bra. Sad! So instead, I could only lift weights tonight. I pushed myself to do more than I thought I could. I breathed through the pain and did a little more. I ended up lifting 15,780 pounds total. Crazy, huh?

I'm proud of myself.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Double Take

A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man would have to seek HIM to find her.

Wow.

Father, draw me close. Help me to draw strength from You alone. Hide me under the shelter of your mighty wings. I long to be so in love with You that nothing else matters. Help me gain that eternal perspective again.

I'm eager for the blessings of marriage if that's something You want for me. But until that time, help me enjoy my singleness. Show me that it's not a burden but rather a joy. Reveal to me the ways You can use me during this time.

I'm constantly amazed by the ways you continue to bless me. I certainly don't deserve it. You've given me so much. Thank you for loving me as you do. I know my human frailities hinder me but I know you use imperfect people; that way Your Glory can be seen. May I reflect Your glory! I pray people see You in me.

Father, please watch over the man I hope to one day marry. Keep him focused on you. Keep his heart and mind pure. Help him find confidence and strength in You so he can be the man of God You've created him to be. I'm excited to meet him, but I want our relationship to be completely in Your timing. Please guard my heart.

Monday, April 20, 2009

CHASE!

Chase's credit card tag line says, "Chase what matters." That could be taken two ways. One, Chase (the company) matters. (Kinda egotistical, don't you think?) And two, chase after the things you want most in life. Sure, the credit cards wants you to chase after things. (Buy more stuff so you can be in dept the rest of your life!) But things don't fill you up and keep you going.

I've been doing some thinking about that tag line above. . . Chase what matters. Am I chasing after what matters? Am I using my gifts for His kingdom? Am I chasing after Him? I know I let other stuff come before my relationship with Him. The ironic thing is that I get so frustrated when other friends put me on the back burner for whatever reason. When they call last minute and cancel plans or don't call at all. But I'm EXACTLY like that with my Jesus.

"Jesus, I'm too tired to do my quiet time with You today. Can you just give me strength to make it through the day?"
"Jesus, I'm sorry I forgot to spend time with you today."
"Jesus, I'm sorry I forgot to talk to you today."
"Oh, Jesus, you wanted to come with me too, huh?"

Excuses. Excuses. Excuses. There is no excuse for not spending time with the very One who created me. Who knows me in and out. Knows why I do the things I do. I don't have to explain myself with Him; He knows. But yet... I get so discracted by every little thing around me. If I would just STOP...

.... and listen for His voice, maybe I wouldn't feel so jumbled up sometimes. I know Jesus just wants to hang out with me. We get quality bonding time in the car, to and from work. He constantly talks to me through songs. This morning, I was listening to David Crowder's "Everything Glorious" and had an epiphony of sorts.

I find it amazingly interesting how I can listen to something a million times over and not take anything away, but the millionth and one time, it hits me like a ton of bricks. Because He makes everything glorious... and I'm part of the "everything" He made, then I too am glorious. It made a lot more sense in my head this morning. Hmm.

The point I'm trying to make here is, we should chase what matters. Chase Him. Pursue Him. Love Him. Follow after Him all the days of your life.

Chase.

Creative Juices

I recently stretched some creative muscles on VistaPrint.com and created some t-shirts. My ultimate goal was to create encouraging and uplifting shirts I could wear to the gym to uplift myself and those around me. I actually wanted to play on the "The Biggest Loser" theme for my sister and I, but decided to head this direction instead.

I'm proud of my creations. I may not be able to paint/draw what's in my head, but I'm pretty good at computer art (visually knowing how to make things look good). This was a fun project and relatively inexpensive as well. I don't know if you've ever used VistaPrint.com or not before, but I encourage you to check it out. More often than not, you'll find exactly what you're looking for and more. What do you think?







Sunday, April 19, 2009

After the Storm

When I thought it was safe to go outside, I took pictures of the sky, post tornadic weather. I know there was a lot of damage in the state today, but how beautiful is this sunset behind the storm clouds?










O is for Overstock.com









Yeah me! This laundry sorter came with virtually no instructions, not that I necessarily would have read them anyway. I'm usually a "figure it out" kind of girl. So I was proud that the finished product not only looked like the box, but I didn't have any extra parts left over either. :)

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Secret Ambition



I've purposefully only watched "The Passion of the Christ" once. I saw it when it first came out in the theaters. I knew I would bawl and be less likely if I saw it in a room full of strangers. I remember wondering how in the world people could be eating popcorn, knowing what was about to happen. Maybe they didn't know what King Jesus endured to save our lives?

Nobody knew His secret ambition
Nobody knew His claim to fame
He broke the old rules steeped in tradition
He tore the Holy Veil away
Questioning those in powerful position
Running to those who called His name
(But) Nobody knew His secret ambition
Was to give His life away

It saddens me to say this, but I often only think of the resurrection during Easter. Honestly, it's just too hard any other time. As if my discomfort should matter when my Jesus suffered like he did. What a selfish girl I am! Too caught up within my own reality and quickly forget what HE did to save my life!

We are healed by Your sacrifice
And the life that You gave
We are healed for You paid the price
By Your grace we are saved
We are saved

He was pierced for our transgressions
He was crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him
And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed
And by His wounds, by His wounds

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus


Nobody knew His secret ambition... was to give His life away!

Monday, April 6, 2009

The Beauty is in the Attempt

It is my belief that often people don't try as they are afraid of failing. I know this to be true in my own life. I occasionally get the "what if's", get scared and tend not to follow through. But I heard something kinda profound when watching One Tree Hill tonight, "The beauty is in the attempt." It immediately stirred something inside me.

Over the past seven months, I've seen a side of me I knew existed, but couldn't ever quite tap into her gumption. I've always been too scared of what people might think of me or of looking stupid... or any number of different excuses. But I made the decision to make a life change. It's funny, I've always seen myself as skinny (healthy), but when I see pictures of myself, I'm always shocked. I guess that means I have a semi-healthy self image of myself. Or at least, of what I hope to be soon.

I got a letter from my faithful pen pal. She's always so encouraging to me on my journey of self discovery, but she said something that made me kinda sad. You see, we watch The Biggest Loser (TBL) and always talk about the contestants and such. But she stated that she stopped watching the show, as it's completely unrealistic to lose that much weight in real life. While I agree with her, the conditions those contestants are in aren't realistic. Who can actually work out for six and seven hours a day?? No wonder they lose so much weight!! But you know what, instead of discouraging me, it inspires me to be to do more than I think I can. Every single time I want to give up at the gym, I channel Bob & Jillian and push myself that much harder.

I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to lose weight. I too want to drop 10 pounds like the contestants on TBL, but you know what, I had an epiphany of sorts. Two pounds in one week is really good for the average person. (I also haven't been totally good either, so just think what I can do once I'm fully on board.) Also, instead of looking at it like, "Geez, I've only lost two pounds..." Instead, I said to myself, "Self, sure, two pounds doesn't seem like a lot, but look at it this way, now you only have to lose 18 more." Somehow that completely changed my perspective.

And, getting back to my original statement, "The beauty is in the attempt"... Friends, please don't beat yourself up if you should fail at something you attempted. At least you tried! That's more than you can say for some. At least you put yourself out there and tried something new! You should be proud of yourself!! There truely is beauty in the attempt. Think about that the next time you "go for it"!

Thus concludes my pep talk for the day.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

My Buddy




Posted by Picasa

Mosaic Personality

Rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search (http://www.flickr.com/).
b. Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. Change rows to 3 and columns to 3 (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php).

I think because of copyright issues, I wasn't able to actually save the images. So, unfortunately, you're going to have click back and forth. But it's worth it. Pretty neat how pictures can tell the story without words. Check it out.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Meredith
2. What is your favorite food? Ice Cream
3. What is your favorite color? Blue
4. Favorite drink? Starbuck's Peppermint Mocha
5. Dream vacation? Scotland
6. Favorite hobby? Photography
7. What you want to be when you grow up? Writer
8. What do you love most in life? Laughter
9. One word to describe you? Analytical

Thursday, April 2, 2009

30/45

30 minutes of cardio. Check.

45 minutes of lifting weights. Check.

2 pounds lost... so far. Check.

Only 18 left to go. I can do it!!

945-7000

945-7000 how I miss you already. You were my steady source of weather information before I went to bed. You were always so helpful to let me know what clothes I needed to lay out for the next day. Rain. Sun. Hot. Cold. You always let me know. And now... you are no more. April 1, 2009, the end of an era. Say it 'aint so?! Could it simply be an April Fools joke? I think not.

Weather information, you'll be missed.