74 Days Remain.
Beast Mode Crunch time is officially here.
See, there was this day (back in my younger days around January ) where I thought I was invincible and that I was strong enough and fierce enough to do anything. I sat there with my friends (who are all dudes by the way. Big. Big. Big. Big Buff Dudes) and we discussed doing the Spartan Beast Run. I have always wanted to do a tough mudder/obstacle run and I already had a full and half marathon under my belt so I willingly agreed. Now, on this day towards the end of August with 74 days remaining, I realize that this may just have been the most ambitious and stupidest decision of my lifetime. It is just under the distance of a half marathon with 28+ obstacles such as climbing walls, jumping fire pits, barbed wire, gladiators hitting you, mud, carrying rocks, etc
Thank God I have learned a lot in the past five years of my life and I have grown tremendously in my faith. Praise God that he has instilled in me a confidence in his faith and a confidence in myself and the strength that he gives me. His word tells me that I can do all things that Jesus Christ who gives me strength and All means ALL. That includes the Spartan Beast. I am choosing to no longer look at this as the a stupid decision but rather as something that is truly going to push me to the limits and challenge my mind, soul, body and spirit. I can do this. My team will have victory. We all will finish and finish strong. I can do all things.
The next 74 days will probably be updates about me developing strength and muscle because at where I am in my weight loss as well as my fitness/strength level for this race, that is the area that is weakest and I need to severely improve on. The last few weeks have been focused on doing weighted squats, squat cleans, bear crawls, push ups, pull ups and building my lats. And honestly, I hate it. I never FEEL like doing it. But as Jennifer Beckham has stated in her books and audios, who has asked you to feel? No one asked me if I FELT like doing it. There were many days losing the bulk of my weight that I didn't FEEL like working out or I didn't FEEL like eating healthy but I knew what I needed to do. I knew what I was called to do. I knew I had a purpose and something I had to follow through on and it's the same thing in this moment at this stage in my journey.
So lets get real here. Lets break down this struggle for you. Ready for this? After all these years of working out non-stop... after becoming a certified Tae-Bo(R) Instructor... Get ready for it... I, Blair Christie, can barely do a real push up and cannot do an unassisted pull up. I know, right?! I have endurance for days- I can run and do cardio til I bleed but my strength--woooo! I'm not perfect and I am still growing. The thing is... we cheat ourselves. Don't get me wrong, I have been working hard. I am incredibly strong and have grown in tremendous ways so I am not discounting where I am or where I have come from. But all these years, I have been cheating myself from the real struggle that would've made me stronger a lot faster. For example, when I have done pull ups, I have done them on the assisted pull up machine and instead of regular push ups with your elbows going back (not out to the side- that in fact is not a real push up so don't fool yourself like I did) I have done years of girl push ups. The thing is, assisted pull ups and girl push ups were and still are difficult for me but too often we protect ourselves from struggles in life that really would toughen us and develop an inner and outter strength that would develop us tremendously. Too often we scam ourselves out of the things that hurt and are hard to do but benefit us in such a tremendous way. If I had been doing these all along, I would be a lot further than I am now. In any thing in life, you cannot protect yourself from things that are meant to challenge you in your fitness, your health, your faith, your job, your relationships, your self image. You have to walk through the fire and honestly, it's going to hurt. You have to dig deep and focus on what God's word tells you... you can do ALL things. You can do All things. You, Blair Christie, you can do all things. Blair, you can do anything because I am in you. Blair, you can accomplish this pull up because I am the one who gives you strength. Trust me and walk through the fire. Don't run away from the things that I have placed in front of you that are meant to develop you into who you are. No one said it was going to be easy but it is always worth it.
I am committing myself, on this blog in front of all of you and to my awesome Spartan Beast team and most importantly to myself and to God, to work on my push ups and arm strength every single day. In 74 days, my God and my faith in Him and His power will have completely transformed me into a different human being. Walk through the fire, set yourself ablaze and people will come from all over to watch you burn.
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