christmas cheer

i swore that i would not be impeded by the past couple of holidays. i did pretty good with thanksgiving simply because i wasn't here; i took off to new york to visit my sister and we were not sitting much. we were traveling all over to upstate new york and out to massachusetts. after that, i went out to california for a week and visited my cousins. luckily there was a nice mountain trail there that i could do some running on a few days i was there, so i did pretty well. then christmas came. and i've gone up a few pounds. just couldn't say no to those danish butter cookies....mmmmm.

but all is well. i have a purpose in this endeavor that supersedes any other purpose that could ever drive one to make this kind of a change or development or commitment in their lives. when i was doing good last year losing lots of weight, i was being driven by two things: health and image. not for anyone else, but for myself. i knew that i needed to make some improvements for the sake of simply being able to live and to live comfortably. i also wanted to be able to look in the mirror and think 'damn thems some muscles.' the trouble is that both of those desires and purposes are very fleeting. your health can be great and yet your life can be taken in a moment. you can achieve that figure you desire and yet time will still get the better of you in the end.

so i have come to the realization that this needs to be about something more than myself or my health. there is an excellent line from a song that comes to mind; it is the impossible dream, from my favorite play, the man of la mancha, in which don quixote is telling what he believes makes a good knight. my favorite line is, 'to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause.'

that is what this has to be about. if your body is a temple, then it should be dedicated as such. if you would not go spraypaint on a temple, you should not have a tattoo; but likewise, if you would not take a bucket of tar  into a temple then the things that are detrimental to ones health should not be taken into one's body, and constant work must be done to keep the form of the body whole and healthy.

this has to be motivated by a religious desire for self improvement. it has to be something spiritual. if the spirit is made healthy, all other things will follow. i draw a lot of inspiration from this verse, and you don't have to be mormon to appreciate the significance of it or the value of the truth within it; it is rather universal.

1 nephi 17:3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.

that verse is what it's all about now. it's time to not only obey the big three commandments within the word of wisdom, but more especially to make the dietary guidelines a priority and to put my body into the kind of shape it needs to be to be of better use to God.

here's to a new beginning.