No Pain No Gain

By Erika Rizkallah

Last week, I lived out a ten year old dream of mine; I went hiking in Sedona, Arizona. I started hiking as a teenager and never stopped. Of course back then, when I went on a "hike with friends" it was usually to hang out and smoke in the woods.

I stopped smoking long ago, but never lost my love of nature. The more outdoor time I get, the better I feel inside.

Usually, the last thing we want to do when we live with chronic pain is exercise. Sometimes it hurts just thinking about it.

But it's what we need most.

                                                          All of my children ran ahead except for "the good one" - she stayed with me.

I prepared for this trip by buying a good pair of hiking shoes and pricey orthotics. I admit to being a little afraid I might hike myself into a flare. If you look in the upper right hand corner of the picture, you'll see the "pointy" formation we were hiking to.

I didn't realize it'd be so steep and rocky, but as I yelled out to my kids on the way up...

YOLO!

Note: A great way to embarrass your kids is to yell Yolo at the top of your lungs in an echoey canyon.

I made it to the top of the flat part of the formation - sweaty and proud of myself. The view was worth it.

My kids however, couldn't wait to get to the pointy top part so they ran ahead of me (again). It would have been a beautiful family moment if it weren't for me yelling at them to all come down. Of course they said,

                                                                 "YOLO mom. YOLO!"


I still made them come down. BTW - My son is the only one wearing an honest expression - girls are always posing.

We may have to live with chronic pain but we don't have to let it kill our joy or keep us from living the full life God wants us to live.

Click the link to read about the benefits of hiking and in the meantime . . . keep on following your dreams!

Changing Bad Habits

I've chosen the top 3 bad habits to focus on right now based on how attacking one bad habit can often fix other issues with minimal effort. My top 3 are:

1. Lack of exercise - When I exercise, I get more energy for the day, I last longer and am much less cranky. I also pay better attention to what I eat. Frankly, the main reason I become unproductive is because I'm exhausted and I run out of energy.

2. Procrastination - It's easy to make excuses when you're exhausted, but procrastination is only prolonging the inevitable for me. If there's a menial task to be done, more than likely it's my responsibility so I'm only hurting myself by piling up loads of boring things if I don't just get over with quickly.

3. Not giving myself the luxury of time - God is the author of my life, and the author of my time, so I don't know why I feel like I have to learn everything immediately. Maybe it's related to the piles undone things that taunt me, like my piles of photos saying, "Really? You can't even send these pictures to your poor sick grandmother?" Which is probably because my son can never find his socks and shoes and my husband always wants to wear the shirt I haven't gotten around to washing.

An interesting thing I learned simply by being mindful over the last few days, is that these bad habits are caused by underlying issues. God really hit me over the head with the fact that I have an underlying fear of wasting time. Both my brother and I have this unexplained concern. We both believed we wouldn't live past 30. We have no idea where these thought patterns come from, but had I not taken the time to identify my bad habits, I wouldn't have realized the effect it's having on me.

Every time I tried to get something done, a little voice in my head would say something like, "You don't have time for that." or "That's a waste of time." I realize I've been letting that voice influence the choices I make throughout the day.

That's how the enemy works. He puts a phrase, negative comment, or totally irrational thought into your head and tries to get you to own it. Only when I slowed, and quieted down to listen, did I realize the effect it's been having on me.

I have placed a "Non-Negotiable" boundary around myself regarding giving these items attention.  Honestly, trying it already for only a day, has made me more focused than I have been in months. Here's my commitment to myself -

Exercise:  Cardio for one hour 4 days a week and strength training with my trainer 2 days a week.

Procrastination:  It doesn't exist in my world anymore. Nothing gets delayed. My husband has this philosophy and I used to just think he was a super freak, but his success has proven me wrong time and time again.

Time: No fear. I will plan my day accordingly and build in the hours I need in order to learn and do the things I need to learn and do and I will stop listening to "the voice."

I'm pumped! I worked out with my trainer for an hour yesterday, thinking I was going to die of a heart attack the whole time, but I pushed through...to the point of nausea. I almost puked and thought about taking a picture to show you what I looked like but then you may never come back to read. Instead, I'll leave you with a picture of my pretty pink gloves!

While I was punching and kicking my way to pukeville, I kept saying, "This is for you Jesus!" I sincerely, felt His pleasure.

Oliver Wendall Holmes said, "We all need an education in the obvious." The Bible tells us to examine ourselves closely. I urge you to take a look at your own bad habits and create a plan of attack!