I'm not a big "New Years Resolution" person, but this year I wanted to make some changes in my life to help make me physically AND spiritually stronger so I started by setting two challenges for myself in January. One was to ride 7 miles a day on the recumbent bike I treated myself to in December, and the other was to join my hubby and the young men in our ward in reading the entire Book of Mormon in 30 days. Both of these were significant time commitments, but I felt like they were worthwhile "goals" and that both would help me feel "better" in different ways.
I only missed riding the bike two days total during the entire month, (other than Sundays which I gave myself weekly as my "day of rest"), and those were two days that I was sincerely NOT feeling well at all. January 1st I was only riding the bike on level 1 and I will admit freely that it pained me to finish the 7 miles, but by the end of the month I was easily able to complete my miles on level 3 in less than 30 minutes! I also started lifting 5lb weights for about 15 minutes three times a week and doing a plank on those days too. My first plank day I made it about 15 seconds before collapsing, haha. It was terrible! But by the end of the month I had graduated to 8lb weights and could hold my plank for over a minute. I can honestly say that after just one month, I feel physically stronger than I have in forever and it feels wonderful.
Reading the Book of Mormon took much more time daily than I thought it would initially. I'm usually a pretty fast reader, but it took me about 45 minutes a day to get through the reading. I have never read the Book of Mormon this quickly, (and I don't know that I will do it again any time soon), but reading it like a novel was a brilliant experience that I would recommend doing at least once in your life. Reading it this way brought the characters to life in a whole new way for me and helped me understand and love the relationships in the book better.
This week I actually finished reading the Book of Mormon and I just had to share and document what a tremendous blessing both of these things have been in my life this month. I honestly have not felt this "well" physically, spiritually AND mentally in well over two years.
Just because the month is now over, I'm not giving up on these goals. The chart is already up on the refrigerator for February. I'm doing the Book of Mormon in 90 days next which will seem like a piece of cake after the 30 days, but will give me more time to ponder. It will also be fun to see where I am physically at the end of February. One thing I learned from my two days of missing the bike is that it's absolutely OK if you have a bad day or two. Just don't give up! Get up and get going again as soon as you can. I'll take two bad days over thirty any time. I may never be able to "master the rest of my life." MS is unpredictable and it's hard to know what will happen to my body over the next 30 years, but I can master each day and be ok with that.
Again, I'm grateful for my hubby who exercises and reads along side me every day. Having someone to share accomplishing these goals with helps motivate me big time. Here's hoping for a good February!
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