I too went from pretty much no exercise to running an 8 mile race in about 4 months. I was amazed, AMAZED at what my body could do. My running partner, who has been a physical fitness professional forever, kept telling me I would get results, but when you are trying to stay focused on getting air into your lungs and not passing out, the results seem pretty far away. And yet, they come. What a gift.

I unfortunately do not know how much longer my body will let me do things like run 8 miles, or do the triathlon that is ultimately my goal. I have a progressive kidney disease that may make exercise a thing of the past, and with that in mind, I am determined to get everything out of my body I can before it quits (literally!). Like I said, I was amazed it gave me so much so soon. It’s like I’ve been walking around with this tremendous power, and have never tapped into it. Nothing like a life threatening disease to get your butt in gear, eh?

Thanks for the post.

Incidentally, I swore I would never run, so I could relate a bit to your story. It’s cool when you find yourself doing something you never dreamed you could, and even loving it!

Also I just want to clarify about my friend who started out as my partner. She never told me she was fed up with me or that she wouldn’t be patient with me, I just perceived that due to my own insecurities and fear that I really couldn’t do it. She is a fabulously fantastic person!

I love, love, love, the new Tabernacles issue of Segullah. Many thanks to all who worked to make it possible.

Kristen, I’m hoping to get in for the ING New York City Marathon. They have a lottery that they draw in June and then the race is in November. They say about half of all the applicants within the US get in, so I’m hoping. We’ll see. If I don’t get in for that I may try to come and do a marathon in Utah with my little brother, though the altitude thing does worry me a bit. I often do go early, before the kids wake up/before my husband leaves for work. But I also have a couple of friends who help me out with my kids. One I sometimes swap with, which isn’t as fun as actually running together, but at least we get it done. The others just love my kids, so they come and hang out with them sometimes on Saturdays. (They’re single and childless so it’s easier to entice them.) And Justine is right, it does get easier. Not easy, but easier.

Anyway, the gospel principles do abound! Isn’t it amazing that if/when we are doing our best and recognizing it, we have peace, confidence, gratitude? But when we start listening and looking around at what others are doing or how they appear in their size 0 jeans (I have a friend who is a size 2 and she’s tiny, so I’m not sure what a size 0 person would look like . . .)we start to feel anxious, discouraged, and upset.

And Sharlee, that experience you shared reminds me of a time I was shopping for a swimsuit in Hawaii. The owner of the store was this woman in her late 40′s, maybe early 50′s, totally tan and casual, like you’d imagine a Hawaiian Howlie to be. All of the swim suits in the store were arranged by size. So it wasn’t this, Oh I like that, but gee it only goes to a 6.” But you went to your size section and there were tons of choices. She stood there and helped you choose and made suggestions and then led you to a very private dressing room where you had enough light to actually see and a full mirror to really get a good idea. She didn’t pressure or push, but just helped and it was the most fun I’d ever had trying to buy a swim suit. I told her so at the end while I paid and she said, “Yeah, it’s been my mission to try and help women love their bodies, no matter what. Americans are the worst. People come in here from all over the world and I rarely hear any of them complain about flabby thighs or too big of a butt. They just want to be comfortable. So I tried to design this store in a way that wouldn’t make anyone feel like less, like they had to be a certain way. We’re all different and that’s what makes us beautiful.”

Amen surfer sister! And to Cindy and others who are dealing with illness, it is so difficult. Sometimes when I have the flu or a cold or when I can’t eat anything for several weeks at the beginning of my pregnancies I become so annoyed at my body. I’m not always good at loving this body either. But I do try to be the glass half-full person, be grateful, like President Monson repeatedly teaches us. I find that really helps. It sounds like that’s what you do Cindy, you are grateful you can go for a walk on certain days, or it’s like Heather B. has shared with us about her chronic illness, thinking about how to use your forks that day.

Anyway, we do begin to die the day we are born, like the article “Consider Your Navel” talks about. I think the challenges our bodies go through are part of what makes the hope of a perfect resurrected body such a joy.

Dumb, dumb, dumb. Even as I think it, I know it’s dumb. It feels so very “teenager” of me. But I don’t do it as much when I’m regularly running or doing other active stuff. When I feel my best is when I’m trying my hardest.

Woah, Heather! Gospels principles abound in this discussion…