Defeating Chocolate Cake

The last post I wrote was about tradition.  In it I mentioned we joined a gym; and have we ever been taking advantage of it.  I have the sore muscles to prove it!  I went Friday morning to an abs class.  It was a 30 minute class.  I had every intention to head to a nice relaxing yoga class afterwards.  I saw two friends that convinced me to forgo the yoga class and try the Cross Training class.  Today is Monday…I am still sore.

This class was a serious adventure in pushing limits.  I did a level of exercise that I didn’t think I was capable of.  As I pushed myself through the course set up by the instructor, I was tempted to skip a few pushups and lunges.  However, I knew that if I completed the class having not stopped short, I would feel a sense of achievement, even if my body felt like Jell-o.  And, it did.

I’m impressed by John’s ability to find peace through exercise.  The amount of exercise he can do in one visit to the gym just baffles me.  Truth be told, I’d rather camp out on the couch.  If I didn’t do much more than walk our dog around the block I would be perfectly content. 

The instructor of the class I took was attempting to motivate us by telling us “there is an inner athlete in all of you!”  In my head I heard the response, “Um not so much.”  Is there a competitor in there?  You betcha.  I think I have to figure out how to use my appetite for competition to push me when my heart rate needs elevated.

I wonder too, how many people have this struggle?  I heard John say in a lecture once that the “hardest part about going to the gym is going to the gym.”  Putting our shoes on and getting out the door is a challenge some days.  

So, here I am admitting that I married an exercise physiologist and I struggle with exercise.  Shouldn’t there be some sort of support group for a person like me?  I imagine sitting in a circle in a room full of similar people.  The lights are bright, my shoes are that white that’s almost blinding, and I’m wearing workout clothes that haven’t seen sweat.  I use only my first name to admit that I am not a “gymaholic,” but rather a person who struggles to exercise and enjoy it.

However, there is a flip side to this.  I read a book recently called Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst.  In it she writes about how we can learn to “satisfy our deepest desires with God, not food.”  Do I crave exercise?  Not really.  Do I crave chocolate cake?  Yes…well, I think I do.  What I learned from the book though is that I don’t really crave chocolate cake (I’m still struggling with this though).  I think what I crave is the feeling chocolate cake provides (while I am eating it).  And, as Lysa points out...I "crave" a deeper relationship with God that food or anything else cannot satisfy.  More importantly too though is that I cannot really feel a sense of peace through chocolate cake.  Because, once the cake is gone the guilt arrives.  Perhaps though, through sore muscles and a stronger body I can find satisfaction—I can feel a sense of peace.

The band The Fray sings a song that says “sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”  Man, does that ever speak to me!  It’s so easy to love chocolate cake.  In my day dreams I shrink down and swan dive into a Wegman’s chocolate cake.  I swim in the frosting.  I would prefer backstroke for this event.  In my real life I push myself in classes that make sweat run into my eyes.  And the reason is because it’s the right thing.  I think most of the time the right thing and the hardest thing are the same thing, but I also think there’s a pretty good pay off for choosing the right thing.

I pray my way through exercise.  I pray myself away from chocolate cake and other temptations—it’s what Lysa teaches in the book.  I know I was made for more than a cycle of defeat.  Some days I am better at this than other days.  And, I promise you there are days when the cake wins.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.   If you want to listen to the song, follow this YouTube link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KiM4I86FsM.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…For when I am weak, then I am strong”.  2^nd Corinthians 12:9-11

Thanks for reading.