Wonderful Wednesday! Okay, I admit, it’s kinda weird not prefacing that phrase with “Hope you’re having a…” or, “It’s a…” but for whatever reason, I felt like greeting you holidays-style: all you need’s a cheerful, preferably alliterative adjective and the name of the day! I hope yesterday was Terrific, and that your tomorrow will be Th…Thoughtful? Thensational? 

Digression destroyed.

Some of you may know that a couple months ago, I took a break from the conventional gym atmosphere in favor of a foreign, mysterious, yet terribly irresistible training method known simply as “CrossFit.” Sounds like I’m describing the premise of a possible Jennifer Aniston movie: Forty-something housewife becomes disillusinoed with her Martha Stewart dinner parties and soccer mom mini-van and soon finds herself wooed by the wiles and charm of a traveling circus performer. K, that last part got a tad outlandish, but one can never overestimate the questionable depths of Hollywood’s creative pool.

Tangent terminated!

Since I’ve blogged about CrossFit before and certainly don’t wish to bore regular readers, I will simply direct those of you who are unfamiliar to a previous post right…NOW!

I read a few quotes recently from the founder of CrossFit, Greg Glassman:

“The essence of this model is the view that fitness is about performing well at any and every task imaginable.”  

And…

“Have fun screwing up…it means you are removing your ego from the problem.” 🙂

Honestly, when I was first introduced to such CrossFit movements as squat-cleans, wall balls, double-unders, and toes-to-bar, I wanted to tip my hat and be on my merry way back to the Smith machine and pec deck.

To quote Wikipedia, CrossFit…

…combines weightlifting, sprinting, gymnastics, powerlifting, kettlebell training, plyometrics, rowing, and medicine ball training.

I was quite familiar with the first item, but had no experience with, nor interest in, for that matter, the remaining seven components. The expressions “Secure in my comfort zone,” and “Fear of the unknown” perfectly encapsulate my reservations.

To speedily get you up to speed (already reaching my self-prescribed word limit!), CrossFit has truly molded me into my most fit, most athletic state to date. I remember the first class I took… There were burpees. Lots and lots of burpees. And running, an activity I’d loathed since suicide drills in high school. I was immediately smitten with a merciless bolt of humility as I realized: I’m not as fit as I thought I was! And the day I saw the words “snatch,” and “clean” written on the dry-erase board as part of the WOD (“workout of the day”), I thought of petty theft and hygiene, not Olympic lifts.

In just over two months, I am running a 7:30 mile, burpees don’t give me stress-induced acne, and I’m proud to be doing lifts that make me hear the “Rocky” theme.

Those are just a few of the improvements I’m noticing in my physical fitness, and what makes it all the more awesome and enjoyable is the fact that it pleases the Lord and enhances my spiritual fitness as well.

Romans 12:1 proclaims that our bodies are to be a “living and holy sacrifice, the kind He will find acceptable.” It makes perfect sense to me that the stronger, fitter, healthier we are, the more “acceptable” our “sacrifice,” that is, our bodies. I’m so thankful for the body and health He’s given me, and it’s my honor to take care of it the best I can!

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind He will find acceptable. 

Stay fit, stay faithful ~<3 Di