FACEBOOK FOR THE WIN

I'm sure you've all heard by now about the ability to check the messages that Facebook conveniently filtered for you because, well, you're not really going to inherit $234,567,354 from a wealthy deceased family in South Africa, and you probably won't be contacting that sleeze bag creepin' on your profile that does not know you AT. ALL.


And Facebook also decided that I didn't need to know that an EX was totally cheating on me while we were dating, thanks so much Leigh Ann!


Names will not be protected because, well, when you're a mean, dishonest person, I'm gonna hang your biscuits out there for the world:

Interestingly, the one thing that stood out to me was: this bishhh read my blog?


Hmmm. OK! Thanks!


After lots of time in prayer for Jesus delivering me from a lifetime with home dude who thought open relationships were acceptable, I really did reflect on how grateful I am for this family, life, friends, and relationship with God.


He directs all our paths, ya'll.


He has repeatedly saved me from mistake after mistake and even though it hurt, was sad, was miserable, I questioned WHY? - it was all intended to bring me to HERE.


Right here.


And I count that as a win for the blog. And a win for me!

SPRING BREAK UPDATE

It's dark times, ya'll.

Loosely defined: real clothes.

Chocolate chip cookies and sprite for breakfast? Sure.

Cesar Milan Animal Planet marathon? Makes sense to me.

On agenda:

Making up lists of things we like and dislike about the dogs.
Where to get more sprite.
Will Jesse eat all the cookies? Who will make MORE cookies?

ALL PINK EVERYTHING

My mom reminded me of a bit of my childhood, the Christmas of 1985, where Santa brought my brother and I bicycles and accompanying goodies.

My bike was sparkly pink, glitter streamers, white woven basket. Duh.

I also received pink outfits, hair accessories, new Keds, pink pom pom socks, and a giant backpack that looked like a stuffed koala bear. So the koala bear looked like it WAS. ON. MY. BACK.
Heavenly.

Some children might spread these gifts out, wearing one item on one day, saving the others for later.
But NOT this child.

I can distinctly remember gearing UP in head to toe pink, strapping that koala on my back, straightening the new pink headband with a bow. On a pink bike mission. Straight to grandma's house, two blocks away.

Life is short, friends.

WEAR ALL THE PINK AND KOALAS.

When the victories come, enjoy them. Soak them in. Appreciate the moments, even if the victory is for two blocks to your grandma's house. Even if there is a chance you might get dirty, that you might rip something, that you might fall.

Ride that victory ride, pink bicycle and all.

"And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon,Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword;whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies."Hebrews 11:32-34

SALTY

Salty Culture isn't pretty or wrapped with a bow. It's coarse. It's real. It's something you can hold in your hand and roll it through you fingers and feel it in your bones.

Right?

It's about helping, right here in your own messy back yard.

Check out this awesome movement toward community and service, compliments of Emily and Clint Shuttlesworth, navigators of God's great oceans and Valiant Church - http://www.valiantchurch.com/ and http://www.saltyculture.com/

MORE

Psalm 63 says:

O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.

...............................

Last night we spoke about having a yearning, a longing, an angst for Christ. 

There is nothing that beats that angst, that longing and that understanding that NO MATTER how long we live on this earth, that there is always more. MORE. #more. More! 

More love.

More chances to say "I'm sorry."

More understanding.

More light.

More times to be humble.

More times to pray and cry out to God for HELP, because DANG MAN, we all need it. I need HELP to understand these times.

So let's rejoice in the MORE, in the opportunity, in the never ending path that points straight as an arrow toward HIM. 

More chances to practice "Fishy Tale" which is extremely dramatic, stickers adorned, requires two count holds and is played multiple times a day in our house. 

HERO

We wake.

He eats:
Oatmeal
4 Eggs
2 Slices Toast
2 Turkey Sausage Patties

I eat:
1/4 cup oatmeal
5 egg whites

We stop at Starbucks.

He gets:
Mocha Frapuccino the Size of Montana
Old Fashioned DONUT

I get:
Dumbest order ever that involves lethal levels of caffeine and sugar free everything. Blended.

Astros Game:

I just want to be HIM. One day.

OVER HEAD

These might have been really awful:

100 meter lunge
50 Push-Ups
50 Double Unders
25 Knees to Elbows
5 Rope Climbs
50 Box Jumps
25 OHS @ 65lbs
25 Pull-Ups
50 Sit-Ups
23:48 RX

These heat ain't no lie, ya'll. It's like an oven inside of a sauna inside of Cristiano Ronaldo's new hair cut. En FUEGO.

CALM DOWN! AND CARRY ON.

Coach asked if I wanted to prep for an August 30 competition.

And I'm telling ya'll, I feel so good right now...so I said YES.

I want this time to be different. I want to enjoy this process, this experience, this work. So, in typical Type A Liz manner, I made a list. Some promises to myself and to my peeps.

1. (With a Bullet) I will not let my weight or body fat define my self-worth or determine my mood. 

The scale is tricky ya'll.  It is incredibly useful and incredibly dangerous. I weigh every day - because I like to see how foods affect my body, how it's responding to work load, etc. But pretty soon I have to stop. Because it can play serious mind games with you, can derail your progress and your mood, especially in the bodybuilding game where losing is not always the end game goal. Our goals for this prep is to lose body fat...the scale will land where it lands. Oh, and this? This is REAL:



2. I will not pretend to be perfect on social media; I will share my strengths and weaknesses.

Lemme let you in on something: those girls on Instagram? They took 18 pictures to capture THAT one. And then they filtered it. And used a radial blur. And cropped it. 

And so do you. And so do I. 

A friend wrote me a text this weekend that reminded me: others are watching my actions and my attitude. I am here, on this journey, to help others. It's not helpful if it's not relate-able. And friends, it's entirely possible I stopped for not one, but TWO Reeses blizzards on my drive to Dallas. Sh*t gets real. 

3. I will be honest with my Coach and myself.

Which is why the blizzard incident will not happen again. Ahem. Moving on.

4. I will listen to God, my Coach, the Bull and myself to determine what is right for me. What is right for others may not influence what is right for me.

We all want to know "what does she do?" and "what does he eat?" and "how is it possible to fit donuts into your macros, you skinny son of a biscuit...?!?" and also "I wish I was a male bodybuilder so I could eat reuben sandwiches and pretzels before work outs" and I probably can stop there. What is right for me is determined by my Coach and the Bull. God will guide this journey and He wants me happy and healthy...not covetous. 

5. For every negative thought, I will follow it with two positives. 

I mean, cause all these other girls are trying to put on muscle, right? And I'm like GOD HELP ME UNCOVER IT. I also might laugh at their attempts to power clean a barbell. God bless Olympic lifting and Crossfit. 

I did pull ups on this sorry excuse for a hotel gym piece of equipment and fellow patrons on ellipticals freaked the EFF out. It was impressive, really. 



6. I will not compare myself to pros on social media.

There's a fine line between motivation and belittling yourself. And it's name is Instagram and IFBB Pro Amanda Latona. 

6. Speaking of Crossfit...Crossfit is prioritized before gym until my Coach tells me otherwise. 

Because life is too short to not do what you love. And Coach told me I could do it all. I can do it all, right? Right!

7. I will not take my frustrations out on my family and friends. This is my choice, not theirs. 

The Bull is the most patient man on Earth. Seriously ya'll, the man put up with me during peak week and a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu of tilapia and red potatoes. It was a dark place. He also is willing to spray adhesive my suit to my butt. That's LOVE. So, in return, I will show only love. But I refuse to go into Buc-ees and buy him brownies from this point forward. That's just wrong and I will now count the days until brownies. There are 68, Just sayin.

All joking aside...I really want to enjoy this prep. I want to work my ass off, bring a better package than I did before and learn. I continue to learn so much from this process and I love it. I love the ethic, I love the determination. I can safely say now...I am an athlete. And I can't wait to see the doors that open over the next 10 weeks.

DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE

Ann Voskamp wrote today:

Lord, some things look pretty impossible from where we stand right now.

So that's what we do: we pray for the impossible things, the improbable, implausible, impractical things.

We don't just pray for the possible --- because ours is the God who whispers: "With Me nothing, Nothing, NOTHING is impossible." 

You are the God who makes the ridiculously impossible into the miraculously possible, the unbelievable into the you-better-believe-it, the never into the now. We are the people who pray it tonight: BUT GOD. We pray the impossible prayers -- because as long we are with You, *nothing is impossible.*

Do we dare be bold enough to pray for the impossible? For the bridge to mend? For the weight to be lifted? For the door to open...or close?

When I am asked about fitness or Crossfit or training, I always tell others "you can do this."

Anyone can do this.

When someone paralyzed from the waist down can do rope climbs in a wheelchair? Yeah, you can do this. 

The difference is the want. How bad do you want it? Pray the impossible.

The dream is free - the hustle is sold separately folks

THE COMPARISON

"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man...it is the comparison that makes you proud; the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone." - C.S. Lewis

Humility really comes from just being grateful for what you have.

And when there's 95 pounds of barbell in your hands and you wonder why you chose to RX it because those other girls? They're using 65 or 55 or whatever and if you had THEIR load, it would be so much easier.

Or would it?

The comparison creates pride.

Compare against others and that measuring stick quickly becomes a weapon.

Compete against yourself and you eliminate pride and welcome humility.