Learning Like Naaman

A quick post today.

I was inspired by the messages at Stake Conference this weekend, so I want to share a bit of what I am taking away from the messages I was taught there.

In 2 Kings, Chapter 5, we read the story of Naaman, "captain of the host of the king of Syria... he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper." Naaman goes to the prophet Elisha, who sends a messenger to tell him that he must wash in the river Jordan seven times to be made clean.

Verses 11-14: "But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lod his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. 

Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."

How often do we ignore the simple things that the Lord has asked us to do because we are too proud to see their true power and importance in our lives? Are we turning to Him in prayer and searching the scriptures for truth? He wants to save us and lead us to our full potential.

Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."

I hope that I continue to learn, as Naaman was able to, how to be more obedient. When I look back at my life, I'm always disappointed with the times I haven't been faithful, for I have lived beneath my privileges. Would any of us choose to live with leprosy when we could be whole? Here's to trying once again to be diligent in obeying the small things and having gratitude that not everything we are asked by the Lord requires a huge sacrifice and effort.

Woodpeckers

Photography has long been an interest of mine. I used to read up on photography tips (mainly composition advice, as far as I can remember) and was always wanting a camera (and then a better camera once I had one) when I was younger. Last July I finally got a DSLR Canon T3i and it has been amazing!

The trick with photography and other pricey hobbies for me has always been to make it worth the expense. I have to learn and get better, but mostly just be good at it in general. I've recently started scrapbooking (Oh dear... I guess that adds another hobby that can be pricey) and I've found that my photography hobby has REALLY paid off! I certainly don't regret taking dozens of pictures when I'm going back to record my memories and have a large selection to choose my favorites from. I especially like how pictures help me remember the things I've done and the people I've gone on adventures with. Side note: why is it so easy to forget what you did with people? It's like I can remember their personalities and facts about them so easily, but can't easily remember the experiences we shared.

I find that, ever since I got my wonderful new camera, I've used it mainly for concert photography. This is great because that's also the main reason why I upgraded my camera, but I find myself really wanting to sharpen my skills in other areas as well. I've also started hiking with my camera and having it on me when I'm with friends more, but this hasn't been much of an upgrade as my old digital Nikon was great at photographing people too. Landscape photography is pretty cool, but I still believe that it's the people who really make the hiking shots special.

So, clearly, I need to continue to branch out and find things that are interesting, but will stretch my skills. Yesterday, one such subject presented itself. There's a tree that the woodpeckers love that stands very near where I park my car. I get home from work in the afternoons and, both today and yesterday, I found a lovely, Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus rubber) there. I call it a woodpecker, but technically, it isn't one. They're classified together though, so it works for me. If you look, you can see that they drilled nice, straight horizontal rows into the tree and even have sap on their beaks! Yum?

Nice, sappy beak. Lunch must have been tasty.

I only got one picture of this smaller (skinnier?) woodpecker. This one had a bit more vivid coloring

So, my camera lens actually doesn't zoom in this far (these have been closely cropped) and I had to get pretty close to the birds for my pictures. I tried to mot be very threatening, but I did end up scaring them both off in the end. The larger one stayed close by in a different tree and watched me, waiting for me to leave. I was watching him back, waiting to see if he'd come back with me still there, but he would not. After a while, he even chirped at me and sounded very annoyed. He was clearly telling me that it was time for me to leave them alone so they could snack. I don't think he appreciated me coming back today either.

What a handsome new friend I have! Too bad the feeling isn't mutual.

Feathers got a bit ruffled today when I came back for more pictures and got too close again. I would hate to be a greedy little green pig around this angry bird!

This concludes my latest adventure into photography. I hope you liked my pictures and my experience trying to be a friend to nature and failing! I'll have to find more opportunities to harass sweet, innocent birds during their lunch soon so I can practice getting animal shots some more. I also learned a few things about this neat type of bird! So worth it to make new friends!

Health Habits 4

Alright... just don't check the dates between this post and my last one, okay? Thanks! So, for those of you who did anyway, you may have noticed that I haven't updated the Health Habits in a while. It's a bit early for a completely missed 2 weeks, but I felt it was time to explain what happened.

What happened: a complete and utter failure at every single goal.

This last chunk of time didn't start out that way though! After my last post I was doing better than ever! That week I met every goal including the new sleep habits. Then it happened. Sickness. Days of not feeling well and the second week resulted in not a single goal being met. Then guilt. The downward spiral continued as I realized last week that I had failed, and still didn't meet a single goal. I realized I had more work ahead of me to get on track and felt discouraged.

This week I have been trying to get it back together. I have missed my weights training still, but have been going to the gym for cardio. I'm drinking my water and taking my multi-vitamin. I'm trying to go to bed on time, and still waking at the same time every morning (plus: no naps!!!). So here we are. Time to work on motivation.

Here's my "What to do when you fall and have to pick yourself back up" post. I'm going to make this another simple 2-point post that I hope helps you all WHEN you find yourself struggling to meet your health goals. Remember, having the best intentions isn't going to change anything. It's all up to you, so you have no one to blame but yourself. That being said:


1. Don't be too hard on yourself.

First thing about getting motivation back is to keep a positive self-image. Thinking your a failure WILL make you one, so how about remembering why you made the goals and tricks you've used to accomplish them. You haven't lost all of that hard work and I know you remember how good it feels to be on top of things. Let's get back out there! No need to do everything right away where you left off. Start with whatever you know you can handle and pick up the rest when you're feeling confident again! Remember that you're strong and you don't need a gym to remind you!

2. Focus on today.

I know you're busy. It's overwhelming to think of a long list of health habits that you want to maintain! You have so much to do and all these goals just keep pilling up! Even with taking things a step back to build confidence, you might get overwhelmed by planning for a week of gym workouts and noting your time to be asleep by, etc. The more goals, the more important it is to change your focus.

If you look at today, you'll get a much better handle on things! Plan ahead a little, but only get into the details of what you can work on now to meet these goals. Don't worry too far ahead, because it just gets unmanageable too fast! Start drinking your water and think of when you can hit the gym, and you'll be fine! Really! Make sure you get the important things done first and everything else will either fall into place, or fall off your to do list. Good luck!


So, there you go! Whenever you need it, you can come back to this post, refocus, and start moving forward again. Don't be too hard on yourself and don't give up! One step at a time is how we're building these habits and one step at a time is how you maintain them! Now, get offline and get yourself going again.

Facebook Politics

This post is in honor of the Presidential election coming up very soon (welcome to November!), and how awkward Facebook political posts are. Also, I am posting this because my friends are clever and they already took the steps to joke about this. Therefore, I am sharing the humor with all of you and inviting you to share it some more. Please enjoy and be sure to vote!

Health Habits 3

Here we go again!

Okay, so I have the goals from the first Health Habits post down now! Yay! I've been drinking plenty on water and remembering my vitamins even on vacation. The second one was a really big step and is going to take a little more work. I wasn't feeling well the first week of that goal and traveling messed with the second week, so I still haven't done my full goal within a week. I'm going to continue to focus on my gym goals for this 2-week section and hopefully make some real progress! Here's what I'm adding to that:

Sleep.

This is a 2-part goal again:


1. Get 7 hours of sleep every night!

I know it's simple, but I'm surprised at how often I miss this and end up taking a long nap the next day. I'll be more productive if I can sleep better and stay focused all day. This is the first goal and the one that absolutely cannot be broken!


2. Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every night - including weekends.

This one will be the hardest for me! I'm hoping to work this in a little more gradually as I see what works best for me. Doing this will greatly increase the quality of sleep as your body maximizes how much rest you get and having a regular schedule really helps it to be efficient! I'm worried a bit about the weekends part and realize that it may be tough in a college lifestyle to do, but I'll get there!


So, there you go! Sleeping on a schedule and getting back to the gym. One step at a time my friends. One step at a time.

My No Equipment Workout

I'm going out of town for about 4 days and need to keep up on my second round of health goals! That means I've come up with a hybrid of the weight/cardio days that I can do pretty much anywhere. Since I've put some work into this, I thought I would share it and see if any of you have any feedback or want to give it a try yourself.

This workout should take about 30 minutes and is best to do with one other person. Make sure you have a timer and a chair and that's all you should need! I recommend resting a bit between each of these steps and, as always, making sure you're drinking water. Good luck!

1: Warm up

Stretch a little, but mostly just get moving! The best warm up will start to use the motions you will be going through in the work out.

2: 60-second plank

This should be self-explanatory. Hold yourself up for a full 60-seconds. I recommend making sure your body is as straight as possible and holding yourself up with your hands, but you can also use your elbows. If you need to make it harder, you can hold it longer or try lowering yourself so your elbows are supporting your plank and raising yourself back to your hands.

3. Squat with leg lift (1 min)

Start out in a basic squat position, making sure your knees are not extending beyond your toes. Stand up while lifting left leg off floor and extending it out to the side and hold for a beat. Lower leg back to floor as you return to squat position. Stand back up, this time lifting right leg. This is one rep. Make sure your back is straight throughout.

4. Hip Raise (1 min)

Lie with back on the floor, knees bent, and your feet flat on the floor. Keep your arms out away from your sides with palms facing up. Tighten your center and glutes and raise your hips until your body is straight from your shoulders to your knees. Hold for 5 seconds then lower to the starting position and repeat.

5. Mountain Climbers (1 min)
From a plank position, alternate bending each leg up and pulling your knee up to your chest and then straightening the leg back into the starting position. Keep your back straight.

6. Chair dips (1 min)

For this, you will need a chair that can support your weight and won’t move (try placing it against a wall). Keep your arms straight and place your hands on the edge of the chair so that you are facing away from it and your fingers face your back, holding yourself off the ground. Your knees should be bent and shoulder-width apart in front of you. Lower yourself until your upper arms are parallel with the floor and hold for a beat. Lift yourself back to the starting position (arms straight) and repeat.

7. Jumping Jacks (100 count)
Another one that should be pretty basic. Make sure you keep count and don't get sloppy with these towards the end!

8. Stationary Lunges (1 min)
Do a full lunge forward with your left leg. The right leg should remain straight while the left takes a large step forward and the knee bend over, but not past the left foot. Return to standing position and repeat with the right leg. 

9. Push-ups (1 min)

Do as many as you can in a minute. If you can’t keep going, hold a plank again. You can also try lowering yourself so your elbows are supporting your plank and raising yourself back to your hands for a better workout.

10. Crossover sit-ups (40 count)

Do a full sit up but cross your right elbow to your left knee and left elbow to your right knee. Do 20 on each side for a total of 40. Adjust the count to your ability as needed, but always complete as many as you can. I can do 40 right now, so that's why I chose this specific number. Have someone hold your feet if possible and take turns. This will allow you to do more and you'll be glad to have some encouragement on this one!

11. Leg Raises (100 count)
Lay on your side with legs stacked and raise the top leg 50 times. Hold for one beat down and one beat up. Make sure your body remains straight throughout. Roll over and do the same for the other side. This tones the hip area.

12. Cool down
Walk it off and be sure to give everything a great stretch. Hold each stretch pose and slowly inhale and exhale as you relax into the stretch more. Take your time cooling down! 

Tongue In Cheek

Here's another random old one for you guys. I'm pretty proud of this one actually! I happened to be thinking of a lot of puns one day and... well... you can see what happened.