His Voice -- Chill Is In the AirI

His Voice is an encouraging, FREE, informative local newspaper.  You can pick one up all over town at various locations.  I wrote a column for the December issue with practical tips on how to maintain your outdoor fitness regimen over the cold months of the season.  If you are a runner, jogger, walker or cyclist, you'll be interested in how you can keep the cold weather from hindering your workouts!  It will hit the news stands in about a week, so look for it!

F2BF Today - Taking Steps

Just a few words this morning as I am on the "go" with several household necessities.  I have barely made it to my office over the last week; I'm telling you, it's HARD to find blocks of time to sit and write.  Chapter 3 is with my editor friend and she is liking it.  That makes me feel good, but it also lights my desire to work on Chapter 4.  So my update is:  not much progress, but tons of desire.  There was a time when I didn't even have the desire to write.  That season is over.  
I am working on an article for a local Christian newspaper, "His Voice."  I need to finish that today along with painting a bathroom and hanging kitchen lights after a ceiling repair.  My big accomplishment yesterday was getting my dogs to the vet for nail trimming.  Does anyone else find that life's interruptions are frustrating?  I am taking steps to seeing my book in your hands.  Though they are small, they still count.  Steps are steps.  The key is to START.  If you don't take that first step, then there is no way the second step will come.  So, whatever it is that you need to START, take the step!  In Christ,

Century Cycling in Claxton, GA

Very pleased to report that the Claxton, GA Cruisin' in the Country Century was a blast!  The LORD provided the best possible weather and the day was a gift from Him!  I performed very well, thanks again to Him.  How about some pictures?  OK, here they come.

Leaving the hotel enroute to Claxton.

Ready, Set, Go!

This is where I first began to sense fatigue.

 

This church hosted a rest stop!

 

There she blows!!  100 Miles!  Trouble was that my van was 5 miles away. Lovely.

 

Back at the van, very grateful and happy.  And DIRTY!  If I only had a shower!

 

Glory Be!!!!  The SBC's shower truck was onsite!!!!  Hallelujah!!!!

 

All cleaned up and feeling very accomplished!  Let's go home!!

 

It was a perfect cycling day, very light wind, highs in the 70's and the terrain was wonderful.  This was my last event for the year.  Next Century probably Dublin, GA in March 2010.  Right now, I just want to climb into my bed.

Finding The Time

I am in disbelief that today is Thursday.  I had so many plans for this week, a list of things to complete before leaving for Claxton on Friday (where I will ride in my 2nd Century--see previous post).  I barely scratched the surface in terms of my writing.  It's just plain hard to find uninterrupted blocks of time.  My house is busy!  Kids going in all directions, pets to tend to and the mundane cleaning and maintaining.  If everyone would just be quiet for a day so that I can sit in my office and let the words flow!  It isn't going to happen.  I have to learn to close the door and block out the world on the other side.

I am going to try to get some writing done today, but I have several big errands to deal with in between.  I have been up for nearly two hours and have managed to drink 2 cups of coffee and eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while I caught a few minutes of Fox and Friends.  I'll need to focus intently to ignore the guys who are tending to the yard today and the other guys that are repairing two drywall ceilings and the dogs that are whining because they are afraid of both sets of guys.  We'll see.

The ONLY way any of my day will make sense is if I stop right now and spend some time "alone" with my Master!  I want what He wants for me today.  It is futile to try to accomplish anything until I have met with Him to see what is on my "To Do" list.  I can't add hours to this day, especially to the part that has already entered history.  I wish I could go back to 730 and start over.  It doesn't work that way.  My only option is to STOP and REGROUP!

(Ahhhhhh.....one of the cats just escaped!  Here kitty kitty......)

Hope your day is exciting and blessed!

May I Pray for You?

I have asked you to pray for me.  If you would even just mention my name to the LORD, He will know what my greatest need is and meet it.  I would be ever so grateful.  I would be honored to mention your name to the Father.  You'll find a place to leave your request over to the right, near the bottom of the page. 
 

How is the book coming?

I finished Chapter 3 last evening, and took a look at Chapter 4.  I am not settled on how to title Chapter 4.  I had called it "The Truth,"  but that sounds too arrogant, like I have the corner on the truth, which I don't.  Then I thought about calling it "The Bottom Line."  That doesn't fit, either.  It's a chapter that discusses the purpose of food:  what it is for and what it is not for.  For example, food is not your friend; food is fuel.  That's the idea.  I would love to go directly to the writing now, but other things come first today....I have a house to clean and chauffeuring duties, too.  I think it's time to put on some loud praise music and whirl through this house with my dust rag.  Then, I can sit at my desk and watch the Chapter 4 revision unfold.

Thank you for taking the time to read...again, please pray for me.  I am charting unfamiliar ground.

Chapter 3 Close

Nothing major to report.  I am very close to having Chapter 3:  The Battle for the Mind, complete.  My editor tells me that she is finished with Chapter 2.  I am going to spend some time writing right now, so maybe I'll be able to come back later and report that I'm working on Chapter 4:  The Bottom Line.  Please pray for me.

Free To Be Fit Progress Report

 I was up until after midnight on Wednesday evening revising Chapter 2:  Stubborness has Virtue.  "Stubborn" has such a negative connotation and is always viewed as a character flaw.  I turned it around and looked at it from a positive perspective.  

Yesterday flew by with no time at all to write.  I got up at my usual hour and felt the loss of sleep all day long.

Today was unusually full and wearisome.  I plopped down on the couch in front of the television and watched about 15 minutes of Andy Griffith, but it just couldn't hold my interest. I kept thinking about how close I was to finishing Chapter 2.  I climbed the stairs to my office and that's where I've been since.  Chapter 2 is finished and Chapter 3:  The Battle for the Mind,  is about 75% done.  I've been writing about obsession, idolatry and fear.  God's Word has tons to say on this and I have had a blast!

Do you remember the TV commercial from a while back...the background music was the song "You're Always On My Mind."  The ad was for a weight loss product and the picture showed various women involved in their normal lives, but with a bathroom scale chained to their ankle, ball and chain style.  What an accurate image of the preoccupation that some people have with their body weight.

Chapter 4:  (no title yet) is where the motivation to be physically fit comes from.  It's my favorite topic, but it's one that is hard to find words for.  It will be interesting to see how God puts just the right words in my head.

One more thing before I click "publish post."  The LORD has provided a very talented graphic artist to design the cover and pages of Free To Be Fit.  He is a friend of Christian's (my oldest son).  He and Christian were dorm mates while they were in school at Liberty University.  You can see Nate's work at www.natevanderende.com.  God is good!

Thanks for stopping by,

Joan

Training for A Century

Good Morning!  The weather is absolutely beautiful this morning.  I met a cycling friend and we logged 40 miles, average speed about 15mph.  Not very fast, but not turtle-pace either.  My goal is to ride consistently at 16-18 mph average.  Last weekend I hit my top speed EVER on my bike which was 38.8 mph!  It was right before one of the biggest climbs I've ever done.  I was with The Bike Store group, so I was following along and don't know where in the world we were.  This particular climb is nicknamed "Ammo Hill."  It nearly shot me down!!

Heather, Me and Jenn, ready to head out!

I'm training for my second Century.  In the cycling world, a Century is a 100-mile bike ride.  My first was back in September.  Two of my best cycling pals and I rode together.  It was the first for all three of us.  We rode out of Albany, GA then to Plains (where President Jimmy Carter lives) and back.  At the 50, I walked into the Plains, GA Welcome Center which was a scheduled lunch break.  I grabbed a sandwich and Coke, then went inside to look around.  There was a life-size poster of President Carter so I asked my friend to take a picture of me beside it.    

"President Carter" and Me

I was standing there, smiling toward the camera and out of the corner of my eye I noticed that a couple of women were watching.  I wondered, "What are they doing?  Do they think this cardboard thing is real?  Why are they smiling at me?"  All of these thoughts flashed through my mind simultaneously and a split second later I recognized two of my girlfriends' faces!  Jan and Monique drove all the way to Plains and "just happened" to find me at the halfway point.  I was in shock.  I could not believe they were there.  They had no idea when exactly I would be there; they just tried to figure it out and God worked it out so that we were all there at exactly the right time.  They held up a poster "Go Joan Falldine!"  I don't think I've ever been so completely and pleasantly surprised!  

I finished that Century in 6 hours and 50 minutes.  Not bad for my first go!  I felt like I had conquered the world when it was over.  That is, until I went to my van and it had a flat tire!  I don't know what the purpose was in the flat tire, but I thanked God for it anyway.

I'm training now for a Century in Claxton, GA on November 14th.  I'd like to ride it in 6 hours or less.  That's a do-able goal; it all depends on the wind.  I'm hoping for about 60 degrees and calm with some sunshine.  To be ready I will need to ride another 40 on Friday and Saturday.  I'll try to get a ride in on Sunday, but it will be short 20 or 25.  Monday I'll be teaching aerobics at Second Baptist.  Tuesday and Wednesday will be my last training rides.  Starting on Thursday I will rest and eat, eat, eat!  That's probably the best part of a Century, except for the end.

You know what the Bible says, "The end of a matter is better than its beginning."  Ecclesiastes 7:8a! 
Joan

Nerves Galore!

I can't even begin to describe the butterflies in my stomach, sitting here at my laptop this morning.  My belly is aflutter with excitement and trepidation.  I am starting a journey here that is going to hold my feet to the fire.  Until now, only a select few have known that I am writing a book.  There's been relatively little pressure as I have quietly worked on it for the past 10 years or so.  I honestly don't remember the date, but I clearly remember the moment, when God birthed this project as a fleeting thought.  I was in a church, listening to Iris Blue talk about her experiences as a severely abused little girl, and how God used those horrid circumstances to bring her to her ministry to women.  I was spellbound by her story.  She experienced incredible abuses and she spoke from what she knew to encourage the women in the audience.  It was an epiphany as I realized that I could do the same thing, but from a different set of experiences.

I have knowledge and experience in physical fitness, healthy living, weight management and nutrition.  I have experienced the benefits of consistent exercise and eating well for decades and I want you to know that it's not as hard as you might think!  It's totally worth the effort.  If you could just feel for a day, what it's like to be fit and healthy, you'd have the motivation to live that way, too.  I hear women (mostly, but sometimes men) constantly pre-occupied with their weight, clothing size and diet.  They're always evaluating, comparing and examining.  I can't say that I have met more than a few women who will say that they are happy with their bodies.  I confess that there have been many times when I, too, have fallen to complaining about a body that isn't perfect and doesn't look the way I wish it did.  However, there have been many times where I can look in the mirror and say, "You're lookin' good, Falldine!"  

I tell people that I have lost 160 pounds and technically, that is true.  Your eyes probably zoomed right over to the picture of me with my bike.  You're thinking, "No way did she lose 160 lbs!  How did she do it?  She doesn't look like she could have ever been that big!"  Relax, y'all.  I didn't really lose 160 pounds all at once.  But I have lost 40 pounds, four times.

I first lost 40 pounds back around 1983 when I met my future husband.  George's love for me taught me to love myself, which was a totally new concept.  That was all the motivation I needed to finally pay attention to what I was eating, enough to actually drop weight permanently.  Until then I exercised like a maniac, but never really learned to feed myself a diet consistent with loosing weight and maintaining the loss.  George was the first one to help me know what amount of food "normal" people ate.

The second, third and fourth times that I lost 40 pounds were in 1986, 1989 and 1991.  I gained about 40 pounds with each of my pregnancies and lost it all shortly after each of my children were born.  Here it is 2009 and I weigh about what I weighed in 1983 when I got married.  My weight has fluctuated about 10 pounds up or down this entire time.  Yeah, I like it better when it's a little on the down, but even when it's on the up, I am not miserable.  (Right now it's a little on the "up" end and I am motivated to pay attention to what I'm putting in my mouth.)

I know what it takes and I'm putting it all down in Free To Be Fit.  I have to tell you one more thing, and then I need to step aside from my computer and get my day in gear!

The foundation of my life is my relationship with Jesus Christ.  He is everything to me.  He is my motivation, my strength, my creativity, my reason, my very life.  I cannot live a day without talking to Him.  I am fueled by His power and apart from Him I collapse into a heap of mere flesh and bones.

The Bible has everything to say and instruct when it comes to how to live a healthy and productive life.  The very foundation of Free To Be Fit is Galatians 5:1.  It says this:  It was for freedom that Christ set you free, therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject to a yoke of slavery again!  I see too many people living like prisoners in their own bodies, victims of their own bad choices.  Free To Be Fit teaches you HOW to get free and stay free. 

Next time I sit here to write, I want to tell you where I am in the process of getting Free To Be Fit in your hands.  I've got a long, long way to go, but you can help if you would pray for me.  Deal?

Until then, have a great day in the Lord,

Joan