"A Big Fat Hairy Fight"

I read post today by Anne Jackson. Anne is an author who is riding in Blood:Water Mission's Ride:Well Tour later this year. The Ride:Well team will bicycle from the Pacific Coast all the way to the Atlantic Coast to raise awareness and money for Blood:Water Mission (in case you missed it, this is the same organization the H2O Runners are raising money for).

Anne's post was about the determination it takes to commit to exercising even when it isn't fun. It was a comfort to read that even "famous" people struggle with doing what you know is right even though it isn't easy. It's not easy to run 4 days a week (before long, that will be 6 days a week) plus doing other exercising 2 days a week. It's not easy to drink water all the time instead of coke - the love of my life. (Why am I not drinking coke? It's hard enough to run without dying when I don't have tons of sugar and carbonation sloshing around in my gut.) It's not easy to get up early and head to the gym for an hour and then go straight to the grocery store wearing my stinky, sweaty shirt and nearly-spandex shorts because I don't have time to shower before picking Mikayla up from school. It's not easy to miss "my" tv shows in order to run.

One of the comments on Anne's blog post was that exercising is a delayed gratification. That hour of sweatiness is not fun, it does not feel good. But, after exercising when you have more energy and when you lose weight and tone muscles and get healthy you can definitely feel the benefits. His exact words were, "I would be happier during that hour if I didn’t workout but in the long run it would make me feel worse. If I suffer through the hour I reap the benefits later."

Add to the personal benefit the fact that this hour of sacrifice will in the long run raise money to provide life-sustaining, clean water to people in Africa and you've got motivation!

Here's the link to Anne's post: flowerdust.net. A great read for anyone who has to do something they don't enjoy because they know it's right and good...especially if that something is exercise.

By Chrystal Murphy