Wednesday 14 September 2011

Tuesday Nights and C.S. Lewis


Tuesday nights in my world have become my night out. I hire a babysitter and I am out on the town. Where you may ask? Church. Yes, I said church. This church is particularly awesome, but my extremely exciting nightlife as a suburban mom is not what this post is about. (Side note though, you can check out the church at http://www.newrenaissance.ca/index.php)
What I am trying to talk about is some inspiration that came out of a combination of last night and C.S. Lewis. In full disclosure, my favorite author is C.S. Lewis. I can read and re-read everything he has written, getting something new out of it every time. If there were one person I could be like, it would be him. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be able to leave such a brilliant legacy. I mean seriously the man invented Narnia… umm awesome!
Anyway, on to the quote that sets my thought up for today. It is the opening from his book ‘Paved with Good Intentions’: ‘It does not matter how small the sins are provided their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.’
Although this quote is referencing a demon’s perspective on separating man and God, it is also relevant to any of our goals in life. In fitness or nutrition, how frequently have we all let ice cream, cheesecake or a hamburger separate us from our goal of looking and feeling our best? How many times have we hit the snooze button in the morning when we were supposed to be getting up to go to the gym or go for a run? How many excuses of “I’m too busy to work out or eat healthy’ have we made when we still make time to check Facebook one hundred times a day? There are no signposts to tell us we are off track when we make these decisions. It is a slow, gradual, cumulative slope into ill health with every ‘just this once’ or ‘I deserve a treat after my day’. 
My suggestion? Let’s all get really intentional about our goals, not only in fitness or nutrition but in every area of life.  I don’t want to look back and think I allowed ‘cards’ to amount to ‘murder’ or in this case have junk food amount to a miserable overweight self just because I wasn’t focused. I want to feel great and look great. I want to accomplish everything I set out to do AND I think you do too. I also truly believe that it is possible for everyone to make the necessary changes in life to be satisfied with their health and appearance.  Make today the day you move forward. Pick a goal – even if it isn’t fitness related – and decide that you are going to get there.  You can do it!

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