The secret to my recent success

This fall I seemed to be languishing.  I was at my lifetime highest weight, in a lot of pain, had hurt my good knee and discovered that one had a cyst too- which meant that neither of my knees were 'good', and was not really taken care of my appearance. Tried to get the blog up again- but that didn't seem to work very well...

Prayer
Then at the beginning of Advent, I really felt the need to pray every day- to just make sure that was included in my morning ritual.  So I started with Online Ministries Daiky Reflection, which during Advent had a daily prayer that incorporated the day's readings and their reflection on those readings.

Exercise-failed attempt
That got me back to Curves twice a week for two weeks.  Then my Christmas break came in- and the break in the routine caused me to drop back out of Curves.

Appearance
Then I started to get the urge to et dressed to my shoes, including hair and makeup before I did any work in the day.

Housework
I wanted to start accomplishing more, but found it hard to stand for long periods- so I bought a Wooden stool that was fairly uncomfortable but with a cushion and my bath stool for a leg rest was nice.  That helped in that department.

Personal Style
Needed a hair cut but never found the time over the break.  But the Saturday after returning to work, something strange happened- when I went to get my hair cut, I looked through the style books and picked a style that I would like.  As usual, Deanna at Fantastic Sam's did a great job! I like it so much that I'm going back on Friday nights to get it styled- a little bit of luxury.

Fitness
This time I decided to go to Curves 3 times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after work.  If I leave work on time, I can just make it before they don't let anyone in a half hour before closing.  Two weeks of this created a miracle!  I could walk down the stairs normally- no grabbing both handrails- no two feet on each step- no hesitation- just normally!  It made me so excited, I tell everyone who will listen!

Marathons
Not yet!  But I started to be able to walk normal speed and got excited about fitness, so started to add Zumba on Tuesday and Thursday nights!  And I can do it!  Well, not exactly, but I can move the entire 30 minutes and get my heart rate up- which is the real value.  Now that I can walk, started to look for 5K's.  So I'm entered into the Color Me Rad in April on Team Curves.  Then Rob wanted to train with me and enter the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathonin November.  I looked at how much distance I could add each week and discovered it was possible- but speed could be a problem.  Then Ivanka Trump published a Half Marathon Plan and I decided to re- kindle my plan to run the   Boston Marathonthe April of my 65th birthday- 2017.  If I'm really good, I might even be able to qualify at the Disney Marathon in January 2016!

This is a great example of how the Discipline of Self-esteem works.  You start out with prayer which gives you the grace to take care of yourself, which gives you the desire to improve- and then the world falls into place to accomplish your dreams.  I'll be posting more each day as I follow this journey.