Redefining Normal

 Two weeks ago, I lost 2 pounds and hit a huge milestone.  These 2 pounds made me the lightest I have ever been in my adult life.  I am 34 years old, and I am the lightest I have ever been, the strongest I have ever been, and the fastest I have ever been.

For a lot of reasons, I did not think this weight was even a possibility for me.  Based on my lightest weight in Minnesota, current muscle mass, and some other variables- I thought my weight would plateau at 145 pounds.  I was in disbelief as I approached my previous lightest weight and am still struggling to believe that I have broken that threshold as well.  This is data and numbers but my perception is still incredibly emotionally driven.  It is facts, but still the reality of it is so allusive to me.

Before this year of discipline, I would look at women in good physical shape and I would admire them because I knew they were working harder than me to look like that.  I really had NO concept of how much harder they were working.  I am consistently working out 6 days a week, maintaining a great diet, and doing intermittent fasting.  I have been grinding hard for 6 months, lost over 20 pounds, and put on muscle, but I still have some visceral fat that seems to be almost as stubborn as I am.  I had no idea of the level of intensity I needed to be exercising at to achieve these results. 

Before 2023, I would hear people talk about going to the gym and I would immediately disconnect.  I could never be one of “those” people.  “A gym membership is way too much of a time commitment and an unnecessary expense,” I would tell myself.  Now, I am one of “those” people. But I was right- it is WAY too much a time commitment. Lol.  Even in the midst of getting unbelievable results, I still question whether or not it’s worth it to me.

The sacrifice is so much more than the intense 90 minutes in the gym.  It’s the 20-minute drive to and from, and leaving early because you never know when you’re going to catch a train.  It’s the time spent getting dressed before and the shower after, washing and drying my hair, cleaning and maintaining my gear, doing muscle recovery and care, and the time spent thinking about the conversations, the people, the things I got right, and the things I did wrong.  And yes, the workout is intense. 

This is yet another area where if God had told me upfront what my life would look like, I would have been negotiating and pushing back.  I would have been trying to convince God that it was excessive and that I didn’t really need to go that far.  When I set out to find a gym, I was looking for a class 2 nights a week.  Through a fluke of circumstances, I ended up somewhere that meets 2 nights a week AND a Saturday morning.  Then after a few months, my coach approached me about adding a one-on-one.  With summer, we added another one-on-one.  Over the course of a few months, I went from “trying to mix up my workouts” to in the gym 5 days a week!

It is the same with my diet.  Once upon a time, I thought intermittent fasting sounded crazy and excessive.  I began dabbling with it unintentionally because of my workout schedule and I could tell a difference in the way I felt and in the shape of my stomach.  I decided to be more intentional and consistent with a 16/8 fast.  Then, because my workout times vary, I ended up getting more like an 18/6 fast.  Somedays, I am hitting a 20/4 fast.  If you had told me a year ago that I should try eating only 4 hours out of the day, I would have told you that you were nuts, that wasn’t for me, and wasn’t even healthy.  But here I am, thinking the complete opposite.  It sounds crazy, but I look in the mirror and I look at the scale and I have to reconcile the reality of where I am.

When I gave up alcohol indefinitely, I thought that was huge and radical.  Now, alcohol is one of many things on a list.  If God had told me up front that my normal diet would include no cokes, no desserts, no alcohol, no bread, limited grains & dairy, and no added sugar- I would have been less than supportive of the suggestion (understatement).  But here I am, living a new normal: being one of “those” people that doesn’t eat pizza or desserts and taking less cheat days than The Rock. 

We all like the idea of results.  Some of us are even willing to acknowledge that we don’t have the results we want because we’re not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to get there.  But I am struggling to accept the reality of how much sacrifice it takes to get the results I want.  I knew before that I didn’t want to do it, but I didn’t even have an accurate understanding of what “it” was.  I remember in February, I had set a goal to have a six pack before my birthday.  I thought 3 months of going hard would be enough.  It wasn’t.  Turns out, 6 months isn’t enough either. 

For years, I was “trying” to lose weight. I was doing what I thought should produce results but getting nowhere.  I think most of us live our lives this way.  We make small changes and get frustrated because we see little-to-no results.  So, we quit or try something different. We have an unwillingness to abandon the current realities that we operate under and make radical commitments- like going to the gym 5 times a week, eating a modified Whole 30 diet indefinitely, and intermittent fasting.

All along the way, I have been trying to live as normal as possible.  I have been trying to negotiate the vision that God has been imparting upon me.  I have been asking God for the minimum requirements when I should have been all-in and waiting for God to tell me when to stop.

Once again, God is using my physical body to show me that my vision is too small.  He wants to do impossible things in my life, but I have to be willing to make radical sacrifices and commitments.  I am thankful that God doesn’t tell me upfront what the ending looks like.  I am thankful that 'His ways are not my ways' and that He reveals things only in His perfect timing. I am most grateful for His patience as I have taken so many tiny, baby steps of obedience over the past several years. 

I know that I could make God’s job a lot easier, and my life a lot better, if I would stop asking for the minimum requirements and go crazy with the things to which I have been called.  I’d love to hear about any areas of your life where you’re asking God for the minimum requirements when you know you should go all-in!  If the all-in still feels like too much, take your next baby step.  God is patient and will encourage you along the way.  

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

 

⁹ But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
    nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—

¹⁰ these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. ¹³ And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.^[d]

¹⁴ The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ¹⁶ “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:9-16