WOD: Happy Thoughts

My tee-shirt says, "I'm Training To Be A Cage Fighter", pictured with Napoleon Dynamite's brother. My favorite workout shirt.

My Workout of the Day (WOD) was a 4 mile walk carrying 45 lbs (any object). I put a 40 pound dumb-bell into a heavy-duty backpack and set to walking. One feature of walks like this is when the brain kicks in and you really start to think. My blood gets flowing as I get on the road, climb the gentle incline, round the curves then start up the hill. I realized that at a total weight of 260 lbs, I am carrying 7 pounds more than when I started Spark People in 2011 [note: down to 219 at the time of this writing].

The happy thought came about half-way through the walk (Dream Theater pounding in my earphones) that when I get home, I am going to remove the backpack and drop 40 pounds in an instant. I imagined myself lighter already, picking up speed--and sure enough--the moment I came around to the backdoor, I removed the pack and felt my body nearly float on the tips of the grass blades. I celebrated with some push-ups.

Another thought came to me: many folks (self included) carry a lot of stuff inside that needs to put down. We over overweight mentally, emotionally, spiritually. John Bunyan wrote of this in the 1600's when he spoke of Graceless taking his burden to the cross of Christ where it fell off and rolled into a grave. It was at that point he became another person (Pilgrim) and it was at that point his journey really began (Progress). 

Happy thoughts alone don't change a person. Being changed brings happiness. What we fight should the that which is hostile against our Creator and us. We should not be fighting against that which helps us and I fear we have it backwards.