I just finished up my morning devotional Bible reading time and a very odd and interesting thought struck me. Dan Brown's book The Lost Symbol. I know, weird, right? I read this book a couple of weeks ago and had some issues with it while I was reading it. I thought it was a great story, filled with lots of good suspense and wanting to know what would happen next. What was behind the story, however, not so to my liking. Like The DaVinci Code, this book is a chase to figuring out a mystery that will unlock some incredible knowledge. The Lost Symbol's chase was to find some hiding place that contained the knowledge of the "ancient mysteries", which is the knowledge that will make man equal to God. This is where things got a little irksome for me as I was reading. Despite enjoying the suspense of the novel, I found myself constantly being distracted by thoughts of "Come ON! We can never be equal to God!!! And how can you promote such insanity, Dan Brown?? *hiss*".

But then came today. As I was reading the Bible and learning new things to help me grow into a better person and have a more fulfilling life, it hit me. In Dan Brown's book, Robert Langdon (the main character) and his partners in crime do find the "lost symbol" aka "the word" that will bring man godly knowledge. Guess what they found? That special godly knowledge was in The Bible. While I don't really agree with how the book claims that there is all sorts of secret meaning to the gospels that will make man some powerful person that can change the universe's matter and do all sort of crazy science stuff, I do have to agree that The Bible is a powerful source to godly knowledge. And even though it is impossible, as we are all sinners and cannot completely remove that part of our nature, we are in fact meant to be equal to God. Yes. God wants us to be like Jesus. Jesus IS God. The Bible teaches us how. There you have it. The Bible IS in fact a book to hidden knowledge that can help us learn and grow to be like God, although not so secret since it is perpetually the top selling book in the world. And while I know that no matter how much I study that book I will never fully understand it and be able to apply it to my life 100%, I do know that its' worth giving a shot because it will undoubtedly teach me things that will only do good in my life. You know what? I didn't even have to go on a deadly, scary hunt through a bunch of symbolic puzzles to figure that one out either. Sorry, Robert Langdon. 😉

Today started off a bit on the unexpected side. Well, not totally unexpected, but not what I was hoping for. After waking up, getting dressed in my gym wear, downing my pre-workout NO Xplode shake (which, for the record, works well but tastes nasty in lemonade flavor), and being pumped to keep rolling with my "better habits" motivation....found a sick, super congested, coughing baby girl in her crib when I went to get her up. *sigh* My poor girl!! She has been battling off and on congestion for a few weeks. Without fail, 2 days a week she is snotty and fussy. We do the humidifier, saline spray, sucking the junk out, juice/fluids bit and then she is fine and back to normal. Only for it to return a week later. Well. Hmmmm? What to do? I can tell you what I did would have done in the past few weeks - use it as an excuse to not be able to get in my workout and laze around and boredom snack all day. Easy, peasy, right???

NO!!!! Well, yes. It would be easy. No, I would not have been happy and would have felt disappointed in myself for taking the easy way out. Now, now, now. Don't fret. I did not pack up my sick baby and head to the gym anyways to pass germs to other innocent children. I snuggled and played with my happy, albeit sick, sweetheart. Then, when she went down for her nap, I headed down to the basement and did some cardio. I pulled out an old Cathe DVD I haven't done in quite some time - IMAX 2. This workout totally and completely kicked my butt....and sent my heart racing. It's 10 step intervals with lots of plyometric drills. It was fun, effective, and passed by super fast. See a clip and description of the workout HERE.

After that, Makenzie & I had lunch and put on some music to dance around the living room. That girl loves to shake her booty. She quite likes the Black Eyed Peas song "Boom Boom Boom" (not sure if that's the right name). During her afternoon nap, I did a bit more reading, chatted online with a good friend, and did my daily devotional Bible reading. You would think the day would die down there, huh?

NOPE! Once hubs got home, I was off to the gym. That's right. My workout plan was to do legs and some cardio today. I am a determined lady right now and had to get my leg session in dagnabit. Can I just say how happy I am that I did? WOW! I killed, I mean killed, my legs. I got my squat weight back up. I was shaking at the end. And all with a much shorter and effective workout. After that, it was home to gobble up some dinner (steamed chicken spring rolls, sugar snap peas) and type this up while chilling on the couch. Another rewarding day, thanks to my resolve. Here's to day 3!

RECAP - DAY 3
Training = Legs
*warm up first*
1) BB Squat - 95# x15, 115# x10, 125# x8 x2sets, 135# (!!!!) x7, 135# x5
2) Bulgarian Split Squat - 20's x 12 x 2sets, 25's x 10, 30's x 8
3A) Walking Lunge w/ Pulses @ Bottom - 20's x 10/leg x 3sets
3B) Leg Extension - 85# x 10 x 3sets

Cardio = Cathe IMAX 2 DVD

Diet = Healthy, balanced, and delicious
Water = 4 Liters + a cup of decaf peppermint tea I'm about to enjoy

Time with God = Prayer time and Bible time. I can definitely tell a difference in my approach to situations, happiness, life in general with more focused time spent with God. I would like to extend this part of my challenge to others as well. Even just 15 minutes of time spent with God is amazing and refreshing. And if that's not in your beliefs, then meditation or something similar could work for you 🙂 Do you take time for daily prayer or meditation? Does it make a difference for YOU?