Day Three Musings - can I check out my abs now?

The kids have been exitedly joining us on our fitness journey.  We're all doing sit-ups and crunches on the living room floor, and chatting about diet and exercise along the way.  Everyone is working up a sweat and lamenting the soreness in our stomachs and sides from the last few days exertion.

Butterbean Baby!

So, Shea J (a.k.a. "Little Man", or MaML - Man of Much Littleness) starts chatting with me excitedly, wanting to know when he's going to see results and his six pack abs.  I mistakenly told him yesterday that he will notice changes in as little as a week or two.  Well, 'changes' to a 9 year old is probably akin to looking like Hugh Jackman and not just 'feeling more fit'.  He was visibly dissapointed when I told him that six pack abs were gonna be somewhere way down the road, maybe months or a year away.  I didn't bother going into the details of Comstock genetics which may lead him to being a big kid someday, but probably more like Butterbean than Brad Pitt.

Enough about you,
 lets talk about me

Is there a point to all this rambling?  Well, of course there is patient reader!  Lissy said after our excercise today, "You know, I feel like that day when we were building the patio and the 15 tons of fill got delivered and dumped into a huge pile in our back yard.  I never thought we would ever see the day when that pile was gone."

We worked week after week, moving the fill from that pile into the area we had dug out for the patio, one shovel full and wheelbarrow load at a time.  Finally the day came when the pile was gone, the pavers were laid, and the grout and sealant were finished.  Looking back on all the effort invested, it had taken hours of labor, fatigue, and fighting through days where you just didn't feel like lifting another shovel full.  In the end though, there was no better feeling of pride and satisfaction than appreciating all we'd accomplished and knowing we'd done it all on our own.  We took our time, stayed patient, and did it right.

Here we are again with another 15 ton pile that we need to move.  The difference here is we're the 15 ton pile, with situps and pushups as our shovels and wheelbarrows.  This won't happen in a week.  This may not happen in six weeks, or eight weeks, or eight months.  You know what though?  We're O.K. with that.

Don't believe the hype of 8 minute abs, cabbage soup diets, and 3 day lemon water detox.  Being healthy and fit is a lifestyle, not a quick fix.  We'll delve into lifestyle vs. fad diets another day.  For now we just want to lay the groundwork and understanding that change is an evolution.  Be patient, do the little things right, and enjoy the journey.  See you next year, Mr. Pitt.