21 Day Fix: Day #8: The Prison & The River

21 Day Fix: Day #8: The Prison & The River

 

THE TALK

One of my favorite movie quotes is from "The Shawshank Redemption". It is spoken by Morgan Freeman (no surprise there) and he says it in his retelling of the story when Andy finally gets out. He says, "Andy Dufresne - who crawled through a river of sh*t and came out clean on the other side."

Often we become complacent.

We become dependent.

We decide that it's easier to stay where we are doing what we are doing than to get out of the current. We just let ourselves be washed down the river of sh*t instead of putting in some effort and getting out.

You want to now some facts about sh*t?

Here are a few things to remember when you are in the sh*t river.

 

1. It smells. - back in the day there was a saying. People would say "well that stinks". Generally this meant that something was bad or undesirable or not favorable. The river stinks.

If it's unpleasant, why do you want to stay in it?

 

2. It is toxic. -There are a TON of nasty little parasites and bacteria that live there in that river. Would you change a diaper and then lick your hand? Hopefully not, so WHY would you want to stay in a toxic environment that could kill you?

 

3. No one wants to be around you except other people who are covered in it. - One of the kids that I watch has this issue of pooping his pants. #1 REALLY comes into play a lot. I have banned him from the couch, from the room, none of us bathroom poopers want to smell that. What's my point here. If you stay in sh*t the only people that will want to be around you are other people in the sh*t because they won't care about the smell, they won't care about the germs. But people NOT in the river will not want you around. What I mean by this is that like follows like. You don't want to be in the river but as long as you stay covered in that mess you won't have any choice but to stay there because no one who is 'clean' wants that around them.

 

4. Getting out isn't easy. - Think of this as life constipation. You know that you would feel better outside of the river, but you don't get out because you think that it will be hard. (hang with me here, no lie I am giggling a little I can't believe that I am writing a post using poop as a reference.) Guess what? It will be hard. It will be really hard. But you have to get out of the river or you will die. (Literally). Why would you choose to keep something so toxic in your life?

 

5. There are different kinds of poop. -I'm not going to go into any detail here, I'm sure you have your own visual about this, but it's important about the river. There are different kinds of poop in there. There's poo from fighting with your significant other, from worrying about your kids, from trying to change people and things that you can't, from depression, from anxiety, from poor health, from poor nutrition, from not following your heart, from lost loved ones, lost friends, lost relationships, from roads not taken. That is a lot of poo. Some things you can't do anything about. (You can't make a loved one stop an addiction, you can't make someone do anything). There are also things that you can do something about. You can do things to feel and be healthier, you can do things to deal and heal from the depression and the heartache and the pain.

 

Remember what Andy did once he emerged from that sewer pipe? He tore off those prison clothes, he took off everything that had held him down and he stood, face to the sky, arms raised to take in everything that he had missed for so many years and he allowed the rain to fall on his skin. He let that rain wash all the pain, all the memories, all the heartache, all the hatred, and all the sh*t off.

Then he claimed millions of dollars and moved to a coastal town in Mexico.

 

What does that mean for you?

Can you imagine how he felt with that rain hitting his bare skin? Can you imagine how it felt to have that pure, Heaven sent rain refresh his soul, clean away all the crap, and give him hope. He hadn't felt a cleansing rain on his face in years. He hadn't looked up and seen nothing but the beauty of the world in years.

 

How long as it been for you?

 

How long have you been in the river? How long has it been since you felt that joy, that release, that freedom, that hope, that elation, how long has it been since you felt the Heavens raining down and cleaning away all the sh*t?

It was only after he escaped those walls, only after he went through that river of sh*t that he was able to live the life that he should have been living, that he was able to claim the future that had been waiting for him all this time.

 

Sometimes justice isn't done and we become imprisoned just like Andy. We are wrongfully accused and convicted and we have days, weeks, months, years, even DECADES of our lives taken. Stolen from us, really. We live in fear and depression and we can lose hope.

And sometimes we decide that we are tired of being punished for something that we didn't do. We decide that it's time we do something about it and we break out. It's not something that will happen over night. It took Andy over 19 years to get out of his prison to dig through those walls and then he had to crawl through the sh*t river.

Breaking free from those things that keep us in prison can take time. It can be a slow process. Finding freedom from poor health or poor relationships is hard, and it can be slow, and you have to really work at it sometimes and just when you think you are out of the prison, guess what is waiting? Yep, the river of sh*t. Unless you cross that river, you will never really be free.

Unless you cross that river of all the sh*t that has held you down. You will never be able to claim your millions, you will never drive into the sunset in a convertible as a free man (or woman), you will never make it to that coastal Mexican town that you have always dreamed of living in.

See, it's not enough to get out of prison, you also have to get clean. You also have to wash off all that sh*t and the only way to do that is cross the river from the prison-land to the promise-land.

It took me 7 years to get out of my prison and to be honest 7 years later I am still trying to get out of the river. I feel like I'm near the opposite shore though. I feel like I may even be within arm's reach of the shore. I swim a little farther every day. Every day I can feel the cool, soothing, cleansing, refreshing, life giving rain a little more on my skin.

 

Whether you are still in prison or in the river you have to keep going. Every day you can get a little closer. It's never to late to stop digging through that prison wall, it's never to late to swim across that river and get clean on the other side.

 

What are you doing to get out of the prison and the river? How close are you to breaking through those walls? How close are you to the other shore? It's not too late. Don't stop, don't give up, keep digging, keep swimming. Break out of those walls, wash off that sh*t and start over.

 

 

THE FOOD

I have been measuring and counting my calories for 6 months. NOT doing that on this plan is FREAKING ME OUT! I'm not kidding. I was really thinking about starting to measure before I put in my cups. I liked knowing just how much was going in and how much was going out. I'm know I'm getting the portion control here, but not knowing numbers is frightening to me. I think that I may have to measure my cups!

BREAKFAST

HAZELNUT MOCHA

 

RECIPE

4oz UNSWEETENED Almond/Coconut Blend Silk

1 Scoop Shakeology

1 cp brewed coffee, cooled

1t. hazelnut extract

1/2t. vanilla

1 RED

*Note: I didn't count the milk as a yellow container because the serving for it to be a yellow is 16oz, I used 1/4 of that and I cannot track or effectively measure 1/4 of a serving using these cups.*

MID-MORNING SNACK

RECIPE

1 Van's Gluten Free Blueberry Waffle

1 Nectarine

2 Cage/Hormone Free Eggs, scrambled

Tomato, diced

Spinach, chopped

1 RED; 1 YELLOW; 1 PURPLE; 1 GREEN

LUNCH

Oh my, my lunch. Can I talk about how delicious it really was? I mean. It was sooo good! I mean like nice restaurant good. But you know what made it better than that? I knew what was in it! (Well, and it was probably cheaper too!)

BERRY ALMOND CHICKEN SALAD

RECIPE

Spinach, chopped

Perdue Short Cuts Gluten Free Pre-cooked Grilled Chicken Breast

12 Almonds, chopped

Laura Lynn Frozen Berry Mix (Raspberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Strawberries)

Boathouse Farms Gluten Free Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing 

I mean just look how beautiful that is!

Even though I know that I'm only allowed one blue a day and I used that for my almonds, I couldn't help but sprinkle a few little Feta Cheese crumbles on the top. It made it look so lovely and added some flavor...flavor I love at that! HA!

2 GREEN; 2 RED; 1 PURPLE; 1 BLUE; 1 ORANGE

 MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

RECIPE

Laura Lynn Frozen Peaches

Fage 0% Plain Greek Yogurt

Udi's Gluten Free Vanilla Artisan Granola

1 PURPLE; 1 YELLOW; 1 RED

DINNER

RECIPE

Eye of Round Beef Roast

Sweet Potato (about 1.5 medium)

Peas

GF BBQ Sauce

1 RED; 1 YELLOW; 1 GREEN

 

 

THE WORKOUT
Leg day 2.0 was a success. I learned something important today about this workout. On the second round of split squats (which are not as fun as they sound by the way) I decided to try something and like magic I was able to do these and not feel so much like my Achilles tendon was about to snap. So, please remember that if you have short legs (like me) you can't really use this long legged trainer as an idea for how far you should put your legs apart during these. Put your legs closer together and then you can actually bend your knees! Whooo!
I'm not as sore today as I was last week when I finished and there were some exercises that I did for the whole minute this time that I can't lie I pooped out on last time. So it's good to know that something that Autumn said in the workout yesterday is probably right. "It's not getting easier, you're getting better."
Just want to remind everyone that no matter what you are doing, whether you are walking your stairs, parking farther from the door, running, or doing an exercise video, it's about you moving at your pace. You don't have to do everything perfect the first time, you don't have to do everything perfect the 50th time! But you DO need to push yourself a little harder every day. Go a little farther everyday and you CAN do this!