Stagnation Station or Active Attractive?

According to our human nature we're supposed to be very active by virtue of life's necessities; kneading bread, line drying laundry, shoveling dirt, holding children, chopping wood, harvesting crops and even transporting ourselves from place to place.

These are very normal human activities and yet, even in a list of only 7 things, most of us are not doing MOST of the items.

It's really a shame that our lives are so very automated, seat heated and ultimately quite stagnant when it gets to the actionable healthy building things. They're also cram packed with 1st world problems...but we'll have to get off on that some other time...

In fact, it blows my mind, that it blows peoples' minds when they find out I'm both a mother of many and a competitive endurance athlete, as if those were mutually exclusive. Yes, I race the clock and chase the kids. They pair well together!
But as a society, we don't even realize the skill sets we're giving up for convenience's sake, and well, that has to change!  

Here are a few pretty truthful quotes to lighten the literature:
~I joined a health club last year; spent about 400 bucks. Haven’t lost a pound. Apparently you have to show up. 
~If God had wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them on my knees. 
~The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier. 
~I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing. 
~If you want to take up cross-country skiing, start with a small country.
~The trouble with jogging is that, by the time you realize you’re not in shape for it, you're too far to walk back. 


Well, those quotes are funny, but they're highly indicative of the real pandemic on our hands. It's time we figure out how to be part of the solution in our households and stop perpetuating the problem of inactivity.

Changing the mindset so one sees the swing set as a gym will help. Looking at a flight of stairs with a desire to conquer them over and over again in a workout is a great place to start. Rising early so that our knees hit the floor for prayer before our back lays on the ground for abdominal exercises, is in itself, a seldom used powerful remedy. 
Look no further than your home or those around you. Be cheap! Workout at home or from home and restore your health, happiness and holiness while you do!

No more life at Stagnation Station. It's time for Active Attractive; attracting people towards life fully lived and rooted in the Truth.
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This is what we do at Fit Catholic Mom... every. chance. we. get!


Gotta run,
Rebecca Dussault

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After I posted this I received this question : How is this subject catholic? Is it really a proper goal for a catholic wife to be attractive by wordly standards?
God bless You

Good question! Yes! Attractive by a soul attracting others, in as much as how it has informed the best use of the physical body. Does the spirit rule the flesh or do we see the opposite? Does stewardship of the body point to deeper truths which are lived and believed? We cannot desire the soul’s assent and let our bodies lack all discipline and call that truth. The body is a vehicle for an immortal soul conveying the truth of our persons as we use it for his glory alone. 

This is a most excellent read in light of what Pope St. JPII has said to athletes:

http://www.laici.va/content/dam/laici/documenti/sport/eng/magisterium/jpii-pastoral-messages.pdf

Catechism of the Catholic Church says in paragraph:
2289 If morality requires respect for the life of the body, it does not make it an absolute value. It rejects a neo-pagan notion that tends to promote the cult of the body, to sacrifice everything for it's sake, to idolize physical perfection and success at sports. By its selective preference of the strong over the weak, such a conception can lead to the perversion of human relationships.

"...For the Church cannot but encourage everything that serves the harmonious development of the human body, rightly considered the masterpiece of the whole of creation, not only because of its proportion, vigor, and beauty, but also and especially because God has made it his dwelling and the instrument of an immortal soul…”
​POPE SAINT JOHN PAUL II

I hope this brings further clarity.

Thank you in Christ,

Rebecca Dussault