So I posted a couple of days ago about the plateau I’ve hit on my weight loss journey (one friend who sympathized renamed it the “FREAKIN’ Plateau” to properly express the emotional distress that it is causing). I decided, after reading some articles on weightwatchers.ca and whining to any of my friends who listen, to do something about it.

So today I began working on core strength training with my new stability ball. You know what? It was an absolute blast! I had SO much fun trying to stay on the ball (I’m so wobbly! My balance sucks! Hahahahahahha!) as I did my routine. I seriously couldn’t stop smiling afterwards. I want to do the work out again just to see if I’m any better (or worse!) at staying on the ball. But they tell you to take a day off in between workouts.

Still, I love the fact that I WANT to do these exercises. As someone who hates working out (seriously, I HATE it…I only do it because I don’t like how I was feeling when I didn’t do it), this is very exciting.

I think there is a trick when it comes to commitment or discipline. I think you have to find a sweet spot: something you like that helps you stick to your discipline. For example, it’s easy for me to be disciplined with Weight Watchers because it appeals to my rule-bound-ness and my love for list-making (really, tracking is just making a list every day of what you have eaten). It’s easy for me to be disciplined about walking every day because it has the added bonus of being something I do with friends (both the 2 legged AND the 4 legged variety). I think it will be easy to be disciplined about the stability ball because there is an element of fun to it.

I think one of the weird ideas we have about faith is that we need to be disciplined in it (praying, reading our bibles, going to church regularly, etc.), but somehow that is separate from having fun. What ever gave us that idea? Why do we think that way?

I don’t have an answer, but I know this: I am more likely to be disciplined in my faith if I am having fun in my faith. Just the same with all the other disciplines in my life. That’s why so much of my faith development takes place in conversation with other people, or through listening to preachers who I love, or by going out to choir practice because I love to sing, or by searching for glimmers of the Gospel in movies, tv, novels and songs.

Faith, like life, is meant to be fun.