What do you want?

I've been reviewing my list of topics that I would like to blog about and I have been writing quit a bit, while doing this though I have been curious what you as a reader are interested in reading from me. 

Questions? 

Themes? 

Curiosities?

Thoughts?

Perspectives?

In Heat

It was totally fun to name this entry "In Heat", I am absolutely chuckling over it. Hehehehehe, sigh, where's my maturity? Okay, moving on now. 

I've already established in several blog entries that high temperatures are not my friend - thank you multiple sclerosis! However, I am determined to try to change my perspective of heat. Especially at this moment while I am feeling a bit trapped indoors this summer. So, when is heat good for people like me? 

1. I don't know about you, but internal heat from exercise is tolerable for me. I'm a bit addicted to it. 
2. Sometimes, I turn the air conditioning up really high so that I get very cold, just so that when I go outside during the summer I am happy to be in the heat while I move from car to building or inside my home to water the garden.
3. I very much like my husband. Yeah for "intimate heat"! It's true! I'm just sayin'...
4. I love running in cold or cooler temperatures (25-55), because the heat generated from running balances out the cold to make me feel perfectly content.
5. Heat as applied to certain food keeps my stomach happy.
6. Hot chocolate, herbal tea, cider! Yum!

Okay, now I feel a bit better and I have enjoyed a good laugh. How about you? What do you like about the heat? Please keep it clean use #3 as a cleanliness guide. Even if you don't have a condition where hot temperatures is a problem. Share!

A note on personal training

I have just got to say this. If you are considering hiring a personal fitness trainer, please ask them these questions before you pay for a training package:

1. Is your certification current?
2. What is your speciality focus?
3. What excites you about being a personal trainer?
4. What sort of things are you doing to continue your education about the human body?
5. Have you ever taken a nutrition, kinesiology and/or physiology course, beyond the independent study you've done to get your personal training certificate?
6. What plan do you have in mind to help me reach my fitness goals? 
7. What is the rationale behind the movements and program design that you will have me do?

Go in prepared to track what you do so that you walk away with real knowledge in order to assist with you maintaining the weight lost and muscle tone gained. 

If you are trying to bulk up, then inquire what you need to do in order to maintain the muscle increase, so that you keep what you've worked so hard to achieve.

Poetry Corner: Cricket Chanting

I love camping. I dislike the noise that crickets make. The following is a work of mine written in the middle of a very long night, while camping just outside of Carlsbad, NV. I recalled this experience over the last few days while I was with family enjoying a cabin in a remote Park City, UT location.  There were A LOT of kids, however this experience was much quieter than camping with the crickets.

Cricket Chanting

crying craziness 

echoing                        echoing                        echoing            echoing                                        

 echoing                        echoing                        echoing            echoing 

through the dark

reverberating

MiMiCkInG sssssoundsssss

cf crystal crashing on glass

over

and Over

AND

OVER

again

crucifying

my ears

By Diana M. Bateman

2005©

Just... WOW!

Jump squat to airborne heisman to swing kick to run-stance squat switch pick-up, whew! Big inhale, exhale - and then I cried. It was a cry of joy and triumph.

This experience was about five years ago. I cried because it was a bit over a year prior that I couldn't even step down from a curb without the help of my husband. Now, I do super skaters and single leg wall squats. 

A little over five years ago I vowed that somehow I would get to meet this man. A Tony Horton hug and hand shake was the goal and today I got both! 

I'd show up for my P90X workouts and dream of meeting Tony. Now it is a reality. Anything is possible. Sometimes it requires modification, planning, and a great deal of patience. 

Above all it requires a relentless desire and then action. This is how dreams come true.

I am not perfect. I don't need to be. But that doesn't mean I can't kick a little trash and meet some goals along the way. Dream big! Dream very, very big. Make a plan and then do it.

10 Years Ago Today

I wondered what this entry would be like when I wrote 5 Years Ago Today. Now I'm here and the sentiments expressed in that blog entry are just as true today as they were in 2008. 

It's been ten years since I was officially diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Even though I was diagnosed on Friday 13th, I decided my life with this disease wouldn't give credence to that dark omen.

I can honestly say that I am now internally happier, healthier, more positive, more determined, and ever more thankful. I've been given many gifts. 

The initial nudge I received from the Divine has most certainly come true. The prompting I received ten years ago was this: 

make your body as healthy as it 

can be 

and you will be as blessed as 

you need to be 

The definition of "body", for me, has always included the mind and soul. 

The only real struggle I have really had over these last ten years has been understanding what it means to be "as blessed as you need to be." 

I am pretty sure I will spend the rest of my life coming to understand this concept a little better. Maybe I might even understand it by the time I meet my Maker. Until then, I strive to continue to make my body as healthy as it can be. 

At this point, I would like to inform my readers that I currently have my water bottle raised in the gesture of a toast (grin). Cheers! We are all very blessed people. The most important thing I wish everyone to know is that God loves us and knows us. You are beautiful just as you are.

Covered In Grace

It's hard not to notice that I believe in God. I have faith. If you have been reading my blog, but do not personally believe in a higher power - thank you for sticking with me. 

I won't try to convince you to be a believer. But I would like to share with you a brief thought.

My beliefs and faith in God are a definite core component in my life. I believe that my life has a purpose. 

Because of this belief it is much easier for me to feel guided. It is much easier to face the challenges of life, to meet trials head-on, with real power, and with temperance.

Setting a higher power aside for those that do not accept, I still think we can see eye to eye in many ways. 

Mercy exists

even if you do not believe in a higher power; 

so does courage, kindness, hope, love, 

perseverance, and joy. 

These attributes often move people into action. Endurance blooms in the light of all of these efforts. 

In my mind, God abounds in these environments. I believe that we were meant to strive to be all of these things. 

By emulating this behavior, for the benefit of someone else, I believe that we actually become an earthly angel aiding others. Yes, "someone" also includes our furry four-legged friends, fish, birds - every living creature.

Some may feel that it's just the right thing to do. Financial contributions are nothing but a tax benefit. Being a humanitarian is good public relations. But to me, when you do these things, I see it as being the literal hand of God on a divine errand.

Living fearlessly, generously, and selflessly in this way, makes me feel warm and good. It makes me feel the deepest kind of love. 

I am moved by charity of all varieties. When we do good and when we have faith in something greater that ourselves, it is like being wrapped in a shroud of the finest kind; I call being covered in grace.

I believe that repeated practice of these attributes literally endow us with a dowry of the finest eternal kind. 

The excitement that stems from this behavior lives somewhere inside me and it is constantly burning. Some may call it intrinsic motivation, I call it a blessing.

I give, I do, I love, I try, I persevere because I want to live with my Heavenly Father again. 

I want to face the higher power that made me and honestly say, "I did my best." 

It is that simple.