Exercise is a Great Stress Prevention Tool!

Privet and Heyyya! Long Time!

How are you doing? Anyone have a nice Thanksgiving holiday? You did not eat too much, did you? NAW, come on, you didn't have a couple pieces of pie and some yummy bread stuffing? haha! Well, I did, so I am up about half a pound. Uh-oh.

The truth of the matter is that I will never reach the crazy goal of losing 40 pounds by THIS Christmas. But if I continue to eat better and work out, maybe by Easter! How's that for not giving up?

This morning I was on the elliptical for over half an hour. I burned about 350 calories and distanced over two miles. I bumped it up a couple levels so I got my heart rate up to an aerobic rate and it felt great! Afterwards, I worked my arms on the lifting machines. And it was a really good thing that I did work out this morning because this afternoon I was robbed!!!!

I feel that, because I had worked out so hard and really put a lot of effort into it, the stress of being robbed did not affect me that much! It was my cell phone that was taken from the table of a busy restaurant as I turned my back on it to chat. It must have been somebody really swift who lifted it. As soon as I discovered it was missing, and it was very soon, I used someone else's phone and dialed it up. We could not hear it ringing so I ran outside but there was nobody in sight.

Because I felt so "centered", I quickly put it into perspective that this was only a phone. Yes, all my contacts were on it. No, it wasn't password protected. No, I didn't have the tracking system activated. Yes, the robber now had access to all my emails and social media. But, you know what? After all things were considered, it was still just a phone.

As I processed what had happened while trying to eat some lunch, I actually felt bad for the person who stole it. He or she was the one who would ultimately feel bad about it sooner or later. I said a couple of prayers for the person, asking that their heart would be softened and return my phone. Then I called to have the phone deactivated. I stopped by the phone store and learned it would cost $100-$300 to replace it. Then I went home to change my passwords and email my friends to let them know they may get some weird emails.

Someone contacted me only a couple hours later to say she had found my phone. The whole thing that she described sounded fishy and I doubt I will ever know what really happened. But I am grateful to have my phone back. I am also grateful that I had remained level-headed and quickly put things into perspective. I attribute my calm demeanor to having worked hard this morning at the gym.

Hard exercise is a great stress prevention tool!