When do you meet with your coach?

Meet?

Yes…when do you meet to discuss progress?

Oh, it’s on WhatsApp.

Really? Why?

He’s abroad.

What? You mean your coach isn’t here?

Nope!

So how do you keep accountable?

I send pictures of my food and the workout details.

Oh! You can lie no?

Well I could but so far I haven’t?

Why?

Well, because this is a journey with God first and my friendship with coach is based on trust so I need to be honest.

But still…

Still what?

You don’t feel like telling him a lie about the workout etc…

Well it could happen but to what end when it is me benefiting from the process?

So how do you tell the truth?

It’s all in the questions he asks…he’ll be online soon I will show you.

Shortly after my phone pinged

Great workout today! How is your body responding to the new regime as you challenge it more? How is your heartrate?

Heart is racing during the workout but there is less burn every so often so am constantly upping and changing.

Great!!! You are doing it right. Is the heart rate consistent or straining?

Pretty consistent most of the time.

What is the change this week?

More cardio than HIIT.

Great.

Will the soreness ever go away?

Not really. It is your muscles response to changes in the routine and challenging the movement.

It’ll be this excruciating all the time?

Nope! It fades as you keep challenging and increasing. Just make sure to keep up the good work and rest.

Ahaa….so I need to rest?

Yes, two days a week. Haven’t you been doing that?

Nope!!!

You need to heal, so work it in from now on.

Wooohooo!!!!

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What??? Those are the discussions you have?

Yup!

Weh!!! There’s no way to lie with questions like that…wah! I can’t work with that coach.

Why?

He’s too intense.

Hahaha! To each one his own I guess.

Why do you say that?

This is just what I needed, someone who wouldn’t take my excuses.

Why?

I’d started and stopped so many times before it was do or do this time and I couldn’t do it alone.

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In most areas of my life, especially in the visible public ones, I had successfully changed course but the hidden areas were a different situation. I hadn’t succeeded as much as I wanted until I began to ask for help…yes ask for help and by the grace of God, help came.

Health and fitness had always been a struggle. On the outside I looked like I had it all covered but on the inside I knew I was goofing badly.

Now that help was here, how could I be dishonest?

To lie to coach is to lie first to myself and then to God because this process is between us. So what is coach’s role? He is God’s agent, emissary, enforcer. If I lied, it wouldn’t be to him, rather it would be to my Father in heaven. It’s now a no brainer whether or not to be honest.

I would be lying if I said I had never thought about being dishonest to coach. The very thought occurred to me in the beginning. I mean, how would he know and he is eight thousand miles away. Right? Wrong! Why wrong? Well, who is the beneficiary? Me. So if I lie and I don’t shift and change as desired then for some reason get sick, who will be to blame? Who will suffer? Who will lose? Only ME!

Honesty is therefore a personal conviction lived out in a personal way.

In a world where people are ok with half effort, half-truth, just enough to get by it is challenging to be fully honest but I have to make a choice. The big questions are:

• What would making a choice cost me?
• What would the lie cost me in the end?
• What would I lose?
• What was at stake?

The other questions are:

• If I am dishonest is this one area, what else will I be dishonest about?
• What else will I look the other way about?

Ah!!! This journey is so interconnected… #NoExcuses