Miscellaneous topics

First of all, I'd like to ask your prayers for a talk I'm doing this weekend at a women's conference.  Please pray for the women who will be attending and that the Holy Spirit will use me as an instrument to enrich their physical and spiritual lives (and safe travels for all of us).

I'm not blogging too much this week as I'll be spending a lot of time preparing for the talk, but I have a few links to post for articles I've written recently.

First of all, I'm eager to shed a few holiday indulgence pounds, so I shared some of the strategies I use as a fitness expert in an article on Catholic Lane.  As motivation, I plan to get back into doing triathlons this year and found a good one to train for in May.  I'll post my training plan when I finish designing it.  This week, I'm setting a goal of some type of workout every day, even if it's only 10 minutes.

Today, I had some extra time and went for a 5-mile walk.  Our new house is out in the country, so it was fun to walk along the road and see cows grazing and a very protective mother goat who bleated loudly until I was safely out of sight. 

When I came home, I got out my dumbbells and worked my biceps, triceps and abs.  The weight workout only took 10 minutes, so it's handy to have a few dumbbells at home.  For a bench, I use a stability ball.  I picked one up at Ross Dress for Less for a mere $12, including the pump.  This particular stability ball is rather ingenious.  It's called a "Stay Ball" because it's weighted with sand and doesn't roll away (a rather frustrating problem, if you've owned one or used one in a gym).  The sand also adds weight to the ball (2 pounds) which makes it useful for resistance exercises.  Another great feature is that the ball is covered with little bumps which help prevent you from falling off and provide extra traction for push-ups and other exercises.  An exercise chart is also included and is well done.  I was lucky to find it at Ross for such a great price, but I did find it online at several sites, including Wal-Mart ($19.77). The lowest price is $13.99 at AlsSports.com, but shipping is about $6.  You might be better off using Wal-Mart's free ship-to-store feature.

I have another article out this week on Catholic Exchange.  It's a review of the film There Be Dragons, now out on DVD.  The movie is a fictionalized account of the life of St. Josemaria Escriva, with an interesting subplot about the Spanish Civil War.  If you leave a comment on the article, you can enter a contest to win a free DVD.

If you haven't seen the movie War Horse yet, it's worth seeing.  I was able to attend the press junket in New York City last month, so I wrote up a feature on the movie as well as a review on Catholic Exchange.  I also posted an interview with young star Jeremy Irvine on Catholic Lane.

Have a blessed week!