Protein synthesis and faith :))

I heard at church once that faith is like a muscle. God has to stretch it, and sometimes He goes very heavy on you to stretch it all the way, just like a personal trainer does at a gym. Eventually the faith muscle grows.

I also took a physiology class in college, and we learned about how muscles grow... but I don't remember any of that. So I decided to do a little research, so I could remember.

Article Reviewed:

Charge, S. B. P., and Rudnicki, M.A. (2004). Cellular and molecular regulation of muscle regeneration. Physiological Reviews, Volume 84, 209-238.

"When muscles undergo intense exercise, as from a resistance training bout, there is trauma to the muscle fibers that is referred to as muscle injury or damage in scientific investigations. In essence, a biological effort to repair or replace damaged muscle fibers begins with the satellite cells fusing together and to the muscles fibers, often leading to increases in muscle fiber cross-sectional area or hypertrophy. As the satellite cells multiply, some remain as organelles on the muscle fiber where as the majority differentiate (the process cells undergo as they mature into normal cells) and fuse to muscle fibers to form new muscle protein stands (or myofibrils) and/or repair damaged fibers. 

It is suggested that the new, popular periodization models of exercise training, which include light, moderate and high intensity training phases, satisfactorily overload the different muscle fiber types of the body while also providing sufficient rest for protein synthesis to occur."

Aha!! 

In other words, intense training breaks your muscles. These microfibers then begin to create new fibers, and adhere each other together leading to an increase in size in your muscle. The creation of this new fibers requires protein synthesis (which is why you need meat, or beans, or the popular protein shakes), but you also need rest, plenty of rest. The muscle doesn't grow while exercising, actually if you keep on exercising forever, you will only damage your muscles. The muscle grows with training, diet, AND rest. 

I kinda read again my past post about El Viaje del Terror (The Horror Trip) as Emerson refers to our Mexico trip now. It was bad. A week later Libby got sick when we got here, had an awful fever for her ear infection, and then she actually was unlucky enough (according to her own pediatrician), that she got a viral rash, and I had to take her to the doctor again so he could see if the rash was due to the antibiotics or not, but no, it was a virus. I'll give you my theory on her bad "luck" later.

June7, 2012. Pinga

Mommy loves her babies :)

With Dadda at the Hay Merchant

Dr. Pope advised her to stay clear until her 15 month check up. Anyway, with all this that happened, I felt stretched. I know... I know. It wasn't like her life was in danger at any point, and I'm thankful for that. But it was difficult for me to see her sick, and with fever, and clingy, and needy, just tired all the time, and sleeping a lot. By the way, I guess I mentioned her appetite never changed :)

But I just wanted it to stop, I wanted to come back to normal, and we are back. She finished her treatment, and she is walking for real now. She doesn't need help anymore to stand up, she doesn't need to hold to the couch or anything, she can stand up her own. That happened on Thursday, Jun 7, 2012.

She looks so cute going around the house, and of course, she doesn't stop...

Her bad "luck" was just a combination of different factors, like the fact that I didn't wash her hands very often, so we're doing that now. The viral rash, well, that I can't explain. My point is that praying helped me. My prayer walks with Merrith in the mornings helped me to trust God more, and to have faith that this was not going to last forever.

I don't really know if this things with Libby happened for a purpose. I mean, I know they had a purpose, you can always learn from everything. I just mean that I realized I need to be more tolerant with  many things. I need more self-control. I still need to change in many aspects of my life, and I think it is good that I know this now. My daughter is one year old, and I have another baby in my belly. I am going to need tolerance :)

I felt that I needed the rest. I need to rest. I am done with the book in Spanish, now I need to be done with it in English, and the copyright. And then I have to start Libby's scrapbook for her first year, and I have to be done by the time Baby arrives. And then I have to start the Baby's scrapbook... it never ends. But that is life.

The more you focus on the things you do and forget the reason you do them, the more you worry about it, and the less peace you have. The moment you stop looking at Jesus, you drown, like Peter. This life is not a life of easiness, Jesus said we would have trouble, but life can be fulfilling if you have the right perspective, and if your mind and heart are focused on heavenly things. If you set your heart on earthly things, you feel like crap, tired most of the time, desperate, overwhelmed with the demands of life. I know how that feels.

Resting

Relaxing with Harry

Jesus said, "But take heart! I have overcome the world"

I remember a girl I used to babysit, her name was Kara. One day I took her to the pool, and made her lie on a chair, fold her arms behind her head, and just relax. She was very shy, like afraid to have fun. I made her repeat many times, "This is the life of a child of God". She said it like ten times, without feeling it, then she started believing it, and she ended up laughing very hard. I guess she got the point.

Lying besides a pool, relaxing, is the life of a child of God (not in Texas weather, tough). That doesn't mean you don't have to come home and still clean you house, or make dinner, or take care of your children- your newly walking toddler. But what I am trying to say is that we have all we need for this life.

2 Peter 1:3 says that God has given us everything we need for a godly life, through the knowledge of Him. We have to know Him and have a relationship with Him, otherwise it doesn't work. If you don't, you will never be able to really rest. You'll be worn out.

So back to my point... Nobody is sick now. There was intense training in Mexico, and a healthy diet coming back. We have to rest now, and focus on Him to let that faith muscle grow, until the next training begins :)

La Nena and Blue Blue with Raikiki.