God, health, and fitness

This is a topic that is very close to my heart, and has been a long and challenging journey but I finally feel like I am starting to make some good progress! It's a huge topic and one that I'll go into different detail more on the body image and self worth side of things on a later post, but for today I just wanted to focus on health and fitness, and what I've recently learnt about how God comes into this area of our lives.

Since I was about 12, I have been very weight and body conscious. Doing championship level dance, being in a leotard every week with 20+ other girls it was something that was very in my face and I started watching what I ate quite carefully. By about 14 I was the height I am now and even though I was quite active with dance multiple times a week, I was not happy with my body and over the next 4 years, no matter what I did, instead of lose weight, I just seemed to add muscle mass. At 18 and a bit, I started working at a pharmacy and being on my feet all day, and just eating a lot less because I wasn't home, all of sudden something clicked and a few months later without even specifically trying I was at a weight I was happy with for the first time in years. For the first time since I was 12, I didn't hate what I saw in the mirror. Since then, I have been way more intentional about being active and found such a love of running and exercising and through different learning opportunities, my mindset has shifted from exercising and eating healthy because of this pressure to look a certain way, to doing it because I love it, because it makes me feel good, and because it's one way to take care of my body.

But why is it important to take care of our body? So many reasons, but most importantly, because they are a temple of the Holy Spirit and they are God's gift to us ( 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We only get 1 body and 1 season of life here on earth, and we are here to be God's messengers for His kingdom so we need to be able to operate at our best so that we are able to complete all that God has planned out for us. I know I have been guilty in the past when mum has said something in regards to my eating or exercise saying "it's my body, I can do what I want" but that's actually not true because it's God's body that He's given me! There are no 'rules' against eating unhealthy food, and no particular amount of exercise or anything God 'makes' us do - we have free will and everyone is different so what works for 1 person probably doesn't work for the next one. Everyone who knows me knows I have a sweet tooth (especially icecream!) and on a scale from vegan to carnivore, I'm definitely closer to the carnivore side haha! But something that has challenged me and inspired me to make better choices is the question "does this choice glorify God with my body?" The world has made it easier to make unhealthy choices than healthy choices, and studying public health I see how so many diseases and issues could be prevented if individual people just made better choices. So as followers of Jesus, who are called to go against the grain of the world, we are called to take care of our bodies, and find that healthy balance of what we put in to what we expel in energy.

Going back to creation, God created a beautiful garden, full of variety, and Adam and Eve spent their days walking in the garden, eating what God had provided and tending to the garden (Genesis 2-3). That's the model that humans were created for. So eating well and moving our bodies was part of our design. And we are so fascinatingly, beautifully and intricately designed so that each of our different organs and body functions require different vitamins, minerals and other nutrients to work at their best, and in our natural foods, are all different combinations of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients! So a well varied, natural diet, will ensure that all your body parts work well. Not only this, but exercising releases endorphins, or a "happy chemical" so we feel better emotionally and mentally when we exercise too as an extra encouragement to do it! How amazing is our God?!

But that word "balance" is the key - not enough exercise and eating too much throws the balance off in one direction, but exercising too much and not eating enough is damaging to your health too. After my first, disastrous, and emotionally damaging relationship broke off, I really got into running and going to the gym because it was my escape from the pain that I felt on the inside. And I felt so physically ill all the time, so my eating dropped down to barely 1 meal a day. Until one day my doctor sat me down, looked me in the eye and told me I had a choice to either keep going down this road, and get really sick or make some changes to my improve my health. I realized that under the guise of 'exercise is healthy' I wasn't actually taking care of the body that God gave me. So since then, even through the different emotional ups and downs, I have been way more careful to make sure I do the best each day that I can to make good health choices. That's all it is - one day at a time, thinking about our choices and just trying our best. Life can be crazy, some days go wrong from the moment you wake up till you crash into bed that night and food is a low priority, and that is TOTALLY OKAY. Taking care of our bodies shouldn't be a burden, but it is still a responsibility and when we take our eyes off ourselves, and our immediate needs, and view ourselves objectively and think about "is this honoring God right now?" and "is this going to be good for me long term" then it's so much easier to make a better choice because our eyes are focused on a bigger picture. For example, takeaway food isn't bad, but if you have healthy food in your fridge and time to prepare something, it's a better (there's no right or wrong by the way) choice to make your own food. But if you've been out all day and have 15 minutes to quickly eat something, before you're onto the next thing, then takeaway is going to be a good choice for that day. So it's just about thinking more about our health and fitness, not to look like that super toned personal trainer you follow on instagram, but so we can be obedient to God's instruction to be good stewards over the gift of our earthly bodies.

Everyone's body is different, and it's taken a while but I have begun to learn the input/output balance of my own body that allows me to exercise and do what I love, with the fuel that I need without eating too much and feeling ill, to be able to enjoy the treats that I love in moderation, AND feel happy with my body. There are still many days that I cannot be bothered to find healthy food or feel too tired to do my daily workout, but health is one of those things that I've found out is like a spiral - when you eat well, you can exercise well, and you feel better which gives you the mental energy to make another good choice to eat well, exercise well and feel even better, but when I start to slip in my eating, then I have less energy to do my workouts, and then I feel worse and even less motivated. So after a while of consistently turning up and making good choices, and inviting Jesus into your day to give you the strength and capacity to keep going, then it gets so much easier. I'm certainly no expert, I am still learning and there are some days that are full of bad health choices because I'm so very human and life is just, life sometimes!!!! But my encouragement is to firstly flip your mindset from healthy being an 'image in your head' to 'improving your capacity to carry out God's plan for your life'. Secondly, bring Jesus into your health and fitness journey (not anyone else's - you and Jesus figure out what healthy looks like for you) And thirdly, remember that each day is a new day - "His mercies are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:23)