I don't eat a ton of junky food under normal circumstances and my portions aren't huge, so I thought. I still wanted to try dieting since I was going to be torturing myself anyway. What I needed was a method that worked, I could stick to, and was cheap. I had failed at dieting before for many reasons: 1.) I didn't have enough variety in my diet to keep it interesting, 2.) My body felt yucky, 3.) I always felt deprived and hungry...the list goes on and on.
Since I had never been much of a health nut I turned to the source of eternal truth and wisdom: the internet.
I learned alot.
I learned that what I really needed was to eat more carbs. NO, NO, NO wait! I need to add more protein. Nay, fine woman, what I needed was to drink more water. Uh uh the veggies and fruits will lead you to weight nirvana.
It was so difficult trying to find a diet that would work for me and my schedule. So I decided to NOT diet and instead listen to what the doctor had been telling me from day one. I would just eat less calories. I knew it would be difficult to keep myself accountable so for about a week I wrote down everything that I ate- down to a stick of gum.
The doctor had also mentioned the dreaded e- word, exercise.
I had failed at so many things in the past and I'm not a very athletic person. I couldn't do the baseball thing (bad eye-hand coordination) and I couldn't swim, which was the only sporty thing I enjoyed in highschool. I had heard that running is an excellent form of exercise as it both builds muscle and improves your cardiovascular system.
I had tried running before. We were old enemies. I passionately disliked running. It was my only option though. A friend introduced me to the "Couch to 5k" running method. I thought, "Well, I have the couch part down pat. I guess the second part doesn't sound so bad."
In a nutshell, this program progressively teaches you to train your body to run 3 miles. My goal was a little more than 2 months away. It was great. In my first workout, I ran an impressive 1 minute without stopping. I did this about 10 more times within 30 minutes.
Two months later, I ran in a local 5k. I was not exactly a speed demon, but I ran. I rewarded myself with a new pair of running sneakers. Since then, I've taken little breaks from pavement pounding here and there but have plans to keep it up.
During this season of change, I learned that there are more than a few correlations between our physical life and our spiritual one. I learned 3 ways to be fit both physically and spiritually:
1.) Be Proactive
- It was not enough for me to simply will myself to be fit. I had to work at it, a little bit at a time. Just as the man in Psalm 1 purposes to meditate day and night on God's word, so are we to make sure we are constantly living with the desire to please the Lord and obey His word. It is not something that happens overnight. Only diligent application and study of the Bible will make us like "tree[s] firmly planted by streams of water."
2.) Don't Allow Junk in Your Body
- 1 John 2:15 &16 (NASB) says "Do not love the world nor the things in the world If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world." It is not simply enough to know which foods are good or bad for you. You must intake healthy, nutritious food (I say this after eating a pop tart) and restrict your intake of junk food. In place of the garbage the world would like us to savor, let us devour the word of God and it's blessed truths. Junk food, in and of itself is not the enemy. It is our insatiable hunger for these rotten things that cause them to be dangerous. So too, TV, movies, clothes, celebrities, sex, alcohol, books, and any other form of entertainment is not intrinsically evil (Well, maybe celebrities). Rather it is the spirit of discontent and lust which cause our eyes to be taken off of Christ and placed on ourselves, that are at fault.
3.) Enjoy the Reward to Come
- If 10 pounds could be dropped by taking 100 steps, 20 by 200, 30 by 300, and so forth, we would probably all look like supermodels. But life is not like that. We have to work at 9 to 5 jobs to save for the future. College degrees take years, not days, to complete. Many of the successful business people in America were poor long before they were rich. Our spiritual walk is certainly a blessed walk, but it is not a bed of roses. Our heavenly reward comes later, after death. Those who seek a reward in the present will get everything in this life- and nothing more. Consider our man Moses. Hebrews 11:24-26 says that
"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward."
There was the constant pressure to act like another one of the Egyptian dudes and just live in the moment. After all, what better place to have a self-centered, party everyday lifestyle than at the palace. Instead, he followed God's leading and went through some of the hardest trials a man can endure: rejection from his own people and family, God's righteous judgement, and various other hardships. Hardly the lifestyle of the rich and the famous.
But we know with certainty that Moses is enjoying the presence of God and His son right this minute. What better reward could there be? So, fellow Christian, take courage, "fight the good fight" as Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:18. Exercise your flabby soul and whip it into shape. Someday, you will reach that eternal reward and when you do, it will taste sweet.
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