~~ 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV84) ~~
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you,
whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a
price. Therefore honor God with your body.
by Carley Cooper
Even for the most
devoted healthy living fanatic, there are days when thought of healthy eating,
or hearing the word ‘workout’ makes you feel like you’ve just been kicked in
the gut. It’s enough to make one feel
like you have to climb a mountain. Plus,
if you’re new to the workout scene, there’s so much to think about. I mean what’s the deal with cardio and strength
training? How many sets of how many reps
do I do? How healthy is healthy before
it becomes obsession? Is soy really good for you? What’s the best between walking, running,
swimming, mountain biking, aerobic videos, dancing; and the list goes on? Should I eat potatoes or not? And, what’s calisthenics anyway?
Why is that
taking care of ourselves seems so dreadful sometimes? As someone who’s lost a lot of weight, and
has changed my life so drastically in so many areas, I often get people asking
me questions such as; what is the most important things I can do? The disappointment that I see on their faces when
I tell them that ‘the keys to success lies in motivation, education and self discipline’;
is a common. This is an unfortunate
attitude, but the truth is those things are the keys to finding that place where your body is healthy. I know this from traveling through that
journey myself.
At the present
time I am somewhere in the midst of a journey about disciplines. I know that because in the past couple months
the number of messages that I am hearing
and seeing from God, about disciplines, are overwhelming me. One of a number of specific things that I am
getting messages about is taking care of my body. Keeping our bodies physically healthy is a
spiritual discipline. By doing this we
are worshiping God; and giving the Holy Spirit a nice, clean, healthy place to
live. Think about it... would you want
to live in a rickety, rundown dump of a
home that’s filled with garbage and poor air circulation? No, you wouldn’t, and neither would I. Well, God doesn’t want that either. Our body is His temple. However, I did just that for many years. I was up to way over 200 pounds once (how
high, is not important for this discussion).
I didn’t eat well and I had breathing problems much of the time. My energy was low on a good day and my mental
health was... well, very bad, to say the least.
Even my hair and nails were different as an unhealthy person. By not taking care of our bodies, and filling
it with garbage fuel like processed foods, white flour, artificial sweeteners, hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup, chemicals, preservatives, antibiotics; and the list goes on, we are giving God
exactly that... a shabby shack to live in.
My health routine
to take care of my body involves a daily workout. My standard workout routine has three parts
to it. I know what you’re thinking. You know this already; right? It’s cardio, strength, and cool-down with
stretches. Well, yes and no. You’re right about those things; but no,
those are not the three parts I am referring to. My morning workout includes a spiritual workout,
a mental workout, and a physical workout.
Our bodies are made up of three parts; the physical body, our mind and our
spirit.
First, when I
wake up I spend some quiet time with God.
I talk to Him, then I do a devotional time; which involves reading the
bible and a message from a devotional book.
Then I finish it off by listening to some worship music for at least 30
minutes. I do this routine first thing
in the morning because I believe that from the time we wake up our minds should
be on God. I have found that if I don’t
start my day with Him, the day just does not go right. Granted that’s not to say we’ll never have a
bad day if we start it with prayer; but, I mean, that I’ve noticed that if I
don’t start out my day with God, I’m guaranteed
to have a rotten day.
The next part of
my routine is my mental workout. I think
this is fundamental for anyone, but for me and others with mental illness I
think it is absolutely vital. For me, this
element is made up from meditation, reading and positive thinking. I have a 30 minute mediation program that I
listen to on my MP3 player. It claims to
help change brain chemistry. There are
no words. It’s just sounds. After I listen to it I do feel better, and I
have more energy. Because of my Bipolar
Disorder, racing thoughts are a constant problem, and first thing in the
morning is my worst time. For me to sit
and listen to anything without distraction for very long is impossible; let
alone a whole 30 minutes. As such, to
keep my mind from racing too fast while I’m listening to my meditation program,
I read a book. It forces me to have
something to focus on. Even then it’s
sometimes very difficult. There are
times that in those 30 minutes I will read only a couple of pages, because I
cannot force myself to focus. It’s common
problem for Bipolar sufferers. Other
times, I can read 10 - 15 pages.
The last part of
my mental workout is training my thinking patterns. For some people, this may not be much of an
issue. All my life my thinking was
negative in every aspect of my life. I wasn’t
necessarily aware that it was negative.
It was just the way the world was; I thought. This was how my mind was trained to think
from the beginning. After I lost the
weight, I knew the next step toward mental healthiness was to change my
thinking patterns. This venture was, by
far, the hardest part of my lifestyle change; and it continues to be. To alter what is, essentially, one’s brain
chemistry is no small feat, but for those of us with mental illness, who know
that our brain chemistry is already off course, as compared to others; it is an
even bigger undertaking. For this, I
read positive affirmations. I have a
stack of index cards with positive affirmations written on them. I also have some books filled with positive
quotations and mantras; and, of course, God’s Word. Plus, as often as I can, I journal, but this
can be done anytime of the day.
The final part of
my workout practice is my physical workout.
I get my cardio by doing power-walking in the park; when the weather is
nice. On not-so-nice days, I workout
with videos. Then there’s a strength
training routine, and stretches.
Granted, I’m not
perfect in my workout or healthy eating routines. There are days when I just don’t have the mind
for it; but I do pray about it. My
standard practice has been to allow myself one day per week to have some
treats, so that I don’t feel deprived or left out, if I’m at a public or family
function. Sometimes when I’m not feeling
well in the morning or if I have to rush off somewhere and I’m short on time;
the first thing that gets cut from the program is the worship music. Then, if I’m still short on time, the mental
health element is the next thing to get slashed. And my strength-training routine is the
hardest part for me to keep on track with.
Plus, sometimes there are days when I over eat, or when I don’t eat at
all. I never cut prayer time, and almost
never cut devotional time though.
What I do know
for sure is that to be truly healthy and to reap the benefits, I have to discipline
myself better. I know God wants me to do
that. He has blessings in my future that
depend on it. My motivation is Jesus and
spending eternity with Him. My education
comes from God’s Word and a continuous need to know more about healthy living
through reading. My strength for my
self-discipline comes from the Holy Spirit.
So, what’s your routine made up of?
Go ahead, climb the mountain; it’s a great workout!
~~ Dear God ~~ Thank You for teaching me how to do a
complete workout. Please give me the passion,
willingness and the strength I need to develop the discipline to do it daily. Help me climb the mountain, so I can reach
the summit and be with Jesus. In Jesus
name, AMEN.
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