The Reason You Must Prioritize Your Health
Your health affects everything.
You can’t separate it or compartmentalize it. This is because we are not segmented, compartmentalized creatures. We are complex and intertwined and layered. Some people think of their health like this:
But really it’s more like this:
(I know for some, the “faith” circle is bigger than all the others, even health. Don’t over-analyze it. Just be proud of me that I dug out the crayons and colored you a diagram!)
In order to live a well-balanced life, you must make your health a priority.
My behavior with food, exercise, and rest bleeds over into every other area of life. Eating well, exercising daily, and getting adequate rest makes me feel better.
When I feel better, I do everything else better too. (If you don’t believe me, next time you have the flu, tell me how the rest of your life is going.) I’m a better mom, a better wife, a better friend, a better writer, a better Bible study teacher, a better servant of God.
Yep, it even affects me spiritually.
When I discipline myself to eat life-giving foods, when I resist binging on an entire sleeve of graham crackers or the “bottomless fries” at the restaurant, I find myself also disciplined in prayer and reading God’s word and loving people. It’s crazy.
My health affects my relationships. When I feel well, I’m engaged and focused. I’m more likely play a game or jump on the trampoline with my kids. I’m more likely to schedule time with my friends. My health affects my mood, which directly affects how I talk to my husband and how I respond to my children. It affects my levels of patience.
My health affects my work. During exercise, I am flooded with creative ideas for blog posts and Bible study illustrations. I’ve “written” entire blog posts in my head during an hour-long walk. After I exercise, I’m alert and focused and driven. When I don’t exercise, I tire easily and I feel all distracted and fuzzy. I’m more likely to become depressed and anxious.
My health affects how I feel about myself. When I’m taking good care of myself, I feel good about myself. And when I feel good about myself, I’m more likely to try new things. I’m more likely to take risks and put myself out there. When I complete a super-hard workout, I feel strong and brave and adventurous.
Tending to my health is how I love myself. When I feed my body whole, real, healthy foods in good portions, when I move my body and push myself to get stronger, when I breathe fresh air, when I shut down the phone and crawl into bed at 9 pm, I am loving myself well.
And here’s the thing—the real clincher for me. Jesus said this:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important {commandment}, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” (Matthew 22:37-40 MSG)
If Jesus commands me to love others as well as I love myself, then maybe I should love myself well?
I know a lot of women—all ages—who hate their bodies. Because of body-hate, they go to extraordinarily dangerous and dumb extremes to be skinny. Listen, when we hate something, we don’t nurture it. We criticize it. We ignore it. We neglect it. We are mean to it. We shame it.
If I’m busy hating my body, starving it of nutrients, depriving it of rest, shaming it into exercise (or no exercise!)—and then I try to “love others as well as I love myself”? Well, I’m going to hate others, plain and simple. I’m going to starve them and deprive them and neglect them, too.
Our motivation for making health a priority is self-LOVE, not self-HATE.
Speaking of self-love and self-hate, my health also affects how I look. In this diet-obsessed, Photoshop, Instagram culture, this can be a taboo subject. Unfortunately, the diet industry has distorted health and beauty, taking a flawless, thin, buff, and filtered image of a body, and forming it into an idol. I don’t want to be obsessed with my outward appearance. But neither can I deny the fact that when I treat my body well, my body responds physically. I have less fat. I have more muscle. My skin glows and my hair shines. And this also affects everything…
When I look better, I feel more confident, which also affects how I carry myself in public. I smile more. I look people in the eye. I feel better in my clothes. I’m more likely to go out of my way to say hello to someone I see at the grocery store, rather than ducking down behind my cart like I’m looking for something on the lower shelf (hypothetically).
When I indulge in crappy food and laziness, I feel crappy and lazy about everything! When I eat tortilla chips, for example, I immediately want to nap. What the heck is that about? (I call them coma-chips). I have no idea, except I can’t ignore that connection. It’s like corn-based melatonin to me…delicious and crunchy melatonin. If I want to do something that requires me to be awake, I know I cannot eat tortilla chips first. (Conversely, if I ever have insomnia, bring on the chips and queso, baby!)
When I’m lazy and self-indulgent with my food and exercise, I’m lazy and self-indulgent about my prayer life and my thought life. It spreads into my attitude about everything. I’m lazy with my house, my work, my finances…everything. I just feel gross.
So, enough about me, let’s talk about you. You and your 2017 goals, specifically. According to Neilson, 37% of people want to be fit and healthy this year and 32% want to lose weight.
Statistically speaking, that means a lot of you have these same goals.
I want to help you reach your goal, but I want to help you do it the right way for the right reasons. I don’t want you to have this goal because you hate your body. I want you to do it because you love your body. I want you to do it because your health—good or bad—affects everything.
In my e-book 25 Little Things You Can Do To Reach Your Fitness Goals, I break the process down into small, manageable steps. Many of the steps are not even things you “do” but rather, ways to “think”. If you don’t change the way you think, you’ll never change your behavior. And if you don’t change your behavior, you won’t change your health.
So, here’s my idea: Because many of you emailed me and said you wanted some help and accountability, I’m offering my e-book and a 25-day Fitness Challenge beginning February 1st.
I’m calling it 25/25/25. That’s 25 Things in 25 Days for $25.
When you sign up, I will send you an immediate download of the e-book 25 Little Things You Can Do To Reach Your Fitness Goals, and also give you access to a closed Facebook Group called 25/25/25.
- Every day for 25 days, I will pop in and talk to you about a chapter of the book—don’t worry, the chapters are short.
- I’ll lead you through the material.
- I will help you figure out why you want this and how to achieve it.
- I’ll show you my workout routine, my fridge, and my pantry.
- I’ll help you make rest a priority.
- I’ll show you how to chase progress, not perfection.
- I’ll help you set proper goals, find an exercise routine you love, and some recipes you can enjoy.
- I’ll help you simplify your meal-planning routine.
- I’ll show you many ways to measure your progress that do not involve the scale!
- I’ll answer your questions and provide accountability and support on your journey.
- And we will do it in steps—one little thing at a time—for 25 days.
(And I’ll try to be funny. Because, really, what’s an accountability group without some funny?)
UPDATE! DUE TO SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES AND PERSONAL ISSUES THAT WILL PRECLUDE ME FROM BEING AVAILABLE THE ENTIRE MONTH OF FEBRUARY, I AM POSTPONING THE 25/25/25 CHALLENGE GROUP UNTIL SOME TIME IN THE FUTURE. I’M SORRY IF YOU GOT ALL EXCITED ABOUT IT. LET ME KNOW VIA EMAIL IF YOU WANT TO BE ON THE MAILING LIST FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THIS GROUP IN THE FUTURE. (thescooponbalance@gmail.com)
You can sign up by clicking here!
Still not sure this is for you?
You need this if…
You started strong on January 1st and already feel like giving up.
You want to make health a priority, but you don’t know where to start.
You feel like fit and healthy people belong to a secret club or have an exclusive super power (We don’t!).
You feel tired and out of shape.
You don’t like the way your clothes fit.
You don’t like exercise.
You don’t like healthy food.
You’re confused about health food claims (organic? all natural? whole food? fat free? sugar free?)
You want to be a good example to your children.
You want energy to play with your children or grandchildren.
You’ve been affected by heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes, or cancer, and you want to do what you can to avoid them.
You need accountability.
You need community.
You need a cheerleader.
You want to love yourself better.
If this is you…if this sounds like something you want, it’s only a dollar a day. Your health is worth a dollar a day, isn’t it?
AGAIN, DUE TO SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES AND PERSONAL ISSUES THAT WILL PRECLUDE ME FROM BEING AVAILABLE THE ENTIRE MONTH OF FEBRUARY, I AM POSTPONING THE 25/25/25 CHALLENGE GROUP UNTIL SOME TIME IN THE FUTURE. I’M SORRY IF YOU GOT ALL EXCITED ABOUT IT. LET ME KNOW VIA EMAIL IF YOU WANT TO BE ON THE MAILING LIST FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THIS GROUP IN THE FUTURE. (thescooponbalance@gmail.com)