Before the holidays, I decided to do something new. It had nothing to do with New Year’s resolutions, though. Instead, it had everything to do with how I’ve been feeling about myself for more than 2 years now. I decided to join a gym and actually utilize my membership.
Let me back up, though. I talk all the time about how we were all fearfully and wonderfully made, and I tell you how perfectly God created you and me both. I wholeheartedly stand behind that because I know it’s true. Last year, I had someone ask a question that I know I had often asked myself but never bothered to answer. She said something along these lines: “Sometimes I wonder about exercising to look better. Is that wrong?”
My answer to that question, whether I’m asking myself, she’s asking me, or you are asking, is that it’s not wrong. I understand how it can be confusing. You’re fearfully and wonderfully made, but you want to work out and look better. It feels like a contradiction, right? I get that completely.
Here’s the thing. God created us perfectly. However, we are imperfect beings who bring imperfection in and mix it with the perfection that he created. Are you following?
In my case, I had 2 kids, and I ate a little more than I should have. I ate sometimes when I was bored, and if something was good, I kept eating even long after I was full. Between my unhealthy eating habits (even with healthy foods) and the 2 kids, my body had changed. It was no longer the body God created. I complained about it for two years, and my clothes were no longer fitting me like they did before. That was not God’s doing. That was all me.
In order to be healthier and feel better about myself, I decided to start working out regularly, and I’ve already seen quite a bit of difference in how I feel about myself. Keep in mind, I’m not trying to look like a model on the runway, and I’m not trying to make my body look like the girl I saw at the gym the other day. I’m just making my body look like— ME. After all, that’s who I’m supposed to look like, right?
I’ve felt so good after just a couple of weeks of working out, and I thought maybe I could somehow help my readers feel good about themselves by blogging about it.
Every Friday will be Fit Friday, and it will come with a small snippet of knowledge I’ve gained from working out or a tip or something related to being fit and healthy.
Today’s Tip
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”
I want to honor God with my body by keeping it a healthy place for him to live.
My first tip of the year is to forget the numbers on the scale. Why do those numbers matter? The big question is, how do you feel? Are you tired all the time? Are your clothes getting uncomfortable? Are you uncomfortable?
The numbers mean absolutely nothing. You know if you’re healthy or not. Once you hit the point where you know you’re healthy, just continue to maintain your healthy self. Again, don’t let numbers determine whether you’re healthy or not. Let your body tell you, and let’s journey together to honor God with our bodies. It doesn’t matter your age; we should all strive to keep ourselves at our very best.
This is a win-win situation. You win because you can get tips from a “non-expert” to hopefully help keep you motivated, and I win because I will be held accountable to my readers by posting regularly.
Want added support/motivation/accountability? Keep me updated on what you’re doing. It’s so much more fun when you have someone else get excited with you. Have fun, and let’s get ourselves back to what’s healthy for us!
Related articles
- Your Body: A priceless gift from God (busymomof03.com)
Misty Fitch | Fearfully Made 
I love this post! And it reinforces my determination to spend time on the treadmill everyday! God made me wonderful, and I need to take care of what he made and how he made me.
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Yes ma’am! It doesn’t mean you aren’t beautiful. It means you want to make yourself healthy and let even more of your true beauty shine through! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Keep me posted on your progress if you’d like. Get off that scale and do whatever exercise makes you feel better about yourself. Make time go by more quickly on the treadmill by talking to your Creator. Let him speak loving words over you during that time reminding you that you were fearfully and wonderfully made. Have fun with it!
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YES!!!!!!!!!
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Thank you for your clear and precise explanation of why exercising does not contradict God’s design of our bodies. It makes more sense now.
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I’m glad it makes sense to you. Sometimes when I write, I wonder if it only makes sense in my head! 🙂
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Great work! I basically had that big revelation of my own last August, and lost 35 pounds this fall taking ownership of my eating habits, kicking my sugar addiction, and beginning to exercise again. It’s not about ‘being skinny’, it’s about being yourself, not where you stress out about perfection, but where you claim ownership of your habits. Doing that makes a world of difference about how you feel, both in confidence and in health!
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Thank you for that. You are absolutely right on – and I’m so proud of what I’ve seen in you! You look fantastic btw! Keep it up!!!
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Hello Misty!
I love your blog. And this is an interesting take on working out. I’ve always wondered the same question that your friend asked you, especially recently. I joined a gym back in July of 2011 and every once in a while I try to make sure I’m not working out to be “the model guy” or the “big guy on campus” so to speak. But I want to work out to keep healthy and keep up this body that is God’s temple.
I think this post will help a lot of people. Too many people are trying to look like the model on the cover of Vogue magazine. But what they forget to realize is that model has been air brushed by computers to look thinned up. She’s probably had a team of maybe five people working on her at one time doing make-up, hair, nails… etc She has the fan blowing in her hair in all of her the Model proofs. And too often, people are striving (and some are starving themselves) to look like this image that God didn’t create but man altered. And in the process these people are losing self confidence. They’re starving themselves and developing eating disorders. So it’s important for us to keep in mind, that healthy balance between keeping up this body, which is the temple of God, and trying to be someone that God didn’t intend for us to be. Thank you, Misty so much for sharing this timely and well needed article. May God bless you tremendously!
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Thank you for this! I’ve not thought of it from the male perspective, but it certainly fits. Everything you said about models is exactly what I wrote in my recent short study, The Real You.
Check back for Monday’s post because I touch a little more on this topic (wanting to become something you’re not), but it’s targeted more to parents and the role we have on self-confidence of our children.
I’m so glad you commented here because I enjoy hearing from the male’s perspective. Too often we (well, I do at least) don’t take it into consideration and assume only females deal with these kind of issues. Thank you for opening my eyes, and I hope my Fit Friday will benefit every gender and every age.
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Reblogged this on Misty Gatlin and commented:
Thought this should be RE Blogged
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