Alright. Fitness…eating right, working out, getting
healthier, etc. Let me start by saying
this post is not aimed at people, in general, who care about fitness. I think
being fit, is a MOSTLY good thing.
I have friends that I
have watched over the course of the last year, or couple of years, transform
themselves through courage, hard work, and dedication. I wholeheartedly applaud
them. A few of them, I am so proud of, I even get a bit weepy seeing their “before
and after” pictures. The difference between them and the people that have
irritated me, is that these friends are inspiring and encouraging to other
women. They aren’t catty or tacky or saying or posting things that try to make
other women feel beneath them because they haven’t yet taken that step.
There are also women that have stepped into the fitness
world, and though they have become more fit, have drug every bit of the bad
attitudes and insecurities that they started with, along with them. I believe there
are a few women who truly just have the goal of getting healthier, and they go
for it. But it seems like a LOT of women have other insecurities or issues that
they can NOT change, so they decide they can at least change the way the eat
and work out, so they do. But, oftentimes it becomes an obsession. It becomes
something they can be prideful about, something they can use to “one up” other
women with.
In Lisa Terkeurst’s book ‘Made to Crave,’ she said something
that has stuck with me for a long time. She said that she imagined Jesus
looking at us and saying, “I want you to give up the one thing you crave more
than me. Then come, follow me.”
Obviously this can cover WAY more things that
fitness/health, but that is what I’m writing out, so that is what it applies
to. Maybe it’s being fit that you crave
more than God. Maybe it’s food that you crave more than God.
I agree that health should have a place in each of our
lives. I agree that God blesses us with one body, and that we should respect it
and try and take good care of it. I also believe, without a doubt, he doesn’t
want fitness or eating right or exercising or losing weight or getting
healthier to be more important to us that HE, alone, is.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about
your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the
air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by
worrying add a single hour to your life?
-Matthew 6:25-27
God tells us as plain as day not to worry
about our body (Again, yes this verse touches on other things, but I’m staying
true to my subject in this particular post). My personal opinion is that that
doesn’t mean not to make good choices about our health. It means not to worry,
not to obsess, not to let it be our main focus, not to let our desire to “look
good” be more important than our family, our friends, and especially Him.
My belief is that God has never intended for
us to spend hours in the gym. He never intended for us to focus on our looks. I
also believe that He never intended for us to be lazy, sedentary, or stuff our
bodies full of junk. After all, the Bible is clear about gluttony being a sin.
That all being laid out there, that means our goal should be to find a healthy
balance to all of it, without becoming obsessed or letting it hold such a high
place in our lives.
I can tell you that I, personally, would
like to lose about 30 pounds. It’s mostly so I will feel better and be able to
be more active with my children. I would be lying if I said the thought didn’t
come to mind that I would also look better. However, I haven’t really stepped
up to the plate to do anything about it. I have never, and will never do a diet
or diet pill. I would like to eat better and walk with my husband. At this
point, I don’t believe God’s will for me is to spend time in a gym “working on
my fitness” (props to Fergie for that line!). I have far more important things
to spend my time on. Are there times when I’m being lazy and could be working
out? SURE. Are there times I could choose grilled chicken instead of fried? Absolutely.
Does that mean that people who are “fit”
should assume that everyone who carries extra weight is lazy? Absurd. For kicks and giggles, let’s just assume for
a moment that everyone who is out of shape or carrying extra weight is, in
fact, lazy…Does that give someone else the place to degrade them because of it?
Because I am PRETTY SURE that if someone is being lazy, they know it. They just
do. It doesn’t help for someone to be demeaning or point it out to them. It
doesn’t make you better than someone else because you deem yourself “not lazy.”
Also, while yes, being healthy includes
obvious things such as eating right and not being sedentary, it also has to do
with your genes. It drives me insane when “health nuts” say it has nothing to
do with your genes. Ummm, yes, it does. Being fit does not give you a right to
be ignorant or say ignorant things. Not only is that information READILY
available to everyone, but I’ve experienced it firsthand. As younger adults,
even after we had had children, I was able to eat whatever I wanted and not
workout and still maintain a great figure. Not boasting, just saying. Ok, maybe
there was a tad bit of boasting there. Anyway, my best friend could not do
that. It wasn’t because I was trying and she wasn’t. It was because our make-up
(genes) are totally different. The way our bodies were built, the way they used
food, the way they responded to activity…all completely different.
Genes are a BIG part of it. I actually have
the body type, which if I were to work out, gains muscle much more easily than
lots of other women. I’ve had a personal trainer say they were envious of my
body type (That was years ago, after baby #3. HA! If they could see me now!
YIKES!). Some women are more, I hate to use the word scrawny, but you know,
just a different body type. They have to work their tails off to gain muscle.
This all goes for men, too, but I’m a woman talking to women. Some people lose
weight more easily, some people gain muscle more easily, some do both more
easily. Is it really nice to judge people based on our genes? Really? In case
you are confused about the answer, it’s no. No, it’s not nice.
I will agree, that having children,
specifically, doesn’t always have a big effect on your weight. I mean, you
technically only have to gain a few pounds to have a child; most of us gain too
much. And some of us lose the weight
easily, and some have to work to get it off, and some never get it off. So, yes,
the extra weight comes from the time you were pregnant, but again, I think a
lot of that has to do with genes. If you have “good genes,” the weight is going
to come off more easily. The first three children I had, I did no work
afterwards to lose the weight. The last child, I kept a lot of the weight on.
Was it because of the baby? Not really. It was because I had gotten older, it
was because I had another surgery on my stomach that completely changed its
shape, it was because I was busy being a mother of four and I didn’t have the
energy or the time to focus on getting the weight off. It was a lot of things.
Now that life has balanced out a bit, and the last one is a toddler, I could
focus a little more on it. But, I’m just not ready to take that step. I would
like for others’ to be just as ok about that choice as I am. As my husband is.
As my children are. As my God is.
God knows I have WAY more areas that need work…
areas way more important than my body, in the big scheme of things.
So, why do you want to lose weight or get in
shape?
Because you are obese and want to be
healthier and feel better?
Because you want to take care of the body
God blessed you with?
Because you don’t want it to be so hard to
find clothes that fit?
Because you want to have something to be
proud of?
Because you want to feel like you are better
than others?
Because you have other major insecurities that
you can’t handle or deal with?
Because you want to look good in a bikini?
Because you think your husband won’t love
you if you aren’t fit?
Because you need to feel like you are “good
at something”?
The whole point of this post, is to say, not
everyone is built the same. Not everyone has the same priorities. I agree that
we should take care of our health. Taking care of ourselves doesn’t involve
putting others down because of your need to feel better, or even simply because
you can.
Thank you to those that are inspiring and
encouraging. Those that are not, maybe you need to rethink your true goals, and
especially your words. If you are a
sister in Christ, then you most especially need to rethink how you are building
up or tearing down others….and putting down people over weight? Over not being
able to bench press 150 pounds? Here is the truth, no one cares but you…okay,
maybe other people in your same boat care, but it’s probably a pretty small
boat. Like a dingy. See? Who wants to ride in a dingy? I’m on a yacht, you
should join us…and you are welcome to. But
your words must be kind in order to join us. You must lay down your insecurities
and your stereotypes and be able to embrace people that are different than you…people
that are okay that that they are different than you. People that are okay that you are different than them. J
