Religion of Health

 I’m posting these pics for progress’ sake. 

I’ve been up 4:30am every single morning this week to workout with the strength training DVDs and this week the plan is to add the bowflex back in. I also am just generally trying to make better choices- Whole Foods, adding in protein, portion control. 

Working out makes me want to be more active in general, so that’s helped! Deciding to workout is difficult because you’re too tired to workout, but if you don’t work out, you’re too tired! 

But I want to share this amazing reflection that popped up in my FB memories from awhile ago, and that’s my update for the week!

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At Adoration a few minutes ago, I prayed, “Lord, please help me to get back to good health and strengthen me.”

Right as my Holy Hour ended, I opened a book I brought called, “God is Not Nice” and it said that health fanaticism has become our new religion in some ways. The health of the body is important and Christians even go so far as to say it is not just important but it is a temple of the Holy Spirit, but the good of the body is not our ultimate end. 

I think it was a good reminder to not obsess about my recent health issues or my struggle to get back to a routine of good eating and exercise despite the negative effects not doing those things has on me. 

The good of the body is not my ultimate end. It can help me achieve it, but truly I need to focus on my relationship with the Lord more enthusiastically than my quest for “perfection”. I need transformation— the eternal kind.

And before everyone starts in on me defending their diets, that’s not what this is about. The author says that someone with a heart defect is just as capable of having a good life as someone in “perfect” health. This is not a pain free life and if that was the standard of a good life most of us would be disappointed, but that is the objective of health fanaticism. 

Anyway... so tired... it was just a nice, surprising answer to a prayer to “check my heart”.