Day 2 – Fit for Life Challenge

Good morning!!

Welcome to Day 2 of our 40 Days of Faith and Fitness!

This morning I want to hit the ground running, right out of the gate. I feel the subject today is something that I dare say most,or all of us, struggle with.. and that is this.

We have patience and show grace to the people we love , but we are our own worst critics! We don’t show ourselves that same grace! Man, we can be so hard on ourselves! We can beat ourselves up over things we’ve said or done, how we don’t feel we measure up, or how we look. Today I want you to try and do something. I want you to try to see yourself the way God sees you! Did you know God is absolutely crazy about you? It’s true! He is over the moon in love with you! Don’t believe it? Believe His word.. it’s all in there! He created you with so much love and care and he delights over His creation! In fact we are made in His very image! Ephesians 2:10 says this, “ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”! ..Not only did he create you, but He created YOU with purposes in mind! God loves you so much He sent his son Jesus to die for you and redeem you to himself! If you haven’t ever accepted God’s gift of salvation, He is calling you to do that today! In Psalms 139 :13-14 it says that God knew you before you were even formed and that you are fearfully and wonderfully made!

When I really started letting that sink in.. who I am in Christ.. it was a game changer. I changed my focus. I have decided that if God loves me and values me that much, that I needed to stop spending so much time being so hard on myself and focus on my strengths and praying about how I can honor Him in my mind, body and spirit. I no longer wanted my emotions to rule the day and let God tell me who I am in Christ. If you are in Christ, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit! If you truly believe that, I believe it will change how you care for your body. Not realizing it at the time, I spent way too much time through the years yo-yo dieting and obsessing over counting and measuring and weighing. All of it so vain! When I gave it over to God and decided to just focus on eating foods that I will call God-made foods (not overly processed foods, man-made foods that you usually find in a bag, box or package) in a balanced way, that’s when I started to see lasting results and I feel great! All the while asking Him to help me know the difference between satisfied and full, it became a joyous turn of events! I finally have a healthy relationship with food, as I can see that God has given us so many wonderful delicious foods that we can put together in a million different ways to ENJOY!!! When I stopped restricting myself so much and instead starting enjoying the foods He has provided for us, everything changed. Honestly, healthy eating should be a lifestyle. When you start a new “diet” ( which this is NOT), you have to be able to see yourself eating that same way a year or five years from now. The key is getting healthy by loving your body the way God made it, and giving it the very best fuel you can to be able to do all the things He has for you to do each and every day! So today our action step is this; for the rest of the 40 days I want you to pay less attention to counting calories or carbs, do less measuring and stressing. I want you to focus on eating a balanced diet of mostly real, natural, God-made foods, and less overly processed foods like pre-packaged snacks, sodas, etc. Try to eat less added sugar and refined grains. If you will focus on making each meal consist of a lean protein, healthy complex carbs, and healthy fats.. you will feel satisfied and you will be fueling your body with what it craves! Try to notice the difference between being satisfied and full. If you will try eating just good, quality ingredients and spend less time stressing, I think you’ll see you start feeling more satisfied and energized! Here are just a few examples of these three keys elements for you.

** Lean proteins: skinless chicken or turkey, seafood, lean beef, lean pork like tenderloin, eggs, low fat dairy, beans
**Healthy, complex carbs: green and orange veggies, whole-grains and foods made with them like oats, whole-grain pastas, brown rice, quinoa, and whole-grain breads, beans and peas
** Healthy fats: nuts, olive oil, fatty fish like salmon, avocados.
** and of course enjoy fruits!

Today is your day to start enjoying the REAL foods that we have been given to enjoy! Have a wonderful day today my friends!! And remember no matter what you’ve done or how you have failed , you’re never too far gone for God! Everyday his mercies are new! ❤️