“May God himself,
the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul
and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 (I Thessalonians 5:2)

                Taking care of ourselves physically is not a laughing matter; the truth is that we do feel awful when we find ourselves overweight.  On August 16 of last year I wrote the first little article of this confession. Little did I know than less than a month later the Lord was going to open doors for me to start teaching Martial Arts again.  Teaching Martial Arts is giving me the flexibility to be able to workout almost every morning. I thank God for Vidant Wellness Center in Ahoskie. If you live in this area I fully recommend this place; it is truly more than just a Gym It did not take long before I engaged in a healthy exercise routine. However, to be honest, exercising is not a big challenge for me, eating right is!

One thing that I quickly discover is that you can exercise daily, but if we don’t make adjustments in our eating we will see very little results in the way we feel, the way we look and in the process of losing weight. Diets don’t work for me; I love rice, I love my chicken, my turkey and my beef and when it comes down to proportions I am the worst. The only thing that truly works for me is to cut things off. Matthew 5:29-30 tells us:

“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

                So I am not eating meat, only sea food; I am not eating rice and I am trying to drink water for the most part. I am taking vitamins and finding other ways of getting my protein.

I know that many times as we engage in diets and exercise routines the first thing that we want is to see results in the scale number; however, that should not be the case. Our bodies talk to us, they let us know when they are hurting and when they feel great and we out to listen. For example, you can be 30 pounds overweight, but feeling increasingly better because you already started and exercise and a life style of eating that are healthier. So even as you still, technically overweight, your body is already reaping the benefits of your life style changes. On the other hand, you can have somebody else who is 15 pounds over weight, but it is not exercising or making any healthy life style changes and that person feel horrible. You can have somebody else and technically his weight is not an issue, but without proper diet and exercise that person to could be feeling terrible. So what is it that I am look for in order to make a proper inventory of my progress? As I make  adjustments in the things I eat and don’t eat, together with my exercise routine I am already begin to see changes in the way I feel, the way I look and on the scale.

We must be honest with ourselves, if we are not feeling well, if our bodies are feeling weak, if we are lacking energy to do the basic things we have to do in this life, whatever we are doing is not right; something is terribly wrong. Then, the second thing I look for is the way I look. Sometimes we start losing inches in certain places before we see a drastic change in the scale. Perhaps we start feeling a little more comfortable in those jeans we love so much! Then the third thing I look for is indeed the scale. With time, that scale number is going to get smaller and smaller, but we must be patient.

My personal journey is a long one; I am feeling better, I am seen changes in my physical body and some improvement on the scale, but it took me some years to mess my body up; so it is going to take some time to get physically healthy again. So this journey is as much mental as it is physical. What I do feel is that I am on the right track again and for that I am thankful to God.

TO BE CONTINUED…