It is easy for us to talk about our job and our money and our children and our possessions as gifts from God. However do we realize that our bodies are a gift too?
And if we do realize this, are we doing what we need to to take care of them? The country we live in believes in biggie sizing everything. We go get a double cheese burger with a humongous french fries and a large DIET coke. We drink diet drinks to make our selves feel better about eating a days worth of calories in one meal! Now I am to blame for doing this. When running in a hectic day, I love to stop at Sonic and get a cheeseburger and a large tator tots. Tator tots are one of my weaknesses, I love tator tots… But I do get a diet Dr. Pepper now. I drink the diet drink, because I started it a while back to help with my weight, and because now I really can not take the sugery taste of regular soft drinks… Now some will argue the chemical they use to sweeten diet drinks is worse for you than the sugar, which could be true, but my clothes are fitting a lot better now, than they did 2 months ago.
And that could be because I cut out all the high test soft drinks, and I also think the fact I have been walking almost everyday has something to do with it. It is a hard thing to motivate ourselves to get up and to go. To get up and to do something different. And physical activity for me was something different. Now I do not have the excuse of 100 channels to watch, my family does not have cable, satellite, or dish tv, and have not had it for over 4 years… and yes we have survived. I find it humorous now that Dish Network says you will never have to pay for HD TV, because the President did not have to pay for Color Tv when he was a kid, well that is right, they did not pay for TV at all… but I digress….
I have started getting up at 4:30 every morning to get to the YMCA by 5:00, so I can walk for an hour, and get home shower, make breakfast and then take my girls to school before going to work. Would it be easier for me to stay in bed an extra 1:30. You bet ya! But I do no, because my body is the temple of God, and I am way to young to be taking all the pills I do, and I got there because I have been lazy. And one day it hit me, that I would not be around to see my girls graduate from high school, or go to prom, or their weddings, if I continued down the path I was on. So I get my but out of bed, and go walk. I started then end of July, but the first recorded walk I have on my iPod is from August 2 in 48’32” I walked 5,388 steps and burned 462 calories… This morning October 7 in 1:05’07” I walked 8,139 steps and burned 663 calories. This morning I added incline to my walking, not much, I got up to a 3.0 on the incline, but it increased the workout, because I feel it…
During the month of August I walked 177,330 steps. In September I walked 180,185 steps. So far in October I have walked 35,030 steps (and I missed 2 days of walking, that is an average of 5004 per day (including those I did not walk) and one of the days I exercised, it was biking for 30 minutes). Walking has made a huge impact on my life, and has changed my whole outlook. I feel better on the days I walk verses the days I miss. I have an energy that was not there before.
This morning at the YMCA, a man whom I have seen almost every day I’ve been there said to me that I inspire him to come, because if I can be there, than he knows he can be there, and others have commented to me on FaceBook about my constant posting of my walking and how they look each morning to see how far I’ve gone. I do that to hopefully show others, that if I can do this, so can they. I say nothing above to puff myself up, but only to encourage you, that if you are sitting on the couch, glued to the TV, than you are not handling the greatest gift you have been given by God with respect, and you need to take care of that gift. And you need to do that, not only for yourself, but for the body of Christ that depends on the gift you give to the body, and the role you play in the mission of God. You owe it to yourself, your spouse, your children, your grand children…
I was hit by the fear of never seeing my grand children, and Now I am hoping that with continued effort, I might get to see Great Grand Children! Take care of the greatest gift you have been given, your body, and do your part in the mission of God.
aSacredRebel 