A majority of the time, those people above fail because they find out it is hard to be healthy.
Especially in our society today.
Steve and I actually began our more healthier journey last summer. Here is a "back story."
I have desired to eat healthier in the last decade or so. The older I got, the more I found how hard it was to take off pounds that were never seen before in my life! Steve and I both lost a great deal of weight in 2013-2014 - but life seemed to creep back up on us and we had gained part of that back. Steve felt he was especially struggling because he was going to the gym and still not losing as he had hoped. I just wondered if I was doomed to be the middle-aged woman who kept gaining just because of her age no matter what I tried.
Last summer Steve decided to "bite the bullet" and go to see a Nutritionist. I was all for that because Steve had a harder time staying away from certain foods than I seemed to have. When he began with the Nutritionist, he began to see where he was making wrong choices and was finally seeing a breakthrough in the weight coming back off. He encouraged me to go. Because I thought I was a pretty healthy eater I did not think I NEEDED the extra help, but I was wrong. I finally broke down and scheduled my first appointment and it was the best thing that happened for my health!
What I have learned through our Nutritionist has been life changing. I have learned what is best to eat for my body and why what I thought was healthy and "full of protein" was actually doing a number on my body. I learned that my best efforts were being thwarted by my lack of understanding of how my body truly works and what it needs. I have felt like a computer that was being de-fragmented - all of the information I have learned over the years has finally begun to come together and "click." I have learned that most people in our society live to eat, instead of eat to live. There is a difference!
I could go on and on about the facts she has shared and the diagrams she has shown me of the horrible increase of diseases in America simply because of our horrible eating. We are one of the richest countries in the world but have the most malnourished people living in it!
If you want to see some of those diagrams click here for diabetes, overweight, obesity, and heart disease.
All of these facts aside, let's enter LIFE.
Life that is around you with unhealthy choices at every turn. I can walk in a grocery store and be tempted by the attractive packaging, gimmicks, and signs of a healthier choice, when all it is showing is lies. I have to purposely walk by those areas and go to the area that I KNOW, and have come to learn, is a better choice for my body and my daily life. I can go to a restaurant with friends and while they are chowing down on cheeseburgers and fries, I am choosing grilled chicken salad with fruit. We just got through the holidays and the sweets that surrounded me were DIFFICULT to resist and some days I failed - miserably.
Being healthy is hard.
But doing hard things is what life is about, isn't it?
If everything were easy it would not require effort. It would not challenge you and grow you.
"Easy" and "eating-what-I-want-when-I-want-it" has gotten a lot of people sickness and death.
While every day is a choice for me to eat healthier, exercise, and resist the temptations in front of me, I know that I am doing all I can to keep the body God has given to me in the healthiest way I can to honor and glorify Him. When I am eating those fruits and veggies I am thanking Him for the food He has provided that my body intended to use to give me the right kind energy and health. When I am exercising I am thanking Him for the ability to move.
Let's flip this to a spiritual diet.
As I have mused over what the Lord has shown me in my healthier lifestyle, I could not help but compare it to my spiritual lifestyle.
We live in the United States - a free and rich nation - but one where many are starving because they are feeding on the lies of the "packaging" of quick fixes in religion. Many want the easy way to live this life free of sin. Many want to listen to prosperity gospels and false religions instead of feeding on the Bread of Life - which is found only in God's Word.
It can be very hard to be a healthy Christian in our society. There are so many attractive packages of "truth", gimmicks, and lies that people readily believe. Sin is constant around us because of human nature - I can stumble and fall ever so quickly. Sometimes people think just because one might be a Christian that church, Bible study, and prayer are NOT needed. Salvation is obtained and then life can be lived any way desired - filling the mind with cheap imitations of the truth which do not lead to a healthy spiritual life!
The "easy" road to Heaven has gained many people death of eternal separation from God.
The temptations I face daily require a choice. They require me to stand on the truth of God's Word or go the easy route and give in to the temptation. Standing on God's Word requires full faith and trust and the end result is a healthier relationship with the Lord. If the easy route is chosen to just "get by" and take the cheap imitations that are out in our society, my end result is a weak faith and a distant relationship with the Lord.
Being a healthy Christian is HARD.
But, again, doing hard things is what will challenge me, grow me, and help me to be spiritually healthier. The Lord shows me through His Word that nothing that comes easy brings strength to my spiritual life. I cannot trust in my own thoughts or go with temptations of something easier, but I must surrender all things to God and His strength to help.
Spiritual health and physical health go hand-in-hand. In fact, I am learning that more and more every day. The temptation to eat unhealthy is a battle that I need the Lord to help me overcome - the same as with spiritual temptations.
Just because this is a new year, I have not made unrealistic resolutions to begin anew and when the going gets tough, I get going - the other way. The Lord is daily teaching me to lean on Him for my spiritual AND physical health. I have to take one day at a time. I have to make choices each and every day both physically and spiritually.
I have to constantly be aware that it is hard to do the right thing and make the right choices in all areas of my life.
But in the end, my body will thank me for choosing the foods that will make me healthier - and my spiritual heart will be drawing me closer to my Creator Who made all things that are best for me.
Even when they are hard.