Hello and welcome to Beauty – the no-frills, no-nonsense podcast about all things beauty. True Beauty. God’s Beauty. I am your host, Deanna, and today we are talking about the beauty of fitness.
My hubby and two of my boys ran the Turkey Trot on Thursday. I am just getting back into running, so I chose the virtual option with the dog so that I didn’t slow them down. When I run (or in this case, run/walk), I do a lot of thinking – and Thursday was no exception.
Several years ago, I took a fitness certification course. I never took the actual test to get certified, but I sure did learn a lot and it has helped me in my own fitness journey. Of course, the importance of fitness was impressed upon me as I took this course. I already knew that, though. I have been on a fitness journey for quite some time! I am nowhere near expert level, but I have a lot of personal experience and knowledge that I have gained from my own ups and downs. It would be so unlike me not to share…
Our bodies are made to move. In fact, our bodies work best when we move. When we make an effort to move regularly, our blood pressure is lower, it provides a lower resting heart rate, it improves our immune system, it strengthens our heart, it improves our mental health, and provides us with better sleep (just to name a few benefits). God didn’t create us to sit at a desk all day or lounge on the couch and binge watch tv. He created us to move; to work the land…and he gave us 600+ muscles to do it.
We have become kind of lazy – and I am not being judgy here. I work a desk job…
It's me. Hi! I am the problem.
But I also know that when I sit too long, my joints ache and my metabolism decreases, and I get snacky. If I remember correctly from my studies, lower activity levels also lead to weaker muscles (including the ticker), an increased risk of disease like diabetes, and a drop in the “good” cholesterol.
But wait, there’s more!
If it is too scary to think that sitting is the new smoking, there are even better reasons to get up and move your body on a more regular and consistent basis. First, it glorifies God. I have said it a hundred times – we are created to serve him. We can’t do that well if we are always sick or spending all of our money on medical bills.
Moving also brings happiness. Okay, not necessarily in the moment. I am never, ever happy when I have to do burpees or lift heavy weights or log long miles. But – when I am done and I catch my breath, I am typically pretty amazed at what my body just accomplished. It is no secret that working out does something to the chemicals in our brain. You’ll have to ask the experts to explain it, but for now, just trust me when I tell you moving your body will improve your mental health.
Inactivity is literally killing us. So, today, I propose we do something about it!
I have combined my two favorite things – faith and fitness – and I created a little December jumpstart. I kept the activities fairly simple so that this is really more of a way to get you back into some good habits, or help you focus on good habits during a really hard season filled with busyness and parties with trays of cookies. I put something on every day, but feel free to skip around or even add to the calendar with something else you think would be better for you. If you choose to do any of this, I would love to know about it, so please be sure to share - either with a comment here, on any of the posts I share about it on IG, or on your own social media using #FaithAndFitness so I can find you.
We are so close to a new year, so who knows, this might be a great way for you to see where you might want to put a little more focus in the new year. I do hope you will join me on this 30-day adventure, but before we get started, I want to know: Where is your level of physical activity and what do you want to work on?
D 😊
