
I never thought being healthy would be as challenging as lifting weights or running a marathon, but I have come to see that it’s hard, and there is a struggle and expense to eating clean.
And I must confess: I struggle with eating the right things.
I exercise at least five times a week. I go to church weekly. I preach and teach on the body being the temple of God. And, I teach step aerobics classes three times a week. But, when I was coming up, eating clean was not something I learned, discussed, or had even heard about. There was no discussion of organic versus regular, I guess, and there was definitely no one in my family who was a vegetarian. I had never even heard of such a thing, or person, until I was a teenager. Now, with a degree in Exercise Science and Health Promotion and several fitness certs under my belt, I know better, it’s just a matter of me doing better. But the truth is, I do struggle.
Last week I learned that there was a lady at my church who’s gone without sugar for three years! I wondered to myself, how is that possible? To me, it seems as if EVERYTHING has sugar. What does she eat and drink: water cress and water all day long?
I want to do better. I have to do better. I have six daughters who watch me with an ever mindful eye and they will also be the first to reprimand me if I put a cookie in my mouth or want French fries.
But it’s hard.
And I’m not saying this to be whining. I’m saying this out of practicality.
Leaner meats cost more.
So do organic fruits and vegetables.
And so do low sodium, low sugar items.
The world just seems backwards to me.
If the government doesn’t want to spend so much on health care, and is working so diligently on health care reform, then why not make junk foods cost more and lower the price of healthy foods? When I was undergoing my graduate studies, we discussed how junk food should be taxed just like they do cigarettes and alcohol and make healthier foods more affordable. Wouldn’t that lower our astronomically high costs for health care? Wouldn’t that make health care more affordable because healthier people would require less medications for controllable health-related issues caused by a poor diet?
This, to me, seems to be such a “no brainer”, and yet this disconnect in our society exists.
I really don’t want to struggle with eating right and I am making continual changes in my food choices as I go through my own personal health journey. And I thank God that I actually have the time, desire, and passion for exercise that I do because otherwise I’d have an even greater challenge on my hands because the truth is: YOU CAN’T OUT-EXERCISE A BAD DIET.
What you eat, and what you do with your body go hand in hand. I am making small, but important changes and improvements to my diet, for my heart and my health, not for my waistline, although that is equally as important to me. Let me just tell the truth. Seriously though. I want to be around a long time and I want to see my granddaughter’s children’s children’s, and I know that no one knows the time or place when they go on to glory, but we do have control of the time we have here on earth.
The Bible says “Confess your sins to one another so that you may be healed,” and I am confessing here before those reading, that I do not nearly eat, nor choose healthy choices as I should. I was thinking today during my workout how much easier it is to preach than to practice–and how much more accountable I am to myself, God, and others for doing both!
Do me a favor. Post below what you struggle with as it relates to diet and exercise and let’s go through this healthy healing and life transforming process together. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Together, we can win!
In FITNESS and In Health,
Elana
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Filed under: Humor, Lifestyle: Wellness, News: Opinion, Wellness
Tags: clean eating, confession, diet, eat, eating, exercise, fitness, health care, health reform, struggle