Faithfully Fit

What does it mean to be faithfully fit and what does this have to do with health and wellness?

I don't know where you are in your faith journey or if you're even a believer but I wanted to share a little of my story and explain why I believe that my faith is tied to my personal wellness.

I grew up attending church with my mom, going to Sunday School, and participating in youth group.  During college I fell out of that routine and while I still believed, it just wasn't an integral part of my life.  Fast forward several years and a divorce later, and I found myself surrounded with a fun group of friends with whom I was overindulging in alcohol and just generally leading a party lifestyle.  

Even though I've always been athletic and participated and even excelled in several different competitive sports, I have also always struggled with my weight.  Spending all of my time drinking and eating pizza and wings wasn't helping.  I put on so much weight that I barely recognized myself.  And, quite frankly, I felt like crap.

My, then, fiance and I moved to Florida to start over.  We bought a restaurant and I was working so much that I barely ate and was burning the candle at both ends.  I dropped 80 pounds in 6 months.  Some would say that's great!  But again, I didn't FEEL good.

I managed to balance it out a bit and, eventually, started coaching.  We got married and life happened and I started drinking much too much again.  And he was even worse.  I wanted to change things but I also wanted to have fun and make my husband happy.  I'm sure there were a lot of factors that led to his infidelity but I'm also sure that the lifestyle we were leading did not help matters.  Divorce #2 and it was not graceful.

I dropped 20 pounds in a month.

Again, I felt awful!  During that time, I'd given up on just about everything, including my coaching business . . . my only real place of joy and my true passion.  

By the grace of God, I began reconnecting with some friends and got to know one in particular a little better . . . and better . . . and better.  We started dating and just by spending time with someone who has a VERY strong faith, I began to rebuild my own faith.

I've learned a few key things through this journey . . .

• None of us can do this life alone

  • We need support and accountability

• We can do hard things

  • We can make healthy choices

  • We can push ourselves further that we think, even in a workout

  • We can always start over

• Mind Over Matter is not just a cliche but an absolute truth

  • Our bodies can do so much more than we think they can

  • It's all about the narrative

    • We can and need to stop the negative self talk

    • We can re-write our story any time

    • We are under no obligation to be the person we were 5 years ago, 5 months ago, or even 5 minutes ago

I'll touch on these and so much more in the weeks and months to come.  I hope you'll stay tuned and I hope you'll reach out if you're struggling!  When you're ready, hop on over to the Get Started page, fill out the form (it takes less than 2 minutes), and let our team meet you wherever you're at and let's get you on the right path for you, whatever that looks like for YOU.