Running the Race

Last fall after listening to a friend talk so much about the hit show "Biggest Loser" I set the dvr to record each episode. Adam & I were hooked from the start! It was so shocking to see the effect that weight had on the contestant's health. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've always known that the more "physically fit" you are the healthier you must be. But I had no idea the extent of it all that it even controlled how your body ages on the inside! Wow! Each week as we watched, the trainers even worked with each contestant on their mental health...their mental stability...the issues that ultimately brought them to the point where they were with their weight. It really got me to thinking. Here I was 27 years old, mother of 2 beautiful & healthy children, but Adam & I looked so "sloppy." Of course, we were nowhere near the people on the show, but I felt so yucky like that. So by the end of the year I decided that I really wanted to make a change...but this change had to be an ALL-AROUND change. I couldn't change my body without changing my mind as well. We, as Christians, know that God wants us to be healthy--to take care of His temple (our body).

After connecting all the dots and thinking real hard about what it was going to take for me to make the necessary "life-style" changes, I knew I had to go from "head to toe" from the very beginning. Since then I've tried to remind myself that becoming/staying healthy cannot be about LeAnn looking good, but it has to be about being what God created me to be including, but not limited to, what my husband needs, my children need, etc. If I don't take care of myself who will take care of them if I'm not around to do so? So when I do a workout video & it starts to get a little tough I focus on the pictures of my children on the mantle & 2 pieces of decor. One simply reads "Blessed" and the other "Never, Never, Never give up." I mean, how can I not do my part after everything God has done for me? I truly believe that we are to condition our physical bodies just as much and as diligently as we do our spiritual bodies. Now, I've seriously slacked along the way this year but am trying to get back on track now. Which has led me to a new book that dad has been mentioning quite a bit over the past few months called "the me I want to be--becoming God's best version of you" by John Ortberg. I'm anxious to find out what exactly that is...God's version of me! I know that I am nothing without my God so I try to make every little thing I do about/for Him...keyword there is try. I'm not there yet, but I'm working on it. I'm running the race He has set before me...making my way to THE prize. And trying to bring others in as I do so. :)

"Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You also must run in such a way that you will win. All athletes practice self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step."

I Corinthians 9:24-26a NLV (emphasis mine)