Some make a religion out of fitness, they exercise religiously, regularly, in an attempt to look and feel good, mostly to celebrate/worship the ‘body beautiful’. Focusing on primarily building their PQ.
I’m not sure what the percentage is and wouldn’t know if it is even quantifiable, however, in my personal opinion, I think the majority (for whatever reason) don’t place enough emphasis on their fitness and health.
A close friend of mine died in 2016 at the young age of 48, prompting me to write a 2-part piece in my Facebook Notes called ‘Health matters’, which highlighted the difference between health and fitness and some solutions to enable us to improve both.
Before I continue, I’m aware that I’m in danger of upsetting an alienating those with serious health conditions and those who only look at the issues of health and wellness two-dimensionally.
My apologies, if you were offended by the initial image above, however, as always, I ask that you exercise a little patience and read on…
Here’s an extract from ‘Health Matters’…
“I think that many don’t realise, there is a difference between fitness and health.
Those who exercise, believe (because they exercise regularly) they are automatically healthy.
That’s not the case, health starts and is maintained with what we put into our bodies; fitness comes from the exercise we consistently put our bodies through.
I always believed that I was both but by doing some extensive reading (as well as documentary watching) I realised that I had some work to do on the health side.
Depending on the choices we make, we put ourselves in one the following categories:-
- Unhealthy and unfit (the most dangerous state, which can sadly lead to premature death).
- Fit but unhealthy (exercising semi/regularly but adding unhealthy food & drinks to our diets).
- Healthy but unfit (eating well, removing unhealthy food & drink from diet but neglecting exercise).
- Fit and Healthy (the best possible state to be in, improving the chances of a longer life). ”
We all have to come to the acknowledgement and more importantly ‘believe’ that our body wants to be well and actually tries to heal itself.
As usual, we have a habit of getting in the way of ourselves and making life difficult, due to the choices we make.
This side of life is short but we also have to get it into our minds/’psyche’ that many of us have looked at life incorrectly concerning our age and ageing.
One the most fundamental ways to change our way of thinking, concerning ageing, is to acknowledge the following.
Barring any unforeseen accidents or evil actions towards us, if fit and healthy, we actually have a maximum of 120 years here on earth (Genesis Chapter 6 Verse 3).
Taking that truth into consideration, middle age doesn’t actually begin until we are 60 and if we divide our maximum possible age into trimesters, old age doesn’t actually start until we are 80…amazing isn’t it?
Start realising and believing how ‘young’ we actually are and the rejuvenating process has begun, add the rest of the practical healthy lifestyle choices and watch the changes which take place.
That being said…
1) I do believe pharmaceutical drugs do have a place…usually where ignorance (wilful or otherwise) has been present in our life, when we ignore early warning signs and become seriously ill, that along with emergency surgery may be the only alternative we have.
2) This one is directed at the religious…I obviously believe that prayer has a place in our lives, that goes without saying.
However, in the area of health and fitness we have all been guilty of, as James would put it, ‘praying amiss’…I’ll explain later.
2A) Prayer has a place for miraculous healing, when, as above, we were living in ignorance, when we have sudden illness, accidents or have been attacked or (more importantly) when we have done all the natural things we can do to look after our own health and we are still in need of that miracle.
So what’s the difference between the enlightened believing Christian, who walks in relationship and the religious unenlightened seeker?
In this scenario…the enlightened believer isn’t presumptuous, when we read and hear what Jesus says to ‘all’ concerning his people being destroyed through lack of knowledge, we understand what that means concerning our health. (Hosea Chapter 4 verse 6).
Concerning health, many religious people don’t have an understanding of 2A) they eat whatever, drink whatever, absorb chemicals and do all manner of other things which are detrimental to our health and fitness.
They don’t read, research and put ‘preventative measures’ in place to heal and repair the body naturally and when the body breaks down, they ask everyone for prayer.
Sometimes there are breakthroughs this way, God in his infinite merciful way, grants them, however, sadly, those receiving ‘the miracle’ usually continue doing what they did before and are surprised if a recurrence happens or they develop other problems and fall ill again.
God is not a witch-doctor, he is not there to be summoned to heal, whenever we make poor ‘continual’ choices for our health.
He has given (those who ask and seek them) wisdom, knowledge and understanding concerning how we can look after, prevent and cure ourselves using natural methods.
What’s so amazing, is the fact that there are people, who may not have a belief in God but they still adopt those natural ‘preventative’ health measures.
We should look into food and drink health, eating a more alkali based diet, the dangers of:- sugar, processed carbs, GM foods, pesticides, saturated fats, aluminium foil, fluoride, microwaves, mercury fillings, EMFs, BPA & BPS in plastics, drugs (of all kinds), tattoos and more..
The resources are out there, if we choose to seek and educate ourselves.+
There are too many in religion, forgetting what Jesus said… “To do the good they say, not what they do” (Matthew Chapter 23 verse 3).
This is also applicable to discipline concerning rest, hydration, the importance of sunshine, fuelling the body, exercise and maintaining a healthy weight.
The irony of it all…many religious folk follow their unhealthy religious leaders into an unhealthy lifestyle, break the body down due to their poor choices then ask for corporate prayer when the body can’t take any-more…where is the sense in that?
Remember our bodies are our temples…we have to look after them and we can apply this universal truth, given to us by Jesus, to improve our health and fitness. (Matthew Chapter 7 verses 7-11).
Look after yourselves and be well.
Phil Gayle
G Man
