Hi ladies! It’s been so long since I’ve published an article on here. I apologize for my absence. Before I get to the topic of this article, I’d like to share a little of what’s been going on in my life! If you didn’t already know, I had a baby at the end of August and then we moved to a new little apartment at the end of November. I am just in heaven being a mommy now and I love doing all the mommy and wifey things but I MISS YOU ALL!

My life has been a whirlwind of adventures ever since I got married in 2016 and I have had to figure out how to prioritize; hence my terribly long absence from my blog.

But now that I have somewhat of a “normal”, I think I can finally get back to writing. I can’t wait to re-join this community and I hope all of you are just as hungry for this as I am. I can’t wait to share with you all what will be coming to A Lovely Calling this year but until then I thought we could talk a little about health and exercise and what that looks like for Christian women.

A couple of weeks ago I took a poll on our Instagram and asked how many of you were interested in living a healthy life and honoring God with your bodies by staying in shape and I was surprised by how many of you answered in favor! With almost 80% of you interested in health and fitness it got me excited because it’s one of my hobbies/passions.

Some of you may be wondering what health and fitness has to do with Christianity and honoring God. I never cared about or thought about living a healthy life when I was a teenager or in my early twenties until I realized the importance of it and how important it is for our Christian walk.

Let me explain.

What Does it mean to be healthy? 

As Christians we sometimes forget that God gave us our bodies. He lives inside of us and our bodies are the temple for His Spirit to dwell in.

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Cor. 6:19-20

When we honor God with our bodies by eating colorful, healthy foods, and using our bodies to their full potential by getting outside, exercising, drinking water, laughing, playing, we are glorifying Him! He made us to be a beautiful temple for His Spirit to dwell in so it is our responsibility (and privilege) to take care of our bodies-ultimately glorifying Jesus and being a good example to others.

Being healthy doesn’t mean you have to be able to fit into size XS! It doesn’t mean you must have perfect skin or hair. It simply means doing the best you can to take care of yourself for the RIGHT REASONS. We should not hate on our bodies if we can’t fit a certain size or if we don’t look like someone who we envy. We need to set healthy goals for ourselves that won’t make us feel like failures if we don’t live up to them right away.

Motivation

It’s really important when setting healthy goals to have healthy motivation to get you started. Think about why you want to be healthy, what does health even mean to you? Can you re-define your idea of health and fitness if you ask God for His heart and mind on the matter? What will help you stay on the track of living the best, healthiest version of your life?

For me, my motivation is my family. I want to be healthy and fit and, dare I say, sexy for my husband! I want my kids to have a mom they can be proud of and a mom that can play with them at the play ground without being self-conscious about her body. I want to be able to take my kiddos skiing and hiking and swimming. Also, I want to be confident in who I am and above all I want to make Jesus proud.

I want to be a good example to young women by being healthy and by telling others that they are a living breathing temple that the Creator of beauty itself lives in them.

So what is your motivation? In what ways can you remember your motivation throughout the day?

Growing up, my mom was overweight. I never thought twice about it because I thought she was the prettiest mom ever. But when she hit rock bottom in her own life when I was a little older, she put her mind to losing weight and leading a healthy lifestyle to be an example to her kids and she never looked back. She lost about 80 pounds and started eating healthy and making us kids eat healthy right alongside of her. She pushed herself to having a more godly centered mindset about health and fitness so that she could be a good example to HER KIDS. Yes she lost weight for herself too but her motivation was her children.

Not Conforming to Worldly Standards of Health

When you see other people who work out and go to the gym you might think of these people as selfish or that they are trying to look good to get other people’s attention. They have the perfect bodies and a ton of money to spend on all of their name brand gym clothes ect. And maybe seeing all of this has completely turned you off to the idea of working out or getting in shape. Maybe you see them and don’t want to be like them because they seem stuck up.

I am here to encourage you that you do not have to be like the worldly people who seem to set the standards of how to live a healthy lifestyle. You do not have to have a ton of money to spend on work out clothes or a gym membership or work out equipment. You can have your own standards of what looks and feels the most beautiful and healthy to you. Do not let anyone else tell you how things should be done when it comes to your health.

You can be sweet and positive and out-going, you don’t have to go to the gym to get fit, you don’t have to have the most expensive work out clothes, all you need is a willing heart and a clear and positive mindset. 

I want to encourage you all to come follow my health journey on my Instagram account.

This is a leap of faith for me because I am not used to putting myself out there or being in the spotlight. For years I’ve felt comfortable being in as little amount of photos as possible-I don’t really post a lot about my personal life here on A Lovely Calling or even on my own social media accounts. But this is something I really want us christian women, and christian moms and daughters to rally around. We need to share the real life struggles we face and we need to have the real life conversations about what health struggles we are dealing with. We need to be there for each other and encourage each other.

You will see a lot of pictures of me doing mostly yoga (more on this later), and in leggings and in sports bras. This is something that I do not care about at all. I work out in the comfort of my own home so the only people seeing me in these clothes are my husband and you guys, if you choose to join me!

When I work out, I like to get super pumped and motivated-I am not one who is easily motivated to exercise, it’s a struggle I face daily, but because of my motivation that I mentioned above (about working out to please God and for my family), I choose to do it anyways! I set aside my selfish desire to sit down and read, or do the dishes even rather than working out, and I get dressed and I put in 30 minutes of exercising my body to glorify God and bless my family.

One of the ways that I get excited to work out is to look really pretty and have pretty work out clothes.

It may sound silly, but ever since I was 16 I’ve always been motivated the easiest and best when I have really cute workout clothes to wear! If you don’t like it-fine, you don’t need to join me but I wanted to get this straight with you all.

I am not trying to bring attention to myself, I am motivating myself for my own purposes and reasons. I wont change for other people so that they won’t get offended-I am sorry if that sounds prideful but I just don’t see God looking down from heaven shaming me or being angry at me for wearing tight leggings and a sports bra to work out in! LOL

That being said, I want to share with you all my own workout routine, how I manage to do it with a 6 month old baby and how I stay active even on the days I can’t work out! A lot is going to change here on A Lovely Calling, I want to be more “down to earth” so to speak, I am going to add a new feature to our blog specifically for health and fitness called A Lovely Calling Fitness Community and I have a few friends who are going to help out and join me in bringing a truthful, sincere community to you all so that we can share our real life struggles and goals and tips so that we can ALL motivate each other. I may even start our own Lovely Calling fitness account on Instagram!?

If you have never worked out before but you want to, join me! I will help you learn to get started! If you are already on a health journey, come share your success-what works or doesn’t work for you, if you need inspiration, come join me, if you need encouragement or want to encourage others, come join me! We will get this going together!

So, please come join me! My fitness account on Instagram is right here: IG Account

If you have any questions or comments you can DM me on my IG account or you can just drop them in the comments below! I am so extremely excited to start this journey with you all. God bless!