Fitness - The Hard "F"

In my previous blogs I have focused on Faith, Family and Fun so I guess it's time to highlight my other "F" word, Fitness. I know, this conjures up all kind of boot camp and drill sargent images in your head and that is why I like to refer more to wellness than to fitness. Fitness is about being strong and flexible enough to enjoy moving around and doing active things that you enjoy. Trouble is, if you are not fit you can't enjoy these activities so you quit doing them.

I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't enjoy moving. From the time I was a little girl jumping rope, skating, riding bikes or hula hooping I have enjoyed moving. I marched in the band from the fourth grade until I graduated. I enjoyed playing ball and swimming with my boys when they were little and I have always loved to dance. The trouble with dance is that it works better with a partner and since my life long partner has absolutely no rhythm I haven't got to dance a lot since I married. That's where aerobics enters my life.

In the late 70's "aerobics' entered my world. The local YMCA started a class and I joined it out of curiosity and I was hooked. I think the reason I took to it so much was my love for dance and no outlet for this passion. Whatever the reason I absolutely loved it.

In the early 80's the youth pastor at my church and I begin to be aware of exercise classes being held in other churches and we talked a lot about having an aerobics class at our church. He wanted me to teach it but at that particular time I was more interested in making sure that the class stayed Christ centered and I wanted to be in charge of devotional times in the class. We recruited another member of our church to be the aerobics teacher and I focused on the devotions. I really enjoyed our classes. After a couple of years the girl who taught couldn't do it anymore because of other commitments and by that time I was ready to teach and do devotions too. Some 25 years later I am still teaching and still loving it!

I love motivating people to exercise and after they have made it a way of life I am thrilled to see them loving it too! The students in my classes motivate me as well. There are days when I think I'm too tired to go and when I get there, begin to teach and see their smiling faces I get energized and forget that I am tired.

Being tired is a huge obstacle to exercising regularly. It is easy to give in and sit in the recliner or doze on the couch. But, I have learned that if you push past this feeling and do some sort of exercise you will feel like exercising some more. Walking is a wonderful example. If you feel tired after work and you make yourself take a "little" walk you will usually find that it turns out to be a bigger walk than you had planned because your energy will increase after your first few minutes. If you are a sedentary person I would like to encourage you to find an exercise that you like (I know there are some of you who say there is NO exercise you like) and begin to do it a little at a time. Don't set your goal too high to begin with. Just try to enjoy doing it and the feeling you get afterward. I will talk more about different types of exercise in another blog, but for now I would love for you to focus on a movement you like to do and just try doing it for 10 or 15 minutes at least three times a week. You can gradually build intensity and duration, but for now start slow. You don't want to get too sore or hurt something because then you won't want to do it again. And it really helps to find a friend to exercise with. It's a lot more fun and you can motivate each other!

In many of my devotional times with my classes I have shared this:

The Bible says that God created everything but that He wasn't completely satisfied until he created humans. After creating us, He was VERY pleased, more so than with his other creations. Now, if God was so pleased with us, shouldn't that make us want to take really good care of His treasured creation? I feel that taking good care of ourselves is the best way to honor our creator God. As Christians, I feel it is wrong to neglect and abuse our bodies.

We live in a world where fitness has turned in to the "perfect 10" look. Fitness magazines seem to focus more on the perfect sculpted body and display it lewdly instead of encouraging people to accept their own bodies as God has created them and doing their very best with what they have. We don't need to look at fitness the way the world views it but rather by the way God views it.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says it well:

"Do you not know that your body is a temple 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 body."

Until next blog, work on improving your Fitness, involve your Family if you can, have Fun doing it, and most of all keep your Faith strong!

Love in Christ!
Frances