Cake or Kale?

Lessons from My Skinny Friends

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, wo is in you, whome you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
I Corinthians 6:19

Finding "Balance" with food has always been a struggle for me since the day we got married. We joined our first gym when I was 23 in Cleveland Ohio. I have tried all the diets; Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, Slim Fast, Vitamin B12, Dr. Death as my friends call her; no carbs, sugars or fats, 1200 calories a day, not eating at all. I take off 20, put on 10, back and forth like a yo yo. Simply put, I would much rather have cake than Kale...

It seems like I have trouble multi tasking. I can work on diet but not exercise or exercise not diet. There comes a time in your life when you can't do just one or the other, both are necessary. At first I blame high metabolism on my "skinny" friends wishing I could be just like them instead of being me. Donuts jump from the table to my thighs without even taking a bite, just by looking at them I gain weight.

When I sit back and analyze the habits of my dear thin friends though I see a little more clearly. They have what I and the majority of people don't have, "self control". Self control is the key words for any kind of discipline whether it is finances, diet, exercise, living "right" with God. They eat small portions, eating more fruits and vegetables than chocolate bars and chocolate cupcakes, or one cookie not 6. They eat a 1/2 of a sandwich instead of a sandwich that could feed two people. They work out and choose to include physical exercise in their daily routines...

I have a food scale and notes from previous dietary classes that I have been in. There are numerous blogs and websites for support. I have friends who are trainers and exercise physiologists who could help me lay out a plan and many lo-cal cookbooks. Simply put, my friends have found balance in their lives to do the things they know they should.

There is no excuse for me! I have a gym membership, access to fitness classes, mountains all around me that I could hike on, gorgeous weather that I could take a walk or run nine months out of the year, a great bike in the garage with miles of sidewalk that would take me miles away from my house. We have P90x loaded on two computers that I could exercise with on our big screen tv. It comes down to lack of desire, motivation and discipline. Age is not my friend or yours...It's easy to take it off when you are young, but after kids and many years, not so much!

So what is going to motivate me to get off my lazy butt and watch what goes into my mouth and get me off of the desk chair away from my computer??? My grandparents, that is what!!! How so, you may ask?
If you look at most of the generations before us, they didn't have the tools that we have to make educated choices. They didn't have lo carb, lo calorie, no fat options. Watching our grandparents and now our aging parents frightens me. Their quality of life and how they move is poor because of their weight and lack of physical movement. If I don't make different choices, I will end up in the same place.

Abundant living is self-control, doing the things that I know I should instead of making excuses for myself or just being lazy and doing something else that is easier. The God that I serve is a God of order. He made our bodies to be a certain size, for everyone that is different. Once you go past His limit for us there are consequences; diabetes, joint problems, digestive problems, heart issues.

Do you choose cake over Kale? What are the things you choose in your life to find balance in diet and exercise? What kind of quality of life do you want to have as you age? Do find that you have a lot of aches and pains because you are caring more weight on your body than you should have? How do you honor God with your eating and exercising habits?