Hello Racers: Be Responsible For Your Body

Our bodies our temples, take care of it.

We each only know our own body. We know how much sleep we need, we know how
much exercise we need, we know the portion sizes we should eat, and the foods
that don’t sit right for us; so I can
really only speak from what I know of myself, but I feel that this applies to
us all.

It’s truth about the race, that often we have little space to
exercise, when you are with a contact (hello Africa) often there is no other
choice but rice and potatoes, and then more carbohydrates; each carb ready to
make you sluggish and want to take a nap rather then play with the children.

In the beginning of the race, I gave up all hopes to stay
healthy. It was an expectation that was realistic, but on the flip side has the
potential to cause and has caused laziness in taking care of ones body, or as
God calls it, our temple, His temple.

My contact in Israel asked me when my best time with the
Lord was. I told him that it was after a good hard run.  I often felt guilty that I couldn’t
concentrate on my time with Jesus if I hadn’t exercised or ate healthy foods in
a while; but then I realized, that taking care of my body to its fullest
potential was a way to take care of His temple, often drawing me to hear the
Lord more clearly. It makes sense. It is all relative, for me it is a 6 mile
run, or for a 90 year old it might be a walk of 15 feet. You get it.

Back to the point…..

Laziness. I have realized
from being on the race, that we DO have more control over our health then we
believe, and I think deep down we all know that. Back home, there is no excuse
but to use self-discipline and get on the running trail or treadmill. Expecting
the race to take most hopes of health away, we CAN and tend to use that as an
excuse to not be self-disciplined.

Obviously there is a limit, as one needs to get used to the
heat shock of Asia, but RACERS, we have more control than we think and as I
mentioned, we know it.

PLEASE.

Shower when you can, floss your teeth (that’s for me), buy
EVERY good smelling soap type product you can find, (ok, not everything like my
husband does), exercise if that’s what you do back home even if you only have
room for pushups and yoga moves, do not stay up on the computer till three in the
morning and then say your too tired for ministry the next day. SLEEP. GET YOUR SLEEP.  (ok, sleep is hard with constant African noise, but you can try) You
CAN find fruit at markets and eat veggies if you are not stuck with planned
meals by contacts.

We can lose energy by not taking care of ourselves, energy
that we could have been used for good.

So let’s not use the World Race as an excuse to not use our
will power and self discipline. Let’s take care of our bodies to each
individual health potential. It’s not about staying ‘thin’ but about staying healthy.
 

We are temples and representations of our Lord and Savior. No
more excuses. There is PLENTY of time on the race to exercise and many
opportunities to eat foreign fruit and veggies along the way. If you go to
Vietnam there are free workouts in the park. It is really fun. =) =) So have
fun with it. It’s possible. We have a few that have missed only few days of a
hardcore workout this year.  You could
miss great opportunities like working out at an Olympic stadium for free in Cambodia, which
I get to do with my brother Tres tomorrow morning. So excited.

God says if he trusts us with little he will trust us with
much. The one thing that he has trusted each and every one of us with is our
own bodies. So show him he can trust you with your body, take responsibility,
and take care of it.