“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live” – Jim Rohn
Whenever I see this quote, I see the word body and it means so much more than just the simple physical definition of “body”. It reminds me how important it is to truly take care of my body physically, mentally, and spiritually. When we can allow ourselves to take care of our physical health, our mental health and spiritual health will thrive because the three coordinate with each other.
There have been times in my life when I have been very healthy physically and there have also been times when I have been very unhealthy as well.
One thing I have noticed is every time I have been unhealthy, my mental and spiritual self took a major hit and it felt like God was a million miles away. In addition, every time I have been in great shape physically I have felt and heard God as if He was sitting next to me in a coffee shop.
Let me take you back to times in my life for each…
When I was a teenager, my physical self was in the worst shape and it reflected in my life mentally and spiritually. Midway through high school I began to gain lots of weight and I topped out at being 252 lbs. Now even though I was 6’2 at the time and had some room to spread out that weight, it was still very unhealthy. In fact, I actually was categorized as pre-diabetic by a doctor. If I didn’t get my act together quick, I could have been a diabetic for the rest of my life.
During that time of my life I was under a lot of stress just like many teenagers are with high school. Academics were very difficult for me attending a college prep school and I also desperately wanted to play collegiate golf. So playing great golf was mandatory if I wanted to be recruited. In addition to all of the school work and athletics, I began to develop a very low self-esteem because my heavy appearance.
I wasn’t in a healthy physical condition and it began to ware on me mentally and spiritually. I started to see myself as worthless because of how I looked and felt in my own body. My mental self began to allow things into my mind that I never wanted to ever be a part of me. Deep depression began to settle and create a home in my mind so much so that it came to a point where suicide seemed like the only option.
Now, only by the grace of God did I never actually attempt suicide all those years ago, but the thoughts would constantly swirl though my head. While these thoughts were revolving, it was nearly impossible to hear God’s voice at all because of my mental state of mind, and my mental state of mind was the cause of my physical self.
Since then, I now only LOVE who I am and I LOVE who God created me to be. I truly LOVE the personality He gave me and I LOVE all that life has to offer. Since then I have lost over 70 lbs. I’m now 6’4 and weigh 179 lbs, but more importantly I’m blessed to still give my “yes” to God & life as a whole everyday.
So overall, my life showed a domino effect when I was depressed. My physical self led to my mental & spiritual state of mind.
Later on in life towards the end of college and also after graduating, I did not treat my body as a temple again. I chose alcohol, sex, and partying over living a life for Christ and it took a huge hit on my body. The heavy alcohol use on my body clouded my mind and I could never make any decisions with a healthy mindset which in return made my spiritual life basically nonexistent.
Physically speaking, I gained some weight too because beer usually does that to you, especially in excess amounts that I was drinking at. My liver also was taking a pounding and I’m sure I was close to alcohol poisoning multiple times in those moments of my life.
I wasn’t sober minded which allowed me to make terrible decisions mentally. The not so good decisions I would make while being intoxicated would drag me further and further from God into a place I never once thought I’d ever go in life. I thought I had done so many things without a sober mind that a relationship with God wasn’t even possible to salvage anymore.
Waking up on the floor after crazy nights wasn’t fun anymore. Waking up in other people’s beds began to take a heavy toll on my identity, physically, mentally and spiritually. The good news is our Father loves us so much that He’ll constantly pursue us and our hearts to come back to Him no matter the health of our lives. I’m so thankful He never gave up on me because He has allowed me to revive my physical, mental and spiritual health.
God never giving up on me and He has given me the strength to be 170 days sober today! This is something I never would’ve thought was possible in years past, but it is a huge part of respecting my body. If I can’t be sober minded, then I will not be respecting my body, my faith, or my brothers & sisters in Christ who walk along side me everyday.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8
One common theme I have noticed in my life is that the times I have been closest to God and when I have been able to hear His voice in my spirit the clearest has been when I’m at my physical best. I truly believe that when I treat my physical body with respect, it trickles down into every aspect of my life.
Now I also think that treating your body as a temple has different definitions for everyone because not everyone is the same. For some people, treating your body as temple means exercising and for others it means eating the correct foods. Others may have different cool ways of treating their bodies as temples. Whatever it may look like, it is imperative to find what works best for you to respect your body physically because I can guarantee you that it will open your eyes & your heart mentally and spiritually.
Living life on The World Race has been a challenge to treat my body as temple physically because of the constant changes in our surroundings. Sometimes we are in a downtown setting and other times we are in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes we are lucky to have grocery stores near our ministry sites so we can choose what we can eat and other times we are at the mercy of unhealthy street foods.
The Race has also been challenging not just with our diets, but also with working out. For the first 3 1/2 months, I struggled to find a routine for working out and dieting because I was still fully adjusting to living a life away from the United States. I had been so used to having a gym and being able to eat anything I wanted, whenever I wanted it because I had a job and bank account. NOT ANYMORE!
I had zero drive in being able to work out or care about my diet because I was so mentally and physically drained from ministry. I was getting tired from even just average days in India at the time and in all honesty I was beginning to a have a tiny burnout, but all of a sudden there was change in my mindset.
I realized that for me, I was tired and getting burnt out because I had lost my routine of not being physically healthy. This in return led to me not always being mentally present and also feeling spiritually dry. Now I know it may seem odd, that I have felt spiritually dry on The Race, but I believe personally that I felt distant from God because I wasn’t physically in shape.
Now, not all of us are the same and people can definitely have amazing, rock solid relationships with Christ without working out, but for me my spiritual life trickles down from how I am physically and mentally.
So I began to incorporate a physical routine into my life and it in return has led to me receiving a lot of spiritual fruit from God over the last 2 1/2 months. My routine has consisted of me working out five to six days a week, usually working out in the early mornings before my day gets started. Recently I have been blessed to have had actual gyms in close vicinity to me, but most of the time I use what I have for working out.
I use my exercise band for simple arm & back workouts and also for stretching. I have also made cardio a huge aspect by making sure I run multiple miles everyday I workout. Also, recently I have downloaded a cardio training app onto my phone to track my progress of my goal towards running in my first marathon in 2017.
As far as my diet is concerned I have done my best to try and control what I put into my body when I’m overseas. It’s very difficult to do because many of the countries we have been to have carbohydrates as the main focus of their diet. Sometimes protein is there and sometimes it is not.
Fruit has made a strong presence in most of the countries we have been to also, but the strongest presence out of all the food groups has probably been sugar & sweets. There seriously hasn’t been a country that hasn’t sold Coca-Cola, Oreos, or most American brand candy bars. It’s very odd that no matter where we have gone that Coke, Oreos and Snickers have followed me everywhere. But at the same time, it’s also a testament to those companies for being able to market themselves all over the world.
It is so easy to eat fried street food as my three meals a day and eat one or five Snickers a day, but I want to treat my body as temple. If it was up to me I’d eat whatever I want most days of The Race because that is definitely a comfort of mine. If I ever have a bad day, it’s easy to resort to eating a Twix to make self think, “I’ll feel better if I eat this”.
In reality, I’m better off not eating a Twix, but rather a piece of fruit instead. I’m better off not eating every meal of my day from the fried street food, but rather eating cooked meals in control. If I have the luxury of controlling my diet in these countries, I’ll usually have my meals look as such:
Breakfast: 2 eggs / cereal (muesli) / fruit / protein shake (workout pending)
Lunch: Some form of meat sandwich (street food) / greek yogurt
Dinner: Peanut Butter / 1 egg / small portion of meat
This is my ideal list of treating my body as my temple while I’m on The Race. I usually eat a large breakfast, a moderate size lunch and small dinner. I do this along side with my working out on The Race for two reasons.
First, developing a routine is important to me because getting into a healthy routine now will make it a million times easier to keep the healthy routine when I get back to the United States. Secondly and most importantly, I’m doing this because a physically healthy Alex leads to a mentally and spiritually healthy Alex.
Let’s get one thing clear here though, I’M NOT PERFECT! There are days that I stray away from the path and I’ll have a Twix or some form of dessert because let’s be honest, I’ve probably put at least 2 kids of someone who works for that company through college with how much money I’ve spent on that candy bar in my life, but it’s not part of my routine. It is a once in a while item for me.
There are also times in my life when I’m going to have bad days because that’s just a fact of life. Living life in a healthy manner though will open up your eyes more consistently.
I found that I’m able to hear God in my heart the most clear when I’m physically fit. I have found that being physically sound leaves my mental mindset full of clarity, which in the end leaves me spiritually full of peace & serenity.
Some people have asked me, “why am I doing this stuff on The Race?”. For me it’s much more than simply working out or trying to eat the better foods. It means respecting my body as temple because the body that was given to me was given to me by the Father. It is the only body I will ever have and for the time that I am given on this earth I’m going to give it the utmost respect.
“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself.” 1 Corinthians 6:19
I don’t regret anything I have done in my past because God used these things to make me into the person I am today. God taught me what it means to truly treat my body with respect and how it correlates to my mental & spiritual health.
I truly don’t belong to myself because Christ created all who I am. He created my being and said that I’m perfect in His eyes. He created me to love myself for who I am. He created me to not abuse my temple that He has given me, but rather respect it to the utmost highest abilities. He created me to bring His Kingdom to earth, but there will a day when He’ll call me home because I don’t belong to this world. I belong to Him!
I understand that we are all human beings which means that we are all wired differently. What works for some people may not work for others. We are all from different cultures and different walks of life. Our physical selves are drastically different from one another as are our spiritual selves.
I encourage all of you that no matter where you are in life whether you have a strong relationship with Christ or you don’t believe in Him at all, to respect your body as temple because I believe your life will be able to flourish and that sky is the limit for you when you do. I encourage you all to push yourselves towards physical health because the rest of your life will positively play out because of your love towards yourself.
