Ok, we have all done it..thought some ridiculous diet would help us lose weight and KEEP IT OFF or had crazy ideas about how we should exercise. I am not sure where these crazy ideas come from or why they become ingrained in our brains, but it seems during each stage of life there is a new way of thinking about how weight loss and getting fit should be done. We have all fallen subject to them. I have had my own crazy diet and views of exercise over the past 25 years.
Starving Myself
My earliest memory of these, unknown to my mother, was in the 10th grade. After gaining quite a bit of weight one summer while moving to a new town, I thought the only way to lose weight was to restrict my calories. My mother sent me off to school with lunch money only to spend it on a pack of crackers and a diet coke from the vending machine, all equaling about 150 calories of nothing nutritious.
I later recall hearing and feeling my stomach growl continuously while practicing piano in the afternoon and staring at the clock wondering when we would eat dinner. Of course my mother was so proud that I inhaled everything that was on the table and saved no leftover’s…but I was famished!
What I Thought About Exercise
As a Kinesiology major in college I taught “aerobics” (as it was called back then). But my one fitness ambition was to be a runner. It did not come easy for me, but I was determined to accomplish it. I remember attempting to go for a run the fall before turning 21 years old and thinking, “If I don’t condition myself to run a whole mile straight before my birthday, I will never get it. I will be getting too old.” Ha! (Did you laugh out loud reading that as I did?) How crazy was it to think I would never be able to get in shape at an “older” age. Today, at age 42 I think I could run circles around that young 21 year old girl.
My Point
To truly learn how to have a healthy lifestyle, we have to develop a healthy mindset. Romans 12:2 says,
Do not conform to the things of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your MIND so that the perfect will of God may be done.
When we start my praying for God to transform our mind, we may have a new view of how we should eat and exercise to take care of them body He has given us. And perhaps learn what good nutrition is and break the perceptions we have of exercise and view of self.
With the right mindset and healthy way of living, I am happy to say I no longer follow a crazy diet and view of exercise. I am curious: what is the craziest thing you have ever done and how have things changed for you? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
In Good Health,
Crystal
