A year and a half ago I summed my life up in three words: tired, weary, and exhausted. I was living with so much chronic pain in the way of muscle tension and headaches. I would find mild relief with chiropractic adjustments, and physiotherapy treatments, but I was stumbling through my days with Advil, coffee, simple carbs, not enough sleep, and wondering why I felt so awful.
It was time to get down to the roots of my problems. My pain boiled down to a lack of physical strength and vitality. I could do a lot of things to manage my pain, but it didn’t go away because I wasn’t dealing with the underlying issue of my body being weak and poorly fed. I could not keep doing what I was doing and simply hope for better results. I reached a crossroads. I’d had it with feeling sick and tired all the time.
So I did something about it.
I started exercising and paying attention to the food I was eating. Really revolutionary, right? It is amazing how quickly things started the change. I started exercising for 30 minutes a day, eating well, drinking copious amounts of water, and my quality of life skyrocketed. My aches and pains turned into good aches from my body actually doing something, my headaches disappeared, I had more energy, and I dropped over 10 lbs. It’s also a plus that I stopped popping Vitamin I (Ibuprofen) every 4-6 hours.
People sometimes wonder how I manage to exercise everyday. We’re a single income family homeschooling 4 kids: I don’t have time or money to go to a gym. I work out in my living room while my kids are banished to their rooms for 30 minutes so that I can get a workout in for the day. Working out gives me strength and endurance to keep up with my kids, clears out my mental cobwebs, balances my emotions. Everyone’s quality of life is improved because Mommy forced herself to push play and get things done.
Eating well is really not that complicated. Less junk, more veggies. Less bread, more protein. Carbs are not my enemy, but they are not the only thing I eat!
It comes down to the fact that I was not glorifying God in the way that I was treating my body. I was selfish and short-sighted when I would fuel my body with caffeine and sugar, and make excuses for why getting up and moving was too hard.
Is it hard? Yes. And it’s worth it.