3 Habits to Improve Your Health

I am learning a hard lesson. No matter where you are, unhealthy habits are easy to form. As a dad of three beautiful kids and an assistant pastor at an awesome church, I have learned that life can get really crazy really fast! And before I know it, I can form unhealthy habits in the rush of it all! 

Today, we discuss 3 simple habits that can improve your health and wellness so that you can serve the Lord to the best of your ability!

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I am learning a really hard lesson that no matter where you are in life, it's easy to build bad health habits. That's the subject today. Today, we're going to talk about three ways to improve your health and to steward your body in a Christ like gospel centered kind of way. Hey, guys. Welcome to the channel. It's Tyler. We talk faith, family and focus in your life and your leadership. And today we're talking about your health. And a lot of times we're a little bit hush hush about this topic, but I think we need to sit down and sometimes we need to look ourselves in the mirror and say, OK, what health habits have I formed that I need to get rid of because as I mentioned earlier, it's easy for us to build bad health habits, right? Bad health habits, like reaching for a sugary snack. And we could be grabbing something a little bit healthier or maybe not even eating breakfast that morning because it's rust and we didn't prepare the. Before or maybe even being glued to our iPhones because we're really stressed out about a project right this season in life, you're that you're in often times dictate to the kind of habits that you form, so we must be careful to steward our body in a way that glorifies Jesus Christ and build the habit that's going to help us better serve the Lord. In the future. Here, look what the Bible says in first Corinthians it says what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and you're not your own. For you're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are gods. Notice what the Holy Spirit says there, he says. Glorify God in your body. As well, will your body last forever? No one day. Praise the Lord. God's going to give us a glorified body, but until we get to. Until we get to heaven one day, we have this temporal body that God, just like our finances, our relationships, our marriage. God has called us to steward our body. So what kind of habits can we form to make it easy to serve the Lord? What kind of habits can we form to make sure we live our lives to the fullest that God intends? For us and steward our body into Christ like way, let me give you 3 I think the first habit that we can begin to form is to pray about what we eat, pray about what we eat. Now you're saying. OK, I know we pray for our food, but you're asking me to pray for what I eat. Yeah, I think this is a great habit to form if we're going to live a life that's prayerful that's walking with Christ, right, we ought to ask him the kind of decisions that we should make. We ought to consult him and say, Lord, Holy Spirit. Should I eat this right? I think that's a great place to start, because oftentimes what happens is we just give in to our desire. We want it. We go get it. We want that milkshake after work because we feel like we've earned it and we go. Get it? And oftentimes we let our flesh dictate while we put it in our mouth. We let our flesh and our desires dictate what we eat, but I believe a great habit to form if we want to improve our health as believers and ultimately improve our ability to share the gospel and to serve the Lord is to pray about what we eat. Literally. Sit down. Say Lord, is this OK for me to have? Is this OK for my diet? I'm not saying that you should never have treats, I'm just saying leave the choice up to the Lord. Look what the Bible says in first Corinthians. The Bible says whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God. And I think this speaks to a basic human desire. Here God is using the picture. Of eating and of drinking to teach us. Hey, doesn't matter if it's as mundane as just eating and drinking something you have to do to survive. Something that you do multiple times a day. If it's as menial as eating and drinking, do all to the glory of God. And I think this even speaks to what we put in our mouth and literally saying Lord. With this food, with what I'm eating, with what I'm drinking. Lord, am I please. Using you, am I letting my fleshly appetites win over the Holy Spirit within me? So I think a great habit of form is to pray about what we eat on the more practical side about what we eat. Here are just a few suggestions that you can keep in mind. Number one, taste your food before you salt it. Don't just reach for the salt. Baker. And before you've even tried your food. OK, try your food 1st and see if it needs a little salt that can help you. Obviously in the areas of cholesterol and all of those things. #2 pack your lunch once or twice a week instead of eating out. This is a great way not only to save money, but also to improve your health because there's a greater likelihood that once you pack at home. It's going to be less processed. It's going to have less sugars in it and different saturated. Fats, unsaturated fats, and so pack your lunch, pack your lunch maybe once or twice a week, and that may cut down on some of the fast food that we consume #3 I would say leave snacking to all the nuts out there and literally OK, nuts are absolutely wonderful source of protein. And calories for. For you. And although they're kind of high in unsaturated fats, they can serve as a great source of vitamin E and so I literally have a stash in my desk full of like almonds, cashews, nuts and stuff like that. And I want to snack on those versus grabbing that little fun size Snickers bar or grabbing something like that. Right. And those things are great. But obviously all of those sugars. My blood sugar doesn't need that. My body doesn't need that. And so having a healthier snack option is going to help me in the long run. And then the second habit that you can form is to get up and to get moving no matter what season you are in life, you ought to have some kind of game plan to move to move around. I've seen this time and time again where sometimes someone will retire or they'll get older and what happens? They stop moving, they stop having, and then all of a sudden. Well, I don't have any purpose. I don't. I feel like I'm making a difference in the world because we stopped moving and so no matter what season you are in life, I think a great habit to form is to get up and to get moving. Put the phone away, turn the TV off, get up and get moving. According to the CDC, they claim that depending on your age. The average person needs about 30 minutes of exercise each day, or 150 minutes each week. Now that sounds like a lot, but think with me for just a moment. When was the last time you spent 30 minutes on your phone? Right, 30 minutes on social media. In fact, the average American spends about 5 to 6 hours on their phone per day. That's up to 2500 minutes every week, and well over that 150 minutes needed to exercise. So think about that in just a moment. If we we have the time, OK, but we've got to make the time to get up. And to get moving here are just a few fun suggestions as far as getting up and getting moving when my favorites is to take a walk and to talk with. I absolutely love walking. I think walking is so healthy for you, it's healthy for your mind. It's engaging your mind. It's getting your heart rate up just a little bit. It's getting oxygen to your brain. You can. I can think clearly. I can talk to the Lord and that's one of the greatest times. Some of the greatest moments I've had with the Lord have just been taking a walk. Whether that's out in the woods or whether that's just. Around the where you work or where you live, get up and take a walk with the. Word another suggestion would be working out with a friend or with your spouse. Everything is more fun when you do it with someone else when. You have that accountability partner, someone to kind of push you through and say, hey, you got a couple more in, you got a couple more push-ups in you. Why don't you keep pushing through, right? Everyone needs that accountability. It helps us so very much. Synergy is real. Synergy is that thing, OK? And so we need that energy, that synergy of accountability partner and and and a friend to pull us along and say, OK, let's keep each other motivated. Let's push each other to do this and that's become such a great. Great. Source of. Uh, communication and justice. Quality time with my wife. It's just being able to workout with her and we're both stewarding our bodies for the purpose of that week. And then the last suggestion would be listen to a podcast, maybe while you're stretching out. I know something that my grandpa does. He is 83 now and unfortunately his health is starting to decline. He's always been someone as he's getting older, he always tries to do these different strange things and stretching. Things to make sure his muscles and his ligaments are still working, and he's always worked really hard on those kind of things, even if it's just pushing up against the table or a counter, or if it's stretching. Stretching does so much good for you. I do believe you need some cardio, you need to get that heart rate up, but at the same time stretching. Wonders for you because a lot of times what happens is people focus on the big muscles, right? The big muscles, your hamstrings, your biceps, your shoulders and all these things and they forget. Ohh well, all these little ligaments and. Tendons. It's those little things that oftentime are the first things to go or the first things to snap or get injured because we're neglecting those. So a great thing to do, maybe a suggestion to get up and get moving is maybe just take 15 minutes, 10 minutes and stretch out, maybe listen to some scripture or listen to. Your favorite podcast? Speaking of your favorite podcast, I have a podcast. This channel right here is the faith family and Focus podcast, and so I would love for you to listen. You can listen wherever you listen to podcast. Now let me give you that last and final way to improve your health. The last habit I think, is so essential to a form if we're going to improve our health is to rest our body and rest our mind. It is no doubt that our bodies need rest. We need to sleep right, and I love to sleep. OK, it's not hard for me. It's not hard for me. There's something about us. Roberts. Is that really we just love to sleep. OK. And you may be the same way, but understand this, OK? Your body needs rest. Yes, you are busy changing the world. Yes, you are doing great things. And I get that. But your body, your mind needs rest. According to the Mayo Clinic, the average person needs about seven or more hours of sleep each day. That is sweet music to my ears, right? Seven or more hours a day? How much sleep are you getting? How much are you resting your body and resting your mind? I mean, think about it for just a moment. God literally set aside a day for rest. Did God need rest after he created the worlds in six literal days? No, he didn't need the rest. But you know, on that 7th day he chose, he sanctified it. He bless. As a day of rest, as a day of Sabbath, and I think so often in our culture, we get so hurried. Literally. We get so restless in our hurry and our pursuit of more that oftentimes what happens is we've not learned to Sabbath. We've literally lost the art of having being able to sit down and rest. And focus our minds and our attentions on God Connect with him, and that's ultimately where our rest begins. Look what Jesus says in Matthew 11 come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Just take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus wants us to steward our health, for the glory of God, and this stewardship means rest is essential, both spiritually and. Basically, I'm all the big proponent of getting sleep and understand our. Mind needs rest. Our inner man needs to be refreshed. How is it refreshed through the word of God and through coming to Jesus, literally drawing closer to Christ. This is why a couple of years ago I wrote my book restless finding rest in a restless world because I found myself that even as a Christian, becoming so restless like I was doing. All the right things. I was serving the Lord. I was so busy doing all the good things, but yet I found myself restless. You know why? Because my body was doing the good thing. Things but my mind and heart were not as connected to God as they should be. See, here's the reality is that we can have the facade on the outside that we've got it all together, but on the inside we can be so restless. We lay down at night and we can't get our mind off of this project. Or we we lay down at night and we just have these restless thoughts of fear of doubt. Of umm. And restlessness can cripple you as a believer, and it can impact even your physical health, right? We all know this. Worry it it when you worry it literally affects your body, it affects your heart rate. It affects your mind and how cognitive you are and how sensitive you are to the things around you. And so having your inner man refreshed in Christ, having rest in your mind, in your heart, by coming to Jesus, taking his yoke upon you instead of the yoke of our own burden, the yoke of our own perfectionism, of our own pleasures. OK, we take the yoke of Jesus Christ. And we say, Lord, help me to be refreshed in you. And so there you have it. There's just three ways. Simple ways to improve your health, things that you could do literally right now in whatever season you are cause. Listen, there's someone on the other side of your obedience. There's someone on the other side of your stewardship and sometimes. Just gotta look ourselves in the mirror and say, hey, if I'm going to do this for Christ and I'm going to do this to the best of my ability, if I'm going to impact my grandchildren for the Lord, if I'm gonna impact my children and these people around me for the Lord Jesus Christ, it begins with stewarding every single part of my Christian life. And that includes my health.