Changing the trajectory of your health is no small feat. It’s a challenge for many no matter their ethnic background, socioeconomic status, gender, and level of success in life. Many feel like there’s a disconnect when it comes to health. Like taking back control of your health seems to be that one thing you can’t conquer. But this one phrase will fix everything: “Renew your mind to transform your health.”
I’m approached by people all the time who tell me all of the “things” they are doing to lose weight and get healthy. They are told by the health Industry that if they just eat better and work out everything will be better. If they would just eat their meal plan or buy their supplements they can get the results they so desperately want. But most people just treat the symptoms of health, not the root cause.
When I was younger I HATED pulling weeds. My mom would always make sure that every weed I pulled up was by the root, or else it would grow back and the work I had done would be for nothing. The same is true for health. If we don’t get to the root cause and fix our thinking, our actions and thoughts will never be in alignment.
Transformation comes by the renewing of the mind. Short-term results can be attained by short-term behavior modification. Long-term transformation can only be attained by renewing our minds and thinking rightly about why we need to be healthy in the first place. We don’t have a problem in America with weight loss, that’s the easier part for most. We have a problem with keeping the weight off. It’s because we are not thinking rightly about health. Our actions reflect our thinking.
The right attitude always precedes the right actions -Craig Groeschel. But Ashton, what is the right attitude we need to have with our health? What’s the magic formula? There isn’t one. But here are a few frameworks for you:
• Motivation
Why you do something is just as important as what you do. You can fast, eat healthily, or work out for good reasons, or we can do those “good things” for the wrong reasons and it becomes unhealthy. Ask yourself why you really want to be healthy. Do you want to work out just to burn off what you ate last night or so you won’t have the guilt of what we will eat this weekend? Do you want to lose weight because you want others to think you look good at the beach? Or do you want to be healthy so you can steward the body God has given you as best you can?
• Others Focused
There is one common theme I’ve found in harmful mindsets people have. They are all inwardly focused. They are all about yourself instead of how you can be available and able to serve and bless others better. Even people who are “super fit” can have an unhealthy approach to health. They become a slave to their health instead of it serving them. They become so consumed with all of the right or wrong things to do in healthy that they never lift their eyes to others around them. Our health should be about how we can serve others better. How we can encourage others and lift them up.
Be encouraged today. You have the ability to change your way of thinking when it comes to your health. Once you change your thinking, your actions will flow seamlessly from there. Renew your mind to transform your health.
Ashton Tate is the founder of Glory to Glory Fitness in Nashville, TN. They help companies, schools, and individuals have the energy they need to thrive through biblically-based resources and programs.
