How To Achieve Lasting Health

Photo By: Andrew Rizer | @andrewrizer

There seem to be a million and one reasons you can’t lose weight. When the fact is there are probably just a couple. I will name three and talk about just one in this post as we uncover why you can’t achieve lasting health.

Here they are; you’re stressed, you’re believing false information and you lack purpose.

Maybe all three of them go together and we can just bundle everything into saying you’re stressed? We know all too well that the false health information we’re bombarded with daily certainly isn’t helping either.

The reality is that almost everyone desires to lose some weight, whether a little or a lot. I can assure you that lasting weight loss will never be found in the diets and gimmicks of the world but a new view of health.

what does health mean?

We would all probably define health in a similar and yet different way. If we define it as how we’ve been taught it would be; a person’s mental or physical condition. Ultimately to weigh a certain number on the scale without any health ailments, pain or disease.

If we actually look at the definition of health it means, “a state of being free.”

So let me ask you, what version of health are you chasing? Because this changes everything.

free health

I can’t get beyond the word free because so few of us are experiencing health in that way. Instead, we’re living trapped in our health goals and the remedies that promise to help us meet them. We’re living stuck in the worldly view of health when there is a much greater version of health. A version worth living for.

Before we dig into this, and partly because I’m a sucker for word meanings, lets define the word “free”. Here are the different definitions of what it means to be free:

“not under the control or in the power of another; able to act or be done as one wishes.”

“not physically restrained, obstructed or fixed; unimpeded.”

“without cost or payment.”

“released from captivity, confinement, or slavery.”

I hope this begins to give you a different perspective of health. One that looks much different from health as we know it today.

health today

If we’re honest with ourselves we can see that health today is anything but freeing. Health today comes in the form of slavery to the next diet plan making you restrict calories all in hope of great results. We get stuck in bondage to measuring, weighing and counting. Stuck in captivity of your own lack of confidence and love for the body you wish to change.

The meaning of health today makes us a slave to fear, to envy, to restriction, starvation and deprivation. It makes us bitter, confused, angry and depressed. It is the opposite of free because it comes at a great cost.

In fact, for some it can cost you everything, including your marriage, your relationship with your friends and family, and countless thousands of dollars. Health today is anything but free.

health gone wrong

If we really start to step into the actual definition of health, one that is free in all definitions of the word we can see how terribly wrong the way to health has become. A complex, confusing mix of systems that are all against each other and yet still proclaiming to be “your” answer.

It’s not, it never was, nor will be the answer you need.

Free health is different than your mother’s diet plan, because your mother’s diet plan was caught up in rules, in a numbers mentality, in a state of hopelessness and yet necessity. Your mother’s diet plan puts your health in a bubble that external appearance is more important than internal functioning.

Health is portrayed as a number on the scale, the size of your jeans, and it all gets broken down into two categories, diet and exercise. The true and lasting health you should be seeking is not this at all.

True foundational health is about passion, purpose, joy, happiness and embracing each one of these in their true form.

confused?

Nutrition is confusing and understanding health seems like a near impossible feat, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s not supposed to be difficult, instead health is supposed to be the very freedom that provides the necessities for us to not just survive but thrive. To freely live. This is the foundational health that comes naturally and easily and with purpose and passion. It is something you desire and not something that holds you captive.

Health does not run your life but it allows you to run in the direction of life.

This could be the most critical question to ponder. A question that could change your health for the rest of your life.

Are you chasing free health or worldly health?

foundational health

Foundational health is creating the firm foundation built deep in the love of God. Through that foundation you have a greater sense of purpose, passion and hope has a whole new definition. Without this foundation, all of the pillars of health will crumble.

The foundation of health is the upmost important thing. It is the belief in a Savior who made you perfect in love. A Savior who paid the price so that we could gain free grace. The one who made you perfectly complete in His image, without fault or blemish.

The most critical component of health is not having the perfect formula or reaching a certain number on the scale, it is about knowing whose you are so you can do abundantly more than you ever imagined in health.

perfectly flawed

The world has a way of making us believe there is something wrong with us, by giving everyone a label based on their created flaws. We buy into this standard of beauty and through that it has become a tool of power to make us believe that we aren’t enough. In order to become enough you have to become a slave to yourself, to your diet and exercise program and be held captive in order to achieve happiness, joy, and satisfaction.

My friend, I beg you to know that you will never find satisfaction in being a certain size. You will not find lasting health in being a slave to your diet. This only results in deep rooted, self-inflicted hurt that can shred your heart into pieces.

Lasting health comes from accepting the love of a Savior. The perfect one, who did no wrong and yet died on the cross to take away our punishment so we could experience lasting freedom.

You were made perfect in His image.

Perfect, without flaw, absolute and complete in Him.

The secret to lasting health will never be someone telling you to eat this and not that, or to exercise more and work harder.

The secret to lasting health is accepting the Love of the Jesus and only through Him can we be made right. Through Him we are forgiven, we can be washed clean and we can be made whole.

the easy solution

The easy solution is to understand the love of our Savior. To accept that love, let it overflow through you and through that love on yourself. This is not to inflict harm, but to be set free, to change your outlook and live for something greater.

Your mission in life is not to achieve health. You weren’t called to work for the very thing giving you life. Health is meant to be free, and is not something we take a chance on. Health is not something we live for but health allows us to live.

Do you see the difference?

Health was perfectly designed in all of us. Health is the vehicle to help us live for something greater. To follow the call of God and allow us to do infinitely more without fear. You were made perfect, complete and whole, without flaws, designed intricately and beautifully to do good in the world.

This world doesn’t need more people chasing health, this world needs more people stepping into free health so we can start chasing the good we’ve been put on this earth to live.

Living for worldly health comes with a big price. Health was born in you, to make you free, fully able to accept love and give love so you can go and do. Now all you have to do is look up. Get your mind out of worldly health and spend time finding that passion for something more. Knowing that in that passion you’ll crave lasting health because that is the vehicle to do more.

Don’t limit yourself by your diet plan, there is something so much greater. This world needs your beauty, right now, just as you are. Look up.