Combining Faith and Fitness
Did you know that faith can be the missing link in your journey to become fit and healthy?
Nurturing your relationship with God and including Him on your wellness journey can truly transform your lifestyle. Instead of keeping Him separate, you can thrive and finally see result that last by combining your faith and fitness into one beautiful journey under His grace.
Keep reading to find out how you can intertwine possibly the two most important aspects of your overall wellness below!
What Is Faith-Based Fitness?
Faith-based fitness means including God in all aspects of your life and not segmenting Him into specific areas. Not only does this make it more likely you’ll succeed in your health efforts, but research shows a strong connection between spirituality and wellness. Our body, mind, and spirit are all interconnected, each one affecting the other. Your Faith provides meaning, hope, comfort, and best of all, inner peace, whereas your physical health matters just as much, offering crucial life needs such as energy, an effective metabolism, disease prevention, and chemical balances both in your body and your mind. In a way, your fitness plan is a spiritual practice.
What Fitness Does For Your Faith: Body and Soul
Community-Building
One of the greatest benefits of intertwining your Faith with your fitness is finding others who hold the same beliefs and deepening those bonds within your community. This works to the advantage of everyone, providing cheerleaders and supporters to make your goals all that more achievable. You’ll find new relationships and build strong, faith-based social groups that will help you to dig deeper than you ever thought possible - and when you still think you can’t go any further, you can reach out to God for that last push.
Faith, Fitness, and Discipline
A huge factor in fitness is discipline. Discipline can be an unpopular word, but in this case, it boils down to doing what is best in favor of what is easy. Discipline can look like:
Harnessing the strength of will to go to the gym and follow through with your workouts even if it’s easier to press snooze
Having the strength of resolve to overcome these temptations that aren’t in the interest of your best health
Nurturing a sense of control over your mind, so you’re able to be grateful and positive when faced with challenges.
This strength of will has an innate propensity to overflow into other areas of your life through the connection of mind, body, and spirit. Specifically, those who are disciplined physically tend to be disciplined mentally, as well as financially and spiritually, and vice-versa.
So, when you actively work at combining faith and fitness, you grow beyond physical strength. You also fortify your spiritual strength, loving God not just through your words or prayer but through the valuing and caretaking of the body you were given by Him.
As it reads in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”
Increased Energy and Focus
There are many benefits of physical exercise and keeping up your general wellness, one of which is decreased levels of fatigue. Exercise enables your levels of energy and focus to increase, greatly expanding your ability to do more things for the continued nourishing of your relationship with God. This could be taking more time to read your favorite excerpts from the Bible, increasing your daily allotted quiet time for worshiping, or participating in more community service activities as helping others refreshes the soul. When you have the time and energy for these practices you strengthen your relationship with Him and in turn, He helps you to better cope with illness, stress, the passing of loved ones, and much more. When you’re energized, you can more boldly walk your purpose and be a light to those around you.
What Faith Does For Your Fitness: Soul and Body
Faith fuels and nurtures your fitness just as much as fitness nourishes your faith.
Keep reading to find out how!
Faith Inspires and Motivates
“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint” Isaiah 40:31
One of the most common reasons fitness journeys fail is a lack of sufficient motivation or inspiration. A successful wellness program requires more than just extrinsic factors to be sustainable, but intrinsic values to fuel your journey. In other words, a sense of purpose and autonomy helps you make a meaningful difference under the right foundation. This means finding inspiration beyond human or physical pursuits, like looking a certain way in a bikini, and instead, turning inward and finding motivation through your relationship with God. When you dig deep and speak to Him through your struggles or fitness slumps, you’re reminded of what's important, and this motivation is not the kind that is fleeting (which often leads to failure).
Using Faith To Conquer Yourself
Most of the time, our worst enemy is ourselves. Failure is a natural part of any fitness journey no matter how much willpower or strength you have, but our instinct is to struggle against it. Instead of instantly tearing yourself down, take the time to pause, listen, and open your ears to your true self, to others, and to the voice of God. Combining faith and fitness means facing your fears and facing yourself by looking inward and honestly at your shortcomings with compassion, understanding, and His grace. Faith has an amazing capacity to help lessen your ego, heighten your awareness, and expand your sense of non-judgment, both towards yourself and others. Take that and use it when going about your fitness journey and you’ll find yourself succeeding more and more every day.
Let Faith Be Your Foundation
Faith reminds us that wellness goes beyond outward appearances. Using fitness and faith together, wellness means being able to express the innate and natural qualities we all have such as grace, power, joy, courage, harmony, and strength. It means using the combination of the two to create a supportive community, fuel self-actualization, and emphasize a sense of purpose, all for the ongoing success of your fitness journey.
How the FASTer Way is Combining Faith and Fitness
Taking steps to combine your faith and fitness into one beautiful journey filled with grace and wellness doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, it can be downright easy and oh-so satisfying.
Keep reading to find out how we do it at the FASTer Way, in our brand new Faith and Fitness round starting February 27. We’re pairing our proven fat loss transformation strategies with a faith-centered approach, and you’re invited. Here’s a glimpse at what you can expect (on top of everything included in our regular program!) in this revolutionary round:
1. Daily Devotionals
Some days are harder than others, some workouts require an extra push, and if you can’t get it from your community or it’s simply not enough…you always have Him to lean on! We provide daily devotionals so that on days you feel like giving up or you’re feeling uninspired, God can supercharge your fitness and provide you with the strength you need. Even when you feel as motivated as ever, you can use these faith-based inspirational quotes for a little something extra in your wellness journey.
2. Weekly Fellowship Groups
Combining faith and fitness through the FASTer Way allows you to connect with like-minded individuals who share similar goals and beliefs. Having these types of relationships is a great tool for keeping yourself on track and accountable, especially in times of struggle. These groups provide much-needed connection and reflection. This faith-based discussion will help you thrive on your journey to strengthen yourself physically and spiritually.
3. Biblical Nutrition
Wellness goes beyond workouts and how much you're able to sweat in one session. As it says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”. We help our clients give the body the fuel it needs so you can honor your physical being to the highest extent. According to God, your body is a temple and it's time to treat it as such!
Through the Biblical practices of fasting and whole foods, we’ll bring your health full circle.
Join The FASTer Way Faith and Fitness Round Today!
Ready to join a fitness program that engages ALL parts of your life and your body?
At the FASTer Way, we believe Faith is as much a part of your wellness as the foods you eat or the workouts you do. To be physically fit you must also be mentally and spiritually fit, and vice versa. So instead of isolating God to only certain parts of your life, bring Him on your wellness journey with you so your health can rise!
Join our Faith and Fitness Round today using code FAITH for $25 off, and experience the power of combining worship with wellness! We begin February 27!
*Not interested in faith-based programming? No problem! We’ll serve up the same nop-notch support and strategies that lead the way in fat loss transformation.