When challenged, do we persist, adapt…give up? Guest Blog: Katherine Pasour

Honoring God with My Body by Katherine Pasour

This week I am honored to host a guest blog by Katherine Pasour. I know her through the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference. Katherine is a great writer who encourages others in their writing journeys. She recently published the book "Honoring God with My Body: Journey to Wellness and Healthy Lifestyle." I appreciate her desire to connect taking care of our bodies as a way to honor God, and am excited about her words. I pray her blog below will challenge you to find new ways to create healthy habits. I'm also doing a give-away of her book where I will have a drawing for any new subscribers to my blog. I will announce the winner on Tuesday, November 1, 2022. Enjoy her article!

I am blessed.
 
Two amazing little people call me Grammy and I have the privilege of caring for these wonderful gifts from God three days a week. Their mother usually has leftovers in the refrigerator for my lunch. Recently, she had a bowl of slaw covered with a stretchy lid and I dipped some out before attempting to put the cover back on the bowl.
 
After numerous attempts and much grumbling, I admitted complete lack of success. The plastic cover stretched over the bowl without too much difficulty. But after a second or two, the lid always popped off. After a dozen attempts, I accepted defeat.
 
My options?

• Persist—I could keep trying, even in the face of failure and frustration.
• Adapt—Try a different solution to the problem.
• Give up—Declare the task impossible, pour the remaining slaw into the trash, and stash the pesky cover in a secret hiding place—never to be seen again.

 
Life presents us with challenges on a daily basis. If we find a task extremely difficult, our options may be similar to what I faced with the bowl of slaw—Persist in trying only one way—Adapt our strategy and find a different way to complete the challenge—or decide the task isn’t worth doing and give up.
 
What about the challenge of making healthy lifestyle choices?
 
Below are five suggestions for your consideration. These actions can lead to a healthier lifestyle, but first an answer to the obvious question:
 
Why bother to seek a healthier lifestyle?
 
Achieving a healthy lifestyle, which includes daily physical activity and healthy nutrition, provides significant benefits:

• A stronger and healthier heart
• Stronger muscles and bones
• Reduced risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and some types of cancer
• Reduced risk of high blood pressure and cholesterol
• Helps maintain a healthy weight
• Strengthens immune system
• We live longer with a better quality of life

 
But achieving a healthy lifestyle isn’t always easy. We don’t always have the information we need to make healthy choices. Fast foods and unhealthy snacks tempt us. We may have a sedentary job and limited options for exercise opportunities. Perhaps we indulge in unhealthy eating habits that are difficult to eliminate.
 
So…let’s take a look at those suggestions for a healthier lifestyle.
 
Five actions for a healthier you:

1. Eat five serving of fruits and vegetable each day, prepared in a healthy way (i.e. eaten fresh whenever possible, not fried, avoid adding sugar or fat).
2. As much as possible, avoid fried foods, fast foods, and sweets. Sugar causes inflammation in many parts of our bodies. Fast food and fried foods are full of calories and sodium. Healthier choices for snacks? Fresh fruit, nuts (in small quantities) and fresh veggie sticks.
3. Drink more water and reduce consumption of sugary beverages.
4. Be sure to include fiber in your meals: whole grain bread or cereal; oatmeal; fresh fruits and vegetables; beans and legumes.
5. Move more—take time each day for activity. If regular physical activity is part of your schedule—awesome! If you’re currently mostly sedentary, here are some ways to add activity:

• Add some walking time each day. Start with five minutes a day and gradually increase by five minutes per week. Work toward at least 30 minutes per day. Walking treks don’t have to be all at once, but can be broken into short increments throughout the day.
• Park further away from your destination, as safety allows, adding more steps to enter work, stores, church, or other locations.
• Take the longer walk indoors at work when going to a different location or at a store when shopping.
• If your physical condition and knees allow, use stairs instead of elevators or escalators.
• Move more at home—schedule walk or exercise breaks every hour.

Persist, adapt, and give up
 
In my situation with the bowl and frustrating cover, my solution was to find a different container and lid to store the slaw. I did some persisting, adapting, and giving up. I persisted in that I was determined to get the slaw back into the refrigerator. I adapted by finding another method. I gave up on the original plan and found a different way that worked.
 
Persist, adapt and give up (?) on your journey to a healthier lifestyle.

• Persist by setting achievable goals to move toward better health.
• Adapt by changing habits—substitute water for sodas or other sugary beverages; reduce the amount of fat, sugar, sodium, and fried foods you consume; walk or exercise more to receive the benefits.

 

• Usually I urge, “Never Give Up” and that certainly applies when striving to begin new, healthy habits. But we should give up behaviors that are detrimental to our health—Give up some of those things which are so unhealthy for us—sodas and sugary beverages; fried foods; processed meats (because of high fat and sodium content); and sitting for long hours without a movement break.

 
God gifted us with an amazing human body.
 
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalm 138:14-15, NIV)
 
We honor God when we take care of His gift.

• What habits do you think would be a good starting point for you to move towards greater health? 
• Who in your life can you find to help hold you accountable for these new choices so you don't give up?

Feel free to share comments below.

Author Bio:
Katherine Pasour is an author, teacher, farmer, and speaker with a passion for service. She blogs regularly at www.katherinepasour.com with a focus on faith, wellness, and the lessons nature teaches. Psalm 139 reminds us that we are God’s special creation, “fearfully and wonderfully made”, thus Katherine believes we should nurture all aspects of wellness in service to our Lord.

She is a regular contributor to Refresh Bible Study Magazine, published by Lighthouse Bible Studies. Katherine has articles in several Bible Study compilations, Heart Renovation: A Construction Guide to Godly Character (2018); Feed Your Soul with the Word of God (2019); and The Power to Make a Difference (2019). Katherine’s wellness Bible study, Honoring God with My Body: Journey to Wellness and a Healthy Lifestyle, published by Morgan James, is available from all major booksellers. You can connect with Katherine on Facebook and Instagram at KatherinePasourAuthor and Twitter @KatherinePasour.