Listen Now
There was a time when I didn’t like my body. I didn’t feel proud of it. I walked with my shoulders slumped because I didn’t want my chest to stick out. I wore baggy clothes to cover myself up.For years I struggled with body image issues due to the sexual abuse I endured when I was a child and during my teen years. I was ashamed, embarrassed, and devastated that someone I loved and trusted could treat me that way. I was trespassed against my own will and was unable to stop it. This injustice led me into drugs and alcohol abuse. I didn’t care what I did to my body; I just wanted to feel better. It did not help. Drugs and alcohol were just a temporary fix, and I ended up feeling worse about my body than before. They put me in bad physical shape.
Eventually, I got cleaned up. However, I still struggled with body image issues into adulthood.
One day my coworkers and I decided to run a local 5K race (about 3 miles). Throughout the training, which included physical exercise and eating healthier food, my body started feeling better. What’s more, my emotional state about my body was changing for the good.
I believe that God used that challenge to awaken me to the fact that:
- He created my body
- He could heal any pain I was suffering due to the sexual abuse
- I was to take care of my body properly
- We are meant to feel good from the inside out!
It’s possible that you may be like me. Maybe you have endured some kind of abuse or addiction and you feel that body shame. Perhaps you never thought about why you don’t like your body, but you would like to feel better about yourself.
It’s become my passion to help other women go from ignoring or disliking their bodies to taking care of them with a healthy frame of mind.
Let’s Do This Together!
We’ve created R U Getting Fit? on Reach UP TV for women like us. There I share tips on:
- Healthy food choices
- Workouts according to your fitness level
- Healthy body image
- Workouts without the $$$
No special equipment or a gym membership is needed. Get fit wherever you are and with whatever you have available to you, like water bottles or cans of food for weights.
Invite a friend!
What Does it Mean to “Get FIT?”
Fit: To be in good health and feeling good, especially because of how well we feed our bodies and through getting regular physical exercise.
Being fit does not mean having what the world says is a “perfect body.” We are all different shapes and sizes on purpose.
“Your body is a temple of the holy spirit within you.”
1 CORINTHIANS 6:19b
6 Reasons to Get Fit!
- Energy—When you make healthier food choices, such as drinking more water and eating fewer sugary and starch-filled foods, you have more energy. As you exercise, your blood flow increases, which makes everything flow better, giving you more energy.
- A Natural High—God made a way for your body to feel good. When you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins. They interact with your brain, triggering a positive feeling in the body much better than any drug or unhealthy comfort food that only makes you feel better for a short while.
- Stress Relief—Moving your body during exercise helps relieve stress because you are getting the “ick” out. Exercise helps drain some of the day’s frustrations away.
- Better Sleep—Because you have exercised, your body is functioning better. With the increased blood flow and stress relief, you are able to sleep better.
- Strong Body—Strength and resistance training help to strengthen your bones, which prevents fractures as you get older. They also makes your joints feel better so you don’t feel stiff. Your balance improves too!
- Body Image—God created you in His image. You are beautiful! As you continue to get fit by eating healthier and exercising, your body starts to transform, and you lose those unwanted inches and weight.
Is getting fit worth the effort? Yes, it is! R U Getting Fit?
Coach Ginny Wolfe is a personal trainer and health coach. She owns a gym called One Body Fitness because “we have one body and we are to take care of it.” Ginny and her husband, Pat, have two sons and live in South Carolina.
