This past weekend, my wife and I stayed near the house all weekend, only venturing out to go to Church on Sunday and lunch afterward. The entire rest of the weekend we stayed at home catching up on our rest.
Over the last several weeks I had been getting a new store ready to open and then there was the unexpected trip to Louisville to send my father home to his Lord. My wife had been stressed out at work over the same period and we both just needed the time to unwind and de-stress our bodies. By Sunday night we were feeling a little lazy but much more relaxed and ready for the new week.
In todays fast paced world we are always moving at the speed of life and we sometimes feel if we slow down that we might get behind or at the very least miss something. While God did not intend for us to just sit around and become couch potatoes, He also intended for us to regenerate our bodies through rest. He was the first of us to take a day off. After He created the universe, God took the Sabbath as a day of rest.
The human body is a resilient piece of craftsmanship. With all its intricate parts and inner workings, it is designed to give us a full day of work and support our efforts. However, as I said IT IS a delicate piece of craftsmanship so it also needs a few things to keep it running.
First the body needs fuel. Food and water are the fuel that keep the body the well oiled machine that it is. If we fail to feed the body, then it is like a car that we fail to put oil and gas into. It runs out of that fuel and it stalls. If you consider food as the gas and water as the oil, then like a car, without proper food nutrition the body will begin to be sluggish and non-responsive. Americans take in the equivilent of 142 pounds of Sugar (in all its forms) according to a 2003 study. Type 2 Diabetes is an epidemic in America and our children are getting fatter every year.
Water is the oil for our body and without it, the body will shut down on us. Like a car without oil, our body will lock up and shut down on us. Coffee, tea, soda, and other liquids may refresh us but they may also be slowly shutting us down. The human body is nearly 60% water in a normal sized man but it can be up to 75% in a newborn infant. When we work our body, we lose water through sweat. When we replace our body water with other fluids we throw off the delicate balance of water in the body and it does not tend to work as well. Think of the oil in an engine being replaced with soda. Oil is designed to lubricate the engine and keep things running smoothly--much like the water in our bodies.
Water does for our body what oil does for a car engine. It keeps our body lubricated and hydrated. The average American consumes 46 Gallons of soda a year as of 2009. Not only is the soda laden with sugar, but it replaces the natural water content and replaces the water with fat. Even diet drinks contribute to fat because they fail to trigger the brain to feel satisfied and they lead to over-consumption. Since the soda is laden with sugar, it replaces the well lubricated body with a sludge that has the same effect as it would if you replaced the engine oil with soda.
Soda and sugar are not bad in and of themselves, but anything in excess is not good for us. We need to read the lables of our food and stay away from added sugar as much as possible. Anything on a lable ending in -ose (Dextrose, fructose, etc) is a form of sugar that many people do not know are sugars.
The third thing the body needs is rest. If God took a day of rest, what makes us think we are any better? Like a good Father, He set the example for us by teaching us to rest. Without rest, the body does not function well. It becomes sluggish because the body did not have enough time to regenerate and recharge itself.
People who are sleep deprived tend to be more sedentary and without proper exercise, they function at a lower level than intended. This leads to people eating and drinking more, and this becomes a cycle that if not corrected will lead to obesity.
I have made 2012 my year of reclamation for my body. I have pledged to greatly reduce the consumption of sugar and to make the majority of my sugar intake be from fresh fruits and vegetables. I have pledged to 64 ounces of water a day minimum and while I still drink other drinks, try to keep them to mealtime and water otherwise. I have also pledged to exercise a minimum of 3 times a week with at least one of those days being cardio training.
In the Bible in the Old Testament there are plenty of mentions of people living hundreds of years. There is a philosophical debate as to whether people lived longer then and could not do so now. I happen to believe if we ate like God intended, worked and rested like our ancestors did then we too might live a much longer life. Maybe not hundreds of years but possibly a lot more reaching the century mark. TODAY I CHOOSE TO BE GOOD TO MY BODY!
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