Summer Shape Up! Healthy Eating!

Reading time: two minutes.

It’s summer shape-up season!  Our roots as a health and wellness ministry for professional church workers are found in a physicians office, so it seems logical to take a few weeks and turn our focus to physical wellbeing.

I typically work my way around the wellness wheel and all eight aspects of wellness.  I’ll get back to that in a few weeks.  In this short series, I’ll offer some real, practical, down to earth ideas for your physical wellbeing.

Let’s take a look at the Bible’s  take on what healthy eating for the Lord’s people looks like!I’m going to skip over the Old Testament dietary regulations.  There’s a lot of wisdom found in Leviticus, but I’d rather simplify.

That’s what Daniel and his friends did.  They simplified.  Kraft and Nabisco like to complicate.  Most processed food packages are covered with Scrips Spelling Bee type words that only a genius eighth grader could spell.  We hold to a simple policy at our house: the harder a word is to pronounce, the less likely it is good for you!

We like simple.  If God made it, let’s eat it.  God made fish.  Ronald McDonald makes deep fried, breaded fish patties on processed white bread with processed cheese product and a dollop of something white and creamy.  (A second policy at our house: if it’s white and creamy and tastes really good, it’s probably not good for you!)

As I was saying, we like simple.  Eat the fish.  Eat the broccoli the way God made it.  A little salt and a little butter if you need to, but keep it simple.

I love oranges because they are as fun to eat as they are good for you.  Peel and smell.  Pull the beautifully engineered (“Thank You, Creator!”) segments apart.  Marvel at the wonder of their design.  Bite once and savor the flavor and juice.  Chew slowly.  Swallow.  Smile.  Give thanks.  What a marvelous gift.

Last summer a pastor I did not know came to me at the Michigan District convention and said, “I was at a Grace Place Wellness retreat about five years ago.  I decided to lose some weight.  It took two years to get ready, but when I did my plan was simple.  Eat food the way God made it.  It worked beautifully!”

As I remember, he told me he had lost nearly 100 pounds over three or four years simply by eating real food.  He looked terrific.

Try it for a day or two for a couple of weeks.  Then try it for a whole week and see what happens.  Don’t forget to give thanks.

And I’d love to hear your story too!  Thanks for reading.

A Congregational Wellness Weekend is designed to help create a ministry environment at your church or school where professional church workers can thrive and serve joyfully in their calling at top capacity. Let’s start the conversation today! Find more information on our website or contact Program Director Darrell Zimmerman to learn more.