It has been a little over a month since I arrived back in
California to re-discover myself and focus on improving my health and overall
wellness. Last week, I took the plunge and started a 5-day-a-week
workout program taking two physical education classes at my local community
college – swimming on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and a strength and
conditioning class on Tuesday and Thursday. As it turned out, I also ended up
starting a new job that Wednesday, in addition to the three online classes in
which I had enrolled. I was a bit nervous about increasing my workouts so
drastically in a short time, especially since swimming can be an intense whole-body
workout and I would only have Saturday and Sunday as rest days. Still, I was
excited to start, and after the first day of swimming remembered how much I
love to swim, which only increased my excitement and motivation (always a good
thing when starting a new workout program).
However, this excitement also proved to be my downfall. I
have a fairly competitive disposition, so I often struggle
with taking things slowly and easing into a new workout program. I prefer to
start out full force, which ultimately leads to burnout, discouragement, and
failure. This time proved to be no exception.
That excitement I mentioned led me to stay after class to
swim extra laps – more is better, right? – and by Friday, I was not only
exhausted, but depressed. I decided to skip my classes on Monday and Tuesday,
and from Saturday to Tuesday, switched to a higher carb diet to try to re-fuel
my body. I won’t lie though, I really hit a severe low and wanted to give up
everything – my workout, my new job, even work on Transfigured seemed pointless
(because I would never succeed at getting a handle on my own wellness anyway,
right?). Things were pretty bleak, but I did some research about over-training,
and found out that over-doing exercise can not only cause fatigue, but can
actually cause hormonal and chemical imbalances in the body leading to
depression. I was not at all surprised by this revelation, and I hoped that a
few days of rest and restorative eating would reverse the negative effects. It
did, and by Wednesday I was feeling much better physically and more optimistic.
When I was still feeling really low, I took some time out
for prayer. I couldn’t find it in me to get myself to church or adoration (my
usual place of choice for prayer), so I simply sat in the backyard with my
bible and journal and asked Jesus to meet me right where I was (and of course,
He did).
When I finally started feeling better, my mind was clear enough
for me to reflect on everything that had happened the past week and a half. The
day before had been the Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux – one of my favorite
saints, and the patron saint of the Transfigured program because of her “Little
Way.” I realized that I had violated this very important aspect of the
spirituality of Transfigured – applying the “Little Way” of St. Therese to
wellness (including nutrition, exercise, and spirituality).
The basis of this “Little Way” is essentially to do “small things
with great love,” since quite often, we are incapable of doing truly “great”
things. St. Therese was talking more specifically about doing things for God
and others, but in the case of Transfigured, this can be applied to making
small changes to our nutrition, exercise, and spiritual life in order to grow
in virtue and make changes that will last. Our tendency to stray from the
“Little Way” is often due to one - or both - of two things: pride and impatience. The
whole diet industry is often founded upon exploiting these two things – lose
weight fast, look great, show off that bikini bod, etc. etc. But
when we do things this way, we rarely make the inner changes necessary for
long-term maintenance, regardless of how fabulous the results may be.
In my case, I was being both impatient and prideful. I
wanted to push myself harder to impress my coaches/instructors, and to
hopefully also get faster results. Interestingly, although I was working out
like crazy, I did not lose one pound that week, because I pushed my body too
hard and it went into preservation mode. This week, I am off to a better start.
The much-needed rest gave my body the time it needed to recover, actually improving my
performance this week, and I have learned a bit of
humility as well. Initially, I was frustrated with my strength and conditioning instructor because I felt that he was underestimating my abilities and exercise experience (I was a competitive athlete in high school). However, after taking the time to rest, pray, and reflect on things more, I realized that this was my pride speaking, and he was actually doing what was best for my health (i.e. encouraging me to go at a slower pace and work up to more intense workouts).
After feeling so awful last week, I am truly grateful to
have such great instructors who know how to tailor my workouts and tell me when
I need to go a little slower, even if I don’t always want to listen.
The Little Way is an integral part of the Transfigured
Program because it applies not only to the spiritual life, but to physical
wellness (nutrition and exercise) as well. Whether you are trying to grow in
your spiritual life or improve your health through nutrition or exercise
(hopefully all three), I encourage you to employ the Little Way when you start
making changes. This post ended up being a lot more about me than I had
originally planned, so hopefully I can balance this out a bit. Here are some
suggestions for some first steps on your journey to wellness:
Spiritual:
* Set aside 10 minutes for prayer today (or daily)
* Pray one decade of the rosary
* Read one chapter of the bible or a spiritual book today
(or weekly, or daily)
* Go to Mass this week (or if you already go to Sunday Mass,
go to one daily mass this week)
Physical:
* Do 10 minutes of activity today (or daily, or weekly)
* Workout at least once this week
* Spend more time standing or walking vs. sitting
* Take a 20 minute walk today (or daily, or weekly)
Nutritional:
* Drink one less soda each day than usual
* Switch from soda to 100% juice or water
* Make one healthy substitution this week (i.e. whole grain
bread instead of white)
* Drink 8 glasses of water daily (8 oz each)
Obviously, these should be
customized to your personal specifications. If you already workout once a week,
then try for twice this week. On the other hand, if you haven’t been active in
years and a big goal seems daunting, then walking just 10 minutes even one day
this week is a great improvement!
I encourage everyone who may be
reading this to incorporate some sort of spiritual “exercise” into your journey
towards wellness. I cannot tell you what a difference it will make. I’ll post
more on this later, but to preview I’ll say this: God created you, He created
your body, and He knows what is going to be best for your body. So ask Him. Ask
Him what He created you to do in this life and how changing your nutrition and
exercise habits can help you achieve that. Ask Him what changes He wants you to
make first. This can be immensely helpful, but especially so if you are feeling
lost as to where to even start.
Now, I will confess that I do
not always remember to do this, and I am sure that if I had stopped to ask God
about things last week, He would have told me – "start slow, don’t push
yourself, and don’t do anything extra,
you are already increasing your exercise by a lot, and if you do too
much, the defense mechanisms I created in your body are going to react and make
you feel awful." God knows all the chemical processes in our bodies better than
we ever could, even if we all had a degree in chemistry. He created those
processes, so ask Him and listen with an open and humble heart.
Most importantly, ask Him how
improving your health will help you grow in holiness, and ask Him to help you
stay focused on Him during the process. Because, ultimately, it doesn’t matter
what your body looks like, or how healthy it is if it doesn’t end up in heaven.
“What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his
[eternal] life?” (Matthew 16:26).
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