Living healthy is something I’ve been really bad with at all stages of my life. It takes hard work to do the right thing and it's so much easier to just lay around and eat whatever you want. However, in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 I get convicted. We are warned of the importance of taking care of our bodies because they are temples, a dwelling place, for the Holy Spirit. I often get mad at myself for not taking the verse seriously—yet I continue my bad habits.

The Struggle of Body Image

Every summer probably since middle school I'll tell my friends, “This is the summer I’m going to work out and get in awesome shape” and just what do I want my body to resemble? An unrealistic photo shopped image of swimsuit models that I see in magazines. These models are models because of their great bodies however, to the magazine’s standard they are not beautiful enough, still requiring computer body modifications. These unrealistic images are what we men and women compare ourselves to when we look in the mirror and it’s not healthy. It's no wonder that so many people make losing weight a New Year’s resolution and fail. Instead of the focus being losing weight, it should be being healthy.

For me going to the gym or working out with weights and doing pushups has always been dreaded. I exercise best when I’m doing active things like riding my bike for miles, or playing tennis. I like things that make you sweat but are still enjoyable activities.

In college though, the challenge of staying healthy is much more difficult. It is hard enough for me to wake up in the mornings, so working out is not an option and after classes I’m either swamped with homework or simply too tired and just want to lay around and do nothing.

Being healthy encompasses more than just working out, it also is about what you are putting into your body and your mental health.

The Struggle of Food Consumption

My eating habits have always been very bad. When I’m at school I find myself consuming mostly bread whether in the form of pasta or scones. And when I’m at home my eating patterns are always in extremes. Whether that be the amount of ice cream I secretly put in my dish, how the cookies you bake are gone in 12 hours, or how I go to the kitchen at 11 p.m. looking for yet another snack. Being home I find that I eat when I’m not even hungry—it's just something to do because I’m bored.

Struggling with Mental Health

Being mentally healthy does not mean sleeping until 2 p.m., watching Netflix all day, and not socializing with others—many of which I do daily. Although this summer hasn’t started off how I wanted it to, there is still time to change these habits. The last thing I want is for it to be the end of August and I’ve wasted my summer doing nothing to take care of myself yet again. The longer I wait to start living healthy the harder it will be to change.

Starting New

I’ve made a list of all the things I would like to do but realistically if I try to do all of them I will fail, get mad at myself, and give up. Therefore I’m going to pick a few to stay honest with.

1. Drinking more water.

2. Getting together with a friend(s) once a week.

3. Limiting myself to one normal serving of a desired sweet treat a day.

4. Starting my day off with a healthy smoothie.

5. Doing something fun and active three times a week.

6. Only allowing myself a set aside a couple hours for watching Netflix.

7. Watching Netflix with others instead of alone.

8. Not judging my health by a scale number (throwing out the scale).

9. Making myself busy so downtime is limited and therefore laziness is harder.

10. Going for late night walks with a friend or parent.

In order to keep your goal you need to figure out what will keep you motivated. That could be telling someone who cares about you about your goal to stay accountable (so you’re embarrassed if you don’t do it), finding someone to do our goal with you, or setting up a reward for meeting your goal at the end of the summer (trip somewhere, or tickets to something). The key is telling people what you are doing so you stick to your goal. The summer really has just begun so it’s not too late to make this summer a happy and healthy one!