Life Fitness Journal #3

 Life Fitness Journal #3

1. During the semester, in what ways did your physical health and fitness change for the better?
• What areas didn’t change in the way you had hoped or planned?

During this semester my physical health changed in terms of consistency. Last semester we were not allowed to practice with our team and we only allowed to practice on our own. Since my sport is acro and tumbling, I was not able to just practice wherever and whenever. I had a difficult time trying to get into a facility that allowed me to tumble. Midway through this semester we were able to come back on to campus and begin practicing. So I was then able to practice five times a week. The area that did not change though was anything outside of practice as well as aerobic fitness. I wanted to try and continue running, but was not able to keep up the consistency of that. 

1. During the semester, in what ways did your spiritual health and fitness change for the better?
• What areas didn’t it change in the way you had hoped or planned?

During this semester I was able to work through the devotional book that I had bought, but I had a conflict in my schedule for the college group that I normally attend. So I sort of fell out of habit of going to both college group and church on Sunday mornings. 

1. What are your biggest lessons learned about changing your lifestyle in ways that positively influence your physical and spiritual health and fitness?

One of the biggest lessons I learned was that you need to start somewhere. You can not expect to change completely overnight. If you are not seeing progress right away, do not give up. Change should come later. Another lesson is that things are generally easier with a little bit of help. Even just getting an accountability partner to keep you on track will help you from stopping your progress. 

1. What are the most valuable lessons you have learned that will allow you to professionally care for (educate, motivate, support) the physical and spiritual health and fitness of future clients and patients?

I believe that the fact that change will not occur overnight is a really big lesson for those going into health as a profession. People, especially nowadays, expect things to happen instantly. This means that they tend to lose hope, or give up quickly if they do not see results right away. In this sense, giving them the heads up that change takes time, will let them be ready for a long journey rather than a quick fix. Another lesson that is extremely important is that mistakes happen. Some people will give up once they make one mistake, such as not going to the gym enough in the last week. However, as the professional, you should encourage them to keep their heads up and keep going. 

1. In what ways have you learned the Christian faith and spiritual practices speak into and provide support for taking better care of one’s body and living a healthy lifestyle?

I have learned that the more spiritually healthy I am, the more emotionally healthy I am. For example, when I tend to drift away from God and take everything on my own, I tend to burn out a lot quicker and become emotionally drained. This will then turn in to me not feeling like I have enough energy to work on my physical fitness. However, if I am sound in my relationship with Christ, those other areas become good as well. 

1. What are your plans for your physical and spiritual health and fitness as you move forward from here? 

I plan to reconnect with some of the people I know from college group. I feel like they will be good people to keep me accountable for my spiritual health. As for fitness, I really liked how I felt when I was exercising five days a week, so I would like to try and keep up with that sort of rigorous training. However, I will probably dial down the intensity of the workouts.