Latest / Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten / The Sin Spectrum of Fitness: Escaping Pride, Sloth, and Sexual Struggle Through Stewardship

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The Sin Spectrum of Fitness: Escaping Pride, Sloth, and Sexual Struggle Through Stewardship · Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten

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  Speaker 1: Hey, faithful, welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast. In a moment,
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  Speaker 1: my dad, coach Alex van Houten, will help you honor
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  Speaker 1: God by making the most out of the body God's
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  Speaker 1: given you. Today you can expect truth from the Bible,
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  Speaker 1: tools from science, being guidance for everyday life. So listen. Closing,
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  Speaker 1: get ready, let's get one percent better today.
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  Speaker 2: What's up, faithful coach Alex Here grace and peace to you.
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  Speaker 2: There are two ways people destroy their body. One is
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  Speaker 2: obvious neglect, comfort and numbing out, but the other ones
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  Speaker 2: more subtle obsession, comparison and trying to become someone you
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  Speaker 2: were never called to be. And most people bounce between
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  Speaker 2: these two back and forth, but never actually stepping into stewardship.
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  Speaker 2: In this conversation that I got to have with Drew
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  Speaker 2: Boa on husband, material goes deeper than fitness. We're talking
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  Speaker 2: about the connection between your body, your emotions, your mind,
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  Speaker 2: and even your sexuality. Because your body isn't just something
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  Speaker 2: you live in, it's something you live through and if
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  Speaker 2: you don't learn how to steward it, you'll either escape
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  Speaker 2: it or abuse it. Scripture says the path is narrow,
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  Speaker 2: not extreme discipline on one side, and not passive indulgence
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  Speaker 2: on the other, but a daily walk of alignment. And
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  Speaker 2: here's the truth most people don't want to face. You
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: don't have a motivation problem. You have a roots problem.
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  Speaker 2: Something underneath your habits is driving your behavior. And until
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  Speaker 2: you deal with that, you'll keep knowing what to do
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  Speaker 2: and not doing it. So as you listen, I want
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  Speaker 2: you to wrestle with this. What's actually driving the way
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  Speaker 2: that I treat my body? Out what you say you want,
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  Speaker 2: but what your actual habits reveal, because that's where the
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  Speaker 2: real work begins. And if you're ready to stop guessing,
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  Speaker 2: to stop starting over, and to actually build some momentum,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: that's exactly what we're doing inside of the Summer Shred.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: You can use the link below to join Premium right
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: now and will help you get where you need to
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: go twenty eight days of stewarding our body well and
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  Speaker 2: teaching it how to burn fat as a fuel source.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I hope you'll join us. All right, without further ado,
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  Speaker 2: let's dive into this conversation with Drew Boa on his
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  Speaker 2: podcast Husband Material.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, my name is Reboah. I'm the founder of husband
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  Speaker 3: Material or I Help men Outcrow porn. Thank you for
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  Speaker 3: listening to my interview with coach Alex van Houghten, who
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  Speaker 3: is a wealth of wisdom on the body and fitness,
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  Speaker 3: and he gives some really great insights in this episode
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  Speaker 3: about how we approach our bodies. You're going to hear
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  Speaker 3: about two equally destructive traps we can fall into when
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  Speaker 3: pursuing fitness. How this is tied into our biology, our
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  Speaker 3: mental health, our emotional maturity, and our sexuality, as well
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  Speaker 3: as a call to curiosity about what's happening in our bodies,
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  Speaker 3: not just in our sexuality. Enjoy the episode. Welcome to
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  Speaker 3: husband Material. I'm excited to have Alex van Howten back.
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  Speaker 3: He is the founder of Better Daily and the author
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  Speaker 3: of a new resource, Faithful Fitness, a forty day devotional
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  Speaker 3: for health, strength and stewardship. We previously had him on
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  Speaker 3: twice to talk about building a porn free body, which
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  Speaker 3: is his area of expertise fitness also from a perspective
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  Speaker 3: of Christian faith. Welcome back, Alex.
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  Speaker 2: What's up Drew? Thanks so much for having me man.
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  Speaker 3: You're welcome. When I reviewed your resource, Faithful Fitness, there
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  Speaker 3: was a concept that really stood out to me called
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  Speaker 3: the sins of fitness. Can you say more about that?
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  Speaker 2: There's this actual sin spectrum of fitness. On the one end,
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  Speaker 2: you have envy and pride, and this might resonate with
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  Speaker 2: those who know the idea of the seven deadly sins.
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  Speaker 2: Those aren't necessarily biblical ideas, except that they're decent classifications
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  Speaker 2: of the way that sin manifests in our life. There's
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  Speaker 2: pride and envy. This is how do I look? And oh,
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  Speaker 2: I want to look like them, and I want to
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  Speaker 2: look like him, I want to be like her or whatever.
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  Speaker 2: There's that aspect of fitness, that sin aspect of fitness.
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  Speaker 2: And on the other side we have the other side
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  Speaker 2: of entity, which is gluttony and sloth. This is the
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  Speaker 2: eating for comfort and to numb and quell my emotions
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  Speaker 2: and to hate the feeling of doing difficult things and
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  Speaker 2: not wanting to get outside of my comfort zone and stuff.
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  Speaker 2: And on both ends of those spectrums, people get trapped
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  Speaker 2: in their fitness journey. And it was very clear to
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  Speaker 2: me that, as Jesus said, the road is narrow. The
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  Speaker 2: way in between both of those sin aspects of fitness.
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  Speaker 2: There's stewardship. The idea that God gave me this body,
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  Speaker 2: and I can make the most of this body in
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  Speaker 2: an eternally impactful and important way that isn't gluttony and sloth,
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  Speaker 2: and that isn't pride and envy, but is the way
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  Speaker 2: in the middle. And so I had to hash that
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  Speaker 2: out before even explaining to a reader why they would
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  Speaker 2: spend forty days walking this whole path of faith in fitness,
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  Speaker 2: because you need to know that it's about stewardship.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems so easy to emphasize fitness and become
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  Speaker 3: proud or envious, or to de emphasize it and become
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  Speaker 3: gluttonous or slothful. So how do you stay on that
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  Speaker 3: narrow path of healthy stewardship?
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  Speaker 2: In part, that's why you need forty days to walk
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  Speaker 2: through it, right, It's actually it's a trial. Those who
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  Speaker 2: are familiar with scripture in the Bible would know that
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  Speaker 2: forty days is an important timeframe in faithful fitness. We
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  Speaker 2: explore four specific characters in the Bible who endured this
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  Speaker 2: forty day trial transformation process, and so that there's no
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  Speaker 2: forty days and nights in the arc. That's the integrity
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  Speaker 2: phase that we spend the first ten days in. Then
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  Speaker 2: there's we do with Grit, we spend time with Moses,
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  Speaker 2: so forty days on Mount sy and I with God
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  Speaker 2: and getting the Ten Commandments. And then in the growth phase,
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  Speaker 2: the next ten days we spend time with David. We've
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  Speaker 2: got the Philistine giant taunting the Israelites for forty days
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  Speaker 2: before David finally puts Goliath to rest. And then finally
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  Speaker 2: we spend time with Jesus in the discipline of awe.
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  Speaker 2: And that's forty days in the wilderness, with Satan tempting
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  Speaker 2: him at the end, and then starting his ministry as
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  Speaker 2: we know him to do in the Gospel. And so
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  Speaker 2: walking this narrow path of stewardship requires trial and transformation.
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  Speaker 2: And I would have loved to just write a book
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  Speaker 2: about it. Instead, what I ended up having to do
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  Speaker 2: is write a devotional so that you can go through
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  Speaker 2: the daily process of scripture and meditation and discipline and prayer,
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  Speaker 2: so that you can you can find this narrow road
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  Speaker 2: in your life.
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  Speaker 3: Wouldn't it be easy to just read a book and
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  Speaker 3: have your life change, But that's just not how learning works.
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  Speaker 2: It's the same thing with your book, the one that
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  Speaker 2: just came out Outgrowing Porn. It's a process and You
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  Speaker 2: have so many tools in the pages of your book
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  Speaker 2: that are like, hey, there's some why here, but the how.
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  Speaker 2: The how is where the rubber meets the road. The
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  Speaker 2: how is where this really comes to be in in
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  Speaker 2: fruition for your life. And I believe that's actually at
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  Speaker 2: the root of what faithful fitness is about, is that
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  Speaker 2: when when something happens in our spirit, it's a part
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  Speaker 2: of our body, but our body's slower to get on board.
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  Speaker 2: We learned this in the exercise science world. Let's say
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, I need stronger legs. My knees hurt. I
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  Speaker 2: need stronger legs, and so something can change in me
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  Speaker 2: that says, hey, my kne's hurt, but there's something I
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  Speaker 2: can do about this. I'm going to get stronger legs, right,
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  Speaker 2: And so just thinking that doesn't change anything. Like just
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  Speaker 2: thinking that and understanding that doesn't change anything about how
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  Speaker 2: my body operates. It doesn't fix the pain in my knees.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it might make me walk a little bit different,
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  Speaker 2: it might make me more cognizant and intentional about certain movements,
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  Speaker 2: but it doesn't actually change anything. And so then what
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  Speaker 2: I do is I go, Okay, I need stronger legs.
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  Speaker 2: What are the exercises that strengthen my legs? And you
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  Speaker 2: can do some hamstring curls, and you can do some
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  Speaker 2: dead lifts, and I hope you do squats with proper
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  Speaker 2: forms so you don't hurt your knees any worse. And
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  Speaker 2: you do this thing, but once isn't enough. The fibers
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  Speaker 2: that make up your muscles and the fibers that make
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  Speaker 2: up your tenons and your ligaments, they don't actually strengthen
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  Speaker 2: after one bout, so you have to come back to
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  Speaker 2: it again, and then you have to come back to
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  Speaker 2: it again, and before you know it, this thought, this
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  Speaker 2: spiritual commitment, that's what I think it is, the spiritual
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  Speaker 2: commitment to take ownership and responsibility of my knees. Eventually
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  Speaker 2: manifests itself with some work in stronger quadriceps, stronger hamstrings,
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  Speaker 2: stronger glutes, and a change in movement trajectory, and now
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  Speaker 2: my knees don't hurt. So I always think of the
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  Speaker 2: body as this process of manifesting things, just in a
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  Speaker 2: little slower time than maybe the change that happens in
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  Speaker 2: our spirit.
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  Speaker 3: So our bodies and our souls are very connected. What
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  Speaker 3: do you see as the value of working with our
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  Speaker 3: biology like sleep, food, and take exercise in terms of
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  Speaker 3: being able to make changes for ourselves sexually or emotionally.
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  Speaker 2: You make this point in your work a lot, and
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  Speaker 2: that is that our sexuality is integrated into our body.
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  Speaker 2: It's not just our body, but it's a deep part
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  Speaker 2: of how our body and mind speak to each other.
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  Speaker 2: And it's also a deep part of what we desire
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  Speaker 2: and care about on a regular basis. Many of the
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  Speaker 2: things that you talk about with regard to sexual fantasy,
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  Speaker 2: for instance, it's not just this made up dreamlike thing
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  Speaker 2: that happens to be arousing. It's a deep part of
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  Speaker 2: how we operate and what we desire and what motivates
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  Speaker 2: and inspires and even even can be redeeming to our lives.
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  Speaker 2: And So when I think about the biology of our
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  Speaker 2: body and being a good steward of it, right, let's
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  Speaker 2: say my body is a vessel. That's not all it is.
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  Speaker 2: But let's say my body is a vessel. I can
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  Speaker 2: do all kinds of things with my body. I can
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  Speaker 2: love my children well with my body. I can throw
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  Speaker 2: my little boys up in the air and catch them
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  Speaker 2: before they hit the ground and get that awesome laughter
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  Speaker 2: that comes from being a dad. I can hug my
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  Speaker 2: wife and I can hold on for more than ten seconds,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and it just feels. It feels so nice
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  Speaker 2: to be connected in my body. It's not just a vessel,
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  Speaker 2: but it is a vessel for being love and giving love. Right,
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  Speaker 2: If my vessel is broken down, if my vessel is
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  Speaker 2: constantly in pain, if the vessel that I'm operating in
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  Speaker 2: on a regular basis as though it could be more
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  Speaker 2: but it's not, if it feels as though I have
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  Speaker 2: not maintained it well, then each of those actions becomes impeded.
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  Speaker 2: Each of those actions becomes not just impeded something I
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  Speaker 2: can't engage in, something that I can't enjoy, but it
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  Speaker 2: also carries with it this shame that maybe there's something
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  Speaker 2: I haven't done or are doing to myself that's keeping
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  Speaker 2: me from doing these things. I'll give a more concrete example. So,
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  Speaker 2: in my life, I wrestle with a genetic disorder that
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  Speaker 2: makes my body very difficult to manage, sometimes digestively, joints wise.
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  Speaker 2: It can be very devastating to me, and a deep
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  Speaker 2: part of what makes me feel connected and joyful and
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  Speaker 2: purposeful and meaningful in my life is being a good father.
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  Speaker 2: And however you define being a good father, for me,
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  Speaker 2: that means being in the mix and having fun and
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  Speaker 2: playing games and laughing and being able to kick a
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  Speaker 2: soccer ball around and jump on a trampoline and push
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  Speaker 2: them way higher than mom wants on the swing. Right.
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  Speaker 2: That's part of being a good father in my life.
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  Speaker 2: And to me, that's a deeply spiritual calling. It's something
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  Speaker 2: that I love to be engaged in. If my body
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  Speaker 2: keeps me from doing that, if the genetic disorder that
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  Speaker 2: I live with causes a lot of pain in my neck,
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  Speaker 2: makes my shoulders dysfunctional, my wrists are popping out of
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  Speaker 2: place while I'm pushing them too high on the swings,
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  Speaker 2: then what happens is I can't enjoy that thing. I
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  Speaker 2: can't get around the impediment of my body. And if
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  Speaker 2: I've done the things that I need to do in
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  Speaker 2: order to make the most out of this body God's
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  Speaker 2: given me, and I can enjoy those things, then I
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  Speaker 2: get to feel a sense of satisfaction and peace with
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  Speaker 2: my stewardship. But if I have not done those things,
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  Speaker 2: if I have not taken my body seriously and cared
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  Speaker 2: for myself and treated myself poorly and fed myself poorly
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  Speaker 2: and not gotten enough rest and those sorts of things,
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  Speaker 2: and I find that my body is an impediment. Then
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  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, I might feel frustrated,
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  Speaker 2: I might feel depressed, I might feel less joy those things,
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  Speaker 2: but I also know that at some level that's on me.
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  Speaker 2: At some level, that's the stewardship of my body that
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  Speaker 2: I have neglected. And so for me, these are deeply
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  Speaker 2: connected things that if I steward my body well, then
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  Speaker 2: I can use this vessel that I've been given to
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  Speaker 2: receive love and to give love. And there's so much
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  Speaker 2: joy and meaning in that.
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  Speaker 3: It's so beautiful, and it's bigger than just feeling better
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  Speaker 3: about yourself or having some kind of status based on
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  Speaker 3: your body. It's really about overflowing and giving I love.
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  Speaker 3: How you're framing fitness as something also for the sake
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  Speaker 3: of others. It's not just self absorbed, and that is
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  Speaker 3: a big part of what it takes to be free
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  Speaker 3: from porn, to have a purpose bigger than yourself, that
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  Speaker 3: you're actively pursuing, not just avoiding what's bad, but was
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  Speaker 3: receiving what's good and then getting outside of yourself too.
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  Speaker 2: We also find that in the mental health literature, specifically
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  Speaker 2: with regard to exercise and nutrition, that when we wrestle
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  Speaker 2: with very difficult emotions, when we wrestle with high highs
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  Speaker 2: and low lows, the tendency to want to numb those things,
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  Speaker 2: to not want to go there and not want to
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  Speaker 2: work through those difficult things, it's very high. And we
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  Speaker 2: have lots of pornography is one of those pacifiers that
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  Speaker 2: we could turn to instead of wrestling through that process.
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  Speaker 2: For my part, I think it's extremely important with regard
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  Speaker 2: to stewarding our body that we give ourselves the best
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  Speaker 2: chance to wrestle through those emotions as truthfully and as
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  Speaker 2: real li stickly and connectedly as possible. Right, So, if
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  Speaker 2: I'm actively engaged in consuming foods that are good for me,
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  Speaker 2: they're not making the highs any higher than they need
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  Speaker 2: to be. They're not making the lows any lower than
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  Speaker 2: they need to be. My immune system has all the
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  Speaker 2: resources that it needs to help me adapt my brain
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  Speaker 2: the neuroplasticity of my brain in wrestling with grief. My
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  Speaker 2: neurons have all the neurotransmitters they need, and my body
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  Speaker 2: has all the resources it needs to make new connections.
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  Speaker 2: And then exercise wise, I'm engaged in regular healthful pursuit
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  Speaker 2: weight training, cardiovascular exercise. That it gives me an opportunity
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  Speaker 2: to do something healing and fulfilling and good and productive
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  Speaker 2: even when I'm low or even when I'm high. And
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  Speaker 2: in both of those cases, my body equips me to
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  Speaker 2: walk through those things in truth without having to numb
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  Speaker 2: the feelings to get through it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and on some days while going through a crisis
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  Speaker 3: or trauma, simply like drinking water and eating is a victory.
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  Speaker 3: Simply going for a walk or doing even just a
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  Speaker 3: little bit of exercise is huge, even if it doesn't
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  Speaker 3: feel like very much. So I want to validate that.
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  Speaker 3: And I like how I've heard you say sometimes we
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  Speaker 3: work out to work things out. Yes, isn't that fascinating
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  Speaker 3: that that physical activity can have such a profound impact
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  Speaker 3: on emotional processing, on mental health, on sexual integrity.
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  Speaker 2: It's about the embodying the process, Right, So I feel
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  Speaker 2: this thing, I think, this thing in my mind and heart,
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  Speaker 2: But what do I do with it? Where does this
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  Speaker 2: thing that doesn't exist yet go? In? What way does
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  Speaker 2: that manifest itself in the world around me? And working
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  Speaker 2: out is not the only way. You know, maybe you
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  Speaker 2: write about it, maybe you talk it out with somebody
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  Speaker 2: you love, maybe you pray about it. Right. Maybe there's
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  Speaker 2: all kinds of ways that this can physical manifest itself
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  Speaker 2: in the world. But working out is working it out.
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  Speaker 2: You can manifest this energy productively. And you might say, Okay, well,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not really like building anything like No, you're building
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  Speaker 2: your body. You're taking this energy and making it productive
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  Speaker 2: for your cardiovascular system. You're taking this energy and making
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  Speaker 2: it productive for your bad knees. You know, you're taking
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  Speaker 2: this energy and you are placing it in a space
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  Speaker 2: where you're getting to steward it well. And there's this deep,
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  Speaker 2: this deep idea that God's word never returns void. That's
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  Speaker 2: something that scripture tells us about God's word. And I
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't say that it's as deep as that, but it's
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  Speaker 2: been my experience that very rarely is working out the
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  Speaker 2: wrong thing to do. Like, what should I do with
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  Speaker 2: all this energy? Go work out? It's usually a good call.
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  Speaker 2: It usually works out well for you.
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  Speaker 3: Hearing you say that gives me even more appreciation for
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  Speaker 3: how valuable this is. It puts us in the posture
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  Speaker 3: of being creative rather than being a consumer, being a
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  Speaker 3: creator instead of being a consumer, which is what porn
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  Speaker 3: wants us to do. Porn puts us in a posture
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  Speaker 3: of being passive instead of being proactive. This embodied instead
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  Speaker 3: of being embodied. And I can see how working out
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  Speaker 3: is more than just like checking a box actually creating something.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and in many ways, not only does that show
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  Speaker 2: up in our bodies, but it also shows up in
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  Speaker 2: her mind. I was coaching a young lady recently who
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: wrestles with depression, and she's actually done a really good
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: job over the last month of staying consistent to her
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: weight training and exercise. If you've ever wrestled with depression,
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  Speaker 2: if you're listening, you know that the last thing you
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  Speaker 2: want to do is go work out. I already feel
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  Speaker 2: like I don't have any energy to live this. You
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  Speaker 2: want me to go spend more energy doing this thing?
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  Speaker 2: And she said, you know, it's interesting the shame and
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  Speaker 2: the guilt that I feel. This is her speaking the
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  Speaker 2: shame and the guilt that I feel about not being
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  Speaker 2: motivated to do things. I'm in a low. I'm not motivated.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: I don't like myself for that. It's almost like the
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: voices in my head are telling me I'm no good
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: right if I've worked out today. It's like I have
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: something concrete to like show them, like, no, how am
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: I lazy and good for nothing? I literally did like
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: dumbbell rose this morning, Like people who are lazy and
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: good for nothing don't do dumbell rows. And I'm making
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: that kind of joking, but it was real. We were
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: talking about how it's such a ballwork of positive cognitive dissonance,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: and that means that I can't believe negative things about
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: myself when I have taken the time to love myself
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: well today and to do it in one of the
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: most difficult ways possible. One of the most uncomfortable ways
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: that you can love yourself well is approaching exercise. It
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: was a pretty powerful moment for her to tell me
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: that beautiful.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: One concept you discuss is roots and fruits.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Toward the end of the devotion, one of the things
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: that I explore with the reader is this idea that
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: there are fruits in our life that come from the
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: roots of our life. And this is a very scriptural idea.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Jesus told us in the Gospel of John that He's
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: the vine and we are the branches, and that if
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: we are rooted in him, we will bear much fruit.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: But apart from Him we can do nothing. In the
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: exercise world, oftentimes people will say things like I know
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: what to do, I'm just not doing it. Something along
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: those lines. We might say, I crave these foods. I
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: don't want to crave these foods, but I eat them anyway,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: even though I'm trying to lose fat or I'm trying
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: to battle diabetes or whatever. I don't know why I
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: keep ending up at the bottom of the ice cream
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: carton right, something along those lines. In the devotional, we
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: explore this idea of bitter roots bringing bitter fruits, and
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: that is to say, if you look at your life
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: and there are some fruits that you know, they're not
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: in keeping with your calling, They're not in keeping with
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: with what you know God has made you to do.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: What you know God is working in your life. You
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: looking at their fruit and you're like, that's not good fruit.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: And if you keep trying to cut off the fruits
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: and throw them over the fence, so to speak, without
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: dealing with the roots, where do those fruits come from?
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Those fruits come from the roots, and you can try
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: to get rid of the fruits. You can try to
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: get rid of the behaviors like eating ice cream after dinner,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: for instance, or not getting up early to work out
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: when you really did want to get up early to
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: work out, but your alarm goes out and you're like,
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: I'm not doing that. I'm snoozing today. If you keep
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: trying to address the fruit and not deal with the
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: bitter root, then what's going to happen is you're going
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: to find yourself very frustrated, very burnt out. You'll find
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: yourself saying things like I know it to do, I'm
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: just not doing it. And in that particular day in
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: the devotional, I invite readers and I also invite them
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: in prayer through the Holy Spirit, to address some of
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: those those roots and explore them. Where is this thing
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: coming from? It could be very simple. If you're having
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: trouble getting up in the morning, one of the things
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: that might be a bitter root in your life is
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: you're staying up too late. Very easy, that's a tiny root.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: That's an easy route. You can say, I commit to
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: going to bed earlier and to wrestle through whatever is
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: required to do that right. But there also might be
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: some deeper, more difficult roots, and I know you're no
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: stranger to this idea. And in fact, with regard to
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: sexual healing, one of the things that you talk a
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: lot about is digging into where these urges, Where where
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: are these arousals, where these fantasies come from, and understanding
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: the depth in the primacy of those things before trying
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: to deal with behavior change right, because cutting off the
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: fruits does not does not deal with the roots, And
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: so from an exercise perspective, the same thing can be
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: said about somebody who's not being consistent with their exercise.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: For instance, for many individuals when it comes to nutrition
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: and exercise, the bitter roots are things like I'm not
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: worth taking care of, I'm not lovable, I'll never be successful.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: These core deep lies, but negative beliefs keeping them from
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: manifesting good fruit in their spiritual walk.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: Physically, Yeah, those examples sound very connected to shame. I
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: also sometimes hear men talk about their relationship with their
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: bodies being connected to safety. For example, survivors of childhood
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: sexual abuse may feel safer sexually if they are overweight
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: and perhaps less likely to be viewed through a sexual lens.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: That's another example of deeper roots. That's right, and it
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: breaks my heart because it makes sense why you may
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: have protected yourself through intentionally staying out of shape, or
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: perhaps protected yourself from the fear of the unknown of
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: what if my body actually looked different and work differently.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: So it's so good to practice curiosity and not just
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: constantly fighting a frustrating battle against ourselves.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: It deeply matters to me that both men and women
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: have the opportunity to work with the body God gave
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: them and make the most of that rather than having
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: to fight it all the time.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: Amen, Alex, what is your favorite thing about faithful fitness?
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: My profession and my joy is getting to be one
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: on one with an individual in an exercise session where
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: I'm helping them to overcome barriers that they've wrestled with
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: for years and teach them how to be intentional about
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: how to move their body and see what it's capable
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: of and see that they're made of sterner stuff than
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: they know, and to see that manifest in an hour,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: to see that that progress happen in an hour, it
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: just makes me so happy. And writing a book is
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: very different sitting down to put those things on paper
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: and articulate them well in a way that captures what
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: God's taught me in my own personal journey, in a
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: way that would be impactful to others in their journey
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: that is not a normal or natural process for me.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: And so I think my favorite thing about it is
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: that it was a journey for me to do this,
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: and as I've been able to share that with individuals
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: as we're publishing the work and reaching out for endorsements
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: among clients and connections, and also in the preliminary process
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: of our early adopters reading the work and to hear like, wow,
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: this really helped me to overcome some things I didn't
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: understand where a problem or wow, this really broke through
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: for me. That is so cool. That is so enjoyable
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: to me. Yeah, yeah, it's It's the same feeling as
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: helping somebody do a pull up for the first time.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: It's like, yes, yes, that's right, that's that's so, that's
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: that's my favorite thing. You know. I heard something recently,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: and I don't mean to be long winded about this,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: but I think it's so so useful as as a
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: Christian in the Gospel, when when Peter tells Jesus Jesus says, hey, hey,
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: who do you guys say that I am. You're the Christ,
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: You're the one, You're the Messiah. And you know, Jesus
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: is like gold Star Peter because you know he puts
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: his foot in his mouth later in the in the chapter,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: but he says, on this rock, I will build my church,
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: That word prevailed there, the Greek word prevail actually means
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: that Hell's on defense and it won't be able to
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: defend against the Church. In English, it sounds opposite, sounds
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: more like, you know, the gates of Hell are attacking
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: God's work everywhere. But don't worry. You know we're going
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: to win in the end. It's not like that we're
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: taking territory from Hell itself every day. That's the church.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: My prayer for faithful fitness is that spiritually speaking, we
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: have the opportunity to win some territory for the body,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: for the physical body. I don't know how it feels
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: in your church or how it feels in the circles
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: of Christians that you are with. For many, it feels
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: like that space, the territory of the body, the intimacy
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: of sex, the fitness, the physical health of ourselves. That
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: that territory has been just kind of like set aside
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: as a place we don't go. And my prayer for
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: faithful Fitness as that helps us take some of that
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: territory back. I want to be on offense to help
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: people reclaim their body and to learn how to steward themselves,
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: to grow into that vessel that can be love and
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: to give love at the same time.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: Amen. That's fantastic. So if you guys want to get
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: a copy of Faithful Fitness or connect with Alex and
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: check out Better Daily, go down to the links in
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: the show notes. Alex, thanks so much for being with us.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. Drew, thanks for having me on.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: Brother, You're welcome, and gentlemen, always remember you are God's
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: beloved son.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: In you, he is well pleased.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: What's up, Faithful? This episode helped you share it with
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: someone who needs to hear it, and don't forget to subscribe.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: And need a review.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Some more people can find Faithful Fitness. My dad's devotional
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Faithful Fitness is available now and you can join our
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Faithful Fitness community by clicking the links and the show notes.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: We all have a cross to carry. Put each lighter
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: when you do it together, see how lay you alligator.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: But until then, train hard and pray even harder.