By Kelly Carr

Health habits are a lot like peer pressure—it’s easiest to do what those around us are doing. 

I’m thankful to be around a lot of people right now who are focused on healthy, natural foods and exercise. Their habits caused me to reflect upon my own. 

Accountability

I’m not perfect, but I’ve reevaluated some of my choices in eating and tried to cut down on my splurges rather than eating “comfort” junk food daily. 

When I wondered how to get active, I asked for help from someone who was more disciplined than I was. I needed that push and camaraderie and accountability to stick with it. 

This week we are discussing the importance of good eating and exercise habits. The third topic is my biggest weakness—sleep. Oh, I like to sleep a lot, but I push my night-owl tendencies too much to “just get one more thing done” before I hit the hay. Then I don’t get all the hours of sleep I need. I remedy that by guzzling the caffeine and crashing on the weekends. But that’s not great, I know. 

Camaraderie 

Last year I had an injury that came out of nowhere. Having emergency surgery and then resting a lot in recovery sure gave me a new perspective. It reminded me that I should appreciate my ability on a regular basis to choose healthy habits. Those who have debilitating physical issues don’t have that luxury.

God gave us bodies to house our spirits. Doing our best to keep those bodies healthy is one way to honor him. And it gives us strength to keep serving him to our fullest. Plus, those who love us want us to stick around on this earth as long as possible—staying healthy is one way to make that happen. 

Trying to change our whole lives all at once is overwhelming. But we can all find ways to take steps toward better health, no matter where we are on the healthy scale right now. With each step we find strength for the next. 

This topic is The Lookout isn’t meant to make us all feel bad about ourselves. It’s meant to encourage us with helpful tips and a reminder that we can do it! Let’s allow these articles to be our positive peer pressure, our cheerleader reminding us that someone believes in us. Let’s get healthy.