Is the pope Catholic?

When someone asks me whether I'd like to use more clickbait post titles, my answer is of course, "Is the pope Catholic?" I'll let you chew on that while I move on the actual content of this post.

This is just a quick post reflecting on the challenges of eating healthy as a dad. While I have actually been relatively disciplined about getting out and running (I'm training for a 1/2 marathon in April), my weight continues to inch back up as I very undisciplined-ly eat whatever. For a synopsis of the overall fluctuation of my healthy or unhealthy habits, click here. The challenge I face on a daily basis is whether to say yes or no to those delicious gluten-free peanut butter cookies (they're gluten free, NOT fat free!), or whether to eat just another serving of mashed potatoes or that candy bar in the community stash at work. I'm a nurse, I know how food works, and I continue to say yes to the crappy food that offers empty promises of satisfaction and equally empty but belly-enlarging calories. The challenge is not really food, it's self discipline.

I had the privilege of speaking to a gathering of Catholic young adults this summer on the topic of "Health and Spirituality". I quoted a longtime friend who told me long ago, when I asked him how he managed to stay to fit in the midst of young fatherhood, “I look at my diet and other health choices as supporting God’s plan for my life”. This comment really stuck with me. If I eat like Michael Phelps but exercise like my 92-year-old grandpa, while expecting to be fully engaged in God's plan for my 7th-child-on-the-way home, I'm missing something, and it will show...not just physically but also spiritually.

I think that in many ways our habits in areas like exercise and eating are a way to gain insight into our spiritual life. Don't take this as doctrine, as it's just my opinion, but I notice in my own life that when I'm not disciplined in prayer, kindness, charity, humility, etc...I'm not disciplined in most areas. I eat the extra cookie, my portions are huge, I don't exercise. I'm undisciplined. If you ever hear someone say "I don't have time to exercise or eat right with all the things I do for my kids", that's just an excuse. After all, it takes no time to reduce your portion. It takes no time to say no to that Milky Way you're craving. And those little self-denials will in turn help us more easily say "yes" to good and healthy habits. Discipline.

Advent is a good time to reflect on our discipline (anyone hear a discipleship post brewing?). As someone commented on the post I linked to earlier, "Every time you give up on eating an ice cream or other goody, give the money to charity instead." Good advice. Let's make our self-denial a sacrificial offering in prayer or almsgiving to someone in need. And we'll all be better, and fitter, for it.

Happy Advent!