Our Pastor began his sermon talking about this Marie Kondo woman...
... in case you don't know, she is a professional minimalist organizer.
She's pretty well known for what is called the "Marie Kondo Question" when decluttering and finding out what to keep and what to donate/get rid of:
You grab the object or clothes and ask yourself,
"Does this bring me joy?"
If the answer is no, you thank it for its service and then proceed to donate/toss it.
(wifey Bethany tells me she gives it a kiss first before getting rid of it... how cute is she!? :) )
Our Pastor shared this story in relation to the Gospel which focused on one of Jesus' famous lessons:
"It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your hand - even your stronger hand - causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away."
-Matthew 5:29-32
Pastor went into more depth on the meaning of this. How when someone decides to become a follower of Jesus, it opens up quite a bit of "benefits", if you will, (like eternal life)... but the journey ahead also asks a lot of us too.
Asks us to give and sacrifice a lot too.
Similar to what Marie Kondo's message is, you get rid of things that don't serve you. Don't help you get to where you want to go.
You sure don't have to think too hard to see the parallels of this to our fitness world, do you?...
... So what are the perks and benefits of being a "follower" of fitness and walking this here Path of the Workout Hero
They are immense... look good feel good more energy more sexyness (should we spell it like this from now on?? :) )
less tiredness
more confidence
more comfortable in your skin better mental health
strength
On and on it goes...
and that's just BARELY scratching the surface. This isn't even getting into the benefits you have on your LOVED ONES... like kids and/or spouses (which to me is worth it just for them ♥)
But what do you have to give up to get all of that?
As it turns out... not too bad.
In terms of time:
A few hours a week - with good things happening for your health and body with as little as half hour a week, and the "law of diminishing returns" kicking in around 10 hours a week.
If you want to invest more time watching educational fitness TikTok/Youtube videos and/or reading stuff on this subject (like these email letters 😉) it's more awesome power to you!
How about money:
This one is highly individualized depending on how deep you want to go down the fitness rabbit hole --
Let's talk about gyms...
-- you can go the "self-service" route like $10/month Planet Fitness and be on your own and just given access to the equipment but no direction.
-- You can higher 1-on-1 personal trainers that charge anywhere from $30 - $250 per hour
-- or you can large group classes like what Crossfit or F45 does, usually around $100 - $300 a month.
-- or do Small Group Personal Training, what we do here at Workout Hero Club, which is 80% of having a 1-on-1 trainer for a fraction of the cost.
Then you can get all sorts of crazy spending money on clothes, gear, or supplements.
But the "cost" that scares a lot of people away from getting their fitness journey going?...
... I would say it is thinking they need to give up all their favorite foods, and be starving and miserable the whole time.
Turns out -- when you do things right, are good enough most of the time... this doesn't have to be a cost or sacrifice at all.
This is where our brains kinda missed the point with food and attaching morality and "good" vs. "bad" with these foods...
... like eating certain treat like foods, such as brownies, pizza, cookies, ice cream, cake, chips, etc.
-- makes us naughty and bad for eating them. This is simply not true.
There are foods that are more correlated with good health and longevity (what I call high quality foods) and then there are other foods that aren't.
The biggest effect these foods have on our bodies is the total amount we're taking in, day after day. It's okay to have these "fun foods"...
-- ...If you are getting your Anti-fragile workouts in,
-- ...have an awareness of the max amount of calories you can take in
-- ...got your protein in
-- ..and stick to around at least half your calories coming from those high quality, natural, God made foods...
It is the basis of our "Never Skip Dessert" Meal Plan after all.
Let’s take me as an example…
Fridays are pizza day in the Spiegel household (Kason LOVES pizza!... and tacos... and sweets....
and yeah, pretty much everything for that matter. He has his daddio's appetite :) )
My max calories in a day is around 2500.
So for Fridays, after getting my workout in, I have about 700 of those calories from protein, about 100 calories from carbs in my oatmeal, and the rest of those 1700 calories come from PIZZA!
Make sense?
K, gots to go, my noble fellow Workout Hero.
May God bless your fitness journey and know it's okay to have your favorite foods if you want them as long as you're smart about it (which you are :) )
... no need to "cut off your right hand" when eating them. ;)
