How I Improved My Health In 2024

Five Things to Consider as You Move Well Into 2025

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2025!

The New York Times recently featured an article regarding a new trend of microdosing Ozempic. Some people who go on the drug have terrible side effects, so this new trend of low dosing has drawn attention.

Friends, before I go any further, I want to make sure you hear me state once again I am not against medicine. Medicine is a mercy for people in certain circumstances. If you are on this medication, please know I throw no shame. If and when I share anything about this cultural moment of this particular weight-loss drug, know I'm only trying to cover the spread. Some people could benefit from this medication, AND many people are being offered this medication who either don’t have a medical need or feel conflicted about taking it.

My great concern about the rise in the use of these medications that lower appetites and quiet the brain’s reward pathways is that many bodies will shrink in size because the sad truth is that the world is nicer to people who don’t take up too much room. So, with smaller body size being more achievable and always acceptable (to a point, because the world also doesn’t want you too small lest you be shamed and labeled anorexic), what happens to people whose genetic code determines a bigger size? Won’t people of bigger body sizes be even more shamed? From my vantage point, a new game of body shame is here, and it’s a game I’m just so tired and heartbroken of watching people play.

Please be informed that a smaller body does not mean a healthier body. Research supports how many people who go on this medication end up more metabolically smashed than when they began.

This truth still stands: it is possible to improve the health and condition of your health through lifestyle changes and without medical intervention.

In January of last year, my health needed help. Although my body perhaps looked good on the surface, I was in daily pain. My whole body felt wrapped in saran wrap - tight, tired, and warm. Brain fog was thick. My sleep was disrupted. I had stomach bloat, which I chalked up to the “middle-aged spread.” I could accept the changes that come with age, but my body was screaming Something is wrong! Desperate to feel better, I got on my face and asked for the Lord’s help.

In light of the options available for improving your health, I thought I would share with you the lifestyle change I made in 2024 that greatly improved my health, resulting in greater vitality and strength.

1. I was desperate for God - This, friends, is perhaps essential to love your body while wanting change. Be desperate. I’m not kidding when I say I cried out. I cried out like David in Psalm 63:1, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” This body needed LIVING water. When desperate, you will lay everything down and want to pick up and do only what the Holy Spirit is doing. Desperation is the doorway to transformation.

2. I took out the trash - I fasted for 30 days from all fake foods…aka sugar-added and/or gut-disturbing foods. I had sensed my “healthy” eating was not all that healthy. It wasn’t a diet I was doing, but a fast. I was desperately seeking and needing God. The 21-Day Sugar fast kickstarted me into seeing what God sees for my health. As Lisa Bevere said, “A diet will change what you see, but a fast will change how you see.” Pretty quickly, I could see how I was using foods that the Holy Spirit was telling me weren’t working for me in this season of life.

3. I moved more and worked out less - Yup! This was a big game-changer. The way I was working out was only spiking my cortisol day after day and keeping it spiked. When cortisol is high in the body, and you have excessive inflammatory foods in your diet, your body swells, everything hurts, and it’s hard to think clearly. I stopped doing high-intensity exercise of any kind during my morning workout time. I allowed myself to walk on a treadmill, bike, or elliptical at a leisurely pace while reading a book. It was delightful! At first, the enemy and my flesh tried to tell me this was a waste of time and I was going to “lose my fitness level.” I had to fight back the lie with the kindness of the Holy Spirit, who was hearing my desperate cry and leading me through. And I knew enough that, like achieving any level, pride is rearing its ugly head whenever a rating system is involved. Everything that goes up must come down at some point, and I enjoyed the ride. I also enjoyed moving more throughout my day, not working out more. I used my walking pad a lot more and got outside a lot more to take a walk a day. Honestly, guys, this change, partnered with removing the healthy, cruddy food from my diet, significantly changed how I felt.

4. I resistance trained - I’ve always been a cardio girl who did some weights. After reading and studying a lot on hormones and the different stages of menopause that can begin in your late 30s, it seemed right to prioritize picking up some heavier weights more consistently. Weight training keeps estrogen and progesterone levels up, which are good for maintaining muscle and healthy metabolism and mitigating the effects of cortisol - aka stress. Moving for strength requires you to move slowly. This slow movement under tension matched my lower cardiovascular training intensity. It all seemed to make a lot of sense as I stopped feeling smashed an hour after my workout, as if I needed to go back to sleep. Prioritizing resistance training three times a week has changed how my body looks, but here’s the crazy thing: I weigh more now than I have ever weighed, but I also fit back into clothes I haven’t been able to fit into since I started menopause.

5. I stopped drinking alcohol - I stopped drinking alcohol for six months. I was never a big drinker. Maybe 1-2 drinks on the weekend. But I was pretty consistently having 1-2 drinks a week for the last 30 years. If we went on vacation, that could go up to 1-2 drinks a day. I told you I was willing to lay down everything and anything that could be impinging my health, keeping me from a better way. Alcohol is a known toxin and carcinogen, and it is not like the alcohol that Jesus drank. It has no positive health effects (those studies you’ve read about red wine being good for your health are funded by the alcohol industry.) I don’t care that much about having a drink to care if I don’t drink. Since June, I have had a glass now and then. Each time I do, I know I choose between a good night's sleep or having a drink. Nine times out of ten, I choose sleep. Lead them to focus 40 – more movement, more protein, water, word

One year later, I feel like a different woman. I feel strong, energized, and clearer mentally. I don’t walk around in daily pain. The only pain I feel is an occasional soreness from lifting weights :) I can handle that. The good news is I’m no longer a woman who thinks she will need her knees replaced anytime soon. Lord willing.

The greatest gift is my ongoing dependence on the Lord and the clarity of hearing his voice, especially when I’m tempted to hurt my body with food or exercise.

Friends, God cares about everything. He cares about your life! He cares if you’re not feeling great. He can care for and meet all your needs.

If you need to feel better this year, join me for Focus 40. For 40 days, we will focus on four cornerstone habits that will improve your health and not shrink your body. The habits we will focus on are very much in line with the basics I applied to improving my health. Like me, if you aim to improve your quality of life, your body appearance can change as an effect, not the cause. If you join, you get two months of access to RW+, which gets you Focus40 and an all-access pass to all content in our membership. You get to attend our food and body addiction group that meets every Thursday evening, our meal planning and recipe library, the full library of RevWell TV at-home-workouts, and the best of teachings for your health with yours truly and a host of other amazing experts pointing you towards freedom in Christ and whole health.

Join me for 40 days and find out what’s on God’s mind and in His heart for feeling better. Sign-ups are now open, and we begin training on January 6th. Here’s a link.

Bonus: Four Free Classes With Me!

Also, as promised, whether or not you join Focus 40, join me for four Sunday evenings, starting this Sunday, January 4th, at 7 pm EST, as we meet with God in our bod(y). We will unwind our bodies with gentle, feel-good movement and renew our minds with God’s word and some health coaching with me. I hope this uncomplicated coaching time will kick off your new week feeling good and focused on what God says about your body and what actionable steps He’s calling you to take so that who you are becoming lines up with what you are doing. Here’s that link. (Invite a friend)

Happy New Year, friend! Thanks for being a person I get to learn, grow, and share with. I want nothing more than for us to live free and make Jesus known and seen with our good bodies.

This year could be your best year ever for living healthy, whole, and free, shining the love of God through your bod, and making Him seen!

Let’s do that!

Now it’s your turn to write.

Are you going to make it to class this Sunday?

What do you think of what I just shared above? Have any of the basics I’ve changed or done been true for you?