Nutrition Guidelines for our CrossFit athletes: Part 3
Identify the “why” behind your goals. You have set your goals, you educate yourself on what proteins, carbs and fats do to your metabolism, you come up with a caloric requirement as well as percentage breakdown of those macronutrients to meet your goals, then you start meal prepping whole foods and have them readily available most days of the week. BOOM, you’re ready to crush your goals right?
For some people yes that is sufficient to crush their goals, but honestly for most this is not enough, and here is why: Life happens, stress happens, kids happens, lack of sleep happens, name it happens…
Without the proper “why” you will default back to whats easy and comfortable. Here is where I want to emphasize an amazing truth that is found in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.”
This is a reminder that my body is a sacred gift from God and should be treated with respect and care. My body is not my own, I was bought at a price… I choose to honor God with my body and how I treat it, how I fuel it and how I use it as an act of worship. I am free to enjoy foods and do not have to eat perfectly Paleo or Keto or whatever but know that it brings glory to God if I take care of my body.
I believe this is key in finding the “why” when days are stressful and time is short in order to not just succumb to the idol of comfort. In Timothy Keller’s book “Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters”. Keller explores the human tendency to create idols out of various things, and how these idols can distract people from God and ultimately lead to disappointment and emptiness. The book offers insights on how to identify and overcome these idols and find true fulfillment in a relationship with God.
The Idol of Comfort – this idol places a high value on personal ease and convenience, and seeks to avoid all forms of discomfort or inconvenience. It can lead people to prioritize their own comfort above all else, including their obligations to others and to God. Keller points out 4 main intrinsic idols that desire our utmost devotion. I believe the idol of comfort entices many people to trick them to believe that it needs to be worshipped above all. We will investigate some other intrinsic Idols in the following posts to shine light on the deceptive and false believe that your life is your own.
To sum it up: proper nutrition is fundamental to achieve solid health and performance goals but in itself it can become an idol on both sides of the spectrum. Identify whether it’s the lack of knowledge or lack of resolute to prepare and execute. In either case, don’t neglect the underlying motives that amount to your decisions. For many people it’s a matter of idolatry that leads to derailment due to this intrinsic idol of comfort. For some people the pendulum can swing the other way and they make nutrition an idol. We will dig into some of those in the following posts as well as on how to overcome those idols.
Spoiler Alert: the answer is Jesus…
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