WHY to Fitness
The WHY to Fitness podcast is dedicated to supporting Christians in achieving peace of mind and heart in all areas of life because every aspect of life affects our health and fitness.
Hosted by Aaron O'Connell, an IFBB Professional athlete actively pursuing a Ph.D. in Counseling and Psychological Studies, the podcast's goal is to assist Christians in discovering their divine purpose while triumphing over spiritual, mental, and physical challenges related to their well-being.
At the core of this journey is the belief that God serves as the ultimate WHY, i.e., the ultimate driving force behind existence.
In this context, fitness is our ability to overcome the obstacles standing before the goal. It extends beyond exercise and nutrition to encompass relationships, mental health, finances, spiritual growth, and life experiences.
Tune in on a biweekly/weekly to access valuable insights, mindset strategies, theological discussions, interviews, and more to achieve success, which translates into attaining peace of mind and heart across every facet of life.
WHY to Fitness
The Art of Embracing Falls
Join us as we take a deep, meaningful look at the concept of falling and the power of rising above it all! We guarantee you that this candid discussion will provide you with a new perspective about falling short of perfection and embracing it instead. We delve into how our failures and falls can be a wellspring of opportunities for growth. We share how, with faith and God’s grace, we can turn them into a redemption story, rising above our shortcomings and failures.
In this episode, we also get personal, sharing our own experiences about facing setbacks and getting back on our feet in our spiritual, health, and fitness journeys. Discover how falling is pivotal for our learning and growth and how to reintegrate when we deviate from our plans. Learn how to view your falls not as failures but as chances for growth and improvement. Together, let's discuss the beauty of falling, the strength in rising, and the grace of God that carries us through it all. Come with us on this enlightening journey, and remember: do not allow setbacks to dishearten you, instead rise above them with the aid of God's grace.
We all suck, we all stink. It's not about being perfect because we're all gonna fall this. What do we do after that fall? You don't really learn things when everything's going good. When we screw up, we have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. Welcome to the Y2 Fitness Podcast. I'm your host, aaron O'Connell, and today we are talking about rising above the fall. I'm sure you've heard those commercials Help, I've fallen and I can't get up. You know the old lady on the ground for life alert. Well, it's when we don't get up, or when we can't get up is when the real damage is done. That's when we find ourselves in a lot of trouble, when we can't get up. But luckily for us, as Christians, we have redemption, we have grace, we have mercy, and it's all through faith and not what we have done or even what we're currently doing at this moment. First, I want to start off that we have to understand our falls. Romans 3.23 says for all have sinned, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It may sound contrary, but it's literally the best news that I've ever heard that we all suck, we all stink, we all are horrible, we are all sinners, we all deserve death, no matter what your sin is, whether if you went off the deep end and did the unthinkable or if you're just gossiping, all of it deserves death. Luckily, we have Jesus who took that penalty, because falling, failing, sinning, is a part of the human condition and is a common experience. No matter how far you are on your walk, it's going to keep happening. It's going to keep happening. Yes, as you get further on your walk, what you were struggling with before may no longer be an issue, no longer be an issue, but then a new issue will rise up. A new issue will rise up and then, with the more knowledge you have, the longer length that you have walking, those things that tripped you up that may have seemed small before now actually seem huge. And I want to reweight this back to health and fitness, as I always do, as this is the why to fitness. All of us struggle in some way, shape or form, with health fitness. It's the condition of our dying bodies. It's what happened when sin entered the world. We lost that eternity and our bodies now decay. We work at the sweat of our brow, but the issue is isn't getting it perfect, it's not about being perfect, because we're all going to fall. It's what do we do after that fall, after that cheat, after doing what we weren't supposed to do? If we can get right back up, if we can get going, focus ourselves where we need to go right away, that fall actually may have helped us. We can learn lessons.
Speaker 1:Second Corinthians 12, 9 says my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And then Paul goes on. So therefore, I will boast even more about my weakness. God's grace is available even in our lowest moments. It says we most boast about our weaknesses.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, when we fall, when we sin, when we eat the foods that we aren't, what is our first response? We tend to go hide, we tend to isolate, we tend to get depressed and beat ourselves up, thinking that we let everyone down, thinking we let ourselves down. How could we keep on going and pretending like we're these great people when we just fell is what we're going through our minds. And these are all lies of the devil. We must boast about our weakness.
Speaker 1:If we sit here and say, hey, I haven't screwed up for a year and three months, what does that do? Are you puffing yourself up with pride, showcasing your actions, how you've been following the law, acting like a Pharisee, sadducee type of thing, and look at how good I am and it's the one thing I'm holding on that's going to save me. No, actions don't save us. I have faith. Such a more powerful testimony is when you do fall after that year and three months, and all of a sudden you're like whoa, I just fell hard, but I'm getting back up. I'm focusing on Christ. I'm not letting that fall define me. That is no longer who I am. That is a testimony that showcases change. That showcases how far you have come, because we all fall. We all fall Even at our lowest moments.
Speaker 1:God's grace is available to us, even if we've been going and falling for months on end. His hand is right there, ready, poised, to give us that gripping hand. All we have to do is focus on him and not focus on what we must do, because when we focus on him, we figure out what we really need to do, not just what our deceitful hearts tell us, not what the knowledge of good and evil tell us, not of some fatality pattern of this world, but what we really need to do, because the real big thing is is when we screw up, we have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. Proverbs 24, 16 says For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes. Listen to that verse. The righteous fall seven times, they rise again. Seven is the number of completion, perfect completion in the Bible. So even though the righteous fall, complete amount of times, a lot of times, they rise again. This is the righteous people.
Speaker 1:The key takeaway is we need to understand the importance of learning and growing from our falls. You don't really learn things when everything's going good. When everything's going great and you're seeing results in the gym, you're really not learning anything. Maybe consistency, discipline, but even when things are going good, it's easy to stay consistent. It's easy to stay disciplined when everything's going great, because when the things are going wrong, it becomes hard to stay consistent. When things are going wrong, it's hard to stay disciplined, and that right.
Speaker 1:There is when we can learn so much more. That is when our character gets defined. I will rejoice in my trials, the Bible says, for they produce strength of character. Well, endurance. And then endurance produces strength and character. And strength, character gives us our hope in Christ, our eternity in Him.
Speaker 1:When we go through these hard points, that's when we boast about it, when we go through our failures, when we screwed up. That's when we can learn from it. We can see where we fell. We can adjust things. We can actually see how weak we are and how dependent we need God. When we have been going and doing the right things for so long and then we fall. In the most unspeakable way it shows how much we need God, how much we are no better than anyone else. It removes our judgment from other people. It removes our judgment from those that don't know Christ, that aren't doing anything like we are. It removes our pride. It's a good thing. It's a good thing that we fall, because it gives us the opportunity to find Christ, to find true strength that comes only from God.
Speaker 1:But we need to perfect that process of getting back up. Psalms 37-24 says though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. When we get back up, we need to be focused on the Lord. We need to be praying. We need to find that community of support. If we keep falling in the same way, we need to find that community. We need to find support.
Speaker 1:That's what Y2 Fitness is all about, because there's so many people that are struggling to get to where they need to be and they aren't doing it. They've tried every way and they're stuck. Nothing's working anymore. That's where Y2 Fitness comes in to help you get back up, to re re -repr not one of my stumbling on my words, I apologize but to take all the damage that has happened from all those falls and get rid of it and submit it to God so he can make you brand new, clean. This isn't just in our spiritual walk. This is what happens with our bodies. When we keep doing the wrong thing over and over again. Then we bounce it out with this extreme diet over to the right and then we fall from that. It is damaging our bodies to the point that they get so adapted from these damaging things that now you no longer will lose the weight. Your hormones are all whacked, you developed diseases, you developed intolerances, you've developed all these negative things and you have to go back in there and regenerate it. That's what I help with, that's what Y2 Fitness helps with. But even in the scriptures, in their spiritual walk, we need to be able to get back up.
Speaker 1:I'm somebody that actually struggled a lot with this. I've been walking with the Lord for a while. But man did I screw up over and over again, and they weren't just little screw-ups. I would dive back into marijuana, hard, other drugs been in the past. I would dive into women, all these different things, and I would then beat myself up so hard because I knew the truth but it never really entered into me. Even still now I screw up.
Speaker 1:But here's the difference I started realizing that the devil wants me to live in that screw-up and be defined by that screw-up and say how dumb I am and how stupid I am. No, I'm not stupid, I'm not dumb, I just made a stupid choice. I just made a dumb choice that can be rectified. Right now, as I speak, if I turn my eyes to him, I will be made clear. I will make white as snow. I am forgiven as long as I turn back to him and as I've walked in my walk, year after year, diving into my scriptures, reading it multiple, multiple, multiple, multiple times, I still screw up.
Speaker 1:But the difference is, as I get back up quickly, I learned my lessons at a faster rate. I'm still falling, I'm still screwing up, but I'm screwing up in different ways. I'm no longer screwing up in these massive ways and stupid things, but then all of a sudden I realize they are just as massive and stupid, because now I'm affecting others. The more I'm getting as a leader in the church and in my realm, I have more of an effect on others. So the smallest little thing that I do can have the biggest ripple effect, which pains me almost even more not even almost. It does pain me even more than the stupid things that seem ten times worse in people's eyes. That only affect me.
Speaker 1:We are damaged, we all sin, fall short of the glory of God. But we need to get back up. We need to focus on the transformative power of redemption. Philippians 3, 13 through 14,. But one thing I do forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is head. I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. We need to forget what is behind and string towards what is head ahead, press on towards that goal.
Speaker 1:Go look at any athlete. Go look at anyone the top, the greatest and see how much they screw up, see how much they fail all the time. But the difference is then they go back and they put in more work. They get better because of that failure. They learn lessons from that. That's what we need to do, not only in our spiritual walks, not only in our relationships, because even in relationships this works.
Speaker 1:We're gonna screw it up, we're gonna become prideful, we're gonna become selfish, we're gonna get angry at the wrong time. Are you gonna let that define you, or are you gonna go instantly and ask for forgiveness? Are you gonna go instantly and rectify the situation and go above and beyond, not just asking for forgiveness, but going and then showing them even a heavier load of love to show how sorry you really are? To go above and beyond that's the best response. When, all of a sudden, you screwed up on your diet and you're like, whoa, I just screwed up massively, you don't just all of a sudden go oh, I'm going to go above and beyond and start working out 10 times harder. No, that's not how things work. You go above and beyond in a smart way, in a wise way. You get what you need. You don't try to balance it out by killing yourself more because of that. No, you forget what is behind and straighten forward what is head. You press on towards the goal.
Speaker 1:What is the goal? To get back on track and when we do that, our bodies actually reward us in the health and fitness realm. If you're sticking on track and it's been weeks, whatever amount of time, that you're killing it you're doing awesome. You're doing whatever you need to do and all of a sudden you do eat all that stuff. You do whatever. Have that major weekend, whatever it may be.
Speaker 1:If you get right back on track, your body's going to burn it up like a furnace. It's not used to it. It's going to be like what is this stuff? What are these toxins? Get out of me. That's when you'll start feeling yourself sweat. Your heart rate's raised a little bit higher. Your resting heart rate is up higher. Your sleep may be a little bit crappier, but that's because your body's digesting things. It's turned up. But if you get right back on track, it's going to get better.
Speaker 1:That's what I do on purpose as a bodybuilder. I go and I have these amazing times following the plan, pressing on towards the goal, but then I purposely just flood myself with major amounts of calories. I'll eat foods that I don't normally eat. Why be? So I can turn up that furnace. It's like taking lighter fluid on these hot coals and just going right onto it, it goes, but at that moment it burns a lot more wood. So I better go start putting in the proper wood right afterwards, not just squirting all this lighter food on, because then afterwards I have no more wood.
Speaker 1:It's going to die out quickly. You can't do that. We got to go back to those basics and when we do that, we learn from that mistake. We learn it, we can utilize it. We're actually taking our failures and looking at them as good things. We're taking our screw ups, looking at them as good things, because it reminds us of how much we need Christ in our lives. So let's stop complaining so much about how we fall, let's stop defining ourselves by our fall and let's rise above the fall.
