Can following Jesus Christ affect my physical health? Is there a connection between physical health and spirituality? Check out this episode as we explore these questions and more with health expert and Christian, Thomas Hadley.

Hello and welcome to the OC Relevant Podcast.

My name is Marcel Hall.

Want to thank you for listening.

What we do here on the OC relevant is have short interview devotionals on

topics that are relevant to us all.

We have different speakers highlight how God's principles and ways

can impact all aspects of life.

And today I'm excited to have Thomas Hadley here with us.

First off, Thomas, thank you for joining the program.

Can you go ahead and share a little bit about yourself..

Yeah.

Thank you for having me on here, Marcel.

yeah, as you said, my name is, uh, Thomas Hadley.

I live in Irvine, here with my wife Ari, uh, of 23 years.

I have two children, Lois, who is age 15 in Edison, who's 11, been

a member here at Orange County for about 28 years, and I'm the found

the founder of, uh, lifestyle Weight Loss Systems to help people put their

weight loss and weight management on a.

Through just sustainable life habits.

Awesome.

, and those who are listening, you can't see, but Thomas is in shape.

All right.

That brother is definitely in shape, looking good.

So here, let me ask you a question.

So is there a connection between physical health and spirituality?

Short answer, absolutely.

Um, I mean, since, since I specialize in weight, I'll focus mainly on

weight loss and weight management as it relates to this connection

and as a disciple of Jesus.

I'll, I'll, I'll speak on the spirituality in terms of following

him and walking with him daily.

Um, so I mean, we've all experienced breakdown and self-control, our eating,

lack of motivation exercise after having a discouraging conversation

or conflict with someone or just having a challenge a day at.

We're at home, um, and we, instead of turning to God, we could turn to food.

We could turn to laziness.

Um, the other night I was up late doing some work on a

website, having some problems.

And man, I tell you, those pork runs and the kitchen started to sound real good.

I knew it was wrong, , so I said, you know what?

I need to turn to God.

I turned to God, prayed about my specific situ.

I fixed the problem, the website problem, and I maintain my self-control.

So we definitely need to be walking with Jesus.

Uh, and that's just kind of a practical way.

Um, and I think, um, I mean, we also know what it, what it feels like, uh, to

have been filled with the Holy Spirit, uh, filled with the fruits of the

spirit after having a great quiet time.

Um, we're motivated, self-controlled, excited about the.

And that's stuff that leads to healthy, healthy behaviors,

uh, following that time.

Now, maybe after, if you have your quiet time at 6:00 AM at about 10 30, it's

gonna start to struggle a little bit.

But hey man, that's, that's where walking with Jesus comes in, uh, on a daily basis

and walk with him throughout the day.

Um, so I mean, we've all experienced that connection between the

physical health and spirituality.

On a practical level, and I'll say this, I mean, I've been in

the fitness industry for a long.

My mom got, me and my brother started, got our whole family in into just exercising

very early, maybe five years old.

I started training seriously when I was 11.

Um, I started studying exercise science when I was 12.

I was a state champion weightlifter at 18.

I started my first fitness business when in 2006 I was in Marine Corps.

I have all this experience and knowledge, but man, that stuff is nothing.

Without the power of God, I will still go to seven.

And get them, uh, Twinkies, a candy bar I know I should get when I'm stressed out.

And so I say that to say that the most important thing is

abiding in Christ, abiding in him.

And what I mean is it's simple prayer and being in his word.

There's a lot of podcasts and I'm grateful to do this podcast.

It's a lot of YouTube videos, but there is nothing like the power of.

We really gotta stick with that no matter what your experience or background is.

And my favorite passage with all this stuff when it comes to living a healthy

life and what best descri best describes, uh, my experience and what I've seen in

others is John 15 versus four and five remain in me, cuz I also remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself.

It must remain in the vine.

Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

If you're man and me, and I am you, you'll bear much fruit apart from me.

You could do nothing.

We're all gonna bear fruit every day.

It could be good fruit, it could be bad fruit.

That's gonna determine where we're rooted, and it starts with Christ

starting that day out, having a quiet time, and just being consistent in the

morning and then throughout the day, and I'll get more into that later.

That's great.

So can you elaborate some more and help us out?

Can you share how your physical health affects your faith and

your walk with God and vice versa?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, a walk with God, it, it, it definitely affects our physical health.

Um, I mean, when we're close to him, I mean, think about it, you have

kids, you have a wife, you're close to God, you're a lot less stressed out.

You're more in control in a good.

You're more calm, you're more peaceful, you're more loving.

Obviously, all those things are gonna contribute to health.

Um, and we know that we just have more energy and we're closer to God.

It, it, it affects us physically.

It affects us mentally, emotionally, we think more clearly.

We're in, uh, in traffic.

Road rage will not be a thing.

We're close to God and it's not gonna be jacking up our, our blood pressure

and increasing these cortisol levels and, and messing up our thinking.

So we know it's gonna affect us in that way.

And honestly, when we're sitting, it just makes us tired.

, you're trying to cover your tracks.

Uh, just doing things you shouldn't be.

I mean, we were designed by nature to live a certain way

and we go against that design.

Bad things happen in our.

It's God's way of letting us know, hey, you need the course correct.

Um, now I will say this cause I do get criticized for this one.

I'm not saying that walking with God does not mean you're going to get sick.

We're gonna get sick.

I mean, Paul told Timothy, Hey, stop drinking only water.

Drink a little wine because of your frequent illnesses.

So Timothy was spiritual, but he got sick.

So I'm not saying.

If you're more spiritual, you're not gonna be sick.

Now, I will say with conviction that you'll get sick less, you'll be healthier

cuz you're living according to design.

I mean, re Deuteronomy, he tells us that the nations who are not following me, they

will have diseases that you will not get.

And so it's just a, just a, a natural principle, not as, not only spiritual.

Um, so you will get sick, but the fruit of the spirit, there

are many websites as you can.

And you go, go through each one.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness.

Just go through it and you'll see where the fruits of the spirit do actually

contribute, uh, to greater health.

And I, I, I looked at a few of these.

You go to, um, love for example, just Google it, how love impacts your Weight.

One study.

This is uh, harvard.edu.

One study examines.

309,000 people found that a lack of strong relationships increases the risk

of premature death from all causes by 50%.

Not having a loving relationships early death.

That doesn't sound very good to me.

Joy again, harvard.edu scientific evidence suggests that positive emotions

can help you live longer and healthier.

Kinda the same thing.

Now you think about peace, this thing in terms.

What's the opposite of peace?

In my mind, that would be stress, right?

Um, you go to Mayo Clinic, they say long-term activation of the stress

response system and the over-exposure to cortisol and other stress

hormones that follows, can disrupt almost all your body's processes.

This put you at risk, increased risk for many health problems,

including anxiety, depress.

Digestive problems, headaches, muscle tension and pain, heart disease,

sleep problems, weight gain, memory and concentration impairment.

So sometimes anxiety and depression.

Not always, but sometimes it can be the result of sin.

It can be the result of worry and, and not letting that stuff go.

That's peaced patience.

Well, how does patients improve our health?

Well, practicing patients will help you dissipate stress and give

you a choice about how to respond to disappointment and frustra.

That's Psychology Today.

Patients can keep us from a lot of problems.

If I can just be patient and calm and wait to respond, I could be a lot

better off in parenting sometimes.

Kindness.

Again, Mayo Clinic can decrease blood pressure and cortisol,

a stress hormone, which direct directly impacts stress levels.

People who give themselves a balance, give themselves in a balanced way, also

tend to be healthier and live longer.

And of course, we don't really need to think about this one.

We don't need scientific evidence to see how self-control impacts our health.

I mean, come on, . Think about last time you're at a dinner

table and just gave too much.

I mean, my wife is a great cook.

Like I'll go into dinnertime with a plan like, Hey, I'm gonna eat this, this, this.

I got my meal prep ready to go, and she comes out.

Meatloaf for some, uh, you know what, I'm gonna put my, my meal prepp to the side.

Put that in the fridge for tomorrow.

meat, this meatloaf, it's healthy.

But see, I can go, I can eat too much sometimes I lack self-control.

So my point is that the Holy Spirit, the fruits of the spirit will positively

impact your health, um, very clearly.

And I'd say also, I mean, the other thing we gotta think about

too, Is that the scriptures directly tell us how to be healthy.

Sometimes go through the proverbs, like I'm constantly studying health.

Just about every day I'll read something about health.

And the proverbs is so full of things that tell you how to be

healthy, how to extend your life.

So it's not a health and wealth gospel.

It's just straight facts from the Bible now.

So I mean, how our physical health helps us in our walk with.

I mean, the most important thing is to love, love the Lord and your God with

all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

It's easier to connect with God.

I'm not sure what it was that I had about nine months ago.

Man, COVID.

I don't know what it was, but I was out.

I mean, I could not connect with God.

It was just so hard to pray.

It definitely could read my Bible, so I just couldn't connect with God.

So it's very hard for me to love him from that position.

Not that you.

It's just, it makes it easier to connect with him, uh, when it comes to serving.

If, if we are healthier, if we're physically fit, we're able to help

people out, we could serve people.

And honestly, that's one less thing we're thinking about.

Like when we're sharing our faith, we don't wanna be thinking, okay, here I

was sitting in this restaurant eating all this unhealthy food, eating way too much.

Now I'm gonna share the waitress . Uh, maybe not.

Or maybe we're just not taking care of ourselves physically.

The world looks at the outward appearance, man, we need to make the gospel

attractive, uh, make the teaching about God our savior attractive and Titus.

And so it does help, it does help us to feel more confident

when we're sharing our faith.

It helps us to be, to feel confident when we're, uh, just serving other people.

Um, I had a neighbor who had this like 250 pound rock.

She needed moved in her front yard and I just happened to be parking my car.

She said, oh man, this thing is.

You said you could spend a few minutes to help me with this.

And it was a struggle, , it was a real struggle.

And I'm fit.

I, I train a lot, but it, it really pushed me to the limits.

But she was so thankful.

It just changed our relationship.

So when we take care of ourselves, it helps us to, to, to care

of the two greatest commands.

Love God, and, and love our neighbor.

And honestly, when, what our, when we're more fit physically, um, more

healthy, we can concentrate better when we're studying the word of.

Our mind needs to be in a healthy place.

So we could study, really dig into the scriptures, be the, and not

just skip by with a five, 10 minute quiet time, but just have the, the

mental endurance and stamina to sit there and study and dig deep.

So there's just a, there's just a few ways that those things are interrelated.

That's, , very insightful, to hear the connection between, , the fruits

of the spirit and the modern day.

And the connection between our physical and even our emotional and mental health.

So now , let me ask you this, help us to discern how to navigate the waters of body

positivity and being in shape and healthy

. Cuz sometimes people can, , interpret

Or misinterpret maybe what , the true message of body positivity is.

So what are some realistic expectations we should have?

Yeah, that's a great question.

The whole body positivity movement from understanding is, is talking about just

accepting your body for whatever it is.

And a lot of time, what that means from what I'm seeing is the acceptance.

Obesity and that can be a problem.

God has all, God has given all of us a certain lot in life.

We all have a body on alone.

It's not our body.

, first of all, uh, don't believe me.

Go visit graveyard, graveyards or a lot of bodies in a parking lot.

Uh, the soul has moved on.

So we gotta understand that our body doesn't belong to us and that the other

part is that we're gonna get a new body.

We get to heaven.

Sometimes the, there's this worship of the body, like, I

gotta have this perfect body.

Never, it's never gonna be perfect.

So don't even worry about that.

But what we can think about is focus biblically, what are

the biblical principles here?

Be self-controlled.

Just, I mean, that's one of the biggest ones.

Just have self-control and live in a way that's is not

debaucherous, . Um, be hardworking.

Don't be lazy.

Um, have a healthy mind.

Um, much of your ability spend time in God's word.

When we do the things, when we live according to God's principles, a

certain outcome is going to happen.

You may be 150 pounds after that, you may be two 50.

I don't know.

You may have a health disorder that no matter what you do, you're gonna be heavy,

but that is different than, so, okay, well I have no, he, no health disorder

that's causing my o obesity or my my weight challenge, but I'm just, I'm gonna

live how I wanna live and God accepts me.

But we're not repenting of, of sin.

So live according to the principles and whatever God gives you.

Be grateful for that.

Cause we're not all gonna have, you know, a muscular body or whatever

you, whatever the media says today, but don't accept the idea that I can

just accept being a certain way when the certain way is the result of sin.

Gotta repent to that.

So what I hear you saying is there's a difference between accepting a particular

body type that you have, and then there's the, um, uh, uh, results or effects

or consequences maybe of poor choices, whether it be in our health or obviously

in when it comes to the principles of God.

Am I, am I, am I hearing that?

You are absolutely right.

There was a quote, I think it was James Allen.

He says, we, we re, we rebel against the effects, but we ex, we, we rebel against

the effects, but we indulge in the cause, . So whatever the, we gotta focus on what we

put in our body and how we use our body.

And then whatever the outcome is, hey, we did the best we could with it.

So that's helpful to hear.

Because we can go to two extremes it seems like with this, right?

Yeah.

, where we can just accept things but not really see the core issue

of maybe poor choices, right?

Or we can go to the other extreme and feel like, man, I have to look

like, Dwayne the Rock Johnson.

Or, you name it, Jillian Michaels or something like that.

We could go to either extremes and therefore feel insecure maybe, or

feel like a failure, or we can go to the other extreme and I'm just

accepting anything and missing the God component , and that's maybe a

little more in the middle or healthier.

Is that also kind of what.

You're, , saying to us

precisely one, okay, I need to look like Dwayne The

Rock Johnson or Gillian Michaels.

One could be idolatry.

It's like just idolizing the body and being vain, and the

other is just being lazy.

Either one is taking the focus off of God.

The focus needs to always be on God.

And that's why I said that staying in the vine, that's the.

We're gonna all struggle in different ways.

So it's that daily and honestly, hourly walk with God that

keeps us on the right path.

We are all going to stray one end or the other.

Well, that's helpful to hear, , because if I had to look

like Dwayne Rock Johnson to be godly, man, I'm in trouble, man.

so thank you for, for clearing that up for me and, , but also not giving

me excuse here to just, uh, eat, eat pizza and, and, and Cheetos and, and

Fritos and cheese fries, every day.

And thank That's okay.

So , I appreciate that wisdom

. Thomas: One thing I will say, and I'm

all the time, Dwayne the Rock Johnson.

I watched an interview, he says, I look at my body, or I look at food as fuel.

My dad taught me that food is fuel.

And I've thought that way at times.

But the more I, the more I evolve as a disciple, the more I learn by God.

God wants us to enjoy life, man.

He really wants us to enjoy.

I mean, look at the Old Testament.

I mean he, I mean good food.

I mean r Ecclesiastes Food, wine.

He even tells them to celebrate what sweet.

I mean, he's all about good food and celebrating and having fun.

So I want people to understand that it doesn't mean you are living

this, this strict life all the time.

So enjoy, enjoy, but just do it in a godly way.

That's helpful.

No, we appreciate that.

, so then maybe give us some practical tips here.

So what are some things then that we can do to maintain or

improve our overall health?

Yeah.

The first thing I would say is just pray to God for him to

give you a vision for your life.

Because our body is here for a purpose.

And when we have a vision for our life, then that helps us

determine what our goal should be.

, I had, uh, uh, one, uh, person say to me, Hey, I want a six pack.

I said, well, how does that fit into your life vision, and.

I don't wanna give him away.

We all know who he is.

So I won't say anything about who it is, , but I, I said, well,

how does that fit into your, your vision as an disciple your mission?

Say, honestly, it really doesn't.

I said, just take that off the list, then.

It doesn't, it doesn't have any impact on you.

So pray that God would give you a vision that's in alignment with where he has

you going to your life, your eternity.

So that's number one.

Uh, the second thing I say is just pray for God to help you to be.

It seemed like such a no-brainer, but it isn't.

I run a, a, an online weight loss course called Journey Jumpstart, and one of

the course, one of the course lessons is one of the parts in it is I tell

people to pray for your weight loss goal.

And just about every time people say, I've never actually prayed

about my weight loss goal.

Yeah, you should, and he will help you because he will remove roadblock.

And obstacles that are coming your way.

Like I've had times where I've tried really hard to, to, to get myself in

better shape and oh man, one family birthday party after another, uh,

a potluck, uh, Costco pizza night.

I mean, all these different things are coming my way and I, I just give in.

But when I start really praying about it, I start seeing those things go.

And not only that, he'll also, he also gives us strength to overcome

those obstacles when they do come.

So just don't underestimate the power of just asking God for help.

That's number two.

Number three, just stay in God's word.

Read, study, meditate, and memorize.

The word of God is that is your armor.

Just the other night, like I said, I was up late and my biggest threat

for healthy eating is stay up late.

There's something demons come out or something that, that, that, that tempt me.

And I was up late and I started to say, you know what?

Forget this.

I think I'm gonna go to the kitchen and grab some of them

chips and just enjoy a little bit.

And I thought, wait a minute.

I'm, I gotta do that.

And now I have a list of, of 26 scriptures that I have either the

full thing memorized or at least the, the, um, book chapter in verse and.

First Corinthians 9 27.

I beat my body and make it my slave.

I just recited that passage and that struggle wasn't gone,

like completely gone yesterday.

I had some challenges going on with work.

I was supposed to work out at a certain time.

Uh, something happened right before I was supposed to start and I couldn't get my

workout in, so it kind of messed me up.

I thought, you know what?

I'm gonna beat my body and make it my slave.

I will get this done.

So God's word is powerful.

We have to use God's.

Read, study, meditate, memorize number four.

Uh, set specific health goals.

It can be simple as, Hey, I wanna lose 10 pounds, or it can be an action goal.

I just wanna walk 10,000 steps a day.

I want to make sure I drink eight cups of water.

Whatever it is, I wanna make sure I have a salad with every meal.

Action goals are really powerful because those action goals

are what actually lead to the.

But we also need the end result goal because that inspires us

to know what actions to take.

So you need both.

Um, number five, create a plan and follow it.

Just take the time out just to make a plan.

I tell people that you could spend a lot less time taking

action and get the results if you sit down and make a plan first.

Instead of going to the gym for 30 minutes or an hour, take the.

Spend that 30 minutes to an hour writing a plan for those goals and then follow it.

Get some accountability.

Uh, but most importantly, pray to God.

Don't lean on accountability.

Lean on God first, then accountability.

And uh, and lastly, just a little plug for myself.

Just download my free, uh, weight loss habits cheat sheet on

lifestyle weight loss systems.com.

And honestly, on that, that sheet, it all seriousness, it's a list of habits

that when you follow them, It will help you to just be healthy overall.

It covers mindset, habits, lifestyle habits, nutrition

habits and exercise habits.

Download that and just stick it on your fridge and just following that

alone can be very helpful to you.

So free, just download that.

Wow.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's good stuff.

, I'm inspired and, , feel enlightened and encouraged, , by what you shared.

Maybe you could share real briefly again, what was that website?

It's lifestyle weight loss systems.com.

Well, thank you again, Thomas.

We are so grateful for you taking the time out and.

All of this good information and insight, , for us, and we wanna thank all of you

for listening to our OC relevant podcast.

Feel free to share this episode with your friends and family.

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Thanks and remember, the gospel is relevant to us all.