What Does Healthy Really Mean?

Welcome to Life Reclaimed, a place for honest conversations about faith, healing, and real life.

We are three friends learning to walk in freedom and trust God through the messy metal.

Pull up a chair.

We’re glad you’re here.

Let’s dive in.

Hey, everybody and welcome to The Life Reclaimed Podcast.

There are three of us.

I am Kim.

I’m here joined with my friends, Brenda and Cindy.

And we’re going to tell you just a quick tidbit about each one of us.

I’m a retired educator after lots of decades of teaching.

I’m now currently an author.

I am a wife and a mom of three amazing young men.

All right, welcome, everyone.

I’m Brenda.

I am also a teacher, not retired, though.

Lucky dog.

I am a mom of four amazing young adults, a wife, and I am a volleyball coach.

And if you can’t find me, odds are you will find me in the gym.

Hi, friends, my name is Cindy and I’m a mom and I’ve launched two great adult kids.

So now I’m a dog mom with two little dogs, Honey and Piper, and you will never find me in a gym room.

If you’re looking for me, don’t look there.

But I do love spending time with my kids, and I do love taking hikes and just walks and enjoying nature.

Love it.

I think that stands for all of us.

We love being out in nature.

So thank you, Lord, for the amazing nature you’ve created.

Yes.

So we are going to talk just quickly about our next four seasons.

This was our first episode of season one.

We are going to talk about health, wholeness, healing, and freedom in these next four seasons.

So each season will have about eight weeks covering each of those topics.

So welcome.

You’ve made it to the Healthy podcast.

So one thing we are excited about, Brenda, what are you excited about in this eight-week session about healthiness?

I’m excited most to learn.

I don’t have all the answers.

I don’t think any of us sitting at this table have all the answers, but we need a safe place to talk it out and share our experiences and learn from those experiences.

Love it.

So I’m excited to hear from our listeners.

Also, I know you guys will have an opportunity to share with us your questions and your stories.

I think that’s what I’m excited about most.

Love it.

Cindy, what are you excited about?

I’m excited about talking with both of you, learning from you guys.

I’m excited about just learning, you know, taking the time ahead of these sessions to really dive in and read and, you know, just see what God wants to show me in this.

I love it.

These conversations that we have around the table are what I’m mostly excited about, I’m excited that possibly someone out there can learn a little bit about their healthy journey by us sharing a little bit of our healthy or even unhealthy journeys.

And I think it’s so cool the way God has in each one of our lives and a lot the lives of every one of our listeners has brought us to a different place where we’ve been able to realize things about him and how he made us and how he designed us in regards to healthiness.

So I’m excited for those revelations.

I think those are going to be cool.

So when you hear the word healthy, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

Well, I think, you know, culturally, we think of a healthy body.

We think about, you know, working out, getting enough sleep, our nutrition.

Wait, you said you didn’t want to go to the gym.

Well, we think about it. Feel guilty for it.

Right.

The guilt.

Right.

But I think what we’re trying to do here is really dive a lot deeper into our whole health and what that looks like.

Love that.

Health.

Healthy, mentally, healthy, emotionally, healthy physically.

They’re all connected.

You could be in their best physical health, but mentally you’re eating away , you know, or emotionally, your heart is breaking.

So I think we’re diving into this topic of being healthy because we need that opportunity to explore areas we need to work on.

I love that.

And I’d actually add spiritually.

So mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, I think all of that defines our healthiness.

And I think we can get sidetracked with, oh, I have to look a certain way because that’s what society says.

So have to go to the gym or I have to do workout, not to say that we don’t.

I’m just saying that can’t be the only part of being healthy, right?

I also have to have that mental health.

I’ve got to have my spiritual health.

If I don’t have that spiritual health, I know for me personally, if my spiritual life is in shambles, my mental health, my physical health, my relational health, like pick a health, all of it kind of goes bad.

So I’ve done definitely learned to get my spiritual health first.

And if you’re not a believer of Jesus, totally fine, you cannot worry about it.

But we will talk about our experiences from Jesus’s point of view, how he has saved us in some areas.

And for me , that spiritual health has really helped straighten a lot of the other healthiness in my life.

Does that make sense?

Mm.

Absolutely.

I totally agree.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I guess that explains why we’re starting with healthy instead of one of the other ones.

So who taught us what healthy was supposed to look like?

I think that starts as a child.

What your examples are that you see on a daily basis.

Even from how do they take care of themselves physically?

How do they eat?

What are their bad habits?

To how they respond to arguments, to somebody ticking them off because they took their parking spot in the parking lot.

Or you rolled into your campsite and somebody else was in your assigned campsite.

How did your father respond to that?

I think that all of that plays into your, how you’re supposed to respond and what your health will look like later in life.

And you have to maybe break some bad habits that aren’t so healthy.

And so let’s go deeper for a second.

What do you mean?

What do I mean?

If you come out of a household where your first instinct to respond in an emotionally engaging argument is to attack someone and that’s what you saw, that’s what you experienced.

And then now you’re out as an adult and that’s how you treat people.

That’s not healthy.

And it might take somebody coming back at you or you making a poor mistake and then, oh, this is not how we treat people.

I don’t want to be treated like that.

And then having to work through the pain of where it came from and why I got there.

So that might have been an aha moment for somebody who hasn’t gotten to that place yet.

Yes, maybe an aha moment.

Yes.

But I actually agree with that because if you have been modeled unhealthy , you may not recognize that that is unhealthy.

And so being able to decipher what was healthy and what wasn’t healthy from your childhood is probably a really critical journey that you have to then start once you’re an adult.

Yes. Yes.

Yeah, 100% it is your family that’s going to show you.

You know, we get up in the morning and we work out before we go to work, or we get mad at one another and we throw things and scream and then walk out the door and slam it, and then we come back and we don’t want to talk about about it.

Or whatever.

Whatever you grew up with, that’s all you know.

And until you’re older and you start, I mean, for me, leaving home and going to college and living with other people, I mean, when you’re younger, sure, you spend the night at a friend’s house or whatever, you see how other people live too.

But, I mean, until you really start to launch and start living with other people, you realize, oh, wait a minute, they don’t do things like I’m used to, you know?

Yeah.

So did I ever tell you guys that I was a ninth grade health teacher for like nine years?

What?

What?

This is new for us.

How did that go?

Did something we were just talking about relate to to that?

No, I mean, you asked, you asked, where do we learn about hell?

And it made me think, oh my gosh, I was a teacher for my years.

That was a long time ago that I did that.

It’s interesting you bring that up because it takes me back to my health class.

Yeah.

And we learned a lot about physical health.

Yeah.

I don’t remember a lot of conversations about myself. Mental health.

No.

No.

Or spiritual health.

Or spiritual health.

Or emotional.

Yeah.

Or em emotional health.

It was definitely all physical and, you know, sexual health.

Right.

But that was it.

So we’re getting a glimpse of that.

I know that that’s shifted a lot now for our youth.

We talk a lot about mental health in the education field now.

But for us and our generation, I’m I will be 53.

So I’ve been around a little..

It’s okay.

I got to beat by a couple years.

I will be 55.

So we’ve been around a little bit and we didn’t grow up with that, those health conversations.

No.

We’ve learned that over the course of time.

And I can remember being in college and this one of my neighbors in the dorms asked me, why do you respond so aggressively when someone has basically a different way of doing something?

Or you just didn’t like what they did, but you don’t keep quiet.

You respond aggressively.

Like you are out with it.

I was, I do?

That’s not normal?

Yeah.

All right.

Well, because they should know how I feel or they should know or and it was took a lot of years and a long time to recognize that, no, you actually get further with gentleness than you do with aggression.

Oh, what’s that saying?

You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar?

Yes.

Yes.

Is that true?

It is very true.

You know, Jesus, and Jesus calls us to be gentle.

Wow.

So have you felt the pressure to look healthy while not feeling whole?

Absolutely.

When?

You know, just going through relationship things, you know, things that are happening at home and then, you know, going to work and putting that smile on for the kids, you know, and just pretending that life is fine in front of your colleagues.

We all do it.

You know, everybody, you know, you want to appear that everything’s put together and you’re healthy when inside , I mean, I know we’ve all gone through that.

You know, you’re falling apart.

For sure.

I I told you that if you wanted to find me, you could find me at the gym.

I do enjoy a good workout.

But I will admit that there was a period there where I was doing that because my insides are dying.

My heart is breaking.

So I want to look good on the outside.

Because if I’m physically fit and I look good, then that’s all people say. And I don’t have to worry about showing anything else.

Not healthy.

I wouldn’t give that advice to anybody.

Don’t do that.

You have to work through those things on the inside to be healthy also and still get to the gym.

And still get to the gym.

Only for better motivation.

Yes.

Yes.

Strength.

I think that actually of the vices you could choose when you are not healthy, the gym is a better vice than other behaviors that we see.

I mean, people go through addictions, people go through devastations, people blow up their lives.

I mean, there are a lot of alternative ways to do it.

So while I hear what you’re saying, don’t use the gym as an excuse to not deal with your pain and your things that you’re dealing with, I also want to encourage you that if you’re going to need an escape or a vice before you can get to a therapist or a trusted friend, choosing a healthy vice is better than an unhealthy one.

I don’t know.

I never looked at it that way.

Yeah, you’re right.

No, those endorphins.

The endorphins can help your mental health.

They do health help your mental health.

Because, and that’s actually, so I grew up at dancer my whole life.

And so being a dancer, we were taught to leave everything at the door.

It didn’t matter what problem was on your plate.

There was no room for that in the studio.

There was so much going on.

There was so many things to focus on.

And I always say dancers must have ADD because we are constantly focusing on like 12 things at once and trying to execute them to perfection and then getting yelled at because it wasn’t perfect.

And so you got to go back and do it all again, right?

But you don’t have time to carry in the trouble.

So when you walk back out of the dance studio, you can pick up your trouble again.

Only now you actually have worked really hard and you have all these endorphins.

You have this energy.

The trouble comes in at a lower level and you don’t actually carry it as heavy as you did when you first walked in.

And that literally happened every day at our dance studio.

Wow.

That’s awesome.

Yeah.

It was great.

Wow.

I don’t know if that was healthy.

Again, there could be worse things.

Yeah.

Okay.

So in your life, how would you see or define healthy, whole, healed and free?

And actually, I’m going to jump into this real quickly.

This was probably five or six years ago.

I was still not walking.

I had this random thing that happened and I had spent eight and a half years in excruciating pain, both legs from my hips to my ankles.

And, yes, take the dancer’s legs away.

That’s my form of worship.

It was wildly destructive to my life.

And I went on a journey.

I felt like I was doing the word of the year thing and I felt like the Lord had given me the words healthy, whole, and healed.

And I felt like part of my leg healing was wrapped up in everything that I really needed to look at being healthy, whole, and healed from every aspect.

And so I spent five years with the same words because there was so much work to do in each of these areas for me.

And I would not say that I have arrived, but I would say I’m a lot farther in my journey at becoming healthy, whole, and healed.

And recently, one of the ladies in our Bible study, we’re in the same Bible study together, Brenda, Cindy, and I, and she had added the word free to it.

And it really resonated because when you become healthy and whole and healed, you can actually also release all of those things and enjoy the freedom that you have in Christ.

I was introduced to these words through Kim.

It was an eye opener to think I’ve been doing so much work, but not really being able to put words to it or an understanding to what I was working through in my heart and in my mind.

So I really resonate with free.

That’s actually what my word is of the year.

2026.

And I just free, free indeed, right?

Free to surrender, free to heal, free to be healthy, free to be whole.

And I look at everything now through that lens.

I love that.

Like, before I commit to something new, before I step out into the day, like, what am I going to do to be free, to live free, to show that I’m living free and to give credit to Jesus who’s freed me.

Love that.

And before I was asked to do something at work and I thought, who do you ask to do something?

You ask the person who’s doing everything already.

And I, I was like, you know, I’m going to have to think about it.

As I normally don’t, people.

You’ll, I’m like, I’m, yes, ask Brenda.

Yes.

And I thought about it and asked that question.

Does this free me, does this give up, does this free me of time?

Does it free me from something else?

Does it take away time from my family?

Does it, what does it do?

Wow.

And I had to say no.

That word.

Because of that word.

Wow.

Yeah.

And it was freeing to say no.

With a good conscience and not feeling guilty about it because you have thought it through, prayed it through, and decided it didn’t carry the freedom that you were looking for.

Wow.

That’s an amazing progress.

So sit with these words, write them down.

Healthy, whole, healed, free.

Resonate on them.

Pray on them.

I’m looking at them through a different lens and just part of my personal journey.

I see free, whole, healthy, a lot different, just walking through a separation in the last 15 months.

And I think that this last year, the free that I thought of was just this new found freedom and being whole within myself, feeling so much healthier on my own.

But the healed part takes a long time.

And I think I’m having to kind of stop and or just slow down with my freedom and getting out there and whatever and realize I need to take time to heal.

And that includes a lot of a lot more saying no to my availability, you know, because you think, oh, no, I can go.

I’ve got I can do this now.

So I’m going, going, going, joining different things or whatever. But I’m not really taking the time I need to just stop and think and work on healing.

So I think for me this year, it’s really a lot more about the healing.

And so again, that’s just part of this journey, part of this podcast, just being excited to really explore that and hopefully just, you know, talking with you guys, reading scripture, you know, together, it’s going to help in this healing process.

Man, I love that.

Thank you for your vulnerability and your story.

It is so important.

I just want you to know we are always going to be honest, as honest as we can be.

And so sometimes we’re going to say things that are just our truth.

We’re going to tell you stories from our life and the three of us have lived it, man.

We’ve got some stuff to talk about.

But I so appreciate your journey.

And I feel like one of the times we were in Bible study group together and I talked about the idea that we have all these bags, like luggage bags that we carry.

We’ve got them strapped over our backs.

We’re holding them in our arms, double armed.

And we’re carrying all this luggage as far as we can.

And Jesus is like, you don’t have to carry them anymore.

Like you could literally just set them down and I have literally come so that you are free, that you are healed, that you are restored.

Like, I never wanted you.

This is Jesus speaking.

I never wanted you to be burdened with sin and shame and regret and guilt.

None of those things were on my agenda for your life.

And so I died on that cross so that you could be free indeed.

And that is so amazing to me.

I mean, it just blows my mind.

Praise Jesus.

Yeah.

So let’s talk about, I guess we kind of talked about what’s hard for us right now.

What do you think is the most hopeful word of those four for you?

You’ve said freedom?

I said freedom.

I think freedom is my is the most hopeful word, free from shame, free from guilt, free from sin.

And that brings so much hope and joy into your world, no matter what circumstances are going on.

I think the hardest for me is the whole.

Right now.

Yes.

Being pulled in so many different directions, you know, working through pain that I feel like has caused so many holes shattered.

And I don’t want to put Band-aids on things anymore.

I think we put Band-Aids on things and think we’ve, we fixed it.

The hole’s not there.

We’ll just put the Band-Aid there and move on.

And all eventually we know what happens to Band-Aids.

They fall off.

And when they fall off it, there’s your hole again.

Then you’re picking at it again or somebody’s picking at it again.

Something, you know, the enemy is working double time to make sure you don’t forget that hole, that pain.

And so I don’t, I don’t mind scars.

Jesus had scars.

I want to get to that place where they are mended and scarred over.

And maybe there’s just going to be a remembrance there so you can remember how far Jesus has brought you.

Love that.

But that would definitely be, I think, the challenge right now.

Okay.

And you, your most hopeful and most hard words?

Hopeful for healing.

Love it.

For sure.

And, yeah, the wholeness, the idea of being whole, that’s just going to be a process to get to.

So I have a quote I was going to read.

I don’t know what you guys think about this, and I’d have to find her name. (Note: Her name is Madeleine Deyzel from the YouVersion Bible Plan: Wholeness)

It was from a devotion that I was doing.

She said, the journey of wholeness is one of discerning what areas of our life we need to surrender our need for control over.

Okay, wait, read it one more time for us. That’s so good.

The journey of wholeness is one of discerning what areas of our life we need to surrender our need for control over.

Wow.

That’s good..

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Yeah.

That’s be super good.

Yeah.

Well, on the idea of quotes, I brought in 1 Corinthians 10:31, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.

And at first, when I looked at this as a young person, when I, because I came to Christ at like the age of five.

So for me, this was more about doing, you know?

And I didn’t understand the last line of it as well.

Do all to the glory of God, meaning make your choices. That are going to not only bring the glory, but be pleasing to him so that you’re walking with him and not away from him.

And I feel like sometimes, you know, when we’re starting to think about being healthy, we can think that healthy is apart from him.

And I think that’s not what the Bible tells us.

You want to read our next verse?

3 John 1:2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

What do you guys think of that verse?

I love that.

What version is that?

That one is NIV.

So 3 John 1:2.

He’s actually talking to Gaius at the time.

I think that’s how you say his name.

Don’t judge me if that was wrong.

But he’s saying, you know, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

And I thought that was such a good, deep definition of healthy.

Yeah, I love, you know, right there, it’s connecting your health to your inner being.

You know, not your outer being.

Right.

But your inner being, your soul.

Yeah.

You want to read our next one?

Yeah.

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.

So I have pioneered a lot of dance programs at a lot of schools.

One of the schools that I worked at was in the Bay Area, and we wrote this on the floor in the center around a dancer doing like an extravagant, really hard pose, obviously.

But my point was, it’s not just what we do physically.

If your body is truly a temple that the Holy Spirit lives in, and it is if you are believer of Jesus and a follower of, you know, Christ, then your job is not only to care for it physically, but also all of the other things we’ve talked about emotionally, spiritually, relationally..

Because if you have God inside of you, how would he speak to that person you’re about to speak to?

If you have God inside of you, why would he eat or restrict himself from eating those things?

Right?

All of the behavior patterns, all of the things start to kind of break down because they don’t make sense if you are filled with the Holy Spirit and you know that that body is belonging to God.

So, I mean, dealing with dancers, we always have body shame, we’ve got body dysmorphia, we’ve got anorexia, bulimia, you know, healthy to us is different, I think, than it is to most normal people.

But this verse, for me, always reminded me that if I was bought with a price, then that price is, it’s like a slap in the face if I’m not respecting the sacrifice that Jesus made on that cross .

So that’s kind of my thought on that.

What do you guys say?

I think sometimes people take this verse here, these two verses.

Out of context.

Out of context.

For sure.

For sure.

And you hear crazy things like, don’t pierce your ears and don’t get tattoos.

And, you know, don’t dye your hair.

Like all the crazy things you hear around this.

That’s not what this means.

What?

This is treating your body with love.

Right. 

In honor of God. Who is inside of it? Who is inside of you.

And I truly think God likes a good tattoo.

I personally don’t have any tattoos.

That’s not what this means.

This is using your body and treating your body in a way that keeps your relationship with Jesus healthy.

I love that.

I think, too, you know, the idea about your mental health, you know, it’s not stated in this, but our minds are a part of our body. Too.

And so taking care of our mental health, taking care of our minds.

And you know that includes sleep, that includes the good nutrition and that kind of stuff, but it also includes rest, restoration, you know, so that I’m mentally sharp and at my best.

That’s important for God, too.

I love that.

So you’re saying self-care is okay?

Uh-huh.

Yes, please.

I don’t think I’m very good at at self-care.

Maybe that’s what I’m supposed to learn this season.

Is rest your word for this year?

Oh, no.

It might be mine.

Is that yours?

Is it?

Seriously?

That’s amazing.

Yeah.

How did you guess that?

That was good.

I think when we’re talking about rest, and if you are a believer, we’re not talking about sitting on the couch, vegging out and while watching TV.

Right.

We’re talking about taking 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes, however long you need and can set aside for you and Jesus.

Right.

To reflect and learn and be in the Word, you know, recently been doing this study and, you know, it’s being humble enough to be honest enough with yourself to know where your pain is at and then do the hard work so you can get to that place of being healthy, whole, healed, and free.

I love that.

You know, I think sometimes binge watching can be a sign of numbing and we talked earlier about like healthy habits.

That has become a normal habit for most people, binge watching things.

But I’ve’ve started to come to the realization that if I have enough time to binge watch a show or a series or, you know, even watch one episode, then I probably had enough time to do my devotions that day.

And maybe that wasn’t my priority unless I’m doing it after I’ve done my devotion.

Ouch…

So we’re getting real.

So I I just wanted to say I’ve been really trying to pay attention to what are my numbing techniques? What are my vices, what are my behaviors?

Because I really want to make sure that I’ve got healthy things set in place because I know if I set up a pattern that becomes a habit, because I’ve done it enough times, then I, when faced with a quick decision or a choice, I can default to my habit because I’ve already put it in place that I’ve got to have some time with God in the Word.

I’ve got to spend some time with him and prayer.

And on a good day, I’ve got to dance through, you know, for my worship because that’s what I do.

So Yes.

Yes.

I think you hit it on the head there, though.

We’re not saying, don’t binge watch a show.

Right.

We’re asking you to reflect on what is the motivation behind binge watching the show.

Because I have done it. Plenty of times.

For sure.

You know, but what was the motivation behind it?

And that’s what you reflect on.

And if you can be honest with yourself and say, well, I’m good.

I’m doing it with family..

I did my devotion.

I’m right with God.

I’m, I’m good.

I have this time, then you go for it.

But if you sit back and say, no, I’m ignoring the pain, I don’t want to open my Bible.

I don’t want to be on my knees.

Then I don’t want to have that hard conversation.

Then that’s something, you need to be humble enough to work through for yourself so you can move forward.

Okay, well, this has gone really long.

But I’m just going to ask a couple of questions really quickly as we wrap up.

Who do you hope finds this podcast?

I hope it’s someone who needs to know they’re not alone.

Excellent.

You’re not alone.

There are three of us here and we each have a story.

We each have pain.

It’ll all come out.

We’re bringing it here to the table because this is where we find healing and safety and a non-judgmental atmosphere to be able to grow and heel.

And I know that there are plenty of other women out there that need the same talk at the table.

Yeah, we were meant to do life in community.

And I think just kind of growing our own little community here of other women who are just going through stuff like we are.

If, you know, you stumbled across this podcast, I don’t believe in accidents.

And so, you know, maybe you’re meant to be here with us and maybe you can share part of your story with us too.

Love that.

So good.

So good. All right.

And I might add, we’re not therapists.

We’re not.

Legal advisors.

Legal We’re not.

We’re not theologians.

We are literally just everyday women living everyday lives.

We also don’t decide and determine your salvation.

No.

Not our job.

And we recognize there’s so many more of us out there that need this type of community.

The reason why we wanted to open up this conversation that we are having around the table is we were debating about the idea that if the three of us have had experiences that that have had lifelong thought patterns and behaviors and habits, we were wondering how many other people have also had those things happen to them.

So we just wanted to open up our conversation and we hope that it resonates with you and we hope that you stick around and find all four of our seasons that are upcoming to be really helpful.

We’re going to bring you some guests.

We’re going to bring you some insight.

We’re going to bring you the word of God.

But how about any one of us want to close in prayer today?

Lord Heavenly Father, all glory, all praise to you.

Thank you for this opportunity to share our stories, the journeys that you created, that you’ve walked through us, that you’ve carried us through, and I pray for each listener that they would be blessed by our conversations and our stories.

And I pray for people who aren’t our listeners yet, or that you would bring them here to life reclaimed so that they can be again reclaiming their life.

Lord, we love you and we praise you.

Amen.

Amen.

As we close, we pray that you would notice Jesus meeting you in the ordinary moments of your week.

He loves you.

He sees you.

He is fighting for you.

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Until we are together again, may the grace and peace of Jesus go with you. 

1 Corinthians 10:31 – so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.

3 John 1:2 – Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

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.