7 Lessons About Faith, Fitness, and Nutrition I Wish I Knew Sooner

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Read time: 5 minutes

Welcome to One Day Out, a weekly newsletter to help deepen your faith, enhance your health, and guide you in pursuing a purpose-filled life.

Opening Prayer
Lord, thank You for showing us that Your way is always better than ours. Help us strip away the lies the world tells us about what health, success, and discipline look like. Give us the wisdom to honor You in our bodies, our habits, and our hearts. Teach us to pursue progress over perfection, and to never forget that You are the source of true strength, peace, and joy.
Amen.

I Thought I Had to Grind Harder… But God Showed Me a Better Way
If I could go back 5 years and have a sit-down with my younger self, I would tell him this:

You don’t have to hustle your way to health.
You don’t have to overcomplicate fitness or obsess over every meal.
And you definitely don’t have to do it all on your own.

These are the 7 things I’ve learned the hard way—through burnout, frustration, and surrender—that I wish I knew sooner.

1. Faith Is the Foundation—Not an Add-On
For a long time, I gave God 5 minutes in the morning and spent the next 3 hours training… and then wondered why I still felt distant from Him.
I was trying to squeeze faith into my schedule instead of building my schedule around faith.

It wasn’t more discipline I needed. It was more Jesus.
When I finally made Him the first priority—not the afterthought—everything else got lighter.
Less striving. More peace.
Faith isn’t something you sprinkle on top of your life. It’s the foundation everything else is built on.

2. Fitness Should Fuel Life, Not Consume It
I used to chase the “more is better” mindset—double workouts, no rest days, max intensity all the time.
At the time, I thought I was doing everything right. I was shredded, always training, always “on.”
But behind the scenes, I was chronically fatigued, chugging caffeine just to get through the day, and felt miserable in my body.
I got bloodwork done, and my testosterone came back at a dangerously low 99 ng/dL.
That was a major wake-up call.
I might have looked fit on the outside, but I for sure wasn’t healthy—and it was stealing from my quality of life.

These days, my training looks a whole lot different.
I lift 4x per week. I run 3-4x per week.
I train once per day, anywhere from 45-90 minutes—and that’s it.
And you know what? I feel amazing. My energy, my focus, my sleep, my hormones… everything is better.
Because now, fitness supports my life—it doesn’t take from it.

3. Nutrition Is About Fueling, Not Restricting
Every diet promised me more discipline, more results, more control.
But it wasn’t until I started focusing on real, God-given foods that I realized…
Nutrition isn’t about punishment or restriction. It’s about fueling your body to feel and perform your best—without obsession.

4. Rest Is a Weapon, Not a Weakness
Rest days used to make me feel lazy.
Now I see them as obedience.
God created rest. He modeled it. He commanded it.
When I honor rest, I’m actually trusting Him more and myself less.

And that doesn’t mean you have to do nothing.
Take a long walk, hit some push-ups and squats throughout the day, go for a chill bike ride or hike, keep moving—but you don’t have to crush yourself 7 days a week.
If the Creator of the universe rested… I think we should too.

5. You Can’t Out-Train a Chaotic Life
No amount of workouts or green smoothies can fix a life that’s out of alignment.
If your heart, your habits, and your priorities are off—everything will feel harder.
I learned this the hard way when my life was pure chaos underneath the surface.
I was chasing fitness goals for the wrong reasons—trying to prove something, trying to control everything—when what I really needed was to slow down, surrender, and ask the deeper question:

Why am I actually training for this?
Is it to look a certain way?
To impress people?
Or to be the healthiest, most energized, most obedient version of myself so I can show up for the life He’s called me to?

Fitness should support your mission, not become your mission.
It should fuel your calling, not distract you from it.

6. Progress Is Slow, Messy, and Non-Linear
There’s no fast-forward button on growth.
Whether it’s in the gym, in the kitchen, in your business, or in your faith—progress will feel slow, messy, and unpredictable.
And for someone like me, who loves structure, goals, and control… that can be frustrating.

But I’ve learned that’s exactly where God does His best work.
Not in the mountaintop moments.
But in the ordinary, mundane, unseen obedience.

There’s a beauty in the mundane when you surrender the process to God.
When you stop trying to force the outcomes and instead trust that He is working in the waiting, the showing up, the everyday consistency.
He will give you the strength to persevere.
He will finish what He started in you.

7. Community Changes Everything
For years, I thought I had to do it all on my own.
Training. Business. Faith. Life.
But the truth is—trying to carry it all by yourself will wear you down, fast.
I learned that the hard way.

Recently, my fiancée and I joined a couples Bible study—and it’s been one of the biggest blessings for both of us.
Having people walk alongside us, speak truth over us, and remind us that we’re not alone has made our faith stronger and our relationship healthier.

We were never meant to walk this walk alone.
God works through people—through community.
Don’t isolate yourself.
Let people in.

What I’m Reading:
1 Peter & Humility by Andrew Murray
This week, I’ve been camped out in 1 Peter—a letter all about standing firm in your faith, especially in seasons of suffering and refinement. The call to be holy as God is holy has been challenging me deeply.

Alongside that, I’m reading Humility by Andrew Murray—and it’s been wrecking me (in the best way). My fiancé gifted it to me because of the profound impact it has had on her life, and I could not recommend it more. Murray reminds us that humility is not a side virtue; it’s the foundation of the Christian life. Without it, we can’t truly follow Jesus. It’s been a daily gut check for me to ask: Am I living surrendered… or still trying to control?

Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for these lessons—many of which I learned the hard way. Thank You for using every stumble, every setback, and every moment of weakness to draw me closer to You.
Help me steward my body, my health, and my habits in a way that honors You, not me.
And remind me daily that it’s not about being perfect. It’s about showing up, surrendering, and trusting that You are enough.

In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

💡 Ready to stop striving and start stewarding?
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