I truly believe that in order to find success on our health and fitness journey, we have to fight through the funk and no, I don't mean the funky smell after your leave your clothes in the gym locker for too long.  I'm talking about that emotional funk that prevents you from doing what you are supposed to be doing. Do you dive into a brownie sundae after a rough emotional day hoping to find comfort? Do you plop in front of the couch and stare mindlessly at the TV when you are stressed rather than doing the workout you had planned? Our emotions have a way of controlling our lives, even to the extent that our health becomes at risk because we simply lack the motivation to do anything about it. We don't feel like it, and for so many of us, that emotional response wins over.

Now, let me say this.. I don't say this to condemn you, I say this to sympathize with you. There have been many of times I have sought comfort at the bottom of my ice cream bowl or shoveled chocolate chips in my mouth as I made the trip upstairs to begin the battle of bedtime with my boys, after a particularly hard day. However, more times than not, it is not comfort that I find, it's guilt for once again falling to the emotional eater deep inside me.  As a health and fitness coach, who encourages women on a regular basis to find comfort elsewhere, I will openly say that I struggle with the same things. We are human and our our emotions can be a powerful beast, can't they?!

So, what do we do with this? How do we get around our emotions and find the results that we are truly after? One thing I have noticed is that when I'm in a funk, there is something weighing heavily on my heart. When I am hurting on the inside it has a way of affecting everything else going on around me. That is when I have to remind myself to bring it all to God and ask him to to help me examine my heart and resolve any issues that are preventing me from having peace. Perhaps someone has wronged me and I need to forgive them? Maybe I am stressing and worrying over a situation that I have little or no control over and need to give it to God and have faith that he will take care of things? Don't be afraid to lay your struggles, worries, and desires at the feet of God. God says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28. Through him, we can go to him with our funk and our bad days and give it to him. Through him we can find peace. The bible also tells us that he sustains us. Psalm 3:5 says, "I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me." If you look up the word sustains in the dictionary, it means 1. to give support or relief to; 2. To nourish; 3. To support the weight of; 4. To bear up under. Can you imagine God doing this for you? No matter what is causing that funk, he is there giving us support or relief, he's nourishing us, bearing up under us and taking the weight off of our shoulders. Let him take off the burden, so you can do what you need to do.

Now, I will tell you this... there are going to be days where you aren't going to feel like working out. It happens to all of us. Take my advice and do it any way. I have found the greatest healing comes after a workout. Sometimes we need to be broken down to exhaustion to build ourselves back up, to restore that peace within us. Physical activity has a way of releasing chemicals in our brain that naturally make us feel happier. Don't rob yourself of that. Do the workout any way and see how much better you feel afterwards. Worse case, you feel accomplished for doing something even when you didn't feel like it. Lean on Him, and through his strength, you have the ability to achieve every goal you set for yourself!