The Narrow Path wellness Coaching
The Narrow Path health coaching is about bringing your diet and lifestyle in alignment with God’s plan for how we are supposed to eat, sleep, move, rest and connect. It teaches you to embrace the truths that God has given us for how our body works and what it needs to be healthy. This is often in conflict with our personal habits and definitely in conflict with the standard American lifestyle. When we inherit or create lifestyles that ignore natural laws, there are consequences to our choices. It is not until you align your choices with God’s truths governing how you were created to live, that you can have the life filled with health and peace and joy that He intended for you.
The Narrow Path requires requires effort, intention and discipline to stay on. Anyone who promises a healthy, purpose filled life without effort is peddling something other than the truth. Seeking truth and aligning your life with it, requires effort. It is about doing what is right, not what is easy.
The good news is that one of these truths is that you are not intended to make this journey alone. God designed us to rely on one another and on Him. We are literally created to draw on God and each other for strength in our weakness. Our self reliant nature often fights this truth yet when we surrender to it, the result is a beautiful giving and receiving and unity that is not possible otherwise. TNP coaching embraces this truth and leverages it for you through my personal support every step of your journey. My coaching is not an “I say, you do” teaching style. Think of it more as the two of us on a journey together seeking out truth and sharing wisdom and encouragement along the way. You will be the hero of your journey. I am your guide and my role is to support you along the way with all of the tools, the inspiration and encouragement that you will need. More importantly, my coaching and my faith will also point you to God for an infinite source of strength, wisdom and courage for your journey.
I used to believe it was enough to have knowledge, but experience has taught me differently. Many medical professionals in the health care system have knowledge. Many clients and coaches bring a wealth of knowledge. Yet wisdom still eludes them. Wisdom is not the accumulation of knowledge, it is the application of truth. This is what my coaching is based on and differentiates my philosophy from others. My role and value as a coach is to seek the truth and share it with you. To sift through sometimes complex subjects and simplify them down to easy to understand truths that together we can apply to your life.
Wisdom is not the accumulation of knowledge, it is the application of truth.
The 5 pillars of health
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EAT: Our bodies are created to be fueled by whole foods rich in nutrients and fiber.
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MOVE: God created our bodies to move often and move naturally all day long.
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SLEEP: Proper rest is the number one mechanism for our bodies and minds to repair themselves.
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CONNECT: We are created to connect with others, with God, and with His creation
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THINK: Actions flow from beliefs. How we view God and ourselves determines how we live our lives.
TNP Health Coaching
What would “eat, sleep, move, rest” look like 2000 years ago?
It doesn’t matter if you believe in creation or evolution when it comes to the truth that our bodies are not designed to live the current lifestyles that we lead. Rewind the clock to a simpler time and you will see the drastic differences in lifestyle.
EAT: We would be eating whole foods. Mostly plants with some lean protein. There would be zero processed foods and all of the oils, sugars, fats, chemicals and toxins that come with them.
SLEEP: We would wake up when we were done sleeping. An alarm is not necessary when you’ve slept enough to complete the repair and restoration process that happens each night while you get restful sleep. Technology (lights, computers, tv’s, cell phones) interferes with this natural rhythm and results in less time sleeping and more time staying up late which is conflict with our bodies natural rhythm.
MOVE: Our lives would be filled with natural movement all day long and look nothing like the sedentary lifestyles that we currently live. Even the minority of us who get some exercise typically cram it into a 45 minute session. Our bodies were not meant to sit all day behind a desk only to come out for 45 minutes of movement only to go back to doing nothing all night on the couch. Life would have been filled with natural movement all day long walking, bending, lifting and carrying things that were a necessary part of life. Movement was a necessary component of providing food and shelter. Our bodies were created to thrive on this type of movement so when we adopt sedentary lifestyles that they were not designed for things start to go wrong over time.
REST: Each day would conclude with rest at the day’s natural end. Staring for hours on end at the glowing screens of our tv’s, computers and smart phones is completely unnatural and results in little to no true rest. Quiet evenings would be filled with things that inspire us and fill us back up.
CONNECT: We would spend all day connecting with people and nature. We are created to be constantly connected to God and His creation. The lifestyles that we are living no longer align with this truth and have significant consequences. This “connect” pillar of health is the common thread through all of the other pillars. We would have connected with each throughout the day as we worked and when we ate and that would have carried over into the evening as we rested and slept.
What does this mean for my health today?
To eat, sleep, move, rest and connect like we were created to requires intention, thought, effort and time. I know what you’re thinking… “I don’t have time”. Time is factor not an excuse. “I don’t have the energy”. You don’t have energy because you’re not living how God intended. These natural laws don’t care whether you feel like exercising or not. Don’t care if you’d rather have pizza than a spinach salad. Truth is still at work every second of your life whether your thoughts and behaviors are aligned with or not. You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of your choices.
“truth is still truth even if no one believes it. A lie is still a lie even if everyone believes it.”
How do we know these are truths?
Human history inside and outside the bible clearly illustrates the profoundly simple truths that governed our lives for thousands of years. In addition to that, the few remaining Blue Zones demonstrate what we have known. Blue Zones are areas of the world where these simple truths are still embraced and life more closely mirrors how we were created to live. The result is the longest living populations of centenarians in the world. Where other fad diets and trendy exercise routines common in western cultures fail, the Blue Zones shine brightly. They don’t need some questionable study results to prove they work because they have hundreds of years of proof. Living the simple lives our ancestors did not only results in living longer it results in living better.
“you are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of your choices”
What happens when you leverage your faith?
What if you could take a pill that would:
Reduce your risk of dying today by 29%
Lower your risk of heart disease by 20%
Lower your risk of high blood pressure by 40%
Reduce depression, anxiety and fear
Strengthen your immune system
Improve your mental health
Lower your risk of all chronic disease
Improve your fitness
Help you live longer and be happier
Have ZERO negative side effects
Provide healthier habits and lifestyle choices
Would you take that pill? I would. The bad news is that pill doesn’t exist. Be assured that if it did it would be front page news everywhere! The good news is you don’t need a pill. All you need is faith! A mega study analysis was performed that looked at the results from 42 independent studies of more than 126,000 people. The results of that mega study showed that people who claim to have a spiritual life were significantly healthier than those who do not. The benefits from the table to the left were simply from living a life of faith. Not from taking a pill but from aligning your actions with your faith! If that was a drug and could be monetized the world would be scrambling for a piece of the trillions of dollars that people would spend to get those benefits. You can get them for free.
If you are interested in coaching that leverages your faith to improve your health, please click here for a free 30 minute session to see if my coaching is right for you.