From Broken to Beautiful: How Your Fitness Resembles a Home Renovation Show!

I have a story to share with you today that gave me the best example of what is going on in our bodies when we are working out and eating healthy. I mean, how many times have you quit just becasue you’re not seeing results right?

I love it when God makes something so clear, well that is exactly what He did with this story I’m going to share. Recently, I was getting my nails done and the salon had Fixer Upper on, it’s a home renovation show. I love home renovation shows. 

As I watched this sweet older married couple apprehensively allow their old home to be torn down to the studs, and I mean even the foundation was cracked and needed to be redone, God spoke to my heart and showed me something you need to hear... a fitness transformation is just like a home renovation.

See the parallel:

• Imagine your body as a home being renovated. 
• What year was it built?
• What storms has it been through?
• How has it been cared for?
• How much work does it need to be restored?

Everyone has a different starting point, but I’m happy to share the word of God tells us nothing is impossible for Him and that we are being built in Him.

So go with me here, imagine we are watching the home renovation show together. 

Prefer video? Watch the live taping.

Phase 1: The Gut Job

The promise of a beautiful new home doesn’t come without a cost. We have to rip out the old to build the new.

Picture the gut job, they tear out the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, they rip out the carpeting, they get rid of everything that is broken, old, and isn’t working.

For us, this looks like the habits that need to go, the pantry and candy drawers we need to clean out. We come clean with our habits on how we self-sabotage, we gut our habits with honest hearts. 

Raise your hand if you’ve been trying to build your new body, thinking, eating, and lifestyle habits without God and without real change.

If it isn’t working, it’s because we have left God out. Read this scripture. 

“Unless the Lord builds the House those who labor, labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1.

Anything we set out to accomplish in this life needs the Lord as the foundation.

Your Questions, Bible Answers shares what this scripture means, “This verse reveals the key to success in any endeavor and God’s absolute sovereignty over every person and event. In any activity, we need God’s blessing. All that we accomplish in life will be for naught if the Lord is not in it. We can “build,” and we can “watch,” but it is the Lord who gives success.”

Don’t you want success? Me too, so according to this Word from God, we need His blessing. All we do means nothing if He isn’t in it. It is the Lord who brings success.

Phase 2: Putting the Dream Together

This is where the vision comes alive. Picture it they have detailed lists and plans of what needs to happen to complete this renovation. This is the part where they go shopping for new cabinets, quartz countertops, marble bathrooms, and hardwood floors. This is work, but it’s exciting work.

This is where we put our new habits together we build out our new life by finding recipes, and workouts, and we establish our why. We put pen to paper and create the goals, the plan, and the system. 

This is where our hope comes alive. Without this phase, we don’t have the new materials we need, Here the new replaces the old.

God can’t do a new thing in us with old habits.

Have you gotten crystal clear on the vision – the outcome you’re praying for?

Why do you want to get healthier? What are the hardwood floors, quartz countertops, and marble bathrooms of your health renovation? Is it being a role model in your family, for your kids, and avoiding diseases that run in your family? Is it getting off medications, looking better feeling better, sleeping better, or maybe you want to see yourself at your God-given potential?! 

Phase 2 Crafts the Vision

At the heart of the vision is the why. We need to know our why.

Habakkuk 2:2 tells us,  

“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it."

 And Luke 14:28, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” 

The enemy is trying to break you but God trying to build you. 

Phase 3: The Set Back

Okay in any home renovation show, there’s always a setback. Imagine we are watching our episode of Fixer Upper. This is where they run into an issue that could derail the whole project. 

It’s an electrical issue, a plumbing problem, or the need to rewire the whole house. Inevitably there is going to come a time when there is a major roadblock and they could quit because the unforeseen costs are so expensive. 

In this stage, the house is a mess, there is no evidence of real change and it often feels like it would be easier to give up.

How good is this comparison?

How many times do we come to this place? This is the time you want to quit your goals, you’re not seeing results. The cost feels like too much. How do you push through when you get sick, the kids get sick, your favorite workout class closes, you lose your job, or you get injured?

The setback phase is the testing phase. This is when you need to dig your faith heels in and stay the course. This is where we need to hold onto hope and remember our why.

Hebrews 10:23  tells us, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

We need to remember that quote, a setback is a setup for a comeback. This is the press on! Don’t quit phase!

Phase 4 The Breakthrough 

This is part of the show, where the problem wasn’t such a big deal after all. With the potential crisis adverted, they are back on track and making progress! They excitedly push forward and you start to see changes, the hope of a beautiful new home becomes evident. They even meet with furniture companies and maybe a designer. The vision is coming alive.

For us, this is where you start to see your hard work pay off. You can see progress. Even if no one else can, you and Jesus can see it and you can feel it.

For example, the habits you have been working on building feel more like your routine, and you feel stronger and more confident. You feel peace and grace rather than stress and perfection. Progress, not perfection right?!  You can see the light at the end of the tunnel you see things coming together.

Colossians 2:6-7 tells us, 

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”

Phase 5: The Reveal

Finally, the day comes. It’s the culmination of countless hours, and days of work, overcoming setbacks, and pushing past problems. The day is here and we can’t wait to see how it turned out.

They show the couple nervously walking up to the home, they are so excited. As they walk through the rooms they show how they went from a construction site to a finished home and it’s beautiful, and friend this is exactly what has been going on in you, every prayer, every healthy meal, every workout you dedicated to God, every time you relied on the Holy Spirit to help you…  here it is, it’s the day, you realize God has rebuilt you from the inside out. 

You glow differently when you’ve got Jesus, Amen?!

Let's Pray Together

Dear God,

Thank you for this example of our fitness being like a home renovation. Your word says that Jesus is the cornerstone, that you are the Master builder, and that those who build anything without you labor in vain. Father we don’t want to build our house on sand, we want to build in on the Rock. You take the brokeness in us and you rebuild us stronger, you reframe the old places that needed to be ripped out and made new, and you rewire the spaces that were faulty in us. In you, we are restored.

Father thank you for showing me this example to share with my sisters. God when I read what you help me write I am humbled. I know I could never do this without you. Thank you for giving me the dream to start the  Strong. Confdient. His. Podcast. I pray so many are blessed.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

What We Can Learn from Comparing our Fitness Transformation to a Home Renovation

• Unless the Lord Builds the House, those who build it, labor in vain.
• We have to get rid of the old to build the new through rewiring, reframing, and remodeling. Picture what is going on inside of you. Just like the house that is being made over.
• There are going to be problems and setbacks.
• It always takes longer.
• It’s a journey. You have to keep going.
• The last thing we see is the reveal. Every cell in us will be made new, just like the home was completely remodeled from the inside out, before we ever see the full physical results. 

I want to close with this…

I just flew home from a fall break vacation with my family. As I sat on the plane looking out the window down on the city, all the homes, buildings, and cars, I thought this is how God sees us. He can see everything, but our view is so limited. I was overwhelmed in that moment by the omniscient power and promises of God. 

Maybe you’re like me and you are waiting on answers, you need clarity, and you need a perspective shift. This shifted my perspective. I can’t see it but God can and He is working it all out.

So if you can’t see it yet, and you’re working hard, or just starting out, remember this…

God has a good plan for you. Build it with Him. Get excited. Write the vision and break it into goals and systems. Overcome setbacks by recognizing the tests are the birthplace of new habits that require greater discipline, and that God is building something beautiful out of you. 

Remember, you are Strong. Confident. His.

Kim Dolan Leto

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