Guest Post: Amanda Day shares her personal story on fitness

Why do I work out? 

My whole life into my early twenties, I was bullied for being over weight. I was bullied to the point of wanting to drop out of school, never return, go home, and curl up in a ball away from the world. I had to learn health and nutrition on my own as a young adult. At the age of twenty-two, I began to run and my desires of food began to change. Long story short, this became a huge part of my life, and I lost 63 pounds in a just over a year. So needless to say, my life changed tremendously.  Sadly, more people became my friend.

The scars of my bullies will always be there, but today, I know and believe with all of my heart and soul where my identity is. I am a daughter of the King, child of God, chosen one, beautiful in His sight, fearfully and wonderfully made. I am God’s Temple where His Spirit dwells! 

I was introduced to Zumba, four years ago and at first, I’ll be honest, I thought,”huh,no way, I can’t move like that!”  Well, I kept going simply because I LOVE music and I LOVE to dance! One class led to another and I became quickly addicted to it, in a good way! Zumba changed my life in many ways. From physical form to inner confidence.

Zumba was the only workout I found that I never got tired of.

Then a dear friend came to me about a year ago and suggested I become an instructor for Refit. Refit is similar to Zumba, but I said right away that there was no way I could ever get up in front of everyone and teach. Obviously, I still struggled with thinking I couldn’t achieve anything. I became nauseous just thinking about it! Then she asked me again, several several months later, and I began to pray about it, asking God to show me the way. HE knew fitness was a passion for me and HE also gave me the spiritual gift of exhortation. So I prayed, “Lord, if this is what I am supposed to do for You, please give me the courage and confidence to do it.” Without a doubt, the Lord orchestrated this for my life. So stepping out in faith, believing He would take away my fears and insecurities of teaching in front of a crowd, I registered for training and off I went. I became certified April 20th, 2016, as a Refit Instructor.  Even as my training began, the enemy came and said, “you know that you can’t do this, your too insecure, you don’t have enough talent…..” I became very anxious and almost felt that I needed to walk out and come home. But I serve a mighty God that told me to stay right where I was and with Him, I can do all things who gives me strength. And that is exactly what He did!  I would not be standing in front of my class teaching Refit if it wasn’t for the Lord Jesus Christ working completely through me and my dear friend’s encouragement and belief in me. You see I’m not capable of it at all.   It is only Jesus working through me to give me that confidence that I need to teach other women to be the same way: to overcome their fears, their insecurities, the negative feelings they have about themselves, that they aren’t good enough, pretty enough, fit enough or look a certain way or can’t move like the instructor can, etc….

It is my great passion to help them to believe in themelves, to love themselves and see themselves through HIS eyes and not their own. As long as we view ourselves through our eyes we will never measure up. I never ever thought I would do what I do now but isn’t that how our amazing the Father works?! He works in us in ways we never thought possible! I have been set free from the bondage of insecurity and self doubt! Do I struggle from time to time? Sure I do. It’s our human nature and the enemy’s desperation trying to creep in. But as long as I have my armor on daily and seek HIS face with all I have, I am able to defeat the enemy. 
So…I workout to have a strong temple for Jesus Christ, to do His work as He calls me to do it. To honor my body as He desires us to do (our bodies are the dwelling place for the Holy Spirit, you know), to encourage other women, make new relationships to share God’s love with them, because I love to dance, I love music, it is my 100% stress release therapy, and to be healthy for myself and my family! 

Not one day passes I don’t thank my heavenly Father for what He is doing in my life through the fitness world. It has become my ministry for Him….who knew?….HE knew! 

I’m humbled and thankful that He believed in me and had this plan for me.