How Faith Can Help You Stay Consistent With Fitness

Nikkiey: Regardless of your faith background, discipline is most durable when it is connected to values rather than feelings. You are already valuable. Our bodies are already valuable. They've been given to us, they've been entrusted to us, and they're worth caring for. Not because it's perfect, but because it's yours. That's all that matters. When you approach training from that place, like I'm caring for something that has been given to me, you start to train differently. So for moms that are listening to this, when you are healthy and you're strong and you're energized, you show up better everywhere. For your family, for your work, your community, your purpose. Taking care of your body is not selfish.

What's going on, everybody? Hey, you guys. Welcome back to another episode of The WarriorBabe Show with your host, Nikkiey Stott. On these episodes, I talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident.

Today's episode is going to be a little bit different. I'll be honest, it took me some time to feel ready to record this type of episode. Not because the content is complicated. It's just because it's different. I'm going to do it in a more personal way than most of the episodes really are. So today, I'm talking about faith and fitness. Specifically, the idea of taking care of your body as an active stewardship, and as something that goes way beyond aesthetics, beyond performance goals, beyond the before and after photos.

But I do want to be upfront about something before I go any further in this episode. Some of you guys have been following me for a really, really long time. My faith has been growing over the last year. Some of you guys have even DMed me noticing a massive difference in the way that I show up to these podcasts from episode one through 50, or episode one through 100, to now. And that is because my faith is a real, active part of my life now. It shapes how I think, how I show up, and honestly, how I approach everything that I do, including this type of work. So that perspective is going to be present in this episode.

But I also want to say clearly that this episode is for every woman that is listening, regardless of where you are in your faith. Because the principles underneath the faith framing, like purpose, discipline, self-worth, showing up for yourself, these are all universal. And they apply whether you are a woman of deep faith, whether you are new in your walk with faith, whether you are somebody that is just curious about faith, or someone who just wants to understand why taking care of your body actually matters beyond the surface-level reasons. So I'm really excited about this. This is a conversation that I think I need to have with you guys, but I also think we need to have together.

First, I just want to start here because I think it is the foundation of everything else in this episode. Most women come into fitness with a surface-level why. You guys have heard me talk about this before in previous episodes. The surface-level: I want to lose weight, or I want to look better in my clothes, or I want to feel more confident. Those are real desires, and there's nothing wrong with them. But here is what I have observed over the years of working with women on their health, their body, and their journey. Surface-level motivation is not durable. It gets you started, but it doesn't always necessarily keep you going.

Think about it. If that's been your goal for years, then why are we constantly stopping and starting and stopping and starting? Because here's the reality of what a big, long-term fitness journey actually looks like. It includes weeks where the scale doesn't move. It includes months where progress feels invisible. It includes seasons of life where getting to the gym requires more than you feel like you have inside of you that day. And hard days where the motivation is completely gone, and the only thing left is the reason why you started this journey, right?

And on those days, "I want to look better in my jeans" is not enough. "I want to lose weight" is not enough. In those seasons, those surface-level reasons are not going to be enough. They never have been enough. The women who stay constant and consistent through those seasons are the ones who have a reason that runs deeper than the surface-level reason of why they want to be on this journey. I've talked in previous episodes about getting deeper into that why, but I'm going to go even deeper than the why as we continue on in this episode.

For me, and I say this from lived experience, that deeper reason, for at least the last two years, has been faith. The belief that this body is not just mine. It has been given to me. And taking care of it is not vanity. It's a responsibility. I've heard on phone calls and coaching conversations, people say that they want to look this way, and then they're like, oh, that's probably vain. And I'm saying no, no, no. It is your responsibility. Showing up for my health, even on days I don't feel like it, is an act of honoring something bigger than my own desires on any given Tuesday or Thursday or Saturday of the week.

That belief lately has gotten me off of the couch and into the gym more times than motivation ever has. And whether or not you share my specific faith, I think the principle is largely available to every single one of you guys listening to this episode. When you connect your health to something that matters beyond just aesthetics, the whole concept of your entire journey is going to change. I've elaborated on this before, but I haven't brought in the faith aspect to it. So think about it like: I'm showing up because this body was given to me, and my health is a resource that I need to take hold of every single day, that I'm responsible for. It is my responsibility.

Okay. So let me explain this stewardship concept, because I think it's one of the most practical, powerful frameworks I've ever encountered for why we take care of our bodies. In a biblical context, and again, this is for anybody listening to this episode right now. You can be curious about your faith. You can be in your faith. You can be just starting your walk with faith. You don't even have to be in your faith. But regardless, stewardship is the idea that we are caretakers of things that ultimately belong to God. Our time, our resources, our relationships, our bodies. These are entrusted to us. We did not create them. We did not earn them. And we are now responsible for what we do with them. Does that make sense?

There's a verse in the Bible, in First Corinthians, that says, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies." Now, regardless, again, of your position on that passage, I want to offer you the framework underneath it. Regardless of where you are in your faith, what's beneath that? Because I think it's genuinely transformative for how women think about their health.

Think about it like this. What if your body is not something to be punished for not looking the way that you want? What if it is not something to be dragged to the gym out of guilt, or beaten into submission with restriction? Because that is something that has been driven into our brains for so long. You're putting in the workout because you're punishing your body for the things you've given it in the last week. Or you're feeling guilt for the way that you have gained weight, so now you have to restrict yourself. Now you're beaten into submission with restriction, with not eating enough food.

What if it is something to be cared for instead? Thoughtfully, consistently, with genuine intention, because it matters. That stewardship mindset completely reframes your motivation. You're no longer trying to fix something that is, quote unquote, broken. You are maintaining something that is valuable. You are not punishing yourself into a result. You are honoring a responsibility.

That's the way that I want you guys to think about this concept that I'm breaking down for you. Taking care of your body is a responsibility. Showing up for your health is a responsibility. Believing that this body was given to you, it is now your responsibility how you show up for your health. And what that reframe, I hope, does practically is replace shame as a motivator with something that actually lasts. Because shame might get you to go to the gym on Monday. It might get you to sign up for that program. But it will never build the kind of consistent, sustainable, joyful relationship with your health that actually transforms your life.

God has worked in so many ways in my life, and now I can look back and see his hands all over it. This is literally the framework that we use at WarriorBabe. But now I'm seeing that God is working, and his hands are on it even stronger.

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So in WarriorBabe, we help you build something sustainable, where food isn't a restriction, food is a freedom. We look at your progress photos. I'm going to talk about this in a little bit: this is your journey. Nobody else's. The only person to compare it to is the person you were when you started and where you are now. You, right? And it's about building a joyful relationship with your health, rather than thinking it's something that is broken, like your metabolism being broken, or your body not getting the results that you want, and now you feel guilt because of the way you've been eating. No. We want to reframe that concept, and stewardship does that.

That framework does that because stewardship is about care. It's about taking care of what ultimately belongs to our creator. Our time, our resources, our relationships, our bodies. And care is renewable in a way that shame never is. Okay? So I hope this is making sense for you, and I hope that you guys are staying with me on this, because I'm getting pretty deep and pretty faith-based. But like I keep saying, it doesn't matter where you are. This can still be applied for you to understand the deeper meaning of why you're showing up for yourself and your health right now.

Quick break. If you're finding this episode helpful so far, it would mean a lot if you could hit pause for just a second, leave a quick rating or a review, or share it with someone who could benefit from it. Your support helps more women discover these tools to build muscle, lose fat and feel confident. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey with me.

So I want to talk about discipline, because I think it's one of the most misunderstood concepts in both fitness and faith cultures. And when you put them together, something really powerful happens. In fitness culture, discipline is almost always framed as a force. And I'm guilty of this over the years. I've leaned on people, telling them they have to be more disciplined, they have to be more disciplined. And I know the force behind those phrases has probably been very aggressive. The thing is, discipline is in the Bible. It's such a strong skill set to have.

But going back to the force aspect of it: you discipline yourself into compliance, and you override your feelings with willpower. You do what needs to be done regardless of how you feel. And there is some truth to that. As I just said, being disciplined is in the Bible. But you are constantly at war with yourself, and that war is not sustainable. So I want to reframe that and stop looking at discipline as a force. Because if you look at it from the force concept, it's exhausting. And it's going to position you as the enemy of yourself. Your feelings want to rest, your discipline overrides them. Your cravings want the thing, your discipline denies them. You are constantly at war with yourself, and that war is not sustainable.

So in fitness culture, where it's framed as a force, there is some truth to it. Consistency does require showing up on the days that you don't feel like it. But like I said, looking at it as a force is going to be exhausting over time.

When you bring it into a faith context, discipline looks different. In the Bible, in Galatians, self-control is listed as a fruit of the spirit. Meaning it is not something that you manufacture through sheer willpower. It is something that grows from the inside out. It is a natural expression of a life aligned with something larger than your immediate desires.

What I've found in my own journey, in my own life, is when my training and my nutrition are connected to my faith, especially deeper in the last couple of years, when I'm showing up for my health because I genuinely believe that it matters, because I understand my body is something worth stewarding, then the discipline does not feel like a force. It feels more like alignment. And that's why I want to get this to you guys. The way I've been aggressive with discipline in the past couple of years is mainly because, in those moments where I didn't feel the motivation but needed to lean on my discipline to show up, I was feeling a pull in the direction of what I'm now sharing with you. It didn't really make sense then, but it makes sense now from being deeper in my walk in faith.

So I'm genuinely showing up for me, genuinely showing up for my health, because it matters. And it doesn't feel like a force. It feels like alignment. It feels like integrity. And that's a really important value of mine: doing the thing that is consistent with what I actually believe. That is a completely different experience of discipline than grinding through workouts out of guilt or fear.

I want you guys to think about this, because how many of you are going to the gym after a holiday weekend, or after the weekend, and you're beating yourself up because you feel guilty about something you ate, or the meal you had, or the multiple barbecues you were at, or the drinks you had? Or you show up out of fear because you don't want to gain back the weight that you just lost. You can show up in that context, but you're going to feel exhausted doing it that way. So look at it from a completely different perspective of why you're showing up, one that is linked to something that is simply your responsibility as part of your human experience on this earth.

And I want to give you guys a more practical application for every one of you listening. Regardless of your faith background, discipline is most durable when it is connected to values rather than feelings. I've said this before: regardless of the temptation to act a different way, with the feelings you may have of not wanting to show up for yourself, that's where you have to lean on your discipline. That's connected to integrity, maybe, or connected to the word you kept to yourself. When you're showing up that way, you're more aligned with the higher purpose of why you're doing what you're doing, to be responsible for the body that you have.

Again, regardless of where you are in your faith, these are encouraging and empowering thoughts. When showing up for your health is an expression of who you are and what you care about, rather than a response to how motivated you feel on any given day, it stops being something that you have to force. It just becomes something that you simply do, because it is consistent with the person that you have decided to be, right?

That shift from discipline as a force to discipline as alignment is one of the most significant things I have ever experienced in my own fitness journey. And I do not think I would have made it without the faith framework underneath it. What I mean by that is, up until about two years ago, when I got into my faith, or it's been about a year and a half now, I was driving from the force of discipline. Like, regardless of how I feel, I need to continue to show up, which is true. But there was still some type of fear connected to it. Fear that I'm going to get fat, or fear of being where I was 15 years ago. There was something connected to it, and that's our feelings. But now, having this framework underneath it, it feels more like alignment, the reason I show up every single day. It's because I'm responsible for my health, I'm responsible for this body, and I want to do right by it. I want to walk in integrity by doing the right thing. Does that make sense? So I'm seeing it more as alignment rather than force.

And I've said this in episodes before, but I'm going to say it again. Guys, if I'm not constantly evolving in the way that I'm showing up for you, then I'm not a good coach to you or a good leader to you. So for things I've said in the past, I just ask for your grace in the way that I've expressed discipline, or other things I've talked about on this podcast. Because I'm sure there will be episodes in the future where my perspectives have shifted. And that is a good leader, a good coach, and a good person: taking accountability and responsibility for things they've said in the past, but being open-minded to change because their perspectives are able to shift. Okay, anyway, I just needed to say that.

Now I want to get into something that I think sits underneath a lot of women's struggles with fitness, and I hope this framework I'm talking about today addresses it in a really direct way. Most women in the fitness space have a very complicated relationship with their body. And I mean adversarial. The body is the thing that just will not cooperate. The body is a problem that has to be solved. The body is the thing that needs to be changed before it is acceptable. And so fitness becomes a type of punishment, right? Training is the punishment for eating the wrong things, or restriction is control over my body, or progress is measured by how much less space my body takes up. And the whole journey is built on the premise that the body, as it currently exists, is not okay.

When I was in my early 20s, I spent years in that relationship. Getting into the bodybuilding world, I spent years in it as well. And I want to tell you, it does not produce health. It produces obsession. It produces exhaustion. And it produces a finish line that just keeps moving. And granted, your fitness journey is ever evolving, and it's going to continue for the rest of your life. But you're hoping to get to X, Y and Z, where you lose the weight, and that's going to be your finish line. But it keeps moving, and you can't get there, because you're constantly exhausted and obsessed.

So the stewardship framework does something totally radical here, because stewardship does not start with the body being wrong. It starts with the body being valuable. You are already valuable. Our bodies are already valuable. They've been given to us. They've been entrusted to us. And they're worth caring for. Not because it's perfect, but because it's yours. That's all that matters. And because of that, what you do with it matters from there.

So when you approach training from that place, like I'm caring for something that has been given to me, you start to train differently. If there's anything you take away from this episode today, I want it to be that you look at this from a different perspective. Not "I need to beat my body up" or "I'm in some type of punishment." I want you to look at it like, "I'm caring for something that has been given to me." Because it's true. You're already enough. You are already valuable. Even if you are 50 pounds overweight or 100 pounds overweight, you are already valuable. There's nothing about you that is wrong. There are no feelings of guilt or fear or whatever that you should feel. That's the enemy trying to get into you.

I'm going into a bit of a rant. But your feelings are feelings, and they're valid. However, if you can take yourself out of the feelings and look at it from a logical standpoint, you are valuable as you are, and now you are responsible for what you do with your body. And when you look at it as "I'm caring for something that's been given to me," you can start to think and train differently. You can start to eat differently. You train to strengthen your body, not to punish it. You eat to fuel your body, not to compensate. You rest without guilt, because rest is also caring for your body. You recover, because a body worth stewarding is a body worth protecting, and making sure that by all means possible you are treating it from a caring standpoint, not a let-me-beat-it-up, punishment standpoint.

This is genuinely one of the most profound shifts that I've seen in women who bring their faith into fitness. And it is available to any woman who is willing to start seeing her body as something to be cared for rather than something to be fixed. There's another verse that I love in Psalms that says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Again, whether you are in a faith relationship with that or not, the core truth is you did not come into this world as a mistake that needs correcting. Your body is not a problem. It is a gift, and gifts are cared for, not punished.

That's the way I want you guys to look at it. And this is easier said than done. Let me just say that. I may be preaching to y'all here, but it's easier said than done. And the words are coming through the Holy Spirit right now, so let me say that too, for anybody who is deeper in their walk with faith. With the complicated relationship we all have with our bodies, a lot of people think the body is the thing that needs to change before it can be acceptable, that the body is a problem that needs to be solved. Your body is not the problem. It is a gift. And I want you to start looking at it from that perspective, that framework, because it can entirely shift the way you move forward in your fitness journey.

Now, I also want to be honest here, because you guys know I'm very honest and open and direct, and this episode wouldn't be complete without acknowledging that it's not always smooth. Like I just said, it's easier said than done. There are real tensions you're going to experience when you are walking in faith and also in the fitness space. I've lived most of these, so I want to bring them to light with you guys.

There is the tension of comparison. A lot of women on their journeys compare themselves to other women on their journeys, and I want to shed light on this in a way I haven't really done in previous episodes. Faith teaches that comparison is the thief of joy. I may have said that before. Yet the fitness space is one of the most comparison-structured, comparison-saturated environments on earth. There are before and after photos, there are body check-ins, there are progress posts. It is genuinely hard to stay in your own lane when you're walking in faith and the entire ecosystem around fitness is designed to make you look at everyone else's results.

One, I hope you are encouraged, and this is a mindset shift, that when you look at other people's progress photos and before and afters and transformations and stories, you are not comparing yourself to them. You're looking at it from a perspective of inspiration and encouragement. Progress photos and before and after photos are everywhere, obviously. So test your inner dialogue. When you see one, what do you feel? And how can you reframe that feeling into something more encouraging and inspiring for you? But you've got to bring self-awareness into it. Okay, that's the first thing.

The second thing that has helped me is coming back to the stewardship framing. Her body, this person's body, is not my assignment. My body is my assignment, right? So when you're comparing yourself to this picture, or to somebody online, or to somebody doing what you want to do, her body is not your assignment. Your body is your assignment. I'm not responsible for what she has built. I am responsible for what I do with what I have been given. So you are not responsible for what that person has done. You're responsible for what you do with what you've been given. That is the only comparison that I want to serve you guys, because nowadays, that is the only comparison that serves me. I'm not responsible for what she's built or her assignment or her responsibilities. I'm responsible for what I have been given in my body, right?

Then there's the tension between discipline and grace. So I want to bring discipline back in again. I personally wrestled with this one the most, because faith is deeply about grace: unearned, unconditional acceptance. And fitness culture is deeply about earning. You earn your body, you earn your results, you earn your rest. Those two things can feel like they are pulling in opposite directions. And for women who have come from a shame-based relationship with their health, who have been told explicitly or implicitly that their body reflects their worth, the grace framework can feel like it contradicts the discipline that fitness requires.

So here's how I hold these two things together. Grace covers who you are. Discipline is about what you do. To elaborate further: grace says that you are fully accepted as you are right now. Kind of like what I said earlier: you are valuable, you are worthy, you are enough as you are right now. Discipline says that you are capable of more than you are currently doing. Both are true at the same time. Accepting yourself fully does not mean that you stop growing. And growing does not mean that you were not enough to begin with.

Meaning, if you are 50 pounds overweight, if you are 100 pounds overweight, you are fully accepted where you are, as you are right now. Okay? And you are valuable in this state. Now, on the flip side, discipline says that you are capable of more than you are currently doing. And that's the pull. Once you start feeling it, you may hear a nudge to do more, to be more. The nudge could be a voice. It could be a person in your space. It could be God working in and through people, or in and through you with the Holy Spirit. You will feel the nudge. And now you are the one who is entrusted with taking action to do the things you are more capable of doing. Growing does not stop. You are always going to continue to grow, but you have to be the one to take the action.

This is more of a faith-based concept, and it's the most freeing thing I have ever brought into my health journey. Thinking about it through that lens: okay, grace covers who I am right now, but my discipline is about what I do with it, and what I do with my body.

Those are really the two main things I wanted to be honest about: you're going to come up against the tension of comparison, but you can choose a different perspective; and then there's the discipline and grace aspect. Because we're saved by grace every single day, and you are too. But it's also about using discipline and self-control, which is a fruit of the spirit, to take action on the things you are entrusted with and do more than you are doing right now, which you are fully capable of doing.

Maybe this is an episode you revisit down the line. Maybe it was a little over your head, and that's okay. Maybe some of you guys are hanging on every word, and I love that. But I want to bring you back down to earth for a second, because I don't want an episode to end so high up without giving you something practical to carry into your week, right?

So here's what the integration of fitness and faith actually looks like in practice, at least for me and in the ways I've seen it work for the women I've worked with inside of WarriorBabe. It looks like having a reason that outlasts motivation. This is your deeper why. On the days I don't feel like training, and they exist for everyone, the reason I still get up and go is not that I want to look a certain way. It's because I believe that taking care of my body matters, and that's the full reason. My health matters. It is worth the investment. The future me deserves what my present me is willing to do today, right? And that's so much deeper than what motivation is going to give you.

It also looks like gratitude as a training practice. I've been getting better at this: starting your workout from a place of gratitude for what your body can do, rather than frustration over what it cannot do yet. I've said this before. You get to go work out. You don't have to, you get to, right? You have a body that can move, a body that can live, a body that can walk, a body that can sweat, a body that can recover. That's not something to be taken for granted. What I mean by getting better is that before I work out, I start from a place of gratitude, and that changes the entire energy of the session. Rather than coming from a place of, oh, I feel guilty for eating this way, or I ate so much yesterday, now I've got to go punish myself in the gym. No, stop that. Stop that. Just come from a place of: I get to do this. I have gratitude for my body, for the ability to move and wake up and walk. Don't take that for granted. That's not something to take for granted in your week.

And then it looks like using your health as a platform, not just a personal goal. When you are healthy and you are strong and you are energized, you show up better everywhere. For your family, for your work, your community, your purpose, your people. Taking care of your body is not selfish. So for moms listening to this who have put everybody else before themselves because they think it's selfish to go work out: taking care of your body is going to elevate you and help you show up so much better everywhere in your life, for your kids and for your family. It is not selfish. It is what makes everything else possible.

And for women of faith who have been taught that putting themselves first is somehow wrong, I want to reframe that directly. You cannot pour from an empty vessel. You cannot pour from an empty cup. Your health should not be something you sacrifice, is what I'm trying to say. Because if you're sacrificing your health, think about where you could be in five, 10 or 20 years. You're not going to be showing up for your grandkids or your kids the way you could be if you put your health first. Your health is so important. It's literally foundational. Okay? You have to make sure you are using your health as a platform, not just a personal goal. That's where you start showing up for something bigger than yourself.

So what I want to leave you guys with today is, first of all, knowing that your body is not a problem to be solved. It is something that has been entrusted to you, something worth caring for with intention, with consistency, with kindness. Not because it needs to look a certain way, but because it matters. I know we all have aesthetic goals, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I know those are our desires. But think about it from a deeper perspective, because that's what's going to get you to show up every single day.

When your motivation to train comes from that place, from purpose and from stewardship rather than fear and shame, everything about your journey changes. The discipline becomes alignment. The rest becomes you caring for your body. The hard days become acts of faithfulness rather than battles with yourself. That is a shift I have personally experienced in my own life recently, and it is a shift I believe is available to every woman who is willing to ask herself: what if I started taking care of my body not because of what it looks like, but because of what it is worth? It has been given to us, entrusted to us. Okay? And whatever your faith background is, whatever you believe about where you came from and what you are here for, I think that question is so worth sitting with.

All right, guys. I love you guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope it shifted some perspectives and that you look at things a little bit differently. I enjoyed sharing this with you. If you did like it, it would mean the world to me, because it is so new and I want to hear feedback. One, leave a review if you haven't yet, or if it's been a while, update your review, especially if you left a review in the first 100 episodes of this podcast. And also take a screenshot and share it. The reason I say that is because women have commented about my cursing, and clearly you guys have heard me totally shift from that. So if something in your heart feels the call to leave a new review, that'd be awesome. And screenshot this episode, post it on social media, tag me, and let me know what your biggest takeaway was. I would really appreciate that. Tag me at Nikkiey Stott, or you can tag WarriorBabe, whatever you want. All right. I love you guys, and I'll see you in the next episode.

Hey, really quick before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all the difference in helping more women discover the tools they need to transform their fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much.