You’ve probably seen Beverage Math on just about every weight loss episode of any talk show for the past ten years. An overweight guest stares hopefully at the host as s/he pulls up a power point slide showing that if the overweight guest stops drinking soda (or “pop” or “Coke” if you’re not a nor’easter), s/he will lose ten pounds in a year. I’ve always been envious of those guests and their Soda Math. Stop drinking soda and lose ten pounds?! That would be so easy! Easy for me because I only drink soda a few times a year.
My envy ended when it occurred to me that while I may not have a Soda Math situation going on, I do have Coffee Math: I take my coffee on par with melted coffee ice cream. Whether I add half and half, milk, creamer, sugar, or a combination of them all, each mug for me averages 100 calories apiece. And I drink it like that twice a day. Ready for the Coffee Math?
One pounds = 3,500 calories. So 200 calories of coffee per day x 365 days per year = 20.8 pounds. Twenty pounds in one year simply by switching to black coffee. That would be so easy!
But I love creamy coffee. I don’t want to drink it black.
But twenty pounds? I want to lose twenty pounds.
What if I drank creamatose coffee once a day and black coffee once a day? That’s ten pounds in one year and twenty pounds in two. And I can still start my morning with creamy sweet caffeine.
When we drink our calories, we tend to savor them less than the calories we chew. I’m not saying that we should only ever drink water and water-calorie equivalents (black coffee, unsweetened tea, etc); I’m just saying that we should do our own personal Beverage Math. We all have that one drink we’d rather not give up. So don’t give it up. Cut it in half if you need to, but savor every drop.
“Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”” John 4:13-14
The Bible mentions water over 600 times for everything from washing, drinking, and baptism to flooding the Earth and Jesus taking a moonlit sea-top stroll during a storm. The common thread of all those verses is that water is necessary for life. (That’s also the main idea of chapter two of most elementary biology textbooks.)
Sleep is important. The Bible talks about sleep as a reward for those God loves (Psalm 127:2) and Sleepless nights are on the list of sufferings that Paul endured for the Gospel (2 Corinthians 6:5). Even Jesus, God in the flesh, made time to sleep, most famously during storms (Matthew 8:24). God created our bodies to sleep regularly and therefore sleep has a purpose; it’s a necessity, not a luxury.
Sleep is worth money. That’s what I took away from NPR’s recent story about sleep coaches. Professional sports teams are paying consultants and investing in technology to help their athletes sleep more and sleep better because it improves their performance. Finally, there is one thing I can brag about that I can do just as well as a professional athlete: sleep. I sleep like a pro.
Last week I brought up the question: Does God care how much I weigh? I believe the answer is a paradox: 
Like money and time, your health is an asset to be stewarded, not squandered. God doesn’t care about a number on the scale, but he does care about your health. Being overweight often leads to health problems that suck your time, energy, and money, leaving less of each for serving God. Unhealthy habits are like an ill-fitting bra: they are a hindrance that offers no support and should be thrown off like Paul says in Hebrews 12:1 so we can “run with perseverance the race marked out for us”.
Sex, Soup, and 2 Fisted Eating 