God's Temple: Taking Ownership of Your Physical and Mental Wellbeing

Faith and physical discipline are deeply interconnected, with scripture providing motivation for bodily stewardship. Taking care of our health isn't just about physical appearance but about honoring God's temple and developing mental fortitude for Kingdom work.

• The transformative power of 1 Corinthians 9:27: "I discipline my body and make it my slave"
• Losing 55-60 pounds through an animal-based diet focused on nutrient-dense foods
• Progression from simple morning walks to running and bodyweight training
• Pushing through mental resistance builds spiritual muscles alongside physical ones
• Eliminating distractions like podcasts and social media creates space to hear God's voice
• Maintaining healthy accountability through mentors and trusted relationships
• God provides everything we need when we quiet external voices and listen to Him

Focus on the Lord, remove the noise, and listen for His next instructions. Your next season may look different, but clarity comes from seeking Him first.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
What's up, guys?
This is Matt with A Vota Talk,or the Real Matt Walton.
This is your hub for all thingsKingdom, business, businesses,
ministry, business strategy.
My goal is to provide as muchvalue, minute by minute, each
podcast that you listen to.
So let's get to it.
What's up, guys?
This is Matt Walton with A VotaTalk, or At the Real Matt

(00:21):
Walton, depending on how youfound me and welcome back.
So today I'm gonna try somethinga little bit different.
These are gonna be shortervideos of exactly where the Lord
has me right now on a couple ofdifferent things, and one of
the things is my bodily andmental discipline.
So there's a couple of thingsthat I've always struggled with,
and that is taking care of myhealth, specifically watching

(00:44):
how I eat and then exercisingright.
So back in high school I had noproblem exercising, but it was
more in vain, if you will.
And what God's done now?
Since surrendering my life tothe Lord, he has restructured it
to have more of a biblicalvalue to it.
So what I mean by that is in 1Corinthians 9, verse 27,.

(01:04):
It says but I discipline mybody and make it my slave.
That's huge for me, becausewhat that has done is it helps
you also develop the mentaldiscipline that a lot of us lack
.
That is restraining us fromgetting to the place where I
believe God wants us to get to.
So there's some things that wehave to do and I want to really

(01:24):
be graceful with this but alsounderstand that I've been there
and I am still working off myfat, but I do not believe for a
second.
Now, I understand there can beillnesses and all of that, and
this is not.
That's not what I'm talkingabout, unless you're using it as
an excuse.
But we need to quit allowingourselves to be unhealthy.
That's equating us to us beingfat.

(01:46):
That's equating to us not beingpresent.
That's equating to us nothaving the energy or the mental
clarity that we need to have.
So quit allowing yourself tofool yourself into believing
that it's okay to be overweightor to be fat and I realize those
are the same thing but we needto start really asking God to
change our mind on those things.

(02:08):
The next thing is with this.
So one of the things here's mysteps of how it's worked for me.
Specifically, I changed myeating, so I don't know.
Y'all can go back maybe 20, 30videos and y'all can see my face
is like a balloon faces like aballoon.
I was 216 pounds about sixmonths ago or so.
I've lost close to 55,sometimes 55, 60 pounds right

(02:34):
around there.
Now I'm trying to put on someweight, but put on more muscle
weight, and I'm really focusedon losing my lower belly fat.
I've never been able to do thatever in my life.
I've always had a little bit ofpudge, regardless if we're
talking whenever I was a childor not.
I was never a fat kid, but Ialways had a little bit of pudge
and so right now I'm working toovercome that.
And how is I am eating verystrictly.
I am watching my diet and Ispecifically eat meat like

(02:55):
organs, eggs, raw dairy like rawmilk, raw cheese and a lot of
fruits it's known as animalbased and I cook with tallow and
salt and grass-fed butter,depending on what what I'm
cooking, but I eat a lot ofhamburger, some chicken steak.
I eat a lot of organs when itcomes to liver and heart, I'm

(03:17):
getting into spleen anddifferent things like that.
But what it does is it makes mefeel absolutely incredible.
Though the weight loss is likea, like a side thing to me, it
gives me mental clarity.
I feel incredible.
Weight loss is like a sidething to me.
It gives me mental clarity.
I feel incredible.
My energy is through the roofand it helps me every single day
work on not going and doing thethings that I would have always
done.
I had no problem eating outthree times a day.

(03:37):
Ordering DoorDash three times aday that was easy for me and I
was packing on the pounds.
I had lost a lot of weightbefore.
After I bought this business, Ilost a ton of weight, but that
was because I was changing otherthings.
I quit smoking and that aidedin me just dropping weight
quickly.
But I was still eating garbage.
It was always a joke in my mind.
I can still go to McDonald'sand still lose a ton of weight.
But I started to put back onweight and now I've restructured

(04:02):
all of that so that I can havemore of a biblical perspective.
This is my temple, this isGod's temple, and so God has
given me that perspectivethrough scripture reading and
through prayer.
He's renewed my mind on that.
With that now I have startedexercising.
So I would always go on walks.
I would go on morning walks.
I started waking up earlier andgoing on morning walks and I

(04:23):
would just make goals.
Today I want to walk 25 minutes, 30 minutes, and then that
rolled into running.
And how I started running was Istarted doing 30 second
intervals, so I'd run for 30seconds, I would rest for 30
seconds, I would repeat thateight times.
Now that's gotten to the pointpretty quickly to where I'll run
for seven and a half eightminutes.
And then I'm also exercising.
Now, when it comes to I'm notlifting weights just yet.

(04:44):
I'm doing a lot of body weight.
So I have a circuit that I'vebuilt in my garage.
I got a power tower to where Ican do pull-ups and dips and
crunches and different thingslike that.
But I do burpees and sit-upsand pull-ups and just different
things that I'm working on thediscipline of exercising more
than just walking and running.
I'm also doing some things thatare very, very hard, to the
point to where you have to pushpast not wanting to do it.

(05:08):
Your mind is going to tell younot to do it.
This is when you know to bedoing it.
I will find myself walking at 9pm on Friday nights to overcome
my mental laziness.
And hey, it's okay, man, if youuse tonight to watch a movie or
whatever.
It's not okay for me.
I do not want to spend my timewasting my time watching movies

(05:28):
or watching pointless television.
In fact, I've completelyeradicated that stuff out of my
life.
But then there's times wheneverI get bored, and so what I
started doing outside of readingis and reading scripture,
studying scripture, readingbooks is now I'll go out and
I'll run or a walk and actuallyI don't run at nighttime because
my heart rate gets going andit's hard for me to sleep and I
end up being restless but do thehard things and push past like

(05:50):
they.
I was pushing past me not tocomplete my morning workout, and
this is like one of the daysthat I do actual bodyweight
exercises, and to the point oflike almost because I was
pushing back and I was saying,matt, you're becoming the man
that is in alignment withscripture and that I believe
that God has wanted me to be.
But we have to push past thosevery hard things.
The next thing with this is whatGod has really been speaking to

(06:11):
me about lately is no morepodcast and this is just the
season that God has me and hemay change that a month from now
but no more podcast, no moreexterior external noise.
I am only reading books, orI'll listen to an audio book
that is aiding in myrelationship with Jesus Christ.
I have put away the businessbooks for now.

(06:32):
I have only been consumingscripture and or books that are
aiding in my relationship withthe Lord.
No more social media.
I do not consume social media.
I post on social media, but Ido not consume social media, and
these are things that I knowGod is calling some of you to do
is to get back into that mentallab.
I know for me, like what God hascontinued to share with me is

(06:55):
like, matt, I have given youeverything, every idea, every
one of your desires.
I've given it all to you, allthe systems, processes, people,
relationships, rooms, favor, youname it.
God has given it.
But what I've noticed iswhenever I take that into my own
hands and say, hey, I can findmaybe the next level in a
podcast or in a book, I findmyself like I am literally doing

(07:16):
all of this and God continuesto say, matt, I will give you
everything.
So I know God's speaking tosomebody out there, but that is
where everything I strive anddesire for everything to come
from is from the Lord and fromthat relationship with the Lord.
So yesterday I spent severalhours up into the mountains I
live right by the mountains herein Las Vegas and I spent
several hours up in themountains just hearing the birds

(07:37):
and the air and the Lord, and Iread scripture.
I made an altar right there.
I just spent a lot of time withthe Lord, hearing from the Lord
, and God is speaking tosomebody out there of just
pursue the Lord.
He will give you everything thenew business idea, your
identity, maybe the new system,process, relationship, whatever
that is.
God was so faithful, he willgive that to you.

(07:59):
But he is calling some of us toshut the noise out and only
pursue him.
And let me preface it by sayingthis then I'm done.
I'm not speaking about theisolation form of Christianity.
That goes against scripture.
That is not what I'm sayingwhenever I say just me and the
Lord.
I am around people.
I have a mentor, I have a fewpeople that are speaking into my

(08:19):
life, my wife included, andI've got like about four people
four people total, including mywife that speak directly into my
life, and one of them I meetwith on a monthly basis.
So make sure that you areallowing people to speak into
your life because I promise you,like sin is blinding.
This is according to scripture.
We can be so blinded to our sin, and other people can help us

(08:40):
see through our blindness andsee exactly what it is that the
Lord is telling us to do.
So hopefully this encouragessome of you today.
The Lord wants to tell youeverything and be the reason for
your everything.
So say focus on the Lord, getit done, remove the noise and
just listen for the Lord, forthose next instructions.

(09:01):
And who knows what that nextseason will look like.
Maybe you're back on podcasts,reading different books, doing
different things, but I onlywant to do that whenever I get
clarity from the Lord on that.