Guys, It's Time to Drop the Unhealthy Bachelor Lifestyle!

In a well-known passage from the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul says, “So [also] husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it…” (Ephesians 5:28-29). Love of one’s own body is the standard by which a husband’s love for his wife is measured. Since that is the case, a man who is called to marriage should ask himself, “How well am I loving my own body?”

After all, how well will he love his future wife if he doesn’t love his own body correctly?

Now, we need to clarify what it means to love one’s own body. Typically, we associate that phrase today with “body positivity.” That isn’t exactly what St. Paul is talking about, though. St. Paul says that a man who loves his body nourishes it. In other words, a man who loves his body takes care of his body.

Now, if you’re a man who’s been single for a while, you may have fallen into the “slovenly bachelor” lifestyle. You might spend hours a day playing video games, eschewing exercise, and ingesting inordinate amounts of Taco Bell and Little Caesar’s (to pick just a few examples). If you do, you probably know that these habits don’t exactly make a recipe for a healthy mind and body. So, how can you improve?

What you eat, or don't eat, matters.

First, it’s important to remember that changing your eating and activity habits isn’t primarily about improving your physical aesthetics. It’s about forming a healthier mind and body. So you don’t have to make it your goal to look like Chris Hemsworth. Instead, when you set a goal for yourself, think in these terms: given how I currently live, what can I do to improve my physical and mental health?

Having established a correct mindset about what you are trying to accomplish, you can take a detailed look at your eating habits. Find some concrete ways in which you could improve it, and don’t try to be a perfectionist. In other words, don’t resolve to avoid carbs from now till Judgement Day or only allow yourself one gram of processed sugar a week. Just make a few dietary improvements that you can maintain. For example, if you typically drink a soda every day, you can switch to diet soda. Yes, ideally it would be better to avoid those processed chemicals altogether, but you’ll be making a step in the right direction.

Or, if you don’t include vegetables in your diet, you can add some, as they are great sources of vitamins and fiber. There are plenty of recipes online that actually make vegetables taste good; even something as simple as melting a slice of cheese over broccoli can actually make that green stuff edible. 

Get up and move!

Having determined a few changes you can make to the way you eat, you can now look at your exercise level. If you spend most of your day sitting or lying down, try to work in 20-minutes to an hour of walking a day if possible. Your heart is arguably the most important muscle in your body, and regular walking can do a lot for your heart-health. If you find walking boring, try listening to audio-books or podcasts while walking. If you find a podcast you enjoy, you may come to look forward to your daily walks, as that is when you will be listening to the podcast!

Finally, see if there are any healthier forms of recreation that you can engage in than playing video games and watching shows. Of course, there isn’t any need to give up those things completely, but too much time staring at screens isn’t particularly healthy. See if you can find some daily hobbies that don’t entail looking at a computer screen (e.g., reading, drawing, wood-carving, learning how to cook, learning an instrument, etc.), and try to get outside on the weekends to engage in physical recreation.  

It goes without saying that adopting a healthier lifestyle can be difficult at first.

But it doesn’t have to be as difficult as proponents of highly restrictive diets might lead you to believe. Don’t aim for perfection; aim for improvement. Remember that you’re trying to take better care of your body in order to be a healthier, more disciplined man for your future wife.

Treat your body with the respect owed to a temple of the Holy Spirit, and hopefully one day you will be able to show your wife the same level of respect and care.