Gigi and Brian Pruitt

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Honoring God through Health + Fitness with Gigi and Brian Pruett – Episode 03

How can we honor God in how we take care of our bodies? What simple habits and disciplines can we adopt to prioritize our health and fitness?

In today’s episode, we’re joined by fitness coaches and power couple, Gigi and Brian Pruett. They share their own journeys of overcoming treating fitness like an idol, dive into  simple ways you can change your lives through everyday habits, and discuss how their faith impacts everything from their businesses to their marriage.

In this episode we discuss:

  • Why it’s important to take care of our bodies
  • Daily habits and disciplines that make a huge difference
  • Not making your health or fitness an idol
  • Marriage + praying with your spouse

You can listen to the podcast on your favorite podcast player or with the embedded player below. You can also scroll down to read the full transcript.

Find it quickly:

  • 8:01 – Being obedient in the small things and taking action
  • 11:03 – Selfish pursuits vs Godly ambition
  • 18:20 – Stewarding our bodies well
  • 24:30 – Treating your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit
  • 29:49 – Habits and disciplines to prioritize health and fitness
  • 39:37 – Keeping first things first

Resources mentioned:

  • Habits of the Household
  • Celebration of Discipline
  • Know Your Why
  • The Four Agreements
  • Daily Kairos Journal

Connect with Gigi:
Instagram: @gigimeyerfit
Website: gigimeyergfit.com

Connect with Brian:
Instagram: @brian_pruett
Website: brianpruett.com

Intro to Gigi and Brian Pruett

Jordan: Could you tell everyone a little bit about yourselves?

Gigi: I’m Gigi. What’s up everyone? Brian and I are married, and we live in Sarasota, Florida. I coach women and help them improve their fitness and their health by equipping them with tools through nutrition and fitness and just living a healthy lifestyle so they can be their best selves, in whatever way, whatever way that looks like for them. So that’s my passion and I love it so much. But me personally right now, I’m 34 weeks pregnant now with the first baby girl.

Brian: What’s up guys? I’m Brian. I’m married to this beautiful woman here. I love bringing purpose and faith and healthy biblical principle and perspective to fitness. I help guys wake up from the dead of sleeping to their potential.

I believe we were created on purpose. We have greatness within us because, hey, the Holy Spirit is within us. So that’s beyond greatness. But He’s got a plan for your life, and I want to help wake guys up to that plan and not just kind of go through the motions or settle for an average marriage or a body when you’re just called to literally be a great steward of everything you have – so time, resources, relationships, all these things are meant to be stewarded well, so I bring that perspective to my coaching business, BFit.

Gigi: I think this is something that should be said because Brian just starting his business BFit only a couple years ago, and I think this could speak to a lot of entrepreneurs and starting their business or whatever. We all started without really having much clarity of what we were doing and what our business was about, or what our mission was about, and Brian couldn’t have said his mission as clearly as he just said it a year ago or even six months ago. And seeing just you say that with clarity and the passion behind your voice and what you do was really cool for me to see. And just, you know, being alongside this journey with you. Like that was cool.

Action Breeds Clarity

Brian: I think to encourage anybody out there, I feel like when things changed for me, I just started being obedient in the little small ways – taking one step, you know, moving one step, like trusting in that step that God’s gonna reveal the next one. And I think when I did that more and more, that’s when the clarity came and that’s when the vision came.

Jordan: So to Gigi’s point, action breeds clarity. I think in a lot of ways, and we can look at the Bible and find a million stories of it, but so many times God just asks you to do the first thing, and He does so much through our obedience. Even when, I mean, I’m like a type A planner, recovering perfectionist over here, and I wanna know the five year plan, and it’s been such a lesson, especially in entrepreneurship, because there are pivots, there’s growth, there’s change in yourself too, of just taking the next, doing the next right thing, or just obedience in that next thing

I mean, even in our own business, like Daily Kairos, our e-com business that Pete mostly runs, that was an act of obedience of Pete creating a journal for himself. Then we shared with the Bible study and they were like, ah, we feel like we should just put this on Kickstarter or now it’s his full-time thing. That was never our plan to run a journal e-commerce business, right? But it’s so cool to see how God prepares you in different ways with the different yeses that you give him.

Gigi: I think one of the most powerful pieces of advice that I received from one of my friends, John Matson, he said typically people are like, “ready, aim, fire” right? But instead, his approach is “ready, fire, aim” and it’s kind of like that step, right? that you take where it’s like you don’t have all your ducks in a row. You don’t really know exactly what it’s gonna look like. You’re gonna go for it anyways, and you’re just gonna have faith that God is going to correct you along the way. And I think that’s a mindset that an entrepreneur has to have to be successful.

Jordan: I feel like there’s such a similarity in like the act of faith in our own lives of just, you know, being obedient in God’s will in our life and as an entrepreneur because so much of it’s unknown and there’s just so much trust and faith that goes into that of starting before you’re ready in a lot of ways and like try like, you know, especially if you’re doing your business in a way, and this is kind of the whole point of our conversation, right?

Like we have businesses not for our own selfish ambition – we have businesses because we believe that God has specifically equipped us with specific talents and opportunities and experiences that we can steward and that we should steward to serve others, love others, and glorify Him. And like that’s a really cool shift to think about, like, why would I not be obedient in that?

Working for Selfish Ambition Vs God’s Glory

Gigi: I have a confession though. And this is why Brian is my partner and, and why I fully believe God put him on earth for me was when I started my business, I think a piece of it was out of selfishness. I think it was a whole lot of me and having this pride of I did this successfully in my life and I can help other people do it, and I know I can do this successfully because I’m really good at what I do and operating from a place of pride.

And for that Gfit did take off and it was doing really well, and it did help a lot of people. But I think I attached a lot of the success to me. And after having that approach, I struggled; I was left very unfulfilled. I struggled with anxiety and depression, and I put a lot of the pressure on me, and so, as a result of that experience, I was able to get to a place where it’s like, no, everything – my body, my fitness, the way I think, the way I speak, the way I impact people, the things I do with my business, why I’m doing this – it’s all God’s.

And so there’s a sense of peace in letting go and being like, you know what, God, do what you want with it. And I didn’t get there myself. Brian was a huge help in helping me get to that realization. But to be honest, that wasn’t it for me at the start.

Jordan: I think it’s really important, in general, but especially as Christians, to be aware of places that we can repent, that we can recognize that. I mean, I will tell you, Gigi, that is my struggle too. I am a very ambitious works-driven person. That’s how I always was. And so that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve struggled with as an entrepreneur is that I’ll want to hit the six figure mark or I want to hit these goals because I know I can and I can work hard and there’s a really good feeling about that.

I think it was sometime in the last year, I took some time off, obviously when I had a baby, and I was reading the BIble I don’t know, I can’t remember where, what verse it was specifically, but you know, Paul’s talking about all the different kinds of sin and like sexual immorality and selfish ambition were like in the same sentence. I was like, oh dang. And I really had to check myself. And when I started my own business again, I went into it with so much prayer because Ive been there where I was doing it for my own glory and not His. And you’re right, that fulfillment, that purpose is so different and it’s a hard thing to check because as entrepreneurs, we wanna have goals, we wanna do well, we wanna be good stewards. Like there’s a part of growth in success that is honoring to God is serving other people well. Right? Like the more that you, the more people you serve, the more you’re helping. But it is such a thing to keep in check too, right? Like that, that selfish ambition part of it.

Stewarding Our Time and Talents Well

Brian: Yeah. I’ve always thought it’s the hardest balance to try to strike well is how can I be the best steward of what I have and not go to where that becomes like the idol? Or to be able to live like this – and if you guys are listening, my hands are open. Because you can’t receive more for what God’s gonna give you if you don’t live that absolute surrender, like, “Hey, this is actually not even mine. You just are giving this to me on loan, and so I wanna serve you with my business, my time, my energy, my kid. I wanna serve and be a great father and, and raise her well because my baby is not even mine.”

So it’s like, that’s the hardest thing to strike well – how do we shift the marketplace? How do we make things happen but also know it’s not us, it’s God, and, and be able to do that well.

Gigi: I think one of the most tangible ways I’ve been able to learn that is pregnancy, because it’s like, I’m growing this baby, but I’m not really doing anything. It’s just the baby’s just growing. And so one of the biggest lessons that I learned from pregnancy is that my body, it’s not mine. It’s God’s, God’s using it how He wants. And right now He’s using it to grow another human life. And obviously there’s things that I can do for it to be a detriment to the baby’s growth. And I have to be careful and still be healthy, but like, the baby’s still gonna take what she needs. And God’s going to grow her the way that she’s supposed to be. And so it’s not my body, which is one of the craziest experiences or realizations I’ve come to, and therefore my business isn’t mine. Anything isn’t mine. It’s all God’s.

Honoring God with Our Bodies

Jordan: How can we steward our bodies and how’s that a way of really honoring God?

Gigi: A couple things come to mind when it comes to fitness and how can we use it to glorify God? And again, it kind of goes back to the same journey that I had with starting my business. At first, I think I had some selfish desires when it came to building my business, same with my fitness. I had some selfish desires. I wanted to look a certain way. I wanted to show that I could accomplish something a certain way. But again, I kind of got to that point where it was like I had the level of leanness, like I had the body that everyone essentially wanted, but even then it wasn’t enough.

And so it was like, I’m here and it’s still empty. And I think it took me to get to that point to realize like it’s way more than just looking in a certain way and being a certain way. It really about taking care of your body. Your body is a temple.

And again, my body isn’t mine. It’s been given to me as a gift. And so for that, I’m going to take the best care of it that I can, and I’m gonna treat it with respect. But not only that, it’s a vessel to live the life that I wanna live as a entrepreneur, as a CEO, as a wife, as a sister, daughter, and now a mother.

And I just know that by me not taking care of my fitness and my body the way I need to, it’s gonna hold me back in all of those ways, and that just brings it to a whole nother level of purpose for me. That makes me not to ever want to stop pursuing that because when you get the six pack and you get the nice booty and you get to the weight that you hit it’s hollow, that’s not gonna keep you going, but being your absolute best self so you can live the life that you wanna live and be who God wants you to be and created you to be, that’s way more powerful and way more fulfilling.

Brian: Boom, that’s on the money. And I’m just gonna piggyback on a little bit of that. I never really thought about this, of being a vessel. You’re so right, Gigi. It’s like, you know, we’re the body of Christ in the world that we live in, and so we’re called to help build each other up. We’re called to heal. We’re called to speak life and encourage other people. We’re called to hurt when our body hurts, and so it’s a beautiful thing and I don’t wanna minimize ever the power and the reality that God is moving through His body.

He’s moving through us and it’s not about us and we don’t have the power alone. It’s not anything we do apart from God that works, but it’s His choice to say, “I’m going to use you. I’m going to use your voice, your mindset, your thoughts, your gifts I’ve given as a vehicle, as a vessel to get my will accomplished on earth.”

And so the the point I was gonna make with the body, and this is what I really speak into my clients to get them to realize like a proper health or healthy perspective of their body and their fitness is four things with your body:

  1. It is a gift. Everything you have is a gift starting with your very heartbeat, your breath. You wake up in the morning, like, how often do we take that for granted? It’s a gift, so that’s number one.
  2. It doesn’t define you good or bad. God forbid I go and get a car accident and I am paralyzed, I am still valuable and worthy and able to God’s vessel on earth, no matter what.
  3. The body is the expression of the internal. It’s the external expression of what’s happening on the inside. You guys, we see it every day. You have negative thoughts, you have negative mindsets, negative approaches to life – tell me, you don’t see that in people’s faces, right? If you have a mindset that’s A) A lazy mindset or B) a kind of a victim mindset and you’re just beating yourself up being the victim that shows. And so it’s, you can see a lot about someone through their facial expressions, their body, how well they take care of themselves.
  4. The idea of taking ownership – and that goes back to the stewardship. You have such a gift, it doesn’t define you, and it’s an expression of who you are, so take the best care of it possible, and I think that’s probably the healthiest, most robust way to view your body.

So redefine fitness, what does being fit look for you?

It’s not what you see on Instagram and it’s not what you saw in the magazines 20 years ago. Redefining fitness for you is so important because fitness for you is being capable, healthy, aligned, and full of love and strength. And that’s something that you have to define for yourself. It looks different for different people, but if we’re always trying to compare and say, “I want to be that person” it takes away from you.

Making Fitness Part of Your Identity

Gigi: I think one of the most powerful mindset shifts that I had for me and my fitness journey and that we coach is making fitness a part of your identity. It’s not just something that you do as a check off the list because someone is telling you to, and same goes like, the whole point of Christianity is, is to become more like Jesus, right?

Like taking that on as your identity, as a child of God and identifying yourself as that, it really changes the way that you see fitness and then the way you live your life too. So if you make fitness a part of your identity, it’s going change the way you think, the way you perceive, and therefore the behaviors and the actions you take on a day-to-day basis, as opposed to, “oh, it’s just this diet,” or “it’s just a workout I have to do”. No. If you can make it a part of your identity, that’s going to stick with you for the rest of your life.

Simple Habits and Disciplines to Prioritize Your Health

Jordan: There are so people that have a hard time with any kind of discipline, but especially prioritizing health and fitness. What are some of the habits or disciplines that have helped with you guys personally or that you share with those that you coach? Because for me, I mean something as simple as like the non-negotiable of “I’m gonna open my Bible even on the days I don’t want to” really changed my walk with God. So what are some of those disciplines or habits that either you do or you coach others that make a big difference?

Brian: Hmm. Yeah, that’s a great, great question. I’ll go first by saying I think so much of the day’s success it happens the night before. That’s when you win. Just like any game, if you guys play sports or if you kind of understand that like preparation, it’s often like the most important thing. And then once you show up for the game, you just flow. You just let it go. You just do. And actually if you don’t prepare well and you just kind of show up and hope for the best, that’s when you start getting in your head the most. Because you don’t have any trust in the work that you did to prepare for that game.

So I think the PM routines have been incredible. Everything changed for me when I just stopped having the desire to watch TV at night. But let me tell you, if you’ve never flipped the TV time at night with God’s word, you’re missing out, dude. You are missing out. Because that’s when I started getting that desire, like literally God gave me more desire as as time went on, so I literally couldn’t stop reading the Bible. I couldn’t stop reading and kind of just hanging out and writing and just kind of being in that space. So I read scripture at night, even if it’s five minutes. Ending your night on scripture is so, so important. What you see, what you think about and what you consume at night plays such a big role in how you sleep and how you wake up in the morning.

Gigi; Yea, the discipline. And then the small things, the small habits that kind of create the momentum that will allow you to get kind of the bigger rewards to come. But I mean, for me personally, I think it ultimately comes down to being intentional about creating space that will allow me to prioritize and focus on the things that do make me feel my best.

So Brian has a nighttime routine, mine’s in the morning. The very first thing I do is read scripture. And oftentimes it’s like me just opening up the Bible and just letting God share with me what He wants to share with me, but I don’t go into it with this very strict mindset of like, “I have to do this, this, this, this” And I used to be like that. And it was almost felt like a waste of time cuz I wasn’t doing it exactly the way that I wanted to.

But I think it’s prioritizing time and space for things like that to happen. And then it’s almost like when I start my day with scripture and then I plan my day, like again, preparation, I plan my day.

What are the three to five most important things I gotta get done today personally and business wise? It almost feels like it allows everything else to fall into place for me by just doing those things. It really only take 30 minutes to an hour.

Brian: Yeah. And let me just say this too, with the spiritual and physical disciplines. I’m so fascinated by those and the correlation and how they’re connected and how they can enhance, by the way, each other. Cause we all know, if you’re not taking care of your body, your physical health, you’re filling up on junk food, you’re not sleeping well, you’re not drinking water, you’re drinking sodas, you’re eating candy, keep on going, right? You get my point. If you’re doing that, but you’re still in the Word, you’re still praying, you’re still filling up on truth and being spiritually fit, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t feel much, much better when you’re taking care of your physical body too. You would experience the spiritual growth and journey a heck of a lot better. And so I think that balance there where it doesn’t define you, but look at the blessing. That’s always what I try to think about. Look at the blessings in the experience you’re kind of leaving on the table because you’re settling. That’s why we talk about, you’re made for so much more. And if you can understand the “more” is way more than you think, and you’re made for that you can then wake up and say, wow, huh, maybe, maybe a God wants to do a lot more in my life. Maybe I really should, you know, start taking better care of myself. Maybe, maybe I can be a service or a value to someone in the future

And so I’ll end on this – 2020 was a season change for us in so many ways. And it shifted me in the music I listened to. I started listening to worship music when I worked out. If I would’ve said that when I was 24, like the 28 year old Brian would do that, I’d be like, man, get outta here, bro. Like, I was like Kanye West and Lil Wayne, Jay-Z all, and it’s just like so much trash gets in these things right here, which affects your thoughts. So like subconsciously, that stuff gets in there and so I again changed that and so the workouts became worship. The daily walks, I would try to go on that.

We preach to our clients to get outside or get inside, but hit your 10k steps. It’s moving meditation. I literally can think better and connect with God on a deeper level when I’m in a different state. And that’s part of what changing your physical state, like getting on your knees or going to the prayer closet or any type of mindful breathing or biblical meditation – all that stuff is so beautiful cuz it just allows you to experience God in the physical disciplines, the movements of daily life.

Keeping First Things First

Jordan: I think it’s so easy for us to say our family matters, but we’ll still put work first, right? It’s so easy to say what our priorities are, but it’s a lot harder to walk them out. And so what do you guys do in your own lives or how do you guys actually prioritize the things that matter most to you?

Brian: Yeah. Dang. That’s a great question. Communication. I mean, that’s the freaking buzzword, isn’t it? But to be fair, I think just getting on the same page with us, we’ve really tried to prioritize that check in.

Like, Hey, how’s your heart? How’s your soul? Like how are you really? And then, saying like, Hey, I’m in a good place. Like you can tell me something that I don’t want to hear. Hey, I’m in a good place to receive. You can gimme some criticism that’s, constructive, right? Not destructive.

Cause no one wants that. Like, Hey, here’s the problems. Dunno how to fix it, but just, yeah, it’s all you. Good luck. But like constructive criticism, like to the extent that I’m willing to hear that from my wife will be the extent of my growth, like that will be directly correlated as a husband, as a man. If I can’t hear my wife say something that hurts me or, I’m naturally kind of bent to take personally I won’t grow. I think the check-ins weekly are huge.

Something that we do to keep things first too is we started praying first thing and at night, and that’s changed everything. And I never did that before. I thought it was, you know, when I was younger that’d be super weird, and it probably will be to a lot of people who’ve never thought about it. But watch what God does if you start doing that as a man. I’m speaking to men, but as a man, one of the best things you can do for your wife is to pray. Pray with her and for her, and I wasn’t that guy not crazy long ago, but that’s been the game changer in our marriage easily.

And the last thing I’ll say is, Gigi and I were raised in healthy, balanced, active families. That is a blessing, right? So is being raised in a Christian or household. If you’re listening man or woman, and you’re like, well, that’s great, but that’s not me. Like, good for them. But like, what do I do?

Nobody is unable to be a chain breaker in their generational family. You are made to flip the script in your life. If this is not how it’s working in your life and you’re discouraged and you’re like, “ah, that’s great for people, I’ll never have that”, you have to look in the mirror and say, “God wants to change my generations after me, my family tree, and He is gonna use me.”

So that mission is to make your family have better habits, go on a family walk, as opposed to watching TV together. You know, if you want change, be that change. And then your children and their children will be jumping on a podcast in the metaverse talking about, “yeah, my mom and dad, they freaking killed it. They set us up for success and I’m great now.”

Rapid Fire Wrap Up!

A favorite book?

Brian: The Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. That’s a really powerful book, at least for me because he talks about prayer study, fasting, all these different things that can be beautiful in your life.

The other one that’s a bit more, I think basic, but really good for entrepreneurs and really good for Christian people in the business world is Know your Why by Ken Cost.

Gigi: The Four Agreements was something I read recently. It’s a very quick read. I think I read it in like three or four days and it’s pretty powerful.

A verse that is really encouraging you right now or you’re memorizing or meditating on?

Gigi: Isaiah 43, where God says, “I’m making things new, providing a way in the wilderness” – that verse, I’m making things new just because Baby G you know, we’re going into this new phase of life, being a mom and being a dad and raising a kid together was so scary at first. It’s so scary at first, but it’s like, just wait. That’s what that verse tells me. Like, just wait, like I’m making things new and it’s really.

Brian: Heck yeah. I picked 52 verses, I’ll pick 52 verses for the year. And one of those verses was “if anyone’s in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold everything’s new.” But the one that’s like really changed me was “it’s not I who live” and I think that’s Galatians 2:20. I could be wrong, but “it’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” So the life I now live in the world and the flesh, like I live by faith in the son of God who loved me, number one. And gave himself for me. So those, those two things is all I need, man, if I know the creator of the universe loves me, and then He gave himself for me the most sacrificial, love unconditional you could ever ask for. Like, I’m good. What’s going to knock me off my perspective?

Where can everyone find you guys?

Gigi: Instagram’s the best. That’s where we spend a lot of my time – @gigimeyerfit. If you have any questions, shoot me a DM. I’m happy to help you out, answer, and give you some encouragement on your fitness journey, in your faith journey, in your marriage journey, in your pregnancy journey.

Brian: My Instagram’s @brian_pruett, that’s where I spend most of my time as well. And then my website is brianpruett.com and you can find like my podcast and I’ll write stuff. But yeah, I think you’ll get the gist of what I’m about on Instagram. Same thing. DM me, reach out. I love connecting with people and helping you become more.

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