Overcoming Hurdles to Better Health

Because English was Jorge’s second language, he feared it would be a barrier to meeting others. His wife, Monica, wanted to meet new people at Saddleback and thought they should get more involved. When Monica saw The Daniel Plan’s Walk & Worship fitness class, she told Jorge it would be a great opportunity to meet new people and get healthy at the same time. Jorge wasn’t easily convinced.

Jorge realized he was out of shape. Growing up, he lived a very active lifestyle, filled with team sports and dancing. As he got older, he found less and less time to exercise, and his health suffered. Reluctantly, Jorge agreed to attend the fitness class — just to be supportive.

Once he was there, Jorge enjoyed the exercise. He felt in his groove, but he tried not to attract attention to himself. He was still a little hesitant to get to know the people there. The couple did enjoy being active again — Jorge thought he could overlook his discomfort to get his health back on track.

The leaders saw Jorge’s natural athletic ability and encouraged him to lead the workouts for the group. Jorge still struggled with his English and felt his shy personality wasn’t a good fit for a leadership role. He questioned why God would put him in a position to lead a group of people. This felt way outside his comfort zone.

One week, Jorge decided to give leading a try, and he was pleasantly surprised by how fun it was. Even though he was nervous, his fear of leading subsided. “I was so nervous,” Jorge admits. “It all felt brand new to me.”

After he overcame his initial fear, Jorge began to lead regularly. As he saw his skills helping others, it gave him more focus to get healthy himself. His newfound confidence in this experience helped him overlook the things he felt were holding him back. Jorge still finds fully expressing himself difficult, but he has pushed through his discomfort in order to help others improve.

“The Daniel Plan has changed our lives completely,” Monica said. Her excitement to get involved pushed Jorge out of his comfort zone, but in that place, he was able to get fit and help others reach their health goals.