"Caring about how I look is vanity—spiritual men shouldn't focus on their bodies."
How it sounds in your head: You should be beyond this. Focusing on your appearance is shallow, worldly, unspiritual. If you were really mature, you wouldn't care what the mirror says.
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."
-- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20Gnostic heresy that spiritualizes neglect and makes the physical body an enemy of spiritual growth.
Religious teaching has elevated suffering and neglect as holiness, and at 50+ you've absorbed decades of 'your body doesn't matter, only your soul does' messaging.
Daniel intentionally chose specific food for his body, and after 10 days his countenance appeared better and he was fatter in flesh than those eating the king's delicacies. God honored his care for his physical body with immediate visible results.
I REFUSE the lie that caring for my body is unspiritual vanity. IT IS WRITTEN that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and I'm to glorify God IN my body, not despite it. Daniel intentionally chose food for health and appearance and God blessed it. My Father designed the tabernacle with beauty and detail—He's not offended by me stewarding His temple well. IT IS WRITTEN that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and honoring that isn't vanity, it's worship. The same covenant that blessed Abraham's physical life blesses mine through Christ.
Your Father doesn't condemn you for wanting to feel good in the body He gave you. He's the Designer who put 50 tons of gold on the ark, who dressed Adam and Eve with care, who gave Daniel better appearance for honoring his body. He celebrates your body as His dwelling place.