Stressed?
The news is either full of the financial crisis or the Presidential election coverage. Then those two worlds meet and the Presidential election coverage is talking about the financial crisis. These are stressful days we are living in.
What do you do when you’re stressed out?
How do you relax and concentrate your attention on something else?
Give.
When we are stressed out we tend to focus our attention on ourselves and our circumstances. What helps to change the focus?
Giving.
I have found that one sure way to change my focus is to give my time and energy in helping someone else.
What are you passionate about? What do you love to do? Take the way God has wired you (passions and strengths) and use them to benefit someone else.
I love watching people realize their dreams when it comes to fitness and health. To watch someone who is discouraged with a bad self-image change their life is awesome! The best part is when they all of a sudden realized they are succeeding. Their self-esteem sky rockets. They not only transform their bodies, but their minds as well. It’s an amazing experience to be a part of.
I recently started volunteering my skills as a personal trainer through a non-profit fitness organization I set up. I am having a blast training the people that are using this organization. At times I feel like I may be getting more out of it than they are.
Giving. The amazing mystery is when we give back through the passions and gifts God has given us He blesses in return. We’ve all heard, “You can’t out give God.”
Stressed? Give.
Ninja Cat
Don’t you wish you had some mad skills like this cat! This kind of agility would really help in our pursuit of fitness. Enjoy! Here’s the link for the feed readers.
Pay Now or Pay Later
Pay Now
o The struggle with schedule that makes time to workout consistently.
o Planning ahead in order to eat healthy.
o Muscle soreness from a challenging fitness plan.
o Resisting the temptation to derail a good nutrition plan.
o Working out when you don’t feel like it.
o Discomfort during a challenging workout.
o Swallowing pride in order to try something new.
o Get outside help, training, accountability.
o Changing a whole lifestyle that promotes health and fitness.
The Pay Off
o Increased self-esteem
o Increased self-confidence
o Increased mental focus
o Increased strength and stamina
o Increased energy level
o Decreased stress level
o Weight loss
o More restful sleep
o Measurable results that move towards life goals.
o The overall GREAT feeling of health and fitness.
Pay Later
o High blood pressure.
o Type II Diabetes
o Heart Disease
o High Blood Pressure
o Sleep Apnea
o Osteoarthritis
o Gall Bladder Disease
o Fatty Liver Disease
o Chronic headaches
o Varicose veins
o Breathing problems
o Coronary artery disease
o Increased risk of stroke
o PREMATURE DEATH
We will all pay. Either “pay now” or “pay later.”
Loner or Groupie?
When working out do you tend to be more social or anti-social? I guess it depends on what you exercise accomplishes for you. I find myself doing both.
Reasons I “Go it Alone”
1. I want to be alone with my own thoughts. This is often the case if I’m going on an extended run. I am not one that enjoys running and talking. I like to get into a zone and let my mind wander.
2. Working out can be an escape from my stressful day. On a day like this the last thing I want is to workout with a partner or group.
3. Sometimes when I’m unsure of a new workout I like to do it by myself first.
Reasons I Work Out with a Partner/Group
1. To challenge each other. I tend to push myself harder when there is a little competition.
2. Accountability. When meeting someone for a workout it’s harder to back out and skip it.
3. Safety reasons. There are some exercises when a spotter is a must.
4. Encouragement. A couple of weeks ago I was trying to perform several muscle ups in a row. I got on a roll and the guy spotting me really motivated me to keep going. Yeah, there was a lot of yelling. It was great!
5. To watch people achieve their goals. This morning I taught a client the “push jerk” for the first time. She got the hang of it right away and truly amazed me! The “push jerk” is a difficult movement for a lot of people. I am one of those people.
What about you? Are you a loner or a groupie when working out?
Comfortable Fitness
Our world is blanketed every day with the latest and the greatest weight loss, get fit quick, pill or program. Do a quick Google search and you will find a myriad of websites offering results with little to no exercise and/or little to no change in eating habits. One program even promotes “eat what you like.”
Don’t fall into the trap of a comfortable fitness or weight loss plan that promises results without work!
In reality, “comfortable” and “fitness” are as different as night and day.
The whole idea of fitness is to temporarily weaken your body so it builds back stronger. This uncomfortable process enables us to achieve a higher level of fitness. There are a lot of people that are engaged in comfortable fitness that does not push, challenge, or produce results. The temptation here is to engage in enough “movement” to keep the guilt away, but only enough to not push us outside of our comfort zone.
Outside of our comfort zone is exactly where we need to be! But how far outside of our comfort zone should we go? Someone who isn’t exercising regularly doesn’t need much intensity or vigorous activity to see results. The challenge comes when we begin to make progress and our fitness level increases. In order to continue to move towards our goals we need to push ourselves out of our comfortable routine. This is different for everyone. Push too little and there won’t be any results. Push too hard and you’ll hurt yourself. We must find the right balance.
If we don’t, we are just fooling ourselves into thinking we’re fit. Check out Mirror Deception and Honest Measurements for a reality check.
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Time Flies
As we “pursue genuine faith and lifelong fitness” together here is a key to help bring you success.
“If you had a bank account that, every morning, credited your account with $86,400, carried over no balance, allowed no cash to remain in the account and, at the end of the day, cancelled what you failed to use-what would you do? Withdraw it fast, correct? Believe it or not, you do have such an account and it is time.”
“Each morning you are credited with 86,400 seconds to spend as you wish. Whatever is not used is lost. There are no balances to carry over to the next day; no overdrafts. All records are destroyed when the day ends. If you do not use the daily deposit, the loss is all yours. There are no returns, no drawing against tomorrow.”
“Time: a thousand times more valuable than the coin of the realm.” (source unknown)
Unfortunately, we tend to focus our busy lives on good tasks that rob us of completing the best tasks and our highest priorities. Charles Hummel has a great resource (Freedom from Tyranny of the Urgent) that gives a “life changing perspective that has freed many from urgent demands that are not really important in the long run.”
What are your highest priorities that tend to get overrun by urgent demands?
25 Sept UPDATE: “wschizzle” left a great link in the comments to Chronometric Genocide. This is an awesome article that will challenge you, “Let me impart to you what has become an obscured truth in our culture: Activity is not better than rest.” Thanks wschizzle!
Video of the Week: Self-Deception
I don’t think this guy was taking advantage of honest measurements and was caught up in a little mirror deception. “Pride goes before a fall” fits nicely here.
Here’s the link for the feed readers.
Honest Measurements
We asked the question, “How can we honestly measure growth?”
We live in a society where “image is everything” (or close to it). This “image chasing” promotes self-deception. Some think they are God’s gift to (you fill in the blank) where others live with a destructive, negative self-image.
How do we combat self-deception in our pursuit of genuine faith and lifelong fitness?
Pursuing Genuine Faith
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” Romans 12:3
Churches can be one of the worst places where people pursue “an image.” They do it for prestige, position, power, influence, or just the desire to convey a “look at me—I have it all together” image. We all need to take time to think of ourselves with “sober judgment” as the Apostle Paul encourages us to do in Romans 12:3.
There are only two people that really know how well you are pursuing genuine faith. You and God. You can’t fool God. You can fool others.
The honest measurement for pursuing genuine faith: meaningful, personal time between you and God.
Pursuing Lifelong Fitness
How to we keep from deceiving ourselves in the pursuit of lifelong fitness? What can we do to accurately measure our fitness level? The answer is to perform benchmark workouts. Whatever your fitness program is develop measurable workouts and perform them regularly.
A measurable workout is one that you can time how long it takes to complete, count the number of repetitions, or observe how much weight is being lifted. The best benchmark workouts combine these three in a variety of ways. For example, one benchmark workout I use includes push-ups and sit-ups (time and repetitions) combined with a run (time and distance). You’re only limited by your own creativity here. The next step is to record the results to be compared to at a later date. Develop a record keeping system in an excel spreadsheet, word document, notebook, or napkin. A fitness log like this is what really brings the reality of our effectiveness into view.
The honest measurement for pursuing lifelong fitness: measurable, benchmark workouts.
Honest measurements help us to “keep it real.” They prevent us from deceiving ourselves in pursuit of both faith and fitness. These measurements help us to not think of ourselves “more highly than we ought,” and help to keep us from a destructive, negative self-image.
What honest measurements do you use in your pursuit of genuine faith and lifelong fitness?
Mirror Deception
We tend to play games with ourselves and live outside of reality at times. There is the unproductive gym rat who only works out in front of the mirror. He sees a fit body that no one else sees. At the other extreme is the healthy, in-shape person who dares only to briefly glance into the same mirror. She sees an overweight and out of shape body that no one else sees.
In your pursuit of lifelong fitness where do you stand in this spectrum? I pray it’s somewhere in the middle. My experience as a pastoral counselor and fitness coach tells me too many of us live toward one extreme or the other. A successful pursuit of lifelong fitness requires emotional health. Without it we spin our wheels (and minds) towards unhealthy and unattainable goals.
Self-deception.
We can deceive ourselves in our pursuit of genuine faith as well.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” - James 1:22-24
Healthy living is a three legged stool supported by spiritual, emotional, and physical health. Without one of those legs we’re living our lives out of balance.
How can we honestly measure our growth?
Patriot Day 2008
Transformation is one of the key themes here at Faith First Fitness - spiritual, physical, and emotional. Today, on Patriot Day, we remember a day that transformed all of our lives.
Take a moment to pray for these groups of people today:
1. The victims of 9/11 and their families.
2. Those who still bear the physical and emotional scars of that day.
3. The men and women of our Armed Forces at home and around the world who protect the freedom we enjoy everyday.
4. Those in our Armed Forces who live the great sacrifice of #3 and bear the physical and emotional scars of the battlefield.
“Seven years ago, ordinary citizens rose to the challenge, united in prayer, and responded with extraordinary acts of courage, with some giving their lives for the country they loved. On Patriot Day, we remember all those who were taken from us in an instant and seek their lasting memorial in a safer and more hopeful world. We must not allow our resolve to be weakened by the passage of time. We will meet the test that history has given us and continue to fight to rid the world of terrorism and promote liberty around the globe.”
- President Bush, 8 September 2008
How did 9/11 transform your life?
