A lifestyle of intimacy. That is what I want from you. That is what you can offer Me. Your life. Your all. Your whole heart. I want all of you with nothing held back. Then I will pour out My blessings on you. Then you will see Me glorified. Then you will have purpose and meaning in your life. Then you will bear much fruit.
Tag Archives: Lifestyle
Ongoing Lifestyle Choices
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A few of us in our church and several hundred on an on-line health and fitness site just completed a 14 week Summer Challenge. The goal was not just to lose weight, but to change your body composition. Therefore, weight lifting was incorporated as well as cardio and a huge part of the program is about nutrition. Now that the official challenge is over, the goals need to be re-set so the fat doesn’t come back on. I’ve been involved in 6 of these challenges over the past 3 years. Over and over again I see some who had worked so hard put the weight right back on because they go right back to their old ways of doing things. This has happened to me too. So what can be done to change that this time? How can we hold onto the gains we’ve made, or should I say the losses we’ve accomplished?
The secret is in the goal setting. A huge part of this program is the mental game. When we continue to set life changing goals and continue to work toward those goals, we can continue to see improvement from ‘challenge’ to challenge. Life long self-improvement and personal development. Isn’t that what we all want? Not just physically, but spiritually, emotionally, educationally and in every other area of our lives? A vision or mission has no end date. Get a big one. Seek God, asking Him what His purpose for your life is. Don’t put limitations on what God wants for you. Then go about setting small, mid range and long term goals to get you there. That’s the secret of any success in this life. And don’t forget to stay surrendered to God. Keep your dreams and desires fully surrendered to Him and He will give you the desires of your heart, since it’s Him who puts them there in the first place.
Seven Ingredients to a Healthy & Fit Lifestyle #2
Ingredient number 2 is: HAVE A GOAL!
Zig Ziglar says: “A goal properly set is halfway reached.” and he also says, “If you want to reach a goal, you must ‘see the reaching’ in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.”
The biggest reason people fail to achieve their fitness goals is because they either didn’t set any to begin with or they made them too big. Set specific, realistic goals. Write them down on paper and read them daily. Take your goals seriously and write them out in the present tense. For example, instead of “I want to lose 10 pounds.” say, I weigh ___ pounds and am maintaining it with ease. Whatever your goal is, write it out like you’ve already attained it. Your mind will work toward that goal if you state it in the positive. And the more emotion you stir up, the more motivated you’ll be to go after it.
And don’t just concentrate on the obstacles or problems of reaching your goal. Negative statements and self-defeating questions or statements are: I can’t lose weight no matter what I do – Why can’t I lose this last ten pounds? – I have a slow metabolism – I’ll try. – It’s so hard to lose weight. Change the way you phrase these into more positive statements: I weigh ____. I exercise ___ days a week and feel energetic all day long. I am in the best shape of my life. My metabolism is getting faster and faster every day. I LOVE eating healthy, whole, living foods. I have more energy than I know what to do with.
As you repeat these goals, they will become a part of your life. Have a plan everyday. Write them out on 3X5 cards and repeat them morning and night. This not only works for losing weight and getting into shape, but scripture memory and accomplishing other daily tasks as well. Whatever you need or want to do that day, write it down.
Once you’ve achieved your goal, set a new one. Celebrate your accomplishments and take it to the next level. Keep setting goals. It’s an energizing exercise and will change your life.
Ingredient number 3 coming soon!
Seven Ingredients for a Healthy & Fit Lifestyle #1
This is a condensed version of a talk I gave at a ladies breakfast at our church. Incorporating all these ingredients into your life will help increase your energy and put you on the road to a more healthy and fit lifestyle.
I love everything about food and nutrition and since it’s all about food with me, I named this, “Seven Ingredients to a Healthy & Fit Lifestyle”.
What I want to share are seven ingredients that have helped me have an abundance of energy and maintain, (key word here, MAINTAIN), a healthy & fit life.
We are tri-dimensional, physical, spiritual and mental, and deal with the complete person. This is the ONLY way to have complete success at a healthy balanced life. And we’re not all cut from the same mold, but we do have similarities. Take these basic ingredients and make your own recipe by tweaking things here and there until you find what works best for you as an individual. There is no ONE SIZE FITS ALL. God will give you direction and wisdom. He has a purpose in mind for your life and He will lead you into it. But you’ve got to start moving so take the first step.
Ingredient #1. You must totally surrender to God and fully depend on Him alone. God created us in such a way that we can experience His “flow” by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we walk in His plan for our lives, He gives us everything we need. Strength in weakness, power in our inability and confidence in our circumstances. We must give over total control and fully surrender every part of our being. All our hopes, dreams, thoughts, mindsets, beliefs, everything must be surrendered to Him.
A wonderful new book hot off the press called, “Free From The Power Of Sin” says, “It all boils down to this; our beliefs, our mind-sets, our choices, and our behaviour are all dictated by what is truly in the heart. And the power to make positive choices is wholly dependent on one essential qualification. Christ’s indwelling presence. Walking our our faith, then, in the reality of our new self comes about by making up our mind to do so, while relying totally upon what God has already provided through His overcoming power.”
We must come to the place of total surrender and dependence on God, relinquishing EVERYTHING over to Him. That is the number one starting place for success in any area of our life.
Ingredient number 2 to follow. Stay tuned!