Move

“I Don’t Feel Like It”

The Pitfall: Have you ever said, “I don’t feel like it” when it was time to exercise?

If this had happened to me back in the day, that would have been the end of it; if I did not feel like exercising, I simply would not do it.

The Way Out: I discovered that “I don’t feel like it” only lasts a moment. It’s often a case of “a body at rest tends to stay at rest.” However, I also learned that “a body in motion tends to stay in motion.”

I decided I wanted to live my life fit and healthy, even as I got older. So keeping my body in motion is essential – as the old saying goes “when you rest, you rust.”

To get past “I don’t feel like it, my challenge was moving from rest to motion.

The Change: Most of the time, my “I don’t feel like it” came from sheer laziness. And the Bible warns against laziness in this little story:

I went by the field of the lazy man,
And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;
And there it was, all overgrown with thorns;
Its surface was covered with nettles;
Its stone wall was broken down.
When I saw it, I considered it well;
I looked on it and received instruction:
A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest;
So shall your poverty come like a prowler,
And your need like an armed man (Proverbs 24:30-34).”

I no longer wanted to neglect the body God had given to me. That meant laziness had to go. I reminded myself that there were plenty of times I did things, even when I didn’t feel like it. For example, I didn’t always feel like  going to work but I did it anyway. Why should working out be any different?

All that would mean is I would be exercising, but I just wouldn’t feel like it while I was doing it!

To move from rest to motion, I’d tell myself: “I’ll exercise for 10 minutes. If I still don’t feel like it, I’ll stop.” Most of the time, it was just a matter of getting past that initial resistance. But if I still didn’t feel like it after moving for 10 minutes, then I’d feel good about that, declare victory , and stop.

However 99% of the time, I’d be fine after 10 minutes and want to keep going.

Whether I did 10 minutes, 60 minutes or any number of minutes in between, I ended up with the pleasure of accomplishment in knowing I had done something good for myself.

Kimberly Taylor

takebackyourtemple.com

P.S. Going forward, I challenge you to examine your own weight loss pitfalls. What consistently gets you off-track? I’d love to hear about it. Feel free to contact me and tell me your story. God bless you!

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Eat Well, Move

“Why Can’t I Lose Weight?”

Why Cant I Lose WeightA common question I’ve read in weight loss forums is, “Why can’t I lose weight?”

When I read the question, I immediately see the first problem. Here is a clue: When you read the question, can you spot the belief behind it?

That is correct! Within the question is the conclusion that you cannot lose weight – no matter what or how long you try.

As long as you believe that you can’t, you won’t.

Your beliefs set your limits. What I mean is, even if a solution came along, you either won’t see it because you have your “CAN’T blinders” on or you will reject it.

Why? Because it doesn’t line up with your belief!

For example, 1 Corinthians 10:13 promises: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

So the scripture promises that God always makes a way for us to escape temptation.

But if you don’t believe it, then you won’t even look for an escape route! You’ll give in every time.

What is a better question to ask yourself when it comes to weight loss?

A better question is, “How can I lose weight?” Do you see the difference?

Within the question is the conclusion that there are solutions to your desire to lose weight. The way you live your daily life is where your permanent solution is found.

You see, I believe that weight management is typically a life management issue.

Scientists estimate that up to 95% of what you do is automatic.

Every day, you probably do the same things, in the same way. Judging from your physical results, then your current pattern has led you to gain weight.

So it makes sense that changing something in your current daily pattern (that 95%) will turn things around with your weight – given enough time.

Let’s look at a three things in your daily pattern that may be hindering your weight loss:

  • Your regular meals: It is estimated that we eat the same 7-12 foods/meals each week. What are yours? If you don’t know, then a good place to start is to keep a food journal for a week.

Write down everything that goes in your mouth. Don’t change anything yet; you are looking for information. Once the week is up, put a star by the things that you eat most often. Those are the foods/meals you need to target.

   Ask yourself “Are these meals helping my weight loss goal or hurting it?” If they are hurting it, then you can either look for a lower calorie version of it or look for a healthier recipe that will allow you to enjoy the food, but get you closer to your weight loss goal.

  • Your eating pattern: Do you have a regular habit of fixing yourself large portions, eating out of large bags or boxes, going back for seconds, or eating when your body does not need it?

All of these daily behaviors will contribute to excess weight over time. Just making some small adjustments in your eating patterns could make a huge difference in your weight over time.

  • Your daily movement pattern: How many hours do you sit every day? Scientists did a study recently and found that slim people move (stand up/walk around) for 2 hours and 15 minutes every day more than overweight people.

Even regular exercise does not make up for the negative effects of long-term sitting.

If you have a desk job, then stand up and walk about for 10-15 minutes every hour. You can do some stretches, march in place, or other gentle exercise.

Get your 2 hours and 15 minutes of casual standing movement however you can. If you are at home, you can either walk during commercials or do some spot housecleaning more often. Work to make this a regular routine.

And here’s an even better reason: If you have pre-diabetes or have a history of it in your family, then simply taking a 15-minute walk after your meals can lower your blood sugar rise by 50%!

The conclusion? If you want to lose weight, then start looking at the way you are living your daily life right now.

Your answers are probably right under your nose!

Be blessed with health, healing, and wholeness,

Kimberly Taylor

Author/Christian Life Coach of the Take Back Your Temple program

P.S. When it comes to weight loss, do you often know what you should do but have a hard time doing it?

I struggled with this issue on my own weight loss journey, but I discovered that “Nothing is different until you think differently.”

The value of the Take Back Your Temple program is that you will learn how to think differently through using Biblical keys to overcome obstacles. You’ll discover how to win the Spiritual and mental battle that often causes us to become inconsistent and get off-track on our weight loss journey.

Join a community of like-minded Christians losing weight and keep it off.

Click here to learn more about the Take Back Your Temple program

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Motivation, Move

Healthy Parents Lead Healthy Families

Young Family Having Fun In Park

This special guest article by children’s fitness expert Jeremy Whitworth gives you three ways you can instill healthy habits in your kids and enable them to become everything God calls them to be.

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Having worked with kids for over a decade, I have discovered what may seem to be a shocking truth to many parents…you actually influence your kids! Even the teens! And not just to the opposite of what you ask. After years running weight loss camps for teens, and a life in summer camps, what I’ve discovered is that healthy parents influence and lead healthy families.

Now, before you begin rebuttals, I want to clarify what I mean by healthy. By healthy I encompass healthy minds, bodies, and spirits and thus healthy relationships.  Even “fit” people can have unhealthy relationships with food or exercise or family and friends.

With everyone, from the First Lady to network television, taking a stance on childhood obesity, isn’t it amazing and empowering to know that you, as a parent, have an incredible opportunity to make a change in the lives of your kids?

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”- Proverbs 22:6

I view health as three key components: mind, body, and spirit.  Experience has shown me over the years that all three of those are linked. In turn, I’ve seen firsthand that being healthy in this three-part way brings about healthy relationships and decision making as well.

3 Ways to Build Healthy Kids

Be an active family. As a family, take up rock climbing at a local gym, go for walks, go on active vacations, throw a ball, join a soccer league. MOVE as a family! At the end of a long day sometimes the last thing my wife and I want to do is get out and be active.

However, we find that going for a walk, though not overly physically taxing, helps us feel better, gives us more energy, burns some calories, and we talk.  We talk far more walking than we do watching TV or doing almost anything else at the house after a long day.

It physically builds our health and builds our relationship.

Take out the trash. Garbage in, garbage out. I am a firm believer that you live at the level at which you speak, and you speak at the level at which you hear. This to say that the words that come out of your mouth and float around in your mind all day, set the stage for how you live your life.

Those words often come from what you watch on TV, what you listen to on the radio, and what you hear from those you surround yourself with. Be mindful what you surround your family with.

I know you can’t control every aspect of your kid’s life outside of the home, but you can take control of what happens at home and what you do, say, watch, and listen to as a family.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 18:2

Connect the mind, body and spirit for your family. I read a question in Kim’s blog one time, “Does God love you if you’re overweight?” Of course he does!

Does the Bible tell us what God wants our body mass index (BMI) to be? No, it doesn’t. 

As a Christian what is our motivation to be healthy and what does that have to do with God’s purpose for us?

We understand that treating people well, loving others, ministering to others, and spreading the word of God is what we are called to. What does that have to do with our weight or physical health?

To further the kingdom of God, I need to be healthy, to the amount that is within my power. My health, your health for that matter, can help or hinder your ability to live the life God has called you to. No one ever had that conversation with me as a kid.

Thankfully I was an active kid, but it never crossed my mind that my physical health had anything to do with my spiritual health, and living the life God called me to.  Have those conversations.  I knew to be kind one to another and respect my parents, because I was taught that those things were pleasing in the sight of God.

Talk about God’s desire and purpose for your life, your family, and your kids.

“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” III John 2

You, as a parent, have an awesome opportunity to impact the health of your child in mind, body, and spirit.  Know that you have influence, be empowered and lead a healthy household. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31

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Move

Whatever you DESIRE (Lessons from Golf)

I am learning to play golf and don’t play well right now. I want to learn because Mike has played for about 12 years and it’s something that we can do together as a couple for fun.

But I have to admit that there are times when I want to give up. My body doesn’t seem to do what I want it to do. I’ll hit the ball into the woods, into a ravine, into a lake, in short everywhere but straight! More than once, I’ve said “I hate this game!” But I knew deep down I didn’t really mean it. I was just frustrated with my seeming lack of progress.

However, I keep reading golf books, gathering tips from the Internet, and watching YouTube videos, in hopes that someday I’ll get the “click” and everything will just flow. Until that day, I will keep practicing.

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I’m reading a book called “The Single Plane Solution” by Todd Graves right now that gives me new perspective on what is involved before you really get good at a new skill, in this case golf. As I read it, I realize that I came to same conclusion years ago in creating a healthy lifestyle for myself. I’m going to share with you an excerpt from the book and perhaps it will give you a new perspective as you work on your health goals:

“A reporter in 2002 asked [Moe]  why he thought that I was the only one who could teach his golf swing. Moe in his eloquent simplicity said, “Because he really wants it”. He was right. Moe didn’t mention talent, money, strength, physical attributes, or past successes. Moe, as usual, saw what was most important in any person who wants something – desire.

The desire to do whatever it takes.

An important question to ask yourself is do you have the desire to follow through and how badly do you want it? The reason I ask you this question is because when you really want something you do whatever it takes. You go the extra mile and practice the extra hour. You ask for help when you need it and you willfully make things that seem impossible – possible. And throughout this process, you also understand that failure and frustration, when directed, is a launching pad for progress.

Desire gets you through the tough times and the times when you feel as though you are spinning your wheels. It gets you past the heartache of a bad round and the bad practice day. Desire is what holds you together when your friends think you are crazy…”

What Graves said about Desire in the book reminded me of the following Scripture: ” The desire of the lazy man kills him, For his hands refuse to labor (Proverbs 21:25).”

Two words in the scripture stand out to me: DESIRE and REFUSE. They both imply choice. What I think this scripture means is that if you desire something, you have two choices as to what to do about it: You either work for it or you give up the desire. Either choice means life.

If you desire something, but are not willing to work for it, then that desire is going to kill you.

Maybe it will not kill you physically, but it kills your confidence and certainly tears down your self-image. It eventually kills your joy and makes you relentlessly negative because you are in a “no-win” situation. Being in your presence drags other people down. Deep down, you know that you are deceiving yourself, living a lie. That is killing knowledge.

If you do not want to be such a person, then by all means, make a decision right now: Either give up your desire or decide right now that you are going to start working for what you want. Start PRACTICING and do it every day.

It only takes a second to decide, but your answer will determine the course of your life from this day forward. I’ve made my decision concerning golf; I may have to fight cursing at times, but I am going to stick with it. I can see myself getting good. It may take another month of practice or it may take years. I don’t care. I am going to keep working until I get what I want.

How about you?

Kimberly Taylor
Author, Take Back Your Temple eBook
https://takebackyourtemple.com

P.S. What would happen if God’s people “ate” His word as often as we consume food?

Feeding on God’s word gives you strength, joy, and courage. To help you discover the hope in God’s word and break mental strongholds, check out my God’s Word is Food 90-day daily devotional on Amazon.com here.

Learn more here: https://takebackyourtemple.com/gods-word-is-food-3

The eBook is in Amazon Kindle format, but you don’t need a Kindle to read it. Amazon has a FREE Kindle reader you can use to access the book instantly on your computer.

Learn more here: https://takebackyourtemple.com/gods-word-is-food-3

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