Now, obviously, since the name of this blog is, "Better You 4 Life," the words in that tweet kind of stung. Were they directed towards me? Probably not. But-- I am writing a blog with tips in it-- so, I was overly sensitive and still took offense to it. So, just to get it off my chest and to clarity-- the Fitness and Nutrition tips in this blog are meant to help everyone to live a HEALTHIER life. The healthier you are, the more active you can be and the better you can fulfill YOUR individual purpose and calling from God. The Out of Your Comfort Zone and Change Your Thinking points and challenges are to help you be a WITNESS for God in your day-to-day routine. I am daily working on building my personal relationship with God and want to share some of the things I have reflected on with you... So, the tips aren't only to improve your life on the surface, but they are to help improve your relationship with God and to help give you ideas on how to be a witness in your daily routine.
Please don't simply take this blog as a way to conform or fit into the world with the fitness and nutrition challenges... See it's deeper purpose for helping you live a HEALTHIER life as a WITNESS to God. I am not a theologian and I am not trained to teach the Word of God-- but, He did bless me with the ability to write and communicate and I am living my life to bring glory to Him, and I hope the words written in this blog urge you to dig deeper into YOUR personal relationship and YOUR way of living for the Great One who created us all!
Nutrition Challenge:
**As a special treat, the nutrition section today is written by: Dr. Chad Frisch**
This is going to be really simple, but this concept is critically important to overall health. Being deficient in this one thing can lead to: excessive hunger cravings, fatigue, joint aches/pains, igniting a degenerative process in our body, decreased metabolism, decreased pH of our body (creating an unwanted acidic environment), etc. So what is this one thing....water. Our body is predominately made of water and it is an absolute necessity to maintain hydration in order to prevent disease and maintain health. Erin mentioned increasing water intake in an earlier posting, but is it important this topic is discussed again since so many people walk around in a chronic state of dehydration that causes our bodies to function and heal at a less than optimum state. So what is your task for the day? As soon as you finish reading this, go and drink a full glass of water. Once again before dinner, drink another full glass of water. Do not only do this if you are thirsty. Thirst is an indication that we are already dehydrated. To stay hydrated, we must avoid this thirst signal. One day is not a solution to the problem, but the important point is to drink water not only when you are thirsty. So how do you know if you are well hydrated? This may not be the appetizing thing to think of when you are drinking your glass of water after this, but the answer is urine. Your urine color should be as close to clear as possible. Yellowing of the urine typically signifies you are not properly hydrated. The exception here is if you are taking vitamins/minerals that may be altering the coloration.
The key with success when it comes to drinking water (as with many things in life) is preparation. Have water with you and available to drink. Take sips on it throughout the day and eventually it will become a habit for you to be drinking water even when you are not thirsty. Drink up!
Fitness Challenge:
I don't really know how to follow that other than by saying, with the mention of urine, you can tell a doctor wrote it! Chad has an amazing way of thoroughly explaining things, in a way that everyone can understand, so be on the look-out for challenges written by him from time-to-time!
Today, we are working on our triceps! There are TONS of exercises we could do for this-- and most of them are wonderful-- but today, we are going to focus on one that can easily be done at home with dumbbells (or your cans of food, if you don't have dumbbells at this point)!
Tricep Kick-Backs:
**This exercise can be done one arm at a time, using a bench for stabilization... or you can do both arms at the same time (which is the variation I prefer).
1. Hold a weight in each hand and bend forward until your torso is parallel with the floor (if this is too difficult, you can bend to a 45-degree angle).2. Bend your arms us and have elbows even with torso.
3. Keeping your elbows at torso level, straighten your arms behind you and and squeeze your tricep muscles.
4. Return to the position in step 2 and repeat. I recommend starting with 3 sets of 10 repetitions per set.
(the image is from google images and is meant to show you the proper form. if you have any questions, PLEASE look at more images... proper form is NECESSARY to avoid injury. the picture doesn't show this too well, but your knees should be SLIGHTLY BENT).
Out of Your Comfort Zone:
Since I have been becoming closer in my relationship with God, I constantly find myself talking about church and the things God has done in my life.Let's face it--regardless of where you are in your relationship (even if you aren't a Christian)--there have been things in your life that you can't explain other than by saying it was by God's hand! I can't help but want to tell everyone how great He is. The closer your relationship becomes, the more you will want to do for Him because He has already done EVERYTHING for you. So, if you are at a point in your relationship where you feel comfortable talking about Him, please do so. Since I have opened up and started talking more, it is amazing how many people I have meaningful conversations with. Even at work, I am daily having conversations that focus on how great God is.
Change Your Thinking:
You will never deserve the grace that God has already given you. Let me repeat-- you will never deserve the grace that God has already given you. So, stop trying to do things in your life to, "be good enough," or, "work hard enough," to earn God's grace. Instead-- focus your energy on doing things for Him because of the grace and love He has already shown you. He gave us an instruction manual (the Bible) and the greatest gift in the world (eternal life)... So, let's show Him we appreciate it and show the world HOW GREAT our God is!
"Not because of who I am, but because of what You've done. Not because of what I've done, but because of who You are." (Casting Crowns)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTQTcasa2S8
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