Oops, I did it again

My mother-in -law makes exceptional chocolate chip cookies. Every time we go to see her, she always has a fresh bag full of them for us to take home and enjoy. They really are a nice treat and I have always been a sucker for chocolate chip cookies.
Obviously this type of snack doesn't it lend itself to my regular eating plan so I decided when she gives us cookies, I'll eat them as quickly as possible and use that as my "cheat" day. Needless to say, I eat a ton of cookies in a short amount of time, so it's not so "bad." Well, this morning I woke up with a terrible headache. I rested terribly and have felt a bit anxious all day. This happens to me every time I fall off the sugar wagon.
It just goes to prove that your diet can and will have a huge effect on your life. If you eat like crap, expect to feel that way too. Garbage in, garbage out (No offense mom)

Get Smart

Do you remember in high school when the term dumb jock was used to describe our athletes. Now, I'll be the first to admit there are some athletes out there who are just a few cards short of a full deck. In fact, my freshman year in college, we had the Scholar Male Athlete of the year with something like a 3.98gpa. Meanwhile, the team gpa was 2.2...you do the math. There were some people on that team barely staying afloat.

However, research has shown that people engaging in exercise actually have improved mental function. That means that exercise actually makes you smarter. The next time you need to be fully with it mentally, take some time and get a quick workout. Your brain will thank you.

Don't Burn the Day

Back in the late 90's, the Dave Matthews Band was my favorite group. What do you expect though, they seemed to be every college kids' favorite. I listened to them at the house, in the car and even at the gym to workout. Their combination of real instruments and meaningful lyrics was a nice change to the "pop" craze that was overtaking the airwaves.

DMB had a song that talked about not, "burning the day." In essence, don't waste the day, it's too important. Take advantage of every opporunity. I really liked that song and still think about it often. The song goes right along with the bible verse that says, "This is the day that the Lord hath made, Rejoice and Be glad in it."

As I've gotten older, I've began to realize how many days I've "burned" over the years. We are so easily distracted that it is actually common to waste minutes and hours doing meaningless stuff. With the combination of email, facebook, youtube etc, it's absolutely possible to spend hours online everyday and never watch the same thing twice.

Another way to burn the day is to not take care of yourself physically. If I eat poorly, don't exercise and sleep 4-6 hours a night, I am effectively burning the day because I can't give all I have to it. If we would make some minor lifestyle changes we would be so much more productive at work, at home, everywhere!

I recently challenged myself to be in bed by 10pm each night. I haven't succeeded every evening but I am quite aware of the difference in my attitude, focus and drive when I go to bed 45-60 minutes earlier.

Be passionate about today! Live a life worthy of your calling.

The Young and The Restless

If you've ever wondered how important rest is to your entire being, trying taking care of a sick 12 week daughter. This past saturday night, I stayed up the entire night with my daughter Riley. She had contacted a cold or something that gave her horrible congestion. Anyway, long story short, I did not sleep a wink on Saturday night.

Sunday presented some interesting situations and I re-learned the importance of sleep. I had an extremely short fuse with my son and other family members. I was extremely unfocused with no desire to do anything. I ate extremely poor because I didn't have the extra energy to make a good meal. (Interestingly, this made me even more tired, irrational and cranky...can you see the circle that many people live in?)

Thankfully I have wonderful parents and a wonderful wife who allowed me to grab a nice nap on Sunday afternoon and a good nights sleep Sunday. I'm now back to living the PIES lifestyle and I feel great.

Never take for granted the importance of each of the rest in living a productive and healthy life.

Looking for more guidance to healthy living? Email me

Got any fat genes?

Alot of my clients have fat jeans and skinny jeans and can tell whether they are gaining or losing weight depending on which jeans they wear. But this genes thing is completely different.

In case you missed it, researchers have isolated what they believe to be a fat gene. That's right, a gene that some may carry that may make them predisposed to the chances of obesity. Pretty amazing huh.

I'm not sure how they found this gene, but have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen though. There will be thousands of people that will now claim that they can't be healthy because they have the fat gene. You know, it's a shame but God just made me this way.

Ok, newsflash for everyone: Just because you are predisposed to a condition doesn't mean you have to live it. God made us in His Image. He deeply desires for us to live whole, healthy lives. I'm pretty sure His image is not overweight, sedentary, chomping on snickers bars. So let's just be clear here. Just because there may be a gene that we carry that "could" makes us predisposed to obesity doesn't mean we have to be obese. That is a lifestyle choice.

I was wrong

I ended my blog on Tuesday using the quote, "You'll be swimming upstream" as something to be avoided. After giving it some thought, I think I was wrong. Maybe swimming upstream nowadays isn't such a bad idea.

We all know the health crisis our communities are in. 40 million people are expected to have diabetes. 66% of America is overweight. Maybe it's time to raise up some individuals that will swim upstream.

What I mean by this is that it is quite obvious that the way we are living is not working. Our current lifestyle leads to sickness, disease and death. It's time for a change. How about this, let's swim upstream. Let's lead a lifestyle of health and wholeness: One that understands Who made us and how He wants us to live. Let's exercise and be ready to serve. Let's eat well and have plenty of energy to go where He leads. Let's rest and recover so as to enjoy His blessings. Finally, let's do it together. What do you say?

No Man is an Island

Does this sound familiar? "I'll start on Monday." "I'll get started October 1st" "2009 will be the year I really get in shape." As a fitness coach, I hear these comments all the time being thrown around the gym. The truth of the matter is that although people may start "on monday" most likely they will quit in less than 3 weeks. The root of this problem isn't because they don't want to do it, it's because they take on Fitness alone.

Study after study has shown that individuals that have workout partners or meet with personal trainers are far more likely to succeed and stay fit then those that go it alone. Actually a recent study proves this once again.

"Researchers at the world famous Karolinska Institute wanted to findout why some men and women succeed at weight loss while others don't. They studied many men and women using an Internet Weight Loss Club,and found that the people who used the site the MOST also LOST the most weight. That means that going online for social support in your weight loss program is one of the most IMPORTANT things you can do."

The exciting thing is the study proves that even an online community or trainer can give you the support you need to succeed. Fit Church members know that Community is one of the Pillars of our program. We need to have community to keep us accountable, cheer us on and give us direction. Without community we are swimming upstream.

If you'd like to be part of a bunch of Believers striving to glorify God with their lives, Email Me Here!!

Fuel for the soul

Have you ever read those Chicken Soup for the Soul books. You know, they are uplifting stories that make you feel better about yourself and the world. It's a great idea and they seem to have a book or two now for every genre of people. Chicken Soup for the Mom's soul, Chicken Soup for the graduate's soul, Chicken Soup for the vegan soul (read that one again if you didn't get it). Anyway, you get my point.

Too often, we live our lives where we think of food as only for our physical bodies. However, those of us living a PIES lifestyle realize that it is also important to fuel our IES (intellectual, Emotional, Spiritual) side as well. You may not know it but you are feeding your Spirit one way or the other.

Just as we choose to eat healthy natural food or factory-made junk, we choose to feed our spirit as well. If I spend my time gossiping, thinking negative thoughts and watching tv shows that promote violence, lust and greed, I am putting "junk" into my body. However, if I concentrate on "whatever is good, whatever is pure" what a difference that can make in my life simply by changing what I'm "feeding" my spirit.

I urge you today to start keeping a Spiritual food log. Take note of your thought life, what you are watching and the conversations that you are having. Always remember the saying, "Garbage in, Garbage out"

Fill'er up!

My first job ever was as a gas station attendant at local full service station. Each day in the summer of 1994, I would fill up cars and trucks with unleaded or premum gas. We also offered diesel.

On the very first week of my job, the boss' son rolled in driving his father's new pick up truck. He asked me to fill it up with 87 (or so I thought) I filled the truck up as full as possible in order to impress the boss. When I was finished, the son asked me what I put in the tank. I said, 87 like you asked. "87? I said diesel!", he replied.

To make a long story short, we then pushed this new pick up into the garage bay and had to drain the tank and then put the proper fuel back in. On a quick sidenote, as I was steering the truck onto the lift to drain the tank, I didn't judge something correctly and drove the truck off the lift. What a day! Why didn't they fire me?

However, as dreadful as that day was, I learned an important lesson. Nothing runs properly on the wrong kind of fuel. Cars don't, motorcycles don't, even weedeaters don't. You know what else needs the right kind of fuel? You guessed it, our bodies.
We need to eat the proteins, fats, fruits and veges that are going to give us the energy we need to live our lives productively. Unfortunately, we continue to dump 87(simple processed sugar junk) into a diesel tank. However, unlike my pickup truck experience we can't just pull in to the bay and drain the tank. We actually have to function on the junk until it gets out of our system.
One of the principles of living a FitChurch lifestyle is realizing the importance of fueling the body. Believe it or not, how we eat is actually an act of worship. Each time we are about to eat or drink, we should ask ourselves two simple questions. 1. Is this food glorifying to God? 2. Is this food helping or hurting me live a life worthy of his calling? If we can answer yes to those questions, there is a good chance we are on our way to fueling our bodies properly.

Fit Church GPS

Only several years ago, if you wanted to know how to get somewhere, you would pull out the atlas or map and try to make your way to your destination. Nowadays, we plug in some information to our GPS and a nice calm voice directs down the path until "we have arrived"

At Fit Church our goal is be that GPS for our members. Millions of people are stumbling around trying to find their way on a map that just isn't as interactive as they need it to be. Just like a GPS, we need that constant communication of "eat this, not that" "exercise for 30 minutes today" "Go for a walk today". These directions are no different then the "turn left here" that we have come to rely on in our travels.

The destination is a healthy, energetic, productive God Honoring life. We can't wait to make it there and hear that calm voice say, "You have arrived"

Want to ride along? Reserve your spot today!

Have some PIES?

No, no, I'm not talking about apple, peach or blueberry pie. (Although I'm a sucker for a piece of homemade boston cream pie every so often.)

The PIES I'm talking about can change your life. You see for some reason we as christians have this dualistic mentality. We pursue spiritual fitness with all that we have while we run our physical bodies into the ground....literally. However, God cares about every part of us and He wants us to pursue Him in all areas.

PIES stands for Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Spiritual. It is our job as Christians to glorify Him in all these areas. Let me give you a few examples.

1. Let's say I'm with it spiritually. I'm praying, talking to God daily and walking by faith. At the same time I'm barely sleeping, eating twinkies and ho ho's and living a sedentary life. Can God use me to my fullest potential? No. I'm missing the opportunity to bless others and be blessed because most likely I'm overstressed, overweight and overwhelmed.

2. However, let's say that I'm in great physical condition. I rest 7-9 hours a night. I exercise and eat right. However, my busy schedule has left little time for God and I'm not praying and reading like I once was. God and I have an as needed relationship. Am I glorifying God with my body? Part of it, but not the whole thing.

3. Now let's say I'm exercising, reading, praying but yet my emotions get the best of me. I'm on a constant emotional roller coaster as I get angry easily and find very little joy in my life. Am I glorifying God with my body?

The PIES approach causes us to realize that all areas of our life are under God's jurisdiction. Not only that, but they are deeply innertwined. The decisions that I make in my physical life play a huge part in how I react intellectually, emotionally and spiritually and vice versa. Our goal is to live a life in which God is glorified at all times.

A Fit Church lives by the PIES lifestyle and so does it's members. A Fit Church member realizes that they can glorify God by eating well, exercising, and even sleeping.

Is your church a Fit Church? Find out how it can be!

UnFit Church?

Here is something interesting to think about.

I met with a pastor the other day who had recently begun taking a group of guys at his church through a program to help them understand the role of physical health in their lives. I was really excited to hear about their success. Some of the guys have made big progress in realizing where they have gone wrong over the years. The pastor said to me, " When are we going to realize that every single part of our lives is under God's jurisdiction?"

What a great point. Have you made that realization yet? I've seen Christian after Christian, leave church on sunday, go to the local Diner,order French Toast, butter, hash browns, syrup and a chocolate chip muffin and ask God to bless it to their bodies before they eat it.

Are we nuts? God isn't going to bless that to their bodies. He's going to let it do exactly what it always does......cause a huge spike in your blood sugar, causing you to store fat and not allowing your to burn any stored fat. You are going to get a bunch of energy for like 5 minutes and then crash and burn as the simple sugars wear off. Repeat this enough times and there is a good chance you'll end up with type II diabetes. Some Blessing huh.

It's time we as a Church realize, we are His creation. He has given us a magnificient body to do terrific good works with. However, we live unrealistic lifestyles and expect extraordinary things.

Our culture is suffering from a health crisis. As always, it's up to the Church to lead them back to the light. I'm excited to be part of that process.

Want to know how to get a Fit Church? Email me