A holy outlook on health and fitness - Freeport, IL - The Journal-Standard

A holy outlook on health and fitness - Freeport, IL - The Journal-Standard

Exciting New Year

I’m so excited about this new year. We have a great new devotional we will be starting. We will also be adding a new Saturday morning weight loss group. Kirsten and I will be making the Wednesday night workouts a weekly event as well. I’m also super excited about introducing a new GodFit Challenge to our groups and friends. This God Fit challenge will be like the FHN GetFit Challenge of years past. We will award points in a similar fashion. We will also award points for daily devotions. I’m excited about developing this new challenge. A lot is happening and I’m looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2011. Are you ready for a new beginning?

Get signed up today.  Call Kirsten at the church office for more info: 815-235-2824

Check out our January Schedule

Hope 4 You

About 2 years ago I was asked to share my story in a book and to be honest I was a little apprehensive. Ultimately I declined the offer because I was nervous about publishing my story. I thought it would put me under a microscope. At the time it wasn’t right for me so I let the opportunity go and continued on my personal journey. Then about a year ago I was presented with another opportunity to share my story in a First Place 4 Health book entitled Hope 4 You. I have used all the first place 4 health resources and the timing was right for me to share my story. I’m happy to share my story and I hope it continues to inspire people to give Christ, First place in there lives.

You Can Overcome Setbacks.

“Fall seven times, get up eight.” - Japanese Proverb
It doesn’t matter how often you fall. What matters is how you land and where you end up.

In the years ahead, you’ll go through successes and failures, highs and lows, steps forward and steps back, times of plenty and times of difficulty. When the dust settles and the books of life are squared away, you’re doing well if you come out the other side better, stronger and happier for the experience.
Some see weight loss and healthy living as struggles. Usually, it’s because they have an all-or-nothing approach that only accepts perfection. Faced with anything less than 100% success, they fall into guilty despair, convinced that they’ve failed. Then they revert to old habits and the cycle starts over again.
We don’t see it that way. Healthy living is a process of learning. Life doesn’t always pan out like you thought, it has a toolbox full of wrenches to throw into your plans. Dieting setbacks can show up in a lot of ways. Do any of these look familiar from your dieting past?

Plateaus: “The scale is simply not moving, and I’m getting frustrated.”
Burnout: “I just can’t keep up this tough regimen anymore.”
Weak Moments: “I had a really bad week, and spent all weekend eating cheeseburgers and donuts.”
Discouragement: “I’m never going to make it all the way, I might as well give up.”
Interruptions: “Why did I have to get sick now?”
Injuries: “Can’t believe I pulled a muscle right when I was starting to see progress.”

Since you’re developing a new, healthy lifestyle, you can do things differently this time. Instead of expecting perfection, you can concentrate on damage control, on bouncing back. Here are four strategies to help you along:
Keep a positive attitude
Several studies have shown that optimists reach more goals than pessimists. They see more success not because they fail less often, but because they get back up more often. People with positive attitudes see setbacks for what they really are. When you have a setback, it’s not a brick wall that must be climbed (or that can stop progress altogether). You’ve merely met a gate; it may delay you for a second, but if you open that gate and move through it, you’ll soon be on your way.
Trust in your plan
You spent a lot of time setting up a smart dieting plan with smart strategies that made sense for your tastes and your life. You laid out the steps you needed to take to move steadily forward. You knew that weight loss was just a matter of time if you followed that consistent plan. Well, what was true in the beginning is still true, even after you have a setback. The same plan will work. If you get back on the horse and keep riding, all the work you’ve done to this point won’t go to waste. Remember that you can do this because you’re doing it the right way. 

Believe in yourself
Self-discipline can be hard. But you have the skills and knowledge to overcome that hurdle often enough to build healthy habits. If things go wrong or you make a mistake, instead of beating yourself up, pray about it and give yourself a pep talk. You are worth the effort. Your weight loss goals and new lifestyle deserve another shot. After all, you’re already doing more than most people even try to do. Giving Christ Control of your life is challenging but you’ve already seen the blessings of His presence in your life. You can do this.
Give yourself good reasons to keep going
Return to the basics of motivation to get back on track. What were your main motivations for joining Christ First? Who can you reconnect with that might give you a lift? Have you been rewarding your good behavior often enough? The answers to these questions may hold a golden nugget of motivation that you may have forgotten about. Be sure that if you need motivation Kirsten and I can help you in that department as well.

Eating Tips for the Holidays

Ah, Thanksgiving. A holiday filled with family, gratitude, and food, food, food! An interesting statistic about the day: an average plate of Thanksgiving classics contains anywhere from 1,600-3,000 calories — that's over most people's recommended daily allowance. While I am not trying to deter anyone from enjoying a great meal that can take hours, even days, to make, there are ways to make sitting down at the Thanksgiving table healthier.

• Don't skip breakfast. Whatever the day, whatever the occasion — don't skip breakfast. Missing the first meal of the day slows down your metabolism, which causes your body to store more calories later, and you may end up gorging at dinner because you're extra hungry. Besides a hungry person is a grumpy person, which is no fun on a holiday!

New Class starting in January

This week as we approach the Thanksgiving Holiday, I challenge you to ask yourself one very important question. “Who is in control?” God or Me? Are you putting Christ first in your life. Maybe you want to learn how. We can help you get your life back. It’s about a fresh start, A New Beginning. Does that sound like something you want? Let us know and we will begin working on a date and time for our new January meetings. Our Christ First groups have lost a combined total of over 500 lbs this year.

Expect a Miracle

 

E-mail kevin.eckert@comcast.net for more info.

or call the church office at 815-235-2824

Workout at a High Intensity Level

 

Creating Weight-Loss

Weight loss is achieved by creating a negative caloric balance in your body. You need to eat fewer calories than you burn through exercise and metabolic processes. Your body will then turn to stored energy or body fat to fuel itself and your body weight will decrease. According to Dr. Len Kravitz, assistant professor of exercise at the University of New Mexico, research shows that significant weight loss is created by moderate to vigorous exercise and not low intensity exercise.

Fuel Contribution

When you exercise, your body needs to fuel itself from stores of carbohydrates and fat. It is a mix of fuel types and not just one or the other. The contribution percentages are what varies depending on the intensity or effort of exercise. When you exercise at a lower intensity, it is burning a higher percentage of fat and lower percentage of carbohydrates. As your intensity increases, this shifts so that you burn more carbohydrates and less fat, according to the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Intensity and Caloric Burn

In theory, low-intensity exercise does sound like the answer because you are burning a higher percentage of calories from fat. However, it is calories in versus calories out that determines weight loss not where it comes from. Higher intensity exercise burns more calories so contributes to better weight loss results. Consider that you might burn 100 calories during a 20 minute, low-intensity walk. It is possible that 60 calories are from fat and 40 are from carbohydrates. Now increase this to a 20 minute, high-intensity run and you may burn 200 calories. If only 40 percent is from fat, you have burned 80 fat calories compared to 60 at low-intensity exercise.

Exercise Recommendations

To lose a significant amount of weight, which is defined as 5 percent or more of your total body weight, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends an accumulation of 225 to 420 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise each week. This should be a combination of cardiovascular and resistance exercise for the most health and weight-loss benefit. Choose activities that you enjoy as well as challenge you to stay motivated.

Considerations

None of this means that low-intensity exercise is bad. If you are new to exercise or have a chronic medical condition, it might be the best choice for you. Discuss limitations with your doctor so you have guidelines to follow. Low-intensity exercise is also a good way to let your body recover from higher levels of physical activity or a way to ease back in after a break. Listen to your body and adjust your exercise intensity accordingly.