1. Realize your value.  Read Psalm 139:13-16 and truly discover in your heart how much God thinks about you, loves you, and cares for you.

2. Realize God’s sacrifice.  Read John 3:16 again.  And then read it again.  He did that for YOU.  He loves YOU!

3. Love yourself.  “Love your neighbor as yourself” originated from God, was repeated often by Jesus, and reinforced by Paul.

   Think about it:  it not only means that we are supposed to love others, but that we are supposed to ALREADY love ourselves!  GOD said so!

4. Forgive yourself:  others have messed up before you.  Moses murdered.  David committed adultery and sent a husband to his death.  Matthew was a thieving tax collector.  Paul persecuted and killed.  Thomas doubted.  Peter denied Jesus in His very presence.

   Last I checked, they all turned out ok.  You can, too, if you’ll just ask for God’s forgiveness and realize that He has forgotten about it, already.

5. Move on.  Eating yourself to death because of the past is not forgiveness (either of yourself or others), and it is a horrible, ungodly coping mechanism.

6. Forgive others.  Bitterness is stressful.  Chronic stress increases cortisol.  Cortisol leads specifically to increased abdominal fat and inflammation.  Abdominal fat and inflammation lead to heart attacks that kill prematurely.

7. Seek Him first.  Face it.  Life will be a struggle.  Stop seeking the world and seek Him, first.  “His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.”

It is a lot easier, and it becomes automatic to take care of your body (the temple of the Holy Spirit!) when you realize that you are valuable, God loves you, you are forgiven, you can forgive others, you can forgive yourself, you can move on, and you can love yourself as God commanded!

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1. Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster #3 for Christian Weight Loss

Be sure to leave a comment, as well as any prayer requests that you may have.

This Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster uses 30 seconds each of: 2-ft side/side hops, band bent rows, band stiff-leg deadlift, and band shoulder press.

Pray for the safety of all of the holiday travelers this weekend as they return from a long weekend and Labor Day!

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1. Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster #3 for Christian Weight Loss
2. Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster #2
3. Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster #1

Be sure to leave a comment, as well as any prayer requests that you may have.

This Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster uses 30 seconds each of: 2-ft forward/backward hops, band pullaparts, praise squats, and t-pushups.

Pray for the safety of all of the holiday travelers this weekend as the United States enjoys a long weekend and Labor Day!

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1. Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster #4
2. Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster #2
3. Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster #1

Be sure to leave a comment, as well as any prayer requests that you may have.

After your metabolism booster, pray for God to show you how to use your weekend in ways that glorify and honor Him, as well as advance His kingdom!

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1. Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster #4
2. Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster #3 for Christian Weight Loss
3. Fit For Jesus Metabolism Booster #1

After your metabolism booster, pray for our nation’s homeless and ask God to provide you an opportunity to help someone in need.

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Discovering and removing the negative influences in our life will help us more than we realize.  Studies show that our own thoughts, attitudes and behaviors are a reflection of the people we spend the most time with.

All too often, we are faced with negative people and influences that surround us and affect us as a person, in all areas of our life.  “Toxic” people are like vampires . They suck the life and energy right out of you.  Toxic people are ultimately the people who cause you the most negative stress in your life. They are the people that make you feel unhappy, or spoil your mood purposely every chance they get.

Toxic people can be a challenge to be around. They will bring you down and drain your energy, and all too often, they will squash any type of lifestyle change YOU are trying to make.  Toxic people are just pieces of the obstacle course you will run through in your efforts obtain your nutrition and fitness goals, and they have a detrimental effect on your mental thoughts and mental toughness.

Who wants or needs that?

Toxic people truly believe that they are constantly taken advantage of by others and that bad things are always happening to them. They are often the people who make mountains out of molehills. Toxic people are those who think they are doing something right, by complaining and blowing up almost any situation, whether it is a small issue or a large one.

Amazingly, toxic people believe their negative comments are helping to solve the situation in some way. In addition, they often rely on others to entertain them or make them happy. Even if it’s not other people, they often rely on some kind of outside source to keep them happy.  All too often, toxic people find this happiness in social settings with food and drinks, which ends up being a “perfect” setting to express their negativity.

Unfortunately, toxic people are everywhere; just take a moment to look around.  Don’t let them take your happiness away or affect your mood.   Toxic people only have as much power, control, and impact on our lives that we allow them to have.

Each day, we are faced with a decision and need to say to ourselves, “I can either allow these negative and “toxic” people to ruin my day and my actions for that day, or I can choose to rise above them, completely remove them from my life, or speak motivating words to them and move on!”  At that point, it is up to them as to whether they choose to use the motivating words to their advantage or not.

Toxic people need boundaries, and giving them a time limit lets them know you will only tolerate a small amount of negativity. Check your watch, allow them to vent for two minutes, give them some positive words of encouragement and then move away and fill your head with positive affirmations and thoughts as soon as you can!

Transform your energy into positive energy and remove these negative “toxic” people from your life.  I realize that these toxic people might include close friends or even family members.  Remember, in order for you to reach your goal you must stay focused on the end result , remind yourself what is most important to you, and if your friend or family member can’t support you with your goals, why are they in your life… and do they truly care for you and your well-being?

So, my question to you is:  who do you spend the most time with, and do they help you toward your goals or pull you away from them?

~ Alissa Nelms

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When I first thought about the concept of becoming Fit For Jesus, getting healthy and more fit originated out of love and gratitude for His great sacrificial gift.  After all, God sent His own Son to die and literally be the punishment for our sins, so that we would not spend eternity separated from Him.  Once we realize the awesomeness and depth of God’s love, it compels us to do SOMETHING in return, right?

So, originally, becoming fit for Jesus was an act of thankfulness.  In addition, once we have received salvation through Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit resides in us, gently guiding us and teaching us, conforming us into His image.  The motive expanded from thankfulness to an act of honoring the Holy Spirit and taking care of His temple.  Either way, both of those motivators and reasons aren’t selfish and they give the glory and honor to God… but then a new motivation clicked inside my head as I listened to a sermon at church not too long ago.

I’ll need you to bear with me on this, while I explain the background.

In the sermon, one of the minor points was that there will be varying rewards in heaven.  Frankly, that means that Billy Graham is going to get a better mansion than me, as well as a host of other treasures, crowns, and rewards that I simply won’t get.  (For the record, that’s quite okay:  Billy Graham deserves them.  I’ll catch up the best I can, with God’s strength!)

Here is a nice visual representation of the concept (with absolutely no disrespect intended for the amazing Reverend Graham), and then I’ll explain what it means:

This is a graph of joy, of happiness, or spiritual reward.  As you can probably imagine, everything to the left of the black dashed line is life here on earth.  At point A, you are born.  There are a few ups and downs in life, as well as a few ups and downs in our spiritual rewards.  We get saved and receive God’s gift of salvation, we backslide a little as the devil attacks us and prevents us from reaching others, we reach out to Jesus, listen to the Holy Spirit, and we grow.

And then we die.  That’s Point B.

At Point C, we find ourselves in heaven.  We are all hanging around praising God in spectacular, unbelievable, reverent awe until Judgement (Point D), at which point our actions here on earth are weighed, measured, and burned up in the flames.  To paraphrase the Bible, we then receive our rewards based on the good stuff that is left, and then heaven just keeps getting better and better, forever and ever.  Here is the specific scripture:

Our actions with a value of wood, hay, and straw get burned up and lost.  If all of our actions are burned up, then we still stay in heaven, because our starting foundation is Jesus Christ, but we won’t have much extra reward.  If, however, our actions are made up of gold, silver, and costly stones, which survive the flames, then we are rewarded abundantly.

I left church that Sunday with ONE thought on my mind:  I want to do as many great and wonderful things as I can for Christ and in obedience to God, because I want a lot of reward in heaven.  And while at first I felt selfish thinking that way, I remembered that Jesus told us to store up treasures in heaven!

Naturally, my next thought was “Even though I want to be with Christ Jesus right NOW, the longer I am here, the more treasure I can store in heaven.”

Now, what does all of that have to do with getting healthy and fit for Jesus?  Well, I believe it has quite a lot, depending completely on two very important assumptions.

1)  We are going to assume that God doesn’t decide to take us early, and therefore die a natural death.

2)  We are going to assume that we seek Christ with our whole heart and obey His Word and do really, really good stuff that equals gold, silver, and costly stones.

So, finally, we are about to reach the whole point of this article.

Take 2 people.  They are born on the same day.  They accept Christ on the same day when they are 9 years old.  Day by day, they do the same good works, in the same order, reach the same number of people for Christ, tithe on everything, etc.  They are both wonderful examples of Christ and obey Him equally.

The difference is this:  one died early of a heart attack at the age of 42 because he wasn’t healthy and did not take care of his body.  The other lived to be over 80 because his health was important to him, and he continued to obey the Lord.

Literally, it becomes a simple math problem.  If the unhealthy guy got X amount of reward in heaven, then the healthy guy MUST have received more, because of the additional 40 years of building up treasures in heaven!  It’s not that the unhealthy guy was a bad person.  He was a great person who loved the Lord with His whole heart!  He will still be unbelievably happy in heaven.  He just didn’t live as long, and so He just doesn’t receive as much.  He wasn’t able to show God’s love to as many people or win as many souls for Christ, only because he wasn’t alive as long.

So… like I said, when I left church that Sunday, I initially felt selfish.  Then, I remembered Jesus told us to store our treasures in heaven.  Finally, I realized that I have an entirely new reason and motivation for being healthy.

How do YOU feel?  Think about it objectively, and let me know what you think.

Take care, and may the Lord bless you immeasurably,

Jeremy Nelms

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Energy is awesome.  Feeling energetic… even better!

As a Christian, the personal benefits of feeling energetic are numerous.  But not only are they plentiful, the benefits of feeling great are powerful and even potentially eternal!

Consider these benefits and advantages:

• Feeling physical energy makes you happier.  When you are happier, you will naturally smile more and laugh more.  Smiles and laughter are attractive and contagious (no matter what your worldly appearance may be).
• Being energetic helps you be more active.  Believe it or not, more activity creates more energy.  It’s a powerful, positive cycle that becomes self-motivating.  And, of course, more activity equals better health!
• Your mind thinks more clearly and intelligently when you experience high energy.  When your mind is clear and intelligent, you are more productive, positive, and naturally lift more people’s spirits.
• Greater energy equals greater confidence!  Confidence helps you achieve more (even with small, daily activities), speak more, reach out and influence more.  Again, confidence attracts people who need strength and support, which leads to opportunities to be a shining example of Jesus Christ to the world.

Energy is powerful.  And because of the natural opportunities that being energetic attracts, possessing high levels of energy can have eternal rewards.  Now, obviously as Christians, we have to respond to this higher energy appropriately when God places opportunities in front of us, but we are going to assume, for this article, that your heart is filled with the desire to be like Christ in everything you can do.

So… possessing high levels of energy is important for our health and potentially for the eternal future of someone God places in our path.  The question, therefore, is this:  what can we do to get it?

Consistent, high quality energy comes from 3 sources:

1. God, through Him, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit
2. Temple Fuel
3. Activity

So that this article doesn’t turn into a literal book, you can get a quick overview of the first and third source in the article “Spirituality and Weight Loss Made Simple“.

For now, though, let’s look at the second source:  Temple Fuel.

I can hear some of you now:  What in the world is “temple fuel”?  Well, temple fuel is food!

Since our bodies are the temple for the Holy Spirit within us, we must look at food in a whole new light.  The food that we put into our mouths is literally fueling the temple of the Holy Spirit.  When you truly stop and think about that concept, and if you can even begin to fully realize the gift that has been given to us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through His sacrifice and resurrection, the impact of the concept of “Temple Fuel” can be nothing short of absolutely powerful.

In fact, it should be life-changing.

Our nutrition has a tremendous impact on our energy levels.  And while books and books have been written about the topic, the idea of nutrition changes when we look at its potential impact on eternity.  When you look at nutrition in the light of heaven, you realize the importance of steady, consistent energy levels.  The status and priority of nutrition is elevated when you take into account the impact that both your daily actions and your longevity have on your experience in eternity.

Nutrition just became a whole lot more important to you, didn’t it?

Now that you are truly aware of the benefits of healthy Temple Fuel, here are 7 tips for creating consistent, high-level energy.

1. Eat your breakfast!  Time and time again, real-world experience and scientific research proves that people who eat a healthy breakfast have more energy, burn more calories during the day, achieve and maintain weight loss, and are simply healthier.
2. Eat protein at each meal.  Protein revs up your metabolism in 2 ways.  First, it actually takes more calories to digest protein than it does to digest carbohydrates or fats.  In addition, protein helps maintain and repair your muscles, which are responsible for the vast majority of our daily metabolism.
3. Eat fibrous vegetables at each meal.  Fibrous vegetables all have a few things in common.  First, they all have high levels of vitamins, minerals, and/or antioxidants.  Next, because they have a higher fiber content, they excel at making sure you have a nice, slow, steady release of energy from your meal!
4. Fuel your workouts with carbohydrates.  Eat most of your carbohydrates around your workouts.  They will provide Temple Fuel for a high-energy, productive workout, and they will also help refill your carbohydrate stores after a workout.  If your carbohydrate stores in your muscles are at least moderately filled, you should have no problem providing enough fuel to your brain, as well, so that you feel energetic all day long!
5. Avoid simple carbohydrates.  Simple carbohydrates like flour and sugar cause a sudden rush of energy… followed by a drastic LOW in energy.  All those simple carbs cause a surge in insulin levels, which initially helps refill carbohydrate stores.  But, it happens so fast that TOO much carbohydrate is pulled from the blood stream (and either stored as glycogen or fat), and we experience lower blood sugar levels.  Our brain will respond to low blood sugar with feelings of lethargy, laziness, and our ability to concentrate and be positive and productive suffers.
6. Eat healthy fats.  Healthy fats are tremendously important for our energy levels.  Since we are avoiding simple carbohydrates and timing our healthy carbohydrates around our workouts, the balance of our calories should come from healthy, energy-creating fats.  Fats also have a dramatically important role in proper hormone production, which, when factored in with our calorie-burning furnaces of muscle, combine to directly influence the amount of calories we use and energy we “feel”.
7. Drink a gallon of water throughout the day.  Water is essential to every system and chemical reaction in our body, either directly or indirectly.  When our bodies are running optimally, we have and experience the feelings of being energetic.  When our bodies are missing ingredients like water, calories, vitamins, minerals, and more, we are tired, depressed, dull, and down.  Water is a HUGE factor in your energy levels

Look at the concept of nutrition in a new, heavenly light.  In fact, from this moment onward, it would be best for you to acknowledge nutrition for what it truly is:  Temple Fuel.

Take care, and God bless,

Jeremy and Alissa Nelms

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I’m already chuckling. Seriously, I am. This is one of my favorite, most comical (but effective) tools that I give to my clients. Every time I tell my clients about it, they get a surprised expression on their face and nervously laugh. I can only imagine the images going through their head when I tell them about it.

I’m sure more than one has thought, “Great. I have a crazy health and fitness coach!” But I always get the last laugh (in a good way!) on this one, because it is a nice trick to help you lose weight and get more fit!

Are you ready for it? Here it is: I want you to work out in the bathroom.

Don’t worry. We’re not talking about a full-blown, 30 minute, sweat-pouring, leg-quivering, arms out of control kind of workout. You won’t get funny stares from your co-workers as you walk out of the bathroom stall red-faced, huffing and puffing (because you won’t be). And there won’t be any funny noises coming from your stall, because you won’t need to grunt, scream, or holler from a monstrously heavy burden. There will be no SWAT team, police, security, or even your boss waiting outside the bathroom door, armed and ready for whatever strange events are happening inside.

So, relax. We’re talking about a selection of movements (you get to pick) that take just 45 seconds, at the max!

The overall premise is very simple: we don’t move enough each day, so we’re going to take advantage of our small, built-in, mandatory-for-life “bathroom breaks” to squeeze in a little more exercise every day. EVERY time we increase our activity, we get a brief increase in our metabolism, which means we are burning more calories.

Of course, more calories burned means more fat burned. More fat burned means a healthier body (assuming we’re talking about someone who needs to lose body fat). And a healthier body means a healthier, longer-lasting temple of the Holy Spirit!

Incidentally, because of the “strangeness” of the idea, I first tried this out on my mom.  She literally called me less than 2 weeks later and said that her legs felt stronger, she could go up the stairs easier, and that getting into and out of dad’s farm truck was no longer a problem!  (My mom is one of my greatest success stories)

Oh, yeah… we haven’t talked about it in depth, yet, but we recommend that you drink 1 gallon of water per day. Not only does it help your body run optimally, but it will also increase the frequency of your bathroom activity breaks!

So, once you’ve used the lavatory, just get your clothes situated and have at it!  Here are 10 exercises that you can do to burn more calories throughout your day!

1. 10-20 deep squats
2. 10-20 pushups against the bathroom wall/stall.  (Please don’t do them on the bathroom floor.  I have to draw the line, somewhere.)
3. 20 standing calf raises
4. 20 seated calf raises.  Perfect for when you have to…  well, have a seat.
5. 10 “air pushups”:  Squeeze your muscles HARD as you do an imaginary pushup in the air.
6. 10 “air pullups”:  Squeeze your muscles HARD as you do an imaginary pullup in the air.
7. 10 “air shoulder press”:  Squeeze your muscles HARD as you push your arms and hands straight up in the air.
8. 10 “air hamstring curls”:  1 leg at a time, squeeze your hamstrings hard and lift your heel to your glutes.
9. 10 knee lifts:  Do 10 knee lifts for each leg.  Bring your knee up as high as you can and pull it into your chest.
10. 10 glute squeezes:  Stand up and lift one leg BACK behind you as far as you can, keeping it straight.  Works the glutes very well!

Good news… there is one more awesome activity we can do in the bathroom:  pray!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Let’s face it:  we have natural, built-in “breaks” throughout the day.  Take advantage of this great opportunity to improve and increase your metabolism, strength, and flexibility.  Take advantage of this opportunity to spend time quietly in prayer with our Almighty Lord and Savior.

Who knew the bathroom was a perfect place to get Fit For Jesus!

God bless you today.  Be sure to leave a comment below and let me know your questions, how you will implement this information, and the results you achieve from it (both spiritual and physical)!

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“Simple” is good, especially when the goal is to get closer to Christ and/or lose weight.

Way too many people try to make a relationship with Jesus Christ difficult and complicated.  Weight loss and fitness is no different, proven by diets that require an exact percentage of macronutrients at each meal or exercise programs that require complex programming, sequencing, timing, etc.

Albert Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”  In other words, “simple” is good, but you must, at the very least, have the mandatory ingredients for success.

As with most topics in life, the application of a few basic, simple principles or skills will bring about the vast majority of your results.  If I had to summarize what I feel are the top 7 action steps you and I can do to get closer to Christ right NOW, they would be:

1. Read God’s Word daily and actively obey.
2. Keep a prayer journal and use it daily.
3. Attend church weekly and actively learn.
4. Listen to Christian music throughout the day.
5. Find a Christian support group and friends that you interact with during the week.
6. Read from Christian authors and mentors who clearly follow Christ.
7. Remember that the Holy Spirit is WITH you while you are watching TV, surfing the internet, and talking with your friends.

Here are the top 7 action steps we can do to improve our health, lose weight and fat, and live longer, more productive lives.

1. For nutrition,

• Eat protein and fibrous vegetables at every single meal.
• Eat most of your healthy carbs within the meals before, during, and after your workout.
• Include healthy fats at all the other meals.

2. Drink a gallon of water each day and take a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement.
3. Perform intelligently designed functional, full-body resistance training 2-4 times per week, depending on your skill level.
4. Get 20-40 minutes of moderate to intense exercise on all the other days per week, depending on your goals.
5. Recover weekly by taking 1 day off per week, sleeping at least 7-8 hours each night, and having 1-2 cheat meals.
6. Have a workout partner, coach, mentor, and/or social support and accountability group.
7. Make the priority of your fitness efforts focused on the Holy Spirit and heavenly rewards, instead of worldly desires.

Pretty simple, isn’t it?  Yes, it takes planning.  Yes, it takes effort and action.

Ultimately, if you take an extremely brief amount of time to actually create a plan that incorporates each of the 7 action steps and ACT on them, you will become closer to Jesus.  You will get healthier and lose weight if you implement your plan.

But, we’re not finished, yet.  Remember what Einstein said?

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

Look back over both lists.  Even our basic, fundamental summaries can be simplified!  In fact, what if we could summarize our overall list of 14 action steps into just 7?

1. Fill your mind with God’s word, His music, and Christ-led knowledge.
2. Fill your body with healthy protein, vegetables, and water, and properly time your healthy carbs and fats.
3. Move your body.  Intelligently.  Frequently.
4. Recover spiritually with prayer and physically with rest.
5. Enlist support.  Actively participate in a Christ-centered support group and health-minded social community.
6. Find experts and mentors.  Learn from them.
7. Focus on Jesus Christ with everything you do, including your fitness!

So there you have it:  7 Steps For Making Spirituality and Weight Loss Simple!

Leave us a comment below.  Share with us your plan for implementing these steps, as well as your thoughts about whether there are more ingredients to a successful relationship with Jesus Christ or successful weight loss.

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