We are so glad you are back for Week 2, Lesson 2 of Faith & Fit: Sans Sugar. Let us encourage you to persevere! Keep studying, and moving. You are laying up treasure in heaven where neither moth or rust can destroy and establishing healthy habits. Don’t give up! Jesus is walking with you every step of the way. Listed below is your Faith & Fit work for today. Please click on the links or the play buttons to access each resource. Remember to leave a comment about your experience in the Speak Your Mind section at the bottom of the page. In Christ, we can grow stronger. Let’s do it!

Everyday Faith Teaching Video:

Everyday Faith Scripture Reading:

To access Everyday Faith Day Week 2, Lesson 2 Bible study, please click the link below!

Week 2, Lesson 2 Bible Study

Everyday Fit Physical Challenge:

Beginner Level: Today make it your goal to walk for 1 mile. Walk at a pace that you are comfortable with and that you are still able to carry on a conversation. As always, check with your doctor before beginning any physical workout to be sure you are up for the challenge! For more information please read the following article on how to begin a walking program: Walking Program.

Do you want an indoor video for today? This one-mile walk with Leslie Sanson will challenge you!

Walk N’ Tone With Leslie Sansone

Experienced Level: Today make it your goal to walk or ride your bike for 45 minutes. Walk or ride at a pace you are comfortable with and that your are able to carry on a conversation. By the end of your walk/ride you should be sweaty and tired but not exhausted. As always, check with your doctor before beginning any physical workout to be sure you are up for the challenge! Let’s join Coach Dan for Day Two of Lower Body Focus!

Rainy Day? Too hot? No worries! click on the link below for a great indoor workout with Leslie Sansone!

Five Fast Miles!

Everyday Fit Food Challenge:

Sans Sugar:

Earlier this week, we started talking about the harmful effects of sugar. We continue that topic with an article by Dr. Sears who explains the damage that excess sugar can cause to children.

Here’s a possible menu that I curated from several sources.

Breakfast : Frittatinis – Try making the night before for breakfast for the fam! (This would also work for lunch or dinner too.) This comes from Sara Wilson’s I Quit Sugar blog.

Lunch: Grilled Parmeson Tomatoes. This is from Dr. Perlmutter’s Grain Brain Cookbook that we featured in our Week 2, Lesson 1 post. See the recommended reading section.

Dinner: Grass-fed Beef Stew in Crockpot. This is also from Dr. Perlmutter’s Grain Brain Cookbook.

Extra Faith:

Need a little extra spiritual challenge added to your day? This week we’ve been talking about a gentle, quiet spirit. Today we’ll continue that with a podcast recorded with Lysa TerKeurst (of Proverbs 31 ministry) on Family Life Today with Dennis Rainey called Imperfect Progress.

Extra Fit

Need an extra challenge? Get your abs in shape with Team Beachbody Coach and Founder of Team Let’s Go Fitness at Dan Vukmirovich. Dan’s videos are short, effective and productive! Let’s go!

Don’t forget to post below or on our Facebook page any questions, workout information, recipes, prayer requests, and encouragement to others.

Blessings and congratulations on Week 2, Lesson 2!

Are you ready for Week Two of Faith & Fit? Jane and I are praying that you will make life changes that will lead to greater spiritual and physical health. Listed below is your Faith & Fit work for today. Please click on the links or the play buttons to access each resource! Remember to leave a comment about your experience at the Speak Your Mind section at the bottom of the page. In Christ, we can grow stronger! Let’s do it!

Everyday Faith Teaching Video:

Everyday Faith Scripture Reading:

Please click on the Week 2, Lesson 1 Bible study link below!

                       Week 2, Lesson 1 Bible Study

Everyday Fit Physical Challenge:

Basic Walking Guidelines

Begin your walk with a warm up. This means to start walking slowly for a few minutes, giving your body time to warm up. Save any stretching for the end of your walk, as you should not stretch cold muscles. If you have body parts that are very tense and need to be stretched before your main walk, do your warm-up first and then stretch them. You should also still follow your walk with a stretch at the end.

The Walking Site has some wonderful stretches for walkers, and here is a link to their stretching page.
As you are walking, walk tall, pull in your stomach and tighten your bottom.
When you have finished your exercise for the day, be sure to let the Faith and Fit group know by posting on our Facebook page. Great job!

Beginner Level Exercise:

Today make it your goal to walk for 25 minutes. Walk at a pace that you are comfortable with and that you are still able to carry on a conversation. As always, check with your doctor before beginning any physical workout to be sure you are up for the challenge! For more information please read the following article on how to begin a walking program: Walking Program. Feel free to also substitute any of Leslie Sansone’s indoor walking videos as well. Week 1, Lesson 1  lists a free resource for this (Password: Deuteronomy8).

How are you doing with your walking/jogging? Are you feeling any stronger yet?

Need an indoor exercise routine? Here’s a Leslie Sansone 1-mile walking video!

Experienced Level: Today, make it your goal to walk or ride your bike for 45 minutes. Exercise at a pace you are comfortable with and are able to carry on a conversation. By the end of your walk/ride you should be sweaty and tired but not exhausted. As always, check with your doctor before beginning any physical workout to be sure you are up for the challenge!

 Rainy day? Don’t fret! Click on the link below for a challenging indoor work out with Leslie Sansone!

4 Fast Miles!

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Everyday Fit Food Challenge:

Sans Sugar

Today we are looking at leaving refined sugar out of our diet. Studies are showing that sugar may be the springboard for inflammation and many of the chronic diseases that are plaguing our generation. Sugar is also a sneaky substance and is in many foods that you may not even realize. Become a food label reader. Realize that sugar has many other names. We are not expecting that you give up sugar for the rest of your life. The purpose of this challenge is to develop healthy habits and choices, not deny ourselves every one of our favorite foods. If you reduce the amount of sugar you eat, you will most likely improve your health.

Check out this resource for information on cutting out sugar.

Here’s a healthy sweet treat sans sugar:

Recipe for sugarless oatmeal cookies from Don Colbert

Recommended Reading

Today we are recommending The Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar – Your Brain’s Silent Killers by Dr. David Perlmutter. Mary heard Dr. Pearlmutter on PBS and told me about him. This book outlines what they believe to be the cause of many of our modern diseases, including Alzheimer’s. Incredible, cutting-edge information. The Grain Brain Cookbook was just released last week. *Here is a CBD link to the cookbook:

The Grain Brain Cookbook: More than 150 Life-changing Gluten-free Recipes to Transform Your Health – eBookBy David Perlmutter, MD / Little, Brown and Company

Extra Faith:

Today’s food challenge is Sans Sugar, but that doesn’t translate so well to spiritual goals, does it? God surely doesn’t want us to give up the sweetness in our personalities. As a matter of fact, God emphasizes that we have a gentle, quiet spirit or, as I’m fond of saying about a beloved friend of mine, “She has a sweet spirit, doesn’t she?”

Well, developing that gentle, quiet spirit can be a challenge to those of us who just aren’t that way naturally. I’ve found an article written by Erin Davis interviewing Nance Leigh DeMoss discussing this very topic: Do I Have a Gentle and Quiet Spirit?

Extra Fit

Need an extra challenge? Get your abs in shape with Team Beachbody Coach and Founder of Team Let’s Go Fitness at Dan Vukmirovich. Dan’s videos are short, effective and productive! Let’s go!

Please enjoy Day 2 of Dan’s Mind Body Spirit Challenge!

Don’t forget to post below or on our Facebook page any questions, workout information, recipes, prayer requests, and encouragement to others. 

Blessings and congratulations on Week 2, Lesson 1!

Great job today! See you soon!

I love to take walks. Early summer mornings are my favorite time to walk. How about you? Do you like to walk in the rain? How about in the snow? God also liked to take walks. He met with Adam in the garden and walked with him.  Like Adam, God calls us to walk  with Him also…in love, light and wisdom. To do the study Walking in Love, Light and Wisdom, please click on the link.

Free images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;” Colossians 1:10

Have you thought anymore about how you want to live a life of purpose in 2012?

In the last blog post, we discussed four ways you could do this in 2012. After having some time to mull these over and maybe try a few of the suggestions, let’s look at the next four items on the list.

5. Choose a non-fiction Christian book to read that challenges you. Before you start reading this book, pray and ask that God will change you in the process. Ask Him to show you what you need to learn from this book, and pray that you would be open to making the changes God wants you to make. Stick with it, even if it’s slow going. Actively read the book. If the book is your own copy, this means you should write in the margins, highlight sections you want to remember, and make notes in the text. The more you interact with the text, the more of it you will take in. Try to repeat this process a few times this year. If you’d like a few book suggestions, you could start with one of these:

• I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Geisler and Turek
• Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, or anything else by him
• Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

6. Schedule a retreat at a retreat center. Do this with a group from your church, some of your friends, or take a night or two or three by yourself at a retreat center and spend some time with God in prayer. I know you spend time in prayer at your own home, too, but there’s just something different about getting away to a retreat center that you can’t duplicate elsewhere. First of all, when you’re away from home, you can’t be distracted by all the work you think you should be doing at your house. You’ll be able to use the time to completely disengage from the responsibilities of child care, cleaning the house, or doing the laundry–guilt free.

Secondly, retreat centers have resources for you to take advantage of like prayer labyrinths, chapels, libraries and even classes for you to take. Try it. You’ll love it. Ask God to show you what He wants you to learn from the weekend. Be sure you write down what you are learning and where you go from here. You can use the following link to help you find a retreat center near you, searching by your state:  Retreat Finder. Keep in mind that not all of the sites listed are Christian, so research the listings before you make a reservation. I even found a site close to my house that  does not charge a set fee–it’s on a donation basis!

7. Begin a new spiritual discipline in your life. Have you ever wanted to explore fasting? Or perhaps you have an interest in  journaling, or maybe the discipline of self-examen has piqued your interest. Spend some time learning about a discipline and then begin to incorporate it into your life. Both Dallas Willard and Richard Foster have classic books available on the disciplines, and either book would be a good place for you to start learning.

8. Begin praying through the World Watch List of the 50 most hostile, restrictive countries in the world (to Christianity). Open Doors USA compiles this annual list. Click for the 2014 version.

I’m excited about living a life of purpose in 2012. I wonder how God will change me through this process. Have you tried any of the suggestions yet, or are you planning on doing one soon? If so, we’d love for you to leave a comment and tell us about it.We’ve got four more suggestions to go, and Mary is going to cover those in the next blog post.

Until then, pray on!

O Come Let us Adore Him

These words have been ringing through my mind today as Christmas draws near, and it’s more than the obvious reason that I’ve heard this Christmas carol on the radio or that Christmas is only five days away. Much more. God has been readjusting my vision this Christmas.

Christmas 2011 will be a different Christmas for us. It’s the first Christmas that we won’t have both of our children with us. For the past 23 years, the four of us have always been together to celebrate. We have our traditions, our special things that we do together as a family to welcome Christmas Day. They’re very much a part of what makes Christmas Christmas for me. Maybe too much so?

As many of you know, our son Jesse is on a walk across America to raise money for the burn center at Riley Hospital for Children where he was a patient in June of 2010. Three months ago when Jesse decided to do this walk, I thought surely he couldn’t be meaning to miss Thanksgiving, his birthday and Christmas. Could he? When I asked Jesse this over the phone, he said, “Mom, how is that going to look if I fly home for Christmas when people are sponsoring me, and I’m supposed to be walking across America?”

The reality that I knew was coming but had been avoiding thinking about had arrived. With the certainty that Jesse would not be home and possibly not Amber either as she now has her fiancé and his family to consider for Christmas plans, I was forced to look at where I was getting my real joy for Christmas from. Was my joy coming from my perfect plans all going according to schedule, or was it from the gift of Jesus in my life?

As I have had to adjust my perception of celebrating Christmas, God has been shifting my focus to where it should be. The priceless gift of having Jesus as my King is coming clearly into focus. To know that He is with me each day in the nitty-gritty good-and-bad that makes up my life is what God is showing me I should be celebrating.

I’m wondering what your Christmas will look like. Maybe you’re struggling through a painful divorce. Perhaps you’re hooked up to a chemo IV. Or maybe you’re blessed this year to have all of your family with you. Whatever your life is or wherever you are this year, Jesus is there. And that’s Something to celebrate.

O Come let us adore Him …

Pray on!

God calls us to walk closely with Him! To do the Bible study “Power Walk” please click on the link!