You Are Special

It is true. You are special. We all are. We don't always see it and we may not even believe it, but that doesn't make it not true. We really are special. Each of us matters. There is NOTHING that you do that does not effect someone else. Every action you make makes a difference somewhere in someone's life. We are all connected in someway. You are not insignificant enough to not make any change in this world! 

Our lives are perfectly mirrored by how the body works. Every single cell in your body is in someway tied to every-other-single cell in your body. There is simply nothing about your body that is not integrated to another part of your body. You are intricately woven together in a beautifully complicated way. In fact, even your thoughts elicit an impact on every cell of your body. NOTHING about your body is not affected by any part of your body. Everything about your body is tied together. 

Your life is the same way. You could look at the entire world's population as a whole body. Or, you could simply look at all of creation as a whole body. Everything you do with your life in some way affects the lives of others, the environment around you, and the course of history. You matter more than you think you do. So do your actions. 

I could write a book explaining this, but if you want more information, check out 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. I think this may do a better job than I ever could. 

Okay, what does this have to do with health? Great question. Your health affects the lives of others. More importantly, your health affects the lives of the ones you love the most. Do you have a spouse? Do you have children? Brothers? Sisters? Parent? Best friend? Yes, you do. 

You have a reason to be healthy. Does your health affect the lives of your children? You better believe it does. Can you play with them? Can you take them hiking, or go on a bike ride with them? Or, do you just watch them play? Or worse, do you set an example for them to follow in your footsteps, or lack of footsteps? Do your children see you always sitting around? Do they see you over eating? Do they see you exercise? Your children will do what they see you do. What kind of life do you want for your children? Be active! Move and play! Not just for you, but for your kids. 

Do you have a spouse? Do you love him/her? Do you want them to grow blissfully old with you, or do you want them to have to take care of you because you didn't take care of yourself? Worse, do you want them to grow old without you? 

My only point is this: you matter. Your health matters. You are special to someone. You should take care of yourself, not just for yourself, but because you also love the ones around you. 

Make time in your day to move around, to get some exercise. If you don't have time, get up 30 minutes earlier than you normally do and find an easy bodyweight routine you can do at home. Just do something. It doesn't have to involve a hyped up DVD, or an expensive gym membership. All you need is your body, a place to move, and a desire to change your health. This is crazy but it is true: if you improve your health and the quality of your life, you will probably also influence, if not improve, the health and quality of life of those people around you who love you. Again, you are special. You certainly matter. Take care of yourself.

Being Honest

Have you ever been lied to by someone close to you? It hurts. It makes you sad, it makes you angry. You feel betrayed. We hate being lied to. Especially by people that are close to us. Lying destroys trust, perhaps the most important thing in any relationship. 

I wonder why it is then, that we are such big liars? I'm not even talking about how we might lie to others, though it is odd that we would do that, especially given our own disdain for lies. We actually lie to ourselves. Think about this: if the closest person to you told you nothing but lies, you would be devastated when you found out. Why on earth would we then lie to ourselves? Yet we do it all the time! 

How many of us have said we are going to get up early so we can train, only to hit the snooze alarm three times and miss our training session? How many times have we had dessert when we told ourselves we were committed to losing that extra 15 pounds. How many times have we committed ourselves to exercising 3 times a week, yet we are lucky if we made it once. We simply lie to ourselves all the time. Why? If we lie to ourselves, how can we trust the very words that we speak or the very thoughts that we have? 

Lying destroys trust. 

Have you ever wondered why it might seem so hard to reach your goals? Why it is so hard to lose 20 pounds? Why you would rather not take medication for your blood pressure, yet you will settle on taking it because you just couldn't make yourself get up and move? Perhaps things are so hard for us because we simply just don't believe ourselves - or believe in ourselves. 

What would happen if you actually believed what you said? What would happen if you actually carried through with your thoughts? To keep this health related, i'll bet you could get into the best body you've ever wanted by simply following through with your promises. I'll bet if we were really honest with ourselves, we could find ourselves in tremendous health and vitality. 

Do you want to be healthy? Fit? Strong? Fast? Vital? Evaluate yourself: Your words, your thoughts, your actions. Just be honest. Start there. 

Disclaimer:

I am not perfect. I write about my own flaws and I usually don't write about anyone in particular. I am seeking growth, however. I am seeking more. Join me.

TA

Being Normal

Have you ever just wanted to be normal? I used to want to be "normal." I think most of us have, at some time, wanted to be normal. So then, really, most of us, at some time, have just wanted to be average. Then, truly, most of us, at some time, have just wanted to be mediocre. Why? 

Normal people fit nicely inside bell curves, those nice little graphs science uses to show you how you compare with other normal people. In our society, being normal is encouraged. It is the standard that we measure ourselves and others against. Have you ever commented that someone you know is just "not normal?" I wonder how miserable, or how happy, that "not normal" person was? Just a question to make you ponder.  

Like I said, I used to want to be normal, but I don't anymore. Normal people are really just average people, or mediocre people. Who wants to be mediocre? Normal people, or average people, don't stand out. They just go with the flow of all the "normalcy" around them. They are just "there." 

What does this have to do with health? Everything! In this country (USA), it is normal to be obese. It is normal to be in pain. It is normal to get winded when you walk up a flight of steps. It is now normal to see motorized shopping carts at your local mega store. What have we done? It is normal to be obese!  It is normal to remain sedentary - to dream of moving rather than actually engage in moving. This is one bell curve we just don't need to live in! Do you know that there would be no health clubs if we would embraced our lives and our bodies like we were meant to? Exercise would truly be a foreign concept. It is still a foreign concept, but it shouldn't be in this "normal" world. 

Being an outlier, or a weirdo, is where life is at! Outliers stand out! Outliers get noticed, outliers are probably really enjoying their lives; especially, if outliers live on the right side of the normal curve. If you really want to enjoy your life and live it, you should strive to be an outlier. Or to put it another way, you should strive to be great.

Being great means doing things other people, normal people = mediocre people, don't do. Being great means taking responsibility for your life and applying your actions to your goals, to your dreams. Being great is hard work. Being great is living. 

Here are just a few ways to be great, to be an outlier. Note, that these simply relate to health, but in truth, health is not isolated from the rest of you or your life. Everything about you effects everything about you!

How to be an outlier:

Don't spend your evenings watching TV. They don't call it the boob tube for nothing. 

Learn how to crawl. Then, learn how to walk. Then, learn how to run. 

Stay out of donut shops, fast-food restaurants, and any other place that adds fat to your belly. - This includes most chairs that you see and own. 

Spend time with your family - outside. Go hiking, make adventures, make memories.

Embrace movement and build a disdain for being sedentary. Sounds weird, but this is what outliers do.

Don't listen to the "news." News will effect your thoughts with nothing but bad, dooming information. You want to be an outlier? You need to protect your thoughts. As you think, so you will be - Proverbs 23:7.

The whole point to all of this is simply to fight against being average. Live your life AND enjoy it. Today, the best way to do that is to become great. It is okay to stand out. You need to stand out. For your health, your family, and your life. 

Have a great week.

TA

Are You Strong Enough?

What is strength? Well, I guess the answer to that is relative to who you ask, and in what context you are referring to. Strength can be a physical quality or a mental quality. You can be physically strong - able to lift lots of weight, or you can be mentally strong - able to withstand the stresses and temptations of day to day life. 

We need strength; both physically and mentally. We need to be strong enough to move and navigate through our day to day chores so we can enjoy life. And, we need to be strong enough to overcome obstacles, frustrations, and setbacks that come at us moment by moment. 

Perhaps the best living example I know of for both physical strength and mental strength is John Brookfield. This man knows no physical or mental limitations. There is simply nothing he cannot do. Youtube him sometime and watch all the amazing feats of strength and endurance this man has accomplished. 

John is not just mentally tough and strong, he is also a genius when it comes to simple training strategies and modalities. Anyone ever hear of Battling Ropes? Who knew a rope could change the fitness industry? John did. Perhaps one of the wildest things about John is that he will be the first person to tell you that all his gifts, his strength, and his ideas, come from God. He takes no credit for what he has been blessed with. God is his source. Knowing that, I trust John. 

Anyway, if you want to know about real strength, both physically and mentally, John is the resource. I am very excited about a new training system and school that John has developed. It is called God's Athletic Academy. This new training system is based on God's principles of wisdom. John says these principles create and teach the ultimate in physical conditioning and mental endurance. If you want to become strong in ALL areas of your life, God's Athletic Academy is worth looking into. 

www.GodsAthleticAcademy.com - This site is not yet fully complete, but it has a good bit of information on it. Check it out. John and I have been using these principles for quite a while now and I can tell you that what John has put together is amazing. Of course it is inspired by God's wisdom principles. ;)

I hope all of you have a great weekend! 

TA

Stand Up for Yourself!

What if you could solve most of your physical issues and limitations by just doing one simple thing? What if you could do something so ridiculously simple, that it improved your health for years, decades even? What if you decided to simply stand up for yourself?

No one likes getting pushed around by bullies. No one likes being a victim. When it comes to our health, we often make ourselves the victim. We impose our habits and lifestyles on our bodies and our bodies pay the price. We get "issues": sciatica, kyphosis, forward head carriage, rounded shoulders, tight hamstrings, planters fasciitis, insert issue here. We actually bully ourselves into submission through sitting around for most of our day, most of our lives. 

No wonder we hurt.  We have become big paperweights. You can't expect a paperweight to do much more than hold down paper. Yet, we expect ourselves to be athletic, or healthy, or graceful when we want to do something besides sit in a chair. Sitting may be the one thing that causes most of our problems. Sitting in itself is not evil, but it might as well be if you expect to be healthy and live WELL into your golden years. ("WELL" can have many meanings here, by the way.)

We simply weren't meant to sit for most of our days. We wouldn't need strong femurs if all we were supposed to do is sit around all day. The scales are tipped. We sit too much and that is the truth. It is time to take a stand and stand up for ourselves. It is time to spend more time standing than we do sitting. It is time to go outside and take a walk, a hike, or run. It is time to tip the scales back in favor of health and longevity. 

We cause most of our issues. The good thing about that is that we can also create a change and have a positive, restorative effect for most of our issues. We can regain the health and the body were were meant to have. AND, it can all start by simply taking a stand. Even as I type this, I am standing. I created a tall desk to do my computer work. It was a simple thing to do. How many simple things can you do to pull yourself up out of a chair? How many creative ways can you find to spend more time on your legs than you do in a chair? What would happen if you tipped the "sitting scales" in the other direction? 

I don't know what would happen, but I bet you would discover some pretty cool changes. I bet your health, your movements, your "issues" would start to improve. Improving our health doesn't have to be an elaborate, complicated, training regimen, or 15 step process. We can improve our health by making a few simple changes. We can do something so ridiculously simple like standing up, and that one, simple thing could be the catalyst that opens the door to a healthy, better life. 

Don't just sit there. Stand up for yourself. You don't have to be a victim of your lifestyle. 

Have a great week.

TA