Faith & Fitness Tips In Your Everyday Life!!I have given a pretty good idea of what I mean by adding your God into your personal fitness goals, allowing Him (or Her!!) to help keep you strong thoughout the day. Even Jesus was tempted by different people & situations throughout His life. He used His faith in God (His Father) to stay strong so that He did not give in. Do you think the movie
Braveheart would have been nearly as good if
William Wallace had given into the pain & suffering at the end?? He did not, and then he got to yell
FREEDOM!! lol this is a funny example, but everyday we are tempted to eat this & eat that which we know is not healthy for us. At the same time, we are tempted to skip our workout to go do something less strenuous. Should I go home & workout, or should I take today off & go to happy hour with my friends? Here are a few tips that I have learned that help me use my faith to stay strong:
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Pray while exercising - If you read my
Tips For Food Challenges page, you learned that you can distract yourself from eating by listening to music. Then you are able to eat more. Well this idea works the same for exercising too. Especially if you workout by yourself (like me), make your workout your own time to talk to your God. This will help you focus on something other than your workout, and your routine will go by a lot faster!! Before a heavy set, feel free to ask God to help you. Then when you get the weight up or get through your set successfully, make sure you thank Him!! A lot of prayer can be done during a 45 minute cardio workout. Plus, in addition to a good workout, you will feel better mentally after your long talk with God. You are relieving stress mentally & physically!! Your faith will grow stronger just like your body. Try it next time ;)
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Pray while eating - This follows along the same lines as praying while exercising. Next time you eat a meal, try praying before, during, & after the meal. Pray for the strength to order, eat, and drink healthy foods and to avoid the bad stuff. Then thank God for the meal afterwards. You will be satisfied again both mentally & physically!! You will be more motivated to avoid dessert and to continue strong throughout your day. If you pray at every meal, that is 3-6 times per day in addition to your workout time!! Good work!!
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Listen to Christian Music - If praying while working out and/or eating is not your thing, they try listening to some Christian music. Anywhere a radio works, you can usually tune into a good Christian station. My favorite is
K-LOVE which can be heard in cities all over the country, and
online (click here). To find a radio station near you,
click here. I find many Christian songs to be very inspirational. I do fully understand if you can't workout to Christian music though!! Try it while eating? Eventually you will learn many of the songs, and you will be able to sing along. Remember that singing is a form of prayer too!! I enjoy listening to
K-LOVE not only because of the good motivational music. I also enjoy it because there are A LOT of stories about people WAY MORE unfortunate than me, which keeps me "down to earth." While I am complaining about not wanting to eat celery again today, somebody else not far away is wondering when he or she is going to eat his or her next meal. I may be complaining about my legs being sore, and there are other people that were not even born with legs. Listening to Christian music helps keep me focused on being the best Randy Santel that i can be every day :)
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Talk to your workout partner - If you have a workout partner, he or she is probably a good friend that you have a lot in common with. Try talking to that person about something faith related. The worst that can happen is that the person does not want to talk about anything like that. Maybe he or she does though? That could be something to discuss during the workout while you strengthen your bodies & your friendship. Especially if you are doing cardio like walking together. There is a lot of time to talk during a long walk. You can talk about politics & sports all you want, but none of it will ever change a thing. Talking about your faith might be a little more constructive. Faith is a personal thing. Everybody in politics is already bought & paid for, and most people in professional sports feel they don't earn enough to try their hardest!! Try it next time!!
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A good final option to try - First of all, by saying this, I am NOT promoting not going to Church or Mass. I feel that going to Church is a great thing for people & families to go to, and can really help a family bond spiritually. I live in Overland Park, Kansas which is 3.5 hours away from my mom, dad, & sister in St. Peters, Missouri. I have been to Church a few times by myself, and I found that I personally don't really get a lot out of it. I also found that every week that i went, I was praying mostly for the same things... to lose weight & to be more physically fit!! Therefore I thought of something new to try. This worked great while I was in my old apartment with a fitness center & treadmill. I don't do it nearly enough anymore, & I need to start back up again. I set aside 1 or 2 hours per week each week as my time to go to my "church." There was never anybody at the fitness center, so it worked great!! I brought my radio in with me, turned on
K-Love, walked for 45-50 minutes on the treadmill, and during that time all I did was pray to my God for a great week of health & fitness. lol I am not that selfish though... I do pray for the health of my friends & family!! I alway made sure that I set 1 or 2 times per week and I went to my "church." That worked very well for me and kept me motivated to continue!!