We are on our way!

I have begun the new bible study with the Junior High Schools on health issues they face every day. The first week I only had 2 girls in the class. Needless to say my bubble was burst, but I remembered the purpose behind this program. If only one girl came it would definitely be worth it. But the next week I had 7 more girls so now a total of 8 girls are in the program. It is so rewarding to see the awe on these girls faces when I bring in nutritional information from McDonald's and Taco Bell, and have them tell me the contents of the food they had been eating. They have NO IDEA what they are putting in their mouths. It saddens me that children all around the Country are literally being fed lies!! I can only help a small group at this point, but I urge everyone to open up their eyes and see the toxic crap we are putting into our mouths. The portion sizes at any restaurant alone are, at least, double if not triple to what we should be eating. The evidence is overwhelming, making the food industry a guilty party to killing us. We are guilty by association. We are addicted to the ingredients they put into this food. How can we say that smoking is bad for us if we are eating, in gigantic proportions, the fat and sugar content that is added to all of this food?

Well to get back to the subject, I believe that I can help these girls to begin thinking about what they are doing to their bodies. I am not worried about bulimia or anorexia tendencies because I have come to realize it isn't about your weight, but about living healthy habits. Fat or thin, we all need to begin making healthier choices for ourselves and our families. The First Place 4 Health program that I lead at our Church has helped me along this journey and has made me fully aware of the bad habits that I was forming for the past 24 years. I feel like I am in full combat uniform over the fight of big and small food chains around the Country who are misleading our people into a deep, deep foxhole. We need to take control today....... we need to get informed and start making better decisions.

Teen Health Group

I am so excited. Today I was able to talk to our JH principle about starting a teens health and fitness group after school on Wednesdays! I know that God has been urging me in this direction for several months. The only way I was going to do it was to jump in and commit to do it. This is how exercise and diet work. Just do it! Wow...I am beginning a new First Place Group at the Bryan First Brethren Church and now the Wednesday night teens group. I am pumped and now I need to start writing the program for the teens.

My daughter and I continue to exercise every day and will be going back to the YMCA to swim and play racquetball soon. The weather is getting cooler in the evenings and I am sure it won't stay this nice too much longer. Kristen is still very skeptical about exercising, but I am catching her saying things to her friends about how important it is. If I only live 30 more years, teaching my children healthy principles will truly give my life a purpose. I know that I will remain passionate about this subject and hope that I will live longer than 30 more years!

Playing Dead

My parents have a dog named Frodo. We call him the dog from "hell". He was tied up around a very big tree in the back yard one time when one of there chickens tried to play tag with him. This particular time the chicken was running around the tree and came a little to close to Frodo. With a giant leap and open jaw Frodo took one bite, the chicken went up in the air and fell several feet away from Frodo. He was one dead chicken. Or they thought.....my father came towards the chicken with an axe and right before the axe came down, you guessed it....up hopped one very anxious chicken and ran as fast as he could!!

This is a funny story, but think about it. We are like that chicken running around dangerous things in life until we get caught, whether it is our physical, mental or spiritual well being. We play with "fire" or with "frodo" then we give up, play dead, until someone comes along with the axe and wants to break our spirit or "axe our head off". We don't have to live like this. As Max Lucado's title of his book reads, "EveryDay Deserves A Chance". If you messed up in a certain area of your life today, you have tomorrow to begin again. It is when we play dead for too long that our resolve will be broken down and we will begin to believe that we are not capable of being the person that God created us to be.

Remember, don't ever give up. If you didn't exercise yesterday, do it today. Don't let anyone break your spirit. Don't let anyone leave you for dead and most importantly, don't give Satan a stronghold in your life.

His Wonderful Majesty

Hi guys....I am back from the foothills of Lost Creek Kentucky. The girls and I went on a week long mission trip with our Church group. What an awesome experience serving God at a Christian School named Riverside. We painted locker rooms, cleaned toilets, constructed a picnic table and I was blessed to help with the landscape. I wish you were all there, because normally I am good with words, but I know that I cannot explain the feeling of going on a mission trip like this and being the hands and feet of Christ. Now I know what giving Christ First Place really means. Serving others who need help is a feeling that I will never forget and I pray that I can continue to go on a trip like this for the rest of my life. I spent $20.00 on this trip!! That was for me and the girls. Our Church is very blessed to have a group of people who truly serve Christ through tithes and gifts for those who can go on mission trips. I will always be grateful to this wonderful body of believers. We have gone on several fancy trips with our family that has cost us up to $3,000. Colorado was beautiful, Tennessee was fun, and my favorite place to go, Virginia Beach, has been put on hold. (Even though I believe I can find a mission on Virginia Beach). This trip was the best I have ever been on. We worked from 9 - 5 every day. NO TV!!

In the evening we hiked, yes exercised, up the back woods of the mountains. This is truly a different kind of exercise as my legs were very sore afterwards. We hiked approx. 4 - 5 miles and didn't see one snake!! But I did get a few ticks. A teacher in the school named Sally took me to her home in the foothills and was beautiful. It was simple, but beautiful. Her house was painted white and her husband had built a bedroom overlooking a river and horse ranch. The bedroom had windows all around it. It looked like a house out of the Better Homes and Garden book.

But you know, putting all of this aside, I got closer to the 11 other people in our group and what fun they all were! I got to supervise 4 kids throughout the week but had time to work and talk to several adults. Again, I can't put this mission trip into words that justify it all, but I can encourage each one of you to take at least one trip where you serve all week. On Thursday evening we were treated to a ride high up into the mountains by a local person. We were able to see 12 elk roaming and several wild horses. I wish I would have had my four wheeler with me because riding with the wind in my face on top of a mountain is something that I would like to experience in my lifetime. I have been truly blessed this past week and am looking forward to teaching First Place to whoever would like to have a full body, heart and soul workout. I believe that God brought First Place into my life so I can share the love of Christ with others through exercising the heart, body and mind. I am looking forward to this Fall and seeing what work will be done in my life and those of you who choose to come along with me. Take care and love you all. Becki

Get on the bus

I received the new leaders kit for First Place today. I am reading the book written by Carole Lewis first. In the book she shared something from her favorite speaker Patsy Clairmont that I want to share with you.

She tells a story about her son when he was about six years old. Because they lived out in the country, she walked her son to the bus stop every morning. One day, early in the school year, before she got back to the house, she heard the footsteps of her son running up behind her.

“What in the world are you doing?” she said to him. “The school bus will be here any minute.”
“I’m quitting school,” he said, looking her straight in the eye.
“You can’t quit school,” she replied. “You’re only in the first grade. Why do you want to quit?”
“Well, it’s too long, too hard and too boring,” he said.
“Son, that’s life,” said Patsy. “Get on the bus.”

I REALLY had to laugh at this because my 17 year old son Jamie is just like this, as a matter of fact we had a similar conversation when he was this age, which led to me taking him out of school in 8th grade and homeschooling him.

Carole Lewis is telling us that we have a worthy goal here by participating in the First Place program. BUT to reach that goal it will take time, effort and focus. DON’T quit when you run into obstacles. She says to square your shoulders, set your lunch kit firmly under your arm and get on the bus—in other words, take one simple step toward your goal.

I strongly urge each one of you not to quit. Don’t get off the bus because you thing it will be too long of a ride, too hard or too boring. Remember what the initial reason for you to join First Place was. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Less is Best....

As we are ending our First Place group for the summer, I continue to do research on the most impossible task our modern day society has not been able to defeat. That is....weight loss without exercise. I have come to the conclusion that this is not possible. We do need to exercise AND eat less. OK..easier said than done. If we try to do this within our own strength we will not be able to accomplish this task. The simple fact is that we need to rely on Christ First. With Christ, all things are possible. We need to enjoy this summer, vacations and family gatherings. How can we do this and still maintain a level of healthy living? First of all I believe that we need to find a reason within ourselves and have a complete determination to make changes. Then we need to live out those changes for 30 days. If you can make it through 30 days you will begin to see a lifestyle change. You will find yourself wanting to exercise and eating your calorie level. When you go on vacation you will focus on opportunities to exercise. Get a hotel with an exercise room. Also, I believe that you need to take enough money to eat at restaurants which offer healthier choices. We have been in First Place for one year. We all know what we need to do....now lets continue to encourage each other, quit making excuses....and walk, walk, walk. Kristen has been walking with me 3 miles a day for three solid weeks now. We can do it!!

Overweight children...do we care?

This week has been a big week in the news for overweight kids and what to do with the "XXXL" Generation. Sadly, the parents seem to be in the same shape as their kids. What can we do to help? Many articles are suggesting that we don't tell them that they are overweight. This seems to be the same opinion of this "Y" generation of kids. Y should I lose weight? Y can't I eat out every day? Y do I have to exercise? My heart has been burdened for the past few months, and I am searching myself for an answer to be able to help. What I have found out with my own daughter (she is 12 years old) is that the first two weeks I had to force her to walk with me 2 miles a day. She mumbled and complained all the way too. Now she is in a routine and she knows that I mean business and we will walk every day, no matter what. But the key to this is that I participate with her. We do eat healthier at home and I had to do this with my other three children and husband. They aren't overweight, but to help Kristen and to encourage them to stay on the right path, I knew that I needed to make lifestyle changes. So far...so good...I also bought a teen walking DVD from Leslie Sansone. Now she can walk on rainy days and with people of her own age! She complains about that too.....but she will get over it.

Encouragement....the best medicine

Last night I had the wonderful privilege of meeting one very special older man. Actually he is about 82 years old and resides in a nursing home about 35miles away from where I live. He happened to be dining at our Church where we have a Cafe on Thursday evenings. While striking up a conversation with him I learned that he had biked 35 miles one way to attend this meal. During the course of the conversation, not only did he do this once, but every day he rides this far. That would be about 70 miles in one day. AND not because of gas prices. This man likes to exercise!!! Amazing isn't it? I asked myself, how can I complain about getting 45 -60 min. per day of exercise in when this man takes about 4-6 hours to bicycle? Yes I know that we are a busy, busy society but it is possible to find time in your day to walk...yes just walk! If your child has ball practice, you can walk while they are practicing. If we have to get up in the morning an extra 1/2 hour to exercise, oh well, you get the picture.....This older man has the right idea, and what an encouragement he is and will continue to be to me...how is it the best medicine?.....no brainer....exercise...no doctor...no medicine...more money in our pockets...when we are 82 years old we can enjoy the beautiful outdoors, use our money to buy a bicycle and ride to Churches in the area to get free meals...healthy meals at that!!!! Just encourage someone today if you are reading this blog. Take someone by the hand who may not have a friend close enough to care about them, and walk with them for 30 min. Hey, what about this? While you are walking you could talk to them. Encourage them......be a friend, receive a friend. What an amazing concept. I AM NOT being sarcastic here. I am passionate about the word encouragement. It is used in the New Testament of the Bible over and over and in Paul's ministry especially. It amazes me that preachers don't encourage people from the pulpit. They may complain how bad the people in their churches are and don't want to do anything, but do you ever get a call or a note from them with encouraging words? Not often....I will save this blog for another day...it will be a long one....Just Keep Walking.....

Just Keep Moving

This blog is meant for all you people who have dieted your entire life, have lost weight, have gained it back and still do not exercise. There is hope for you. JUST GET MOVING. You can lose weight, stay motivated and continue to be healthy for the rest of your life if you will just get up and move. I have found this to be true and now I love to exercise. I love to jog, I play racquetball with my husband, and I swim with my daughter. I began this quest to help my daughter with her weight, but have found this movement to be fully satisfying. I am on a leadership team with First Place in my community, which puts the spiritual aspect of healthy living First and above all. With Christ, all things are possible. Without Christ, nothing is possible. I will try to post information that will be informative for you and hope that you will give me some feedback in turn. I would love to hear from all of you about your exercise and "live it" techniques. We are in this together and my passion is for mothers and daughters who share a common problem in the area of weight. I went on a field trip last week with my daughter who is in 6Th grade. 75% of the girls and boys were overweight. 75% of these kids took their money that parents gave to them and went to the fudge shop to spend it. We are hurting our children by allowing bad habits to keep forming, without giving them the proper information they need to make healthy choices. It needs to stop now. All we need to do is keep moving. Our physical fitness programs in the school system are not what they used to be. Because of the technology, schools are cutting out the healthy programs to get these other "tech" programs in. But really, I believe that teaching our children good eating habits, and good exercise habits are much more important than learning a computer class in 45 min. 2 X per week. Yes, computers are important (they are my living), BUT we need to keep our kids moving. Just 15 - 20 min per day of a physical activity, can bring our children out of the deep hole that we have put them into. Let me know what you think..I know that I am very passionate about this subject and will have many more blogs on this to come.....Just the other day I was surfing the net on summer camps for overweight children. Sure did find a few for a "hefty" price of $3,450.00. I couldn't believe that someone is making money slimming down our kids. AMAZING....We need to find it in our hearts to be an example for them. WE are the key to helping the children who are overweight. Do we want a future of children who have made numerous bad choices and have a low opinion of themselves? I don't think so. So lets help them. Let's work on ourselves first, so we can be there for them.