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.