Taking Care of Your Temple
By Donna Richardson Joyner

Honor your temple. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit and deserves to be treated with care and respect. The truth is, you cannot afford not to get healthy. With high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes rampant throughout our communities – and even plaguing our children – it is a critical issue. You limit what God can do for you when you do not take care of your temple.

You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, and that includes losing excess weight, eating better, and becoming healthier. God wants you to treat your temple right so that you can enjoy longevity and a higher quality of life.

So how can you make a healthy lifestyle change this year? . Instead of jumping into an unrealistic program, start by incorporating fitness into your lifestyle. Start small, and build from there. Rather than overwhelming yourself with a long and strenuous workout, simply get moving for at least 15 minutes each day. Don’t make it all or nothing. Instead, get moving and give yourself credit for taking action – even if you are not doing as much as you would eventually like to. Some exercise is better than no exercise.

I have designed a fitness program that will strengthen you heart and lungs, improve your strength and increase your flexibility. In just four weeks, you will feel more energetic, have stronger muscles and decreased stress. Consider this three-part program your New Year's blessing for staying on track:

Start Moving:
If you haven't been active start with 15 minutes segments of aerobic exercise. As you build endurance, you'll be able to exercise for a longer period of time.


Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

• Gospel aerobics

• Walking

• Swimming

• Bike riding

• Roller skating

• Water aerobics

• Cross training cardio machines

• Jumping rope

You should gradually build up to 30 - 45 minutes of cardio activity three to five times per week.

Get Stronger:
Strengthen and tone your muscles with these five exercises.

Perform all exercises 15-20 reps and one to three sets. Remember slow and controlled movements are a must. Exhale as you contract your muscles and inhale as you relax your muscles.
Lunge
Standing on your right leg, step back with your left foot with your toe on the floor. Lower yourself by bending your right leg so that your right thigh is parallel to the floor with your knee over your heel.
Lower your left knee towards the floor. Then press yourself back up to the starting position. Perform reps then switch sides.
Benefits: Strengthens quadriceps, hamstrings and buttocks.

Bentover Row
Facing the back of a chair hold a dumbbell in your right hand, and rest your left hand on top of the chair. Bend forward at the waist so that your back is parallel to the floor and keep your knees slightly bent. Your left hand should be flat on the back of the chair for support; your right hand should extend down toward the floor, palm facing in.
Squeeze your shoulder blades together and lift the dumbbell until it is in line with the side of your chest. Hold for a count of two then slowly straighten your right arm back to the starting position. Do all reps then switch sides.
Benefits: Strengthens the back and shoulders.

Modified Push ups
Place your knees on the floor with calves bent upward and legs crossed at ankles. Place your palms shoulder width apart on the floor directly under your shoulders. Keep your head, neck and shoulders in a straight line.
Slowly lower your chest toward the floor, keeping your abs contracted. Go only as low as you can while maintaining correct position of the body. Then straighten your arms to starting position. Do all reps.
Note: If you are just starting a fitness program you can try doing push ups against a wall or a chair.
Benefits: Works the chest, front of the shoulders and triceps.

Tricep Dips
Sitting on the edge of a chair or a workout bench with your feet shoulder width apart and your knees bent directly over your ankles. Place your hands on the edge of the chair with your arms straight.
Lower your buttocks toward the floor. Then lift yourself back into the starting position by straightening your arms. Elbows should point backwards and not out to the side. Repeat for reps.
Benefits: Works the back of the arms (triceps).

Crunches
This exercise can be done with or without weights. Lie on your back, knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Use weights if you want to. Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms crossed over your chest.
Contract your abdominals and curl your head, neck and shoulders up and forward as you exhale. Your shoulder blades should come up off the floor, but your lower back should stay in contact with the floor. Pause at the top, then lower your body to the start position.
Benefits: Works the lower abdominals

Stretch & Relax:
This is the cool down part of your program. It's important to stretch at the end of your workout because your muscles are warm and you can focus on increasing your flexibility. Stretching helps prevent muscle stiffness so you'll be ready for your next session.

Seated glute stretch: Sitting on the edge of a bench, extend one leg in front of you while crossing the opposite ankle on top of your thigh, near the knee (A). Keeping your back long, bend forward from your hips until you feel a stretch in your lower back and hips (B). Hold the stretch for 20 seconds and repeat on the other side.
Muscles Stretched – buttocks hip rotators, lower back and hamstrings

Pilates Saw: Sit on the floor with your legs open in a comfortable ”V” position, your arms out at shoulder height, and your palms facing forward (A). With your abdominals tight, sit tall and rotate your torso to face your left leg, reaching forward with a long back to slide the outside of your left pinkie toe (B). Pause briefly, then slide your palm back up your thigh, returning to upright position. Rotate to face the other leg; repeat. Do 4 reps on each side.
Muscles stretched – hamstrings, torso, and backs of shoulders.

Make a commitment to be consistent about keeping your temple strong and healthy. It's a daily dedication that glorifies God... It's part of a Christian lifestyle!

Lets Move

First Lady Michelle Obama has announced an ambitious national goal of solving the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight and unveiled a nationwide campaign – Let’s Move – to help achieve it. 

The Let’s Move campaign combats the epidemic of childhood obesity through a comprehensive approach that builds on effective strategies, and mobilizes public and private sector resources.  The campaign engages every sector impacting the health of children to achieve the national goal, and provides schools, families and communities simple tools to help kids be more active, eat better, and get healthy. 
Let's Move has four core pillars:

• Healthy Choices. Parents need the tools and information necessary to make better decisions about their children's nutrition. This includes everything from improving front-of-package food labeling to a partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics to encourage BMI tracking at well-child visits to public education partnerships with Disney and NBC.
• Healthier Schools. President Obama has proposed a $10 billion increase in funding when the Child Nutrition Act is reauthorized later this year; that's $1 billion a year over 10 years to improve the nutritional quality of schools' meals and get more kids signed up for the program.
• Access to Affordable Healthy Food. We know that 23.5 million Americans live in "food deserts," that don't have access to supermarkets. Let's Move includes an initiative focused on getting farmers' markets and grocery stores to relocate to "food deserts."
• Physical Activity. The President's Physical Fitness Challenge is a key component in increasing opportunities for kids to play and move. The President’s Council, sports leagues and athletics will promote this, partnering with almost every sports league from the NFL and the NBA to the WNBA and women's soccer.

To support Let’s Move and facilitate and coordinate partnerships with States, communities, and the non-profit and for-profit private sectors, the nation’s leading children’s health foundations have come together to create a new independent foundation – the Partnership for a Healthier America – which will accelerate existing efforts addressing childhood obesity and facilitate new commitments towards the national goal of solving childhood obesity within a generation.

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