Michael's Notes - Thoughts On Worship, Leadership & Fitness

It's Okay To Take Care of Yourself

“If you don’t care for yourself you can’t do anything else.” Michael Hyatt

 

That statement was made by Michael Hyatt at a luncheon sponsored by Backstage Leadership during Catalyst 09. The question posed that received the above as a response was: “Michael do you have a set of personal core values that are the foundation for how you live your life and then in turn help you set goals for your business life?”

 

Michael began to explain that he had posted some of this information in a previous post on his blog but the basics were:  Put God first, yourself second, then spouse and family, and finally everything else. 

 

It might seem odd to think of putting yourself above your spouse or your family; however, I totally understand and agree with his philosophy. I believe that God expects us to take care of ourselves, to become the best vessel for Him. I often hear persons in my line of work say: ‘if I take care of the spiritual and mental side of my life, God will take care of the rest.’ There is something terribly wrong with that statement. Our body, our total being, is a gift from God; therefore, we are responsible for the stewardship of this gift.

 

To be an effective leader we must first be healthy: spiritually, mentally and physically. To be effective at anything we must be healthy…totally healthy.

 

Do you take of yourself?

 

Related Posts:

Followers of Christ for as Long as We Can

Setting a Fitness Plan for the Week

Fitness An Act of Worship

I Don’t Have Time to Exercise

“I just don’t have time to exercise.” Okay I will agree with that statement with this clarification: the time for exercise/fitness is never going to appear in your schedule. Exercise is something you will have to make time for.

The benefits for a regular exercise routine far outweigh what you might have to give up in your daily schedule…and the amount of time you have to give up is small.

We have all heard the infomercial pitch men scream at us through the TV as they introduce a new piece of equipment: “in just 15 minutes a day.” The truth is you need a little longer than 15 minutes a day but not much longer. A regular routine of a 30 minutes a day aerobic program will make a huge positive impact on your physical body.

Here are some of those benefits of regular aerobic exercise:

                + Positive body composition
                + Decrease appetite in many people
                + Allows for substantial daily calorie-burning intake
                + Strengthen the skeletal system (weight bearing exercises)
                + Less insulin is required to regulate blood sugar levels in diabetics who exercise regularly
                + Part of the therapy for reducing the risk of coronary artery disease
                + Assists in reducing excess body fat
                + Therapy for arthritis – increases join range of motion

Today just before finishing this blog post I ran across the following article in today’s edition of the Tennessean: “For Some heart patients, exercise beats angioplasty.” Now you can add this benefit to the above list.

The mode of aerobic activity does not have be something fancy, no equipment to buy to classes to sign up for. A simple routine of a 30 minute walk each day will help you take advantage of benefits listed above.

The challenge is to take a quick inventory of your daily routine and see what you can eliminate to make time for exercise.

You do have time for exercise! 

Fitness: How Much Do You Eat? What Do You Eat?

The USDA recommends that 45%-65% of a person’s daily calories come from carbohydrates, 10%-35% from protein and 20%-35% from fats.

 

I have never been one to formally take notes on what and how much I eat.  That is until the last four weeks. Thank to a new i-Phone app I have been tracking everything.

 

Here are some observations:

• Keeping notes helps me realize just how much I eat and what type of food.
• Keeping notes helps me make wise decisions.
• Keeping notes helps me stay within a recommended calorie count for the day.
• Keeping notes helps me say no to bad food loaded with little nutritional value.

 

Here is something that has surprised me: my food intake for each week has fallen within the recommended guidelines that are stated above. (See chart below)

 

Let me challenge you to try keeping track of everything you eat for a week and see if doesn’t challenge you to fuel your body with better foods.

 

	Carbohydrates	Protein	Fat
Week 1	50%	20%	30%
Week 2	50%	22%	29%
Week 3	48%	22%	30%
Week 4	45%	26%	29%

How Much To Eat Today

I am asked often by friends and co-workers about what are some healthy food choices they can make.  First let me say I am no expert and if you really want to get some professional opinion seek out a certified nutritionist. The reality about food choices is that we all know what we should be eating, we just choose to made poor decisions. Here are a couple of easy guidelines to follow:  eat natural not processed, (fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, good fats, lean meats) and at each meal try to make a 1% change for the better.

The other question that often is raised is how much should I eat. The answer that depends on your lifestyle and activity level. This would be based on your Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR); the amount of calories that your body would burn at complete rest.

There are a couple of ways you can determine this number of calories; the best being a specific test performed by a doctor or technician. Another less accurate way is by buying a scale that uses a very small electrical impulse to measure body fat and therefore it can estimate you BMR. Still another way to estimate you BMR is by working a formula using your height weight and age.

In Friday’s edition of our local newspaper, The Tennessean, a brief article was posted in the health section about Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR). In the article the formula was published.  The formula is different for men and women. Once the basic formula is worked then you take it one step further by figuring in your activity level. Here are the formulas:

BMR for Women
655 (plus) (4.35 x weight in pounds) (plus) (4.7 x height in inches) (minus) (4.7 x age.)

BMR for Men
66 (plus) (6.23 x weight in pounds) (plus) (12.7 x height in inches) (minus) (6.8 x age.)

Sedentary – BMR x 1.2
Lightly Active – BMR x 1.375 (light exercise 1 to 3 days a week.)
Moderately Active – BMR x 1.55 (moderate exercise 3 to 5 days a week)
Very Active – BMR x 1.75 (vigorous exercise 6 to 7 days a week)
Extremely active – BMR x 1.9 (intense exercise or sports training 6 to 7 days a week.)

Here is how it works out for me:

66 + (6.23 x 155) + (12.7 x 67) – (6.8 x 49) = 1549.35
I consider myself somewhere between moderately active and very active so for the purposes of this formula I will use moderately active.

1549.35 x 1.55 = 2401.5

According to these calculations I can eat 2401 calories a day.

Take a few minutes and calculate your BMR with the formula above and it will give you a good estimate of how much you should eat everyday. But remember it is important to eat good foods. And if you need to make changes to your eating habits, make small changes that you can live with.

Fitness as an act of Worship

Fitness as an act of worship, can it really be?  I say yes.

Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. Romans 12: 1

I recently read this exchange, in the book Mad Church Disease, when a pastor was asked: “How has developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle contributed positively to your ministry? The answer: “…I did not do it for my ministry. I did it as an act of worship toward Jesus and as a sign of commitment to my family. If I take care of my relationship with Jesus and my relationship with my family, God will honor my ministry.”

Dr. Ken Cooper, considered the founder of the modern aerobic exercise movement, said this:

“I start my day with prayer and Bible study. My prayer list includes all my patients. I have a very busy day. I’m 76 years of age still working 60 hours a week. Before I go home at night I’ll go workout at our fantastic fitness center. By the time I go home of an evening, I have done a good day’s work. I’ve been both spiritually blessed of a morning and physically blessed in the afternoon.”

He also made this statement:

“If we are not both spiritually and physically fit then we are not fit.”

We are challenged throughout the Bible that we need to consider our body as the temple of the Holy Spirit and treat it accordingly. The most important act of being filled with the Holy Spirit is in making a decision to follow Christ and have that personal relationship with Him.  Being a follower of Christ means that we surrender to Him, that is an act of worship.  But does surrender mean everything? As follower of Christ we are asked that question and our answer is a strong, loud, YES. And if the answer is yes, then that means everything including our physical body.

I am determined to live a healthy life as long as I can and in so doing be a follower of Christ, called to minister, for as long as I can. 

Followers of Christ for as Long as We Can

Setting A Fitness Plan for the Week

Fitness Love It and Hate It

Followers of Christ for as long as we can

For the last nine years I have been on this health-kick thing.  Really it has become a lifestyle, which includes a fitness routine. I really believe that God has given us an amazing vessel in which to live and it is our responsibility to take care of it. 

In the Old Testament you can find many scriptures dealing with food.  God laid out specific guidelines…what to eat, what not to eat.  I don’t think that living by those guidelines is mandatory today; Christ redeemed us from the law. I don’t think I could follow those guidelines; how would I include peanut butter and chocolate into my diet.

As a nation we have so many food choices and quite frankly many of them are bad, no nutritional value and many things we decide taste good harm this amazing thing…our body…that God created.  What we eat is a personal decision, however, we are smart people and therefore we should make smart decisions that don’t harm us.

What if we were to all think about this every time we eat?

At this meal I am eating for three:

            Me…so that I can have the right nutrients to power my body.

            My Family…so that I can be around for them, support them and that the decisions I make will not shorten my time with them.

            God…so that I can be what He has called me to be for as long as He wants, and that decisions that I make will not shorten that time.

God has given us many amazing gifts, the most important a relationship with Him through the sacrifice of His Son.  Now we have the great privilege of living our lives for Him, being followers of Christ, and I believe it is our responsibility to live as long as we can; making wise decisions that support that goal.

Setting a Fitness Plan for the Week

What is your fitness plan for this week? I have an intentional plan to be in the gym or at home doing some type of cardio exercise at least 5 mornings a week. But before I get into the week, I set a plan.

It usually happens on Sunday night. I take a glance at the week ahead and make a plan. Being physically active and intentional about fitness takes planning. The plan changes from week-to-week, but I always create a plan.  If I have an early meeting one morning then I know that has to be my day off. If I have more than one early meeting, then I have to carve out time one afternoon for fitness.

The older I get the more I understand how important it is to have a fitness plan…to stay physically active.  Here are some amazing facts: 70-80% of aging is optional…70-80% of premature death is lifestyle related. 50% of all illness and injuries in the last 1/3 of our life can be eliminated by changing your lifestyle…not delayed until you are older, but ELIMINATED. In other words, what we consider normal aging is not normal.

Creating a fitness plan and carrying it out is not about just living longer, but the possibility of living longer with purpose…being a follower of Christ for as long as you can and being willing to be used by Him for all of those days.

Romans chapter 12 verse 1 states:  Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God.

The context we usually apply to this verse has nothing to do with physical health, but I believe this scripture also gives us an insight to the fact that God wants us to have a balanced life which doesn’t follow the convenient or what everyone else is doing.  He wants us to be the best we can be in all aspects of our lives.

Today is Tuesday and I have a fitness plan in place for this week, do you?

Heart Health: body, soul and spirit

My home page is set to Fox News and tonight and the headline at the top of the page was: Fat Nation: Latest federal figures show that Americans aren't just overweight — more and more are becoming obese.

 

65% of U.S. adults are classified as overweight. Part of this is because we have evolved into a sedentary society…we move very little. The Fox News article states the statistics this way: 34 percent of Americans are obese, … 32.7 percent are overweight…under 6 percent are "extremely" obese.

 

My full-time job is that of a minister, but my full-time passion is to be a follower of Christ, trying to do what he wants in every aspect of my life. For me every aspect means being intentional on how I take care of my physical body also.

 

In the business I am in, we are always talking about heart health…getting our spiritual heart right with God…because that’s what this job is all about.  That is the most important thing.  There is nothing more important than being in a right relationship with God: admitting we are sinners; believing Jesus Christ died for our sins; confessing our sins to God and living a life that puts Jesus Christ in a place of Lordship for every aspect of our lives. And not just believing Christ but following Him in every aspect of our lives.

 

Do we take care of the spiritual but forget the physical.  This temple we live in is amazing gift.   It amazes me that we take for granted; often neglect this amazing gift…our body…that God has given us.  Our bodies are a part of that “every aspect.”

 

Have you noticed in the Bible there are no guidelines for exercise …could it be that the contemporaries of Biblical times were active people?  They walked everywhere they went. They worked with their hands.  Our bodies were made to move. Research shows that intentional moving, as little as 10-20 minutes will make a tremendous difference in how we feel. Moving burns calories; moving makes our heart stronger; moving makes our bones stronger.

 

I have been on a journey of intentional movement now for almost nine years. It has made a positive impact on how I live.  I encourage you to get moving. I Thessalonians 5: 23 says: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. And may your spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

So…does living as a follower of Christ mean that we are to get moving?

SELF

Submit

Examine

Lift

Fill

 

Not exactly the four words that comes to mind when you see the word SELF.  One of the books that I read this year suggested that a way to start the day would be to use the word SELF as an outline for a prayer. 

God, I submit this day to You.  I know you created everything so I submit to Your will as I begin this day.

 

God I am going to take a few moments to examine who I am in comparison to You.  When I do this I realize that I have nothing to hold on to in my own strength. I also realize that I have failed at living for You and now ask You for Your forgiveness.

 

For all that You are and all that You do for me God I lift up Your name in praise.  I have so much to be thankful for…You are amazing.

 

And God as I get ready to take the first steps of this day I submit to Your will and ask that You fill my life with Your Spirit so that I can be a walking testimony of Your grace and love.