Weight Loss by Principles

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Weight Loss by Principles

Get Fit, Lose Weight, And Feel Better!

from White Fields Ministries

copyright 2002 by Greg Nichols

Find out how to win the battle of the bulge once and for all by finding out how we are wired, and what sabotages our efforts. This practical, "how to" set of principles will propel you into the healthiest time of your life, for spirit, soul and body. From deep counseling subjects to simple low carb and exercise discussions, get the real truth about dieting, and obtain final healing in this area.

(MFN Publishing is assuming a minimum degree of health with this writing. It may be wise to consult a physician before adopting any strenuous work out program, or if you have cause for special nutritional needs, such as diabetes, please consult your physician)

Why lose weight and get fit?

This is a great way to improve energy, self-esteem, confidence, and self-control needed to increase productivity and your lifestyle. If you want a better life, you have to make for yourself a better fitness level and bodily health!

How I Lost 400 Pounds And Was Still Overweight

What a picture this title brings. Is it true? Yes! And it is true for most Americans. I am 48 and I have dieted probably 30 times since age 25. (At least I was trying) At any one time on those diets, I lost from 5 to 25 pounds. If I add them all up, I believe I lost over 400 pounds. I guess I just love to eat. My weakness has always been sweets. I am 6 feet tall, and have weighed at the top end about 235. So I could never lose 400 pounds at once, but losing that much over 23 years is a sad indictment. Is this your story too? What is this weight loss roller coaster phenomenon in our country? Until people see that diets are quick fixes that do not heal or cure the problem, this will go on and on. We are programmed inwardly to overeat. It soothes us, it placates us, yes it even helps some of us sleep better, feel better for a few hours, but most of the over-eating is just plain habitual. Many are plagued with over-eating addictions.

Sadly, most people get a rubber band effect when they diet. They lose 20 pounds, but then they lose resolve, and cannot go on, and their body gets payback. They pack on the 20 pounds plus 5 more. The diet has left them worse than before. This also is very unhealthy, because it damages cells and causes signals of starvation within the body, which adds to the weight problem overall. People also want quick, micro-waved results. Not many have the patience to lose weight slowly and healthily. And slowly and healthily is the only way to lose weight. Diets are not good. There are so many fad diets out there. Diets give a band-aid to a huge wound that must be stitched up and healed. Sound wisdom is better than a diet. I hope I can share some with you in this writing.

How would you like to get to your perfect body weight? Then, if you put on 5 pounds, you simply make a few adjustments and remove it right then. We should lose no more than 20-25 pounds over 5 years time. And that should be from routine fitness principles, and not from diets. You could be at your perfect body weight in no time, some of you in 40 days, others in 3 months, still others in 10 months to a year. It depends on how over weight you are now. Did you ever notice an overweight wild animal? The leopard or the tiger in the wild will not be over weight. They have an inner guide that keeps them at their perfect body weight. Call it instinct. I submit that we have that guide too. We just don't listen to it. My job here is to help you find that inner voice, it is conscience and inner vision. God wants you at your perfect body weight. If He did not, then we would see fat wild animals. Did you notice that the family dog which is a domesticated animal under man's direct control does get fat? We over feed them and project our hunger and habits onto them. Then the vet says, "get some weight off that hound."   So we cut their food intake in half, and we say, "this is for your good." We have great control for the dog. Then, we go find our refrigerator, and, ..... you know the rest.

Get out of the diet mode. Forget dieting. Never go on another diet. Instead, live by principles. Adopt principles, and do it today. Change how you think. Make adjustments to your tastes, to your habits, and to your desires. Make your inner person stronger than your outer person. Also, get healed inwardly. Like yourself. I have an e-book about issues, that can help you get healed. The absence of self esteem has kept many fat or overweight.  Read on.

We go on a diet, and we euphorically lose 7 pounds right off, and we feel great, and we say, "This time I am going all the way, I have lost some, I am on track." But in that euphoric time, nothing has changed inwardly. You are simply under a temporary strength which cannot last. The true you has to come out again. Maybe today, you are under a euphoric impression that you can do it with a diet and not by principles. If that is you, save this writing, I feel you may need it in 2 weeks, maybe 3.

Watch out for depravation diets. Atkins is a good example. I recently tried the popular "grapefruit diet." It is just like Atkins. The depravation feels good at first. But both of these have rubber band effects. The "no carb" concept is in my opinion too depriving and violates a principle. The "balance principle" is where you get what you need so you are satisfied and your body is nourished and stable. I do believe in low carb, or reduced carb, along with exercise. Too many carbs will make you fat, but your body uses carbs for energy. You cannot and should not live without carbs. The solution is slower weight loss by not using diets, or depravation, but by using principles that change the balance of carb and fat burning. Why do any fad diet at all?

Metabolism the Key!

I have lost pounds sitting at my desk!

I have lost pounds sleeping!

I have lost pounds watching television!

I have lost pounds driving my car!

Get the point? Your fat can be burning now and its worst enemy is your metabolism!

Our metabolism is the key to losing weight, and the principle of increased metabolism is what we need to drop off pounds. Exercise increases our metabolism. Eating high protein increases our metabolism. Increasing our metabolism increases our metabolism, so it is exponential, so to speak. Diets work to decrease the metabolism. This is the opposite of what you need. It needs to increase. The human body has a mechanism that causes the metabolism to shut down or slow down when food intake decreases sharply. This process takes about 72 hours and is called the "starvation mode." So you might lose for the first few days on a diet, but then as your metabolism shuts down or slows, you hit a plateau and stop losing. Then, your starving is in vain. You do not burn the calories like you think you should.   As you begin to eat more, your metabolism increases again, and you leave the starvation mode, and become normal. How do we trick our metabolism to not shut down, so our fat will burn off using our metabolism, and still lose weight? There is a way. As you read on, you will begin to see that a lifestyle change will create this metabolism phenomena that you need to succeed.

Diet pills are also not good. I mean even natural ones, made of herbs. They become a crutch and another band-aid. Take the money from the diet pills and get a good multi-vitamin. The Biblical way to lose weight is not by a diet, but by principles. Proverbs is full of principles, and principles run the whole creation that God made. A wise man or woman stops following fads and starts living by wisdom, which harnesses principles. Let God show you some things. He would probably say the following to you over a weight problem: "My child, learn about the principles that govern this area of my natural Creation and your body, and live more healthily and live longer. Take dominion of this area by wisdom, and by using wise principles. Take the time to learn and study and put into practice wise principles."

That statement is what I believe God would say, based on my knowledge of Him and scripture, and based on His Holy Spirit whom I know intimately.

The Start: A Quality Decision!

Anyone who has ever lost weight successfully and kept the weight off well tell you that one day, they just decided to be different.

Yes, they decided to be different. I know that sounds too easy, but it is not actually easy at all. Many factors must come into alignment for one to make this decision of their will. To name a few, many failures and half-baked tries precede this kind of decision. Enormous self-loathing precedes this decision. Much hoping and dreaming, and envisioning also precedes this decision. These different factors make an over weight person who possesses them like a tightly coiled spring that needs to be sprung. The desire to change is there. When that alignment comes, watch out. Get out of the way, for this person will change by firing on all thrusters or cylinders!

You might say: Greg, I have all of those factors present!

Then, today can be that day for you!

You are ready to change! You can start right away! There is hope right now for you! You are reading this, maybe not by accident, but possibly by destiny!

What if I told you that you’d never get fit again, or that you’d hit a level of hopelessness that you would never recover from? What if I said you could not lose weight ever again? You would get upset, and you would set out to prove me wrong. But your resolve would not last, and you would probably prove me correct. Why? Because you would be doing it to prove something to me, and you would not have made a decision yourself based on your own inner thoughts and desires.

I would do better to tell you that you can do it! For encouragement goes a long way. No, that is not enough either, but at least if I believe in you, that is one more tool you have, one more factor to have in alignment.

Yes, I do believe you can do it. You can get fit again. You can lose weight, or be trim, or get your youthful luster back. How do I know? Many have done it. I am on a program to do it now. If I can, you can.

Any successful plan only needs two steps. Get ready, because I am going to give them to you. Get out a note pad, or a tape recorder, for here they are. You did not have to climb a high mountain to get the old sage’s wisdom. It was not a treasure buried somewhere that had a treasure map with an X on it. I freely give you the two steps now. The 2 steps are:

1)      Exert more energy!

2)      Eat less of certain foods and more of other foods!

The End.

"Oh Greg, give us a break, we knew that!"

What do you mean you knew that? If you knew that, why have you not been doing it?

You need not answer. I know that we all know these two steps to losing weight. But the process is quite a bit more complicated than just stating or doing the two steps.   Human weakness and human addiction is involved. These are problems that take wisdom to overcome.

I am going to share several principles of weight loss, fitness, and health. If you adopt each one, one at a time, and then utilize it, and then go on to the next, you will see pounds peel off and you will feel young again!

Principle # 1 The Law of High Activity

Let’s discuss the 1^st step.   Get more exercise. Why is that so hard for us to do? When we were kids, we were fit. We ran and jumped and played. Now we equate fitness with stair-steppers, treadmills, and weight machines. This seems to fill many with dread and then it takes an act of congress to get ourselves to exercise. When we were kids, our metabolisms were off the charts.

But a key phrase was, “when we were kids” – a phrase that is a great key for our fitness problems today.   What do you like to play? Do you have a sport like tennis, or racket-ball, or basketball? Simply re-introduce a physically hard sport back into your life.   You do not like sports? Then how about cycling, or golf, or tennis, or dance lessons, or karate, or jazz-er-cize?  Use that treadmill or workout machine in your home for more than a clothing rack.

I believe the best activity is to do a fun thing or something that you like, and get fit at the same time! If you are competitive, then do something competitive. Do this 3-4 times per week. Get the heart rate up, and exert some energy. If you are so unfit, maybe all you can do is walk. So just walk. But do something everyday or at least 3 times a week.

After a while of this regimen, which is doing what you like, then begin a more stringent aerobic program. (Principle # 7) But do not give up the fun activity! Be that child you were that ran and jumped and played. As you incorporate this with the other principles I am about to share, you will see results!

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Principle # 2   The Law Of Food Displacement

You have heard experts say to drink 8 eight ounce glasses of water a day. This is a sound principle, and opens the door to this Food Displacement principle. This principle states this: “fill up on what is good for you until you have no room for what is bad for you!”

The law of physics would state that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. I have watched young people and their eating habits for quite a while. I used to notice my teenagers' tendencies to grab a saltine cracker for a meal. Then, 4 hours later, they are famished, so they must eat 12 cookies. Then, they wonder why they have no energy. They are operating the law of food displacement in reverse. There is no appetite for good foods, for they are fulfilled with bad foods and drinks. But reverse this, in your life, and watch what happens. If you filled up on foods that you knew were good for you, in generous amounts, you’d not eat so much of the wrong foods. With this principle alone, you’d lose excess weight – maybe 10% of your body weight over 6 months. Your physical composition would also begin to change.   Flab would decrease and muscle tone would increase. What if you mixed this principle with Principle # 1, The Law of High Activity? Could these two lifestyle changes alter your body in just a few short months?

I have an assignment for you. Adopt each principle here and do not go on to the next until you have mastered the one before it. By now, you should have developed a new physical regimen. Even if fun, you should be doing it.

Next, displace bad foods. Do it today. My teenagers have very few negative side effects, for at that age, they can abuse their bodies without too much detriment, or weight gain. But you and I, if you are over 25, cannot afford the luxury of disobeying these principles.

Water For Displacement

If you are physically active, you should drink 16 glasses of water a day. If you are not physically active, you should drink 8 glasses. (8 ounces X 8 glasses = 64 ounces!) This habit is part of this principle, and the water will also displace bad foods, or too much food also.

More Displacement

The American Heart Association recommends 5 fruits and vegetables a day. Not 5 each, but 5 combined. Example: 2 fruits, 3 vegetables!   Or, 3 vegetables, 2 fruits.   Grabbing a few baby carrots or celery or raw broccoli will satisfy a vegetable serving. Keep a zip-lock of raw vegetables available at all times. Use fruit daily. Here is more displacement. Cookies and donuts or candy bars must give way here to these fruits and vegetables. But these fruits and vegetables do not add to your weight, Instead, they help you remove it. Although fruit is high in carbs, it is better than a cookie or donut. Fruit will make a person on Atkin's diet shutter with fear, but the fruit carbs burn up fast for a person with a sped up metabolism. These complex carbs in fruit and veggies will not put weight on you. But make sure you are being physical.

One gallon (16 glasses) of water, and fruits/vegetables.   In addition, eat one huge salad a day. I mean a salad with loads of trimmings, and low-fat dressing, or vinegar and olive oil dressing, and a little cheese, etc.

What are you going to have room for now? If you like bread, have whole grain bread. You do not hate these foods I am listing here. You just love the others too much. The sweets, the chips, the Whoppers, and Big Macs, the Famous Stars and the fries. Have non-fat or 1% milk if you drink milk.

Now you are in position of knowing that you are in control. Pick lean foods, as the rest of you staple diet! Let us say that maybe you still eat the bad foods, to a degree. You certainly cannot eat as much, due to the principle or law of food displacement.   You will find that a higher energy fat burn is taking place as you displace some of the bad foods, and you get more physical activity from principle # 1.   Your energy and metabolism will increase from the healthy food intake. The fruit, veggies and grains create more energy. More fat burns. Your body fat metabolizes. Your heart, your health, your figure and your self esteem wins! A thinner person is inside waiting to be sculpted by you, as you change your habits. Adopt each principle as you read it. Do it, your body needs this.

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Principle # 3 The Law Of Inward Vision!

This law or principle is one that is universal, and quite biblical. This principle can double for sales success or losing weight or any purpose. This should be the main principle here. People can dream or imagine, and this is called vision. What you see inwardly is what you get.   The Bible says: "as a man thinks in his heart, so is he." A young person who is raised in a tenement in poverty launches out into a life on the streets, often without dreams of Harvard, or Yale, but really only dreams of things that entail survival and more poverty. Maybe making a certain gang is the dream of this young person. Another young person from an upper middle class family launches out in life to attend college, and to build a positive life. His or her dream is which sorority or frat house they will join.   As they mature, they will dream of the working world and corporate America, and begin to envision their success in it. I did not say I liked this scenario, I just am making an observation as unpleasant as it is. The difference in these two young people is their dreams. Each will get their dream, or their vision. Each vision or dream has been built into them by a lifetime with their parents, and in their own environments.

Overweight problems also are like this. Often, we can see nothing else. It is in our vision to be overweight. This vision can even be built in childhood by our parents, or we do it after adulthood by looking at the mirror our whole adult life and seeing fat. The image goes back in and is a self-sustaining image and vision. Our minds subconsciously work to keep us fat and overweight to fulfill our inward vision of ourselves.

My suggestion is that we tamper with and manipulate this inward vision. We need to cut across the subtle and damaging patterns of thinking that have built this vision of being overweight, and begin to create a new vision. If you can conquer the vision process, your mind will begin subconsciously to bring a new “thin” vision to pass. Can you see yourself thin? Can you imagine your weight from 18 years old, with you now? I swear to you, a thin inner vision has a faster metabolism. Call it mystical, or strange, I don't have a scientific answer. It just works.

Say this out loud: “I am at my perfect body weight. I eat like a healthy person, I look like a healthy person, and I am a healthy person. I exercise, I look good, I like how I look, for I am fit and healthy and I am at my perfect body weight. I workout my body, and I resist wrong foods and self denial is a good thing. I am worth having this goal. I deserve to be at my perfect body weight. People are losing weight every day, and I am one of them. If they can do it, I can do it. I am at my perfect body weight.”

Why did I have you say it? That is how you change your vision!   Begin to speak a new one! It gets inside. Say this phrase everyday! Write this phrase down and put it near you, where you can see it and say it. Paste it to a file, enlarge it, and print it out. (There is another phrase at the end of this writing.)

When you lose a few pounds, your old wrong vision is dealt a damaging blow. Say or state your new vision all the more.   Many people lose 15 pounds and then gain it all back when they take a break from dieting.   This is their old vision inside them bringing itself to pass and taking dominance again. It is hard to fight a principle or a law. The only thing to do is to harness the positive side of the principle or law in your favor.   Get a new inward vision of your body and your lifestyle. Decide that you do not like eating more than other things. See a person within yourself that enjoys progress, physical activity, success and fitness more than eating. At the point after your first 10 pounds is off, you will be tested and dealt a rubber band effect. You will snap back to heavy eating. But right at this time, restate your phrase, and push on. Start over. Go for the next 10. Use old fashioned tenacity and perseverance. A totally successful weight loss plan is nothing more than several small battles won, with a few lost in between, but all the wins strung together by perseverance. This will do the job, and get you to your goal. We are not perfect, but perseverance can get us as close to it as we can get.

This process I mentioned can work to turn poverty around also. Failure and defeat and poverty can all be traced back to your inward vision. Assault your old vision. Speak new ideas to it. Dare to have a new belief system. This is what I love about Christianity. God gets a hold of us and as we pray and study and learn about and behold Him, He gradually changes our belief system about ourselves for the better, and, He raises our potential! He actually changes our inward vision forever. That kid from the tenement, the person in abject poverty and failure, and yes, even the person battling the weight problem.

If you are a Christian, then make changes today that help you in every area. Tamper with the inward vision in a good way, and reverse the principle that is working against you. Imagine daily a thinner you. This is a principle at work. See it and you will have it.

Change the inward vision, and you change the person forever!   Spend time praying over your inward vision. Say the previous phrase aloud. Cut it out and tape the affirmation I gave you in different locations of your home. Say it routinely, especially when you are tempted. Saying it is a meal for your inner man or your spiritual self. Understand every single positive principle here. Harness the good principle for yourself. See a new you! Most AA meetings and 12 step programs are about a new vision. God is mentioned quite a bit there. That is because what is impossible with man is possible with God. Close your eyes now and let God show you a new you, by inward vision.

If you are overweight, poor and depressed, you just read an insight that can revolutionize your life. I know, I have been there!

I can hear it in my mind that some will say: "Greg, you share too much philosophy. Just give us the plan." Any program out there will give you just a plan, but the breakdown is in the lack of strategic and useful philosophy, and that is why so many fail.

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Principle # 4   The Law Of Burning Fat

The most successful weight loss plans today teach you how to burn up fat, by increasing your metabolism and decreasing your carbohydrate intake. Watching calories is good, and watching fat intake is good, but if you are not watching carbohydrates, your are in trouble. Let your higher activity burn fat off your body, as you reduce some of the carbs and fat from your food intake. How about common sense on everything? You know what is bad for you when you are eating it. By all means, read labels and study contents, but also listen to your inward voice. If you took to heart the last principle about inward vision, you will have your conscience in gear, so just do not violate your conscience. After that principle, all other principles are peripheral in scope. You have the emotional ammunition, now. You, the real you, on the inside, are ready to do other things to expedite your fitness and health. You do not need a fad diet, for you are a person on a mission, and your first mission is to get fit. If you took to heart principle #1, about high activity, you are ready to burn a ton of fat.

Consider these points:

Exercise aerobically

Eat lots of proteins, lean meats, cheeses, eggs

Eat less fat

Eat fewer carbs and focus here

Cut out sweets

Remove 25% of your helpings of foods

Never have 2nds at meals

Have one huge salad every day, maybe 2.

Use skim or 1% milk

Snack with veggies, and 1 or 2 fruits

Displace the bad things with good things

Don't eat after 7:00 PM at night.

Use common sense all day long, and if you blow it, begin again immediately. Forgive yourself, and get right back into healthy thinking.  If you have 3 days of success, and then 2 bad days, do not despair as before, but rather go back on. Several failed attempts all put together, back to back can add up to more than 50% of your life, and that is enough to lose weight.

Counting Carbs

Instead of counting calories or fat content, count carbs.   In the beginning, take no more than 30-35 grams daily. After 3-4 weeks, release it up to 50-60.   The idea here is to eat lots of good foods so your metabolism stays up, but take a hit on the carbs so your metabolism must burn your fat stores. You can become a fat burning factory. If you raise your carbs, and your loss slows down, then reduce your carbs again. Do not snack on carbs. Resist the office donuts or pastries, and keep the proper fuel being fed into your body. Later, with a higher metabolism, you will be able to afford cake, or a donut, etc., once and awhile.

Journalize Your Food!

Here is a huge key. Get a spiral pad, and write down everything you eat. Keep it everyday, and be honest. NASA cannot send up a rocket with bad fuel. They must be precise in their efforts to use the exact pure mixtures. You must adhere to exactly what goes in your body. To journalize is to be able to correct, and to see weaknesses. If you get a candy bar, write it down. I honestly believe that many people forget what they snack on. Then, they say, " I was good all week and did not lose."   The Bible says, "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." This is a principle. Use it. Record the truth. Write it down and then review it often. Watch what this one principle does for your resolve. Many of you only needed this one suggestion. Here it is. Run with it. Now your rocket will metabolize on all thrusters.

Principle # 5 The Law of Persistence

This is where most people break down. Oh, they persist in getting fat. But they cannot persist in losing weight. The one practice is usually an addiction, which in the Bible, is known as sin. Sin is fun. Not holding back our bodies from lust is fun. But it is a deadly practice.   Can you see that over-eating is a sin? Are you mature enough to admit that? The opposite of lust and sin is self denial. Self denial is a good thing. It is righteousness at work. It leads to self control. Self pampering must be replaced with self denial. It seems a self centered society does not easily take to self denial. That is why America is obese. Many are simply clueless to the fact that life is not about self, but about others. To deny self in our inter-personal relationships would help stop divorce, and many other human problems. I believe it takes God's help to deny self. Go view "The Passion of The Christ" and then think over your own personal views of self denial. If Jesus denied Himself, for us, and suffered immensely in doing so, then we can learn something about self denial. Let that great life of His teach you self denial.

Did you know that self denial gets easier once you practice it a little bit? This is part of the seed principle. Today's self denial is the basis for tomorrow's self denial. The skill for it grows, and the ease of it grows. Then, persisting in self denial gives you your success. Our principle here is not self denial, for that is a truth. But the principle here is persistence, in walking in a truth, called self denial, and this practice will put you over. You will not be slim all at once, you will need your tool called patience, the sister of persistence. "If any man will deny himself, let him take up his cross and follow me." You are not called to a life of pleasure, lust and destruction, you are called as we all are to a life of self denial, where you will eventually find true fulfillment. Right now, your cross to bear is losing the weight, and keeping it off. Pick it up, and do it now. This will lead you to greater ability to deny yourself and your whims.

Principle # 6 The Law Of Inward Healing

Many people are wounded inwardly. You may say, "I am not." But your addictions remain with you. Do you call that healed? Addictions are usually from deep within. Can you be introspective for a moment? Can you get honest with yourself? Some people have inner selves that are covered with scars and sores, wounds and boils. God wants to heal those. When He does, you will be free. Freedom is God's goal for the human race, collectively and individually. But people protect themselves, even from God. It is painful to delve around in wounds and sores. Some may need lancing, to release the poison. That hurts. But God then quickly heals all after the initial opening of an old wound. How is this related to being overweight? More than you know. Often, that eating addiction is only a band-aid that offers a brief inner security, and sense of emotional solace, but it does not last. So the same band-aid must be applied over and over. The gaping holes made by inner wounds seem to pull everything down into them and nothing satisfies. There is never enough abuse and self indulgence to fill the hungry need of healing, the gaping hole that only God can fill. Whether it is eating, drinking, smoking, chewing, sexual lust, homosexual addiction, or anything else, this simple common trap of inner wounds explains quite a bit.

How can we get God inside you where He can heal you? This is a big question, and salvation in Christ is not the simple answer. That is only the doorway to begin healing. Full healing is a process that can take months or years. If you can embrace inner healing as a principle to utilize, you can go far in being cured from addictions. I have an e-book that I do not sell, but rather I make it available for free. It explores some sources of inners wounds and some answers to be healed. My guess is that you desperately need inner healing. We all need more inner healing. If you think you are fine, that is a common thought process for someone who needs inner healing. Push deeper here. Go on a quest to find truth, and be healed. If you want to go deeper, go here.

Principle # 7 The Law of Aerobic Exercise

Let's review this. It is well known by all. Do an activity that gets the heart rate up for at least 30 minutes at least 3-4 times a week. This creates the metabolism needed to burn fat. Walk, run, ride, swim, but do something. If you cannot walk for 30 minutes, then walk for 5 or 10 minutes. Each time, you can go further, and build up to it. Husband, wives and children need to walk together more. Turn off the television and go. Later on, after you get used to it, take your heart rate. Make sure the heart beat is up for at least 20 minutes. Build up to that if you must.

Do the aerobic exercise on 3-4 days, and on the other days, do the fun physical thing from Principle #1. My wife and I bought a ping pong table, and we play it for a while and it keeps our metabolism up high. We get winded, and sweaty and tired. But we do not know it because we are having so much fun. This can qualify as the first principle, or this last one, aerobic exercise.

When doing aerobics, check your pulse. You need to get up to 20 heartbeats every 10 seconds. That is a pulse rate of 120. Build up to this if you need to, and do not overdo it.

Aerobics are needed and very popular, and we shared this last as they are advanced compared to the rest of the items on our list of principles. By the time to do the first 6, you are ready for the aerobics. Just walk if that is all you can do.

Print the following and say it often:

Here is another affirmation based on the New Testament of The Bible! . Use this one too.

"I am who God says I am. I am a success, because God is, and I am made in His image. He is also inside me. He helps me. The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus sets me free from the law of sin and death. I am free from the sin of addiction, lust and apathy. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I am healthy and fit. I am not a failure. My mind and body function perfectly. I am on an eternal path to Heaven, but right now, I keep after my body and I treat it harshly and rigidly, so that it is in shape, my mind is in shape, and I am ready everyday to work on and fulfill my Divine destiny. I have no time to be depressed, or indulge my human flesh and appetites, for I am on a mission in life to fulfill a Divine purpose. The junk stops today. I treat myself like I like myself, for Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus intends that I love myself as much as He loves me. Jesus wants me to be fit and healthy. Jesus is in every step of my exercise. He is in every little self control I show, and in every small self denial. My body is God's temple, and He wants a healthy, fit temple. I exercise, I eat right, I do not depend on diets which actually increase the negative principle working against me, but rather, today, I change who I am, how I think, how I act, and how I eat, and I eat less, I exercise more, and God is in it. I am fit and healthy, and successful at anything I try, because Jesus is successful, and He lives in me."