Faith & Fitness Challenge - Week 1 (Water and the Word)
Monday, June 17, 2013 at 8:32AM 
I've missed you, friends!
If you’ve regularly read my blog in the past, you know that I stepped back from posting weekly for a season to launch a second daily radio show I’m a part of: Everyday Relationships with Dr. Greg Smalley. Tune in if you need a good laugh and some encouragement in your everyday relationships.
Starting today, I’ll post every week for the next six weeks (and I'll give away 2 copies of my book, Balance That Works When Life Doesn't. Today marks the beginning of a fun six-week faith and fitness challenge. Here’s how it works:
Sign up for FREE at: http://myfaithradio.com/commit-to-live-fit/
Every Monday I’ll post on this blog and share a bit about the physical and spiritual discipline for that week. Every Wednesday you’ll receive a reminder email to encourage you along the way. At the end of the six weeks, we’ll draw two names to win gift baskets filled with fitness goodies.
Each week you’ll add a very easy and life-giving physical and spiritual component to your daily routine. These disciplines are easy to do, but they’re also easy to let go of. These very doable disciplines add strength and vitality to our lives if we can make them a part of our everyday routine.
So here are your two disciplines for this week:
Physical Discipline:
Drink Water – Many experts suggest we need 8-10 glasses of water a day. My husband added this one discipline to his daily routine and lost 10 pounds in one month! Fitness expert Wendie Pett suggests we drink the equivalent to half our body weight (in ounces). So if you weigh 200 pounds, you need about 100 ounces of water a day. Either way, it’s time to up your water intake and here’s why:
- · Great for hair and skin
- · Helps digestion and metabolism
- · Helps muscle function
Dangers of Dehydration:
- · Muscle spasms and cramps
- · Neurological impairment
- · Digestive issues
- · Dry skin and hair
- · Headaches
- · Water retention
When we drink too much soda, we lose our taste for water. I challenge you to find a fun water bottle and raise your water intake starting today!
Spiritual Discipline:
Read the Word: If you don’t have a regularly established quiet time, take that first step. Set aside 10-15 minutes each day, open the Word and prayerfully read. If you’re new to reading the Bible, start with the books of Psalms, Proverbs, or the Gospel of John. If you already have an established quiet time, the challenge to you is to extend your time by adding a few extra minutes each day dedicated solely to reading God’s Word. Scripture is living and active and will change your life! Here’s why God’s Word is so important to us:
- · It’s living and active and brings life, strength, and direction to our soul
- · It offers us wisdom and reveals God’s heart
- · It teaches us how to live and brings clarity where there’s confusion
John 4:13 ~ “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Matthew 4:4 ~ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Ephesians 6:17 ~ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Hebrews 12:13-14 ~ For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.
Dangers of doing life apart from the Word:
- · We lose our way
- · We adjust our theology to match our lives (rather than the other way around)
- · We’re easily deceived by the enemy
I’ll be praying for you as you add these healthy yet simple disciplines to your life. Also, each week I’ll give away 2 copies of my book, Balance That Works When Life Doesn’t: Simple Steps to a Woman’s Physical & Spiritual Health’ to someone who posts on this blog.
Let’s do this!
May you flourish in health, both physically and spiritually!
Blessings to you this week~
Reader Comments (44)
I am very excited to start this challenge! Just drinking that much water is going to be a great challenge. Looking forward to it!
Excited to read your blogs each week- always a blessing!!
I've been struggling with eating healthy. This is truly a blessing from the Lord at this season in my life!
This is what I need at this time to start and encourage me along. Thank you.
Thank you! I look forward to this well timed challenge!
I need accountability. I can do it, one step at a time. Thanks, Susie!
Hey Susie! I'm so excited for this challenge - I need something to help me re-focus, and will be a great way to keep my spirits up after my surgery. Thanks so much for doing this. Game on sister!! : )
I really need to drink more water .I am not counting coffee and tea as I think they dehydrate me.
I want to cut down on both coffee and tea . Thank you this Challenge.
This is such a wonderful idea. You are such a great inspiration Susie...I look forward to being lead into some healthy habit forming strategies. :)
Thank you for this 'wisdom filled' blog on being disciplined in reading the Word, plus a 'word' on how to be physically disciplined. I agree with you whole heartedly about being in the Word - it is indeed life to us!
Blessings to you!
Thank you so much for challenging us in these important disciplines of life...looking forward to all the Lord will do in and through each of us!
This is great. I have been working--very slowly--on physical wellness, and my church has started a 31-day spiritual wellness challenge. This series fits in perfectly for additional challenge, encouragement, and reminders. Thank you for nurturing the whole person!
This is wonderful! I just seemed to stumble upon it, but I know God is the director so it's not a coincidence. I'm already on this journey of physical and spiritual fitness and this is a great encourager to me. I need to put these steps into real practice. Thank you Susie! You are always a shining star along the way.
Thanks for the reminders :) I am so thankful for a faith/fitness boost over the summer. It is so easy in our culture to seperate the two, yet they are in reality, intertwined. Thank you for your wisdom.
I just found out about you.. And your blog! And at the perfect time.. I've been needing encouragement in The Lord but as a 'leader' don't really get it from people. So you, dear one, are a breath of fresh air! Love the book title and I will be looking in to more of what you have authored! Blessings! :) from Le Sueur, MN ! :)
Nicole and Sandy (both posted on June 17th), you each won a copy of 'Balance That Works When Life Doesn't'! Congratulations! And thanks everyone for your posts. I'll be giving away 2 copies a week for the next six weeks so stay tuned! Blessings one and all!
Girls, to claim your book, email me at: Susie@MyFaithRadio.com with your mailing address and we'll send you a copy of the book.
Thanks and blessings!
I'm so excited I won!!! Yippee! Love you Susie!
I am joining my sister-in-love and niece tomorrow in google.docs as we try encourage each other in making healthy choices. We will be accountable and help motivate each other. I will share this with them. I will be a week behind you but will accept your challenge and THANK YOU! My journey is a lifetime.
Just a thought- there is a danger in becoming overhydrated (hyponatremia or water intoxication). Your body needs fluid BUT if you drink a lot of tea, coffee, etc. and drink a lot of water as well you could be compromising your health. Many people have inadvertently died while engaging in endurance exercise (like a marathon) and drinking too much to avoid dehydration. I used to drink a lot of water until I found some helpful info about mild water intoxication and the effects (many of which I was experiencing), my health and energy levels improved when I cut way back on fluids and added more salt to my diet. A couple signs you could be chronically overhydrated- feeling cold all the time, slow metabolism, abnormally low resting body temperature, and fatigue. And all easy to fix. :)