X-Changed Life

It is officially 2010 and I have so much hope for all that God wants to do for me and the Body of Christ this year!!
My hope is to help as many people as I can find freedom in their lives. Freedom from all that has kept us from freely receiving the great things Jesus wants for us.
I am diligently working on setting up a website and new avenues through online resources to help others receive encouragement and hope for their lives, especially in the area of Health and Fitness.
To start I am focusing this blog on fitness and diet. 
I personally struggled in this area of my life for many years. I had an eating disorder as a young girl and into my early 20's and it took a number of years following that to even get freedom from body image issues.  I know that getting to a place of complete defeat in my own abilities in this area of my life is when I finally found freedom.  It was then that I was able to release all I knew to do to Jesus and I could rest in what He wanted to do for me.
I want to share a few basic foundational things with you to start the year out for each of you desiring to find freedom too for your own journey to health and fitness.
First...Start a diet and exercise Journal.  I personally did not like doing this, but have come to rely on this to help me when I am feeling off in my body. I can track foods or even exercises that have caused me discomfort or injury.  Buy a little book you can carry in your purse or have at your desk at work.  I will usually write out what my food menu will be for the day and exercises I intend on doing and then if I deviate from that menu or list I will log it.
Second....drink lots of water.  I try to consume between 80 and 100 ounces of water per day. Try to consume the bulk of your water before 5 pm.  Water helps you feel more full, as well as flushing out bad stuff and keeping your body from retaining water as well.  I enjoy diet coke, but when I do drink one I will up my water intake by another 10-16 ounces to compensate for the soda.  Sodas will cause you to retain water.  Try to avoid any type of sugar drinks, sodas, coffee (although coffee is a great pre-workout drink or morning get and go).
Consume 5-6 smaller meals a day. I will cover more on this tomorrow. You must start your day with breakfast.  Many people have trained themselves to avoid breakfast, this is one of the worst things to do when you want to balance your system and loose weight.   Breakfast gets the body going and "rev's the engine".  It get's your body busy metabolizing and burning fuel.  A breakfast with a good lean protein and a high fiber complex carb is best.  An example would be 1 cup cooked oatmeal with 4 egg whites.

This week plan on getting your body moving by doing some type of exercise outside of what you normally do in a typical day.  Unless you already have a workout program, start with walking a 15 min using light weights.  We will cover more of this in a few days as well. 

Have a Great and Bless New Year and See you again tomorrow.