Fitness – Christian Vitality | Christian Weight Loss | Christian Health & Fitness

How to lose 2-3 lbs per month effortlessly and pain free?

Lose Weight by Drinking Ice Water?

Yes, it’s true. By drinking ice cold water you can lose weight. Here’s how (with a mini physics lesson):

When we drink ice water our bodies have to heat that water to maintain our normal body temperature. So, from ice water at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) our bodies have to heat it to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degress Celsius).

The formula calculate the amount of energy in calories that it takes to hea that water we need this formula:

1 calories = the amount of energy required to heat 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius

For an applicable example to our everyday life is:

1 bottle of water (usually about 500ml or 16.9 oz) is equal to 500 grams

Let’s assume the water is a 32 F (0 deg C)

So, how many calories will it take to heat that water?

500g x 37 degrees C = 18,500 calories

A nutritional Calorie (notice the capital ‘C’) is actually a kilo-calorie so the amount of nutritional calories that it takes our body to burn to heat the water from a 500ml bottle of ice cold water is 18.5 Calories.

It doesn’t seem like a whole lot. But think about this, if you’re leading an active lifestyle it’s recommended you drink about 6 liters of water or more per day. (I usually shoot for about I usually shoot for closer to about 1.5 ounces per pound I weigh on super active days in Arizona weather).

So, for 6 liters of ice water per day we’d be using an additional (12 bottles x 18.5 Calories per bottle which equates to) 222 Calories. If you’re like me, on an active day, you have 333 more Calories used.

So, if all you do is change your drinking water to ice cold from room temperature you’d be using an extra 1,554 – 2,331 Calories per week (or 6,660 – 9,990 Calories per 30 day month).

Those Calories have to come from somewhere, right? Assuming we didn’t change anything else in our diet or exercise we’d be burning stored fat to make up the difference.

1 pound of fat equals 3,500 Calories.

So, if we drank ice water for our recommended amount of water consumption for an entire month we burn about an extra 1.9 – 2.9 lbs of fat.

How to lose 2-3 lbs per month easily doing nothing difficult, hard, or stressful?

Drink ice water all day.

Notice I said ice water, not ice cold beer, soda, diet soda, or any other beverage that has calories or artificial sweeteners. Those can all be counter-productive for your fat loss and may prevent you from losing weight.

8-minute Miracle that can revitalize your metabolism and turn you into a fat-burning machine

It was one of those mornings when I was running short on time and I knew that my day was booked solid, so it was likely I wouldn’t be able to squeeze a workout in all day & evening. I was committed to my weight loss program and didn’t want to accept defeat so easily and throw in the towel so to speak.

From my previous experience years ago reading the “Body for Life” by Bill Phillips, I remembered that a workout out first thing in the morning on an empty stomach helps burn 300% more fat than a workout later in the day after you’ve eaten. Bill also taught me about Hight Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) in that book. At the time, it was a fairly new type of training that was said to supercharge your metabolism and fat-burning even more.

A short workout on an empty stomach first thing in the morning like this can be equivalent to an hour (or more) long workout late in the day on a full stomach. It stokes your metabolism (body’s furnace). It also helps keep your metabolism burning extra calories all day long and research shows that this furnace stoking can last up to 48 hours after your exercise is over.

So, I made time for a workout and jumped on my Elliptical Machine at home. I only had 10 minutes to spare and I made it happen using High Intensity Interval Training also known as High Intensity Intermittent Exercise (HIIE) or Sprint Interval Training (SIT). It’s also more popularly called (in the last two decades) as Tabata Training after the Japanese Professor who popularized it with a study in 1996

So, I jumped on the Elliptical machine for a quick 10 minute workout and burned 256 calories. I warmed up for 2 minutes at a mellow pace with the machine setting to 30% inclination grade (my normal setting) and the resistance set to 15 out of 20. The RPM on the machine was about 40-50 RPM. When I do my normal, what most would call medium intensity workouts for 20-30 minutes I use the same settings, but run/glide at about 60 RPM for the whole duration. So, the 40-50 RPM is a fairly low intensity for me.

After 2 minutes of warming up at a low intensity I then run/glide as fast as I can (about 90-100 RPM) for 30 seconds followed by 30 seconds of low intensity (again about 40-50). Each of these 60 second periods could be called one set, of which I do 4 of them. So, slow for 30 seconds then fast for 30 seconds for 4 minutes straight. I then do a cool down for 2 minutes at the low intensity level of 40-50 RPM.

The whole workout is 8 minutes long and if you think this sounds kind of wimpy, you’re dead wrong. I finish these workouts about to lose my breakfast (which I would have, had I eaten any) and my lungs feel like they did when I was forced to run the mile (as fast as you can) as a Freshman in High School…they hurt and I cough throughout the day from time to time as a reminder. It seems to kick up all the crud in your lungs.

Even though the Elliptical Machine display only showed 256 calories burned from these short workouts…it is likely that those calories were mostly taken from fat storage. In addition to slimming down my waist-line by a small amount, I will also burn more calories just sitting at my desk at work today from the extra metabolism boost. You might call that a double-bonus. 🙂

So, don’t ever underestimate the value of a short workout. Anyone can make time for the 8-minute Miracle.

This should also help you not ever have an excuse for not getting some exercise in. You should be able to squeeze at least a 8 minute workout in, anytime.

So, go ahead and hate me for it…I just stole the main reason people don’t work out when on a weight loss program from your list of excuses. 🙂

You can learn more about the history of the High Intensity Interval Training by visiting our Wikipedia friends here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training

Sacrifice Comfort & Junk Food to Give Glory to God and Lose Weight Too!

12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 ESV

Can all this sacrifice of calories, junk food, comfort (by exercising) be a living sacrifice to God?

Yes! It can.

You can make a lot of the things in your life a sacrifice and it will become a form of spiritual worship. Fasting for one is a way to demonstrate spiritual worship to God through physical sacrifice.

12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1 The Message

I love the way The Message translates this scripture. ‘Take your everyday, ordinary life’ (and every aspect of it) and ‘place it before God as an offering’.

The part about embracing what God does for you relates perfectly to how I’ve often shared with you those moments that I am reminded that “God is my source!”. Everything in your life comes from him.

The part that says don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. This really speaks to our whole way of life. Not only spiritually, but through our diet and exercise we can also be counter-culture for the Glory of Jesus Christ.

We are to fix our attention on God and what HE wants from us and are promised that we will change from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from us and quickly respond to it. We’ve got to be listening, so that when we hear him, we can take action right away.

That’s so awesome don’t you agree?

If we will turn our lives & our commitment to Christian Weight Loss into a living sacrifice to him, God will bring the best out of us and develop well-formed maturity in us. I think that sounds like another example of God’s undeserved Grace abounding blessings into our lives through our simple obedience.

Let’s do it together! What do you say?

Realign with your reasons why to conquer the doldrums in your life!

Imagine for a moment that you’re on an old sailing ship out on the ocean. You hear the gentle creek of the ship from the very small waves that rock it back and forth ever so peacefully. The sun is high in the sky and the temperature of the air is perfect. There’s just a very gentle breeze across the bow of the ship. Sounds peaceful and relaxing doesn’t it?

We’ll imagine that you are in the middle of the ocean on your way to America, half-way across the ocean and you’ve had these exact same conditions for days…even weeks. Conditions that are not suitable to set your sails, due to the lack of wind, and you are basically stuck. Stuck for days or even weeks, drifting.

That’s where the term doldrums came from.

From Wikipedia we also see that it is defined as:

Colloquially, the “doldrums” are a state of inactivity, mild depression, listlessness or stagnation

I was hit with a mild case of the doldrums this morning. For me it was more likely best described as mild depression and a feeling of discontent.

Physically I think it could have been explained as a combination of mild physical exhaustion and emotional exhaustion. The two combined together, brought me down a little. Also, a mild feeling of discontent combined with the desire to do nothing started to overwhelm me a little this morning. I started to doubt why am I doing this, writing all this content here? Will anyone care to hear from me? Will my work on the Christian Fatloss™ Program & Christian Vitality actually help anyone?

I think somewhere through the fog, I heard the Holy Spirit say remember your reason why.

I quickly listed some of the reasons why I was doing this:

100s, 1000s, and maybe even 10,000s of Christians will use the knowledge and Biblical wisdom to live a better (more spiritually & physically healthy life) It may even save some of their lives from the misery and unhappiness I experienced.
A quest to help cure people of obesity is an admirable quest with God’s stamp of approval. Doing so and giving Glory to Jesus along the way should be doubley-blessed.
Over time I’d like to work on this online business full-time and have it provide a hugely valuable service, which in-turn my customers will be pay me a small fee & gladly to do so.
God has blessed me with the knowledge and wisdom (from the Bible) and I owe it to him to be a blessing to other believers and show them the way.
Going through this process myself is moving me personally from a state of Obesity to a Healthy one and will help me live a happier healthy life.

Realign with your reason why — What’s your reason why?

So, what are your reasons for starting a weight loss program? Did you start the Christian Fatloss™ Program because:

You know that staying on the path of obesity is a short-lived one and your tired of struggling through life being over-weight?
Are you afraid you won’t get to see your kids and grand-kids grow up if you stay on your current path?
Do you have family members that are obese and you’ve decided that you want a different path for yourself?
Are you tired of shopping for your clothes in the big girl or big guy section?
Are you tired of feeling embarrassed over you weight at public pools, beaches, and gyms?
Do you feel that God has called you to live a healthier, happier life without the physical challenges that obesity & an unhealthy lifestyle bring?

What are your reason why? They’ve got to be strong. They are going to have an element of pain or pleasure associated with them. Because as humans we are really motivated by only two things. The avoidance of pain or the desire for pleasure. Pain seems to be the leader in this camp.

So, if you’re feeling a bit discouraged or start to sense that you’re feeling like you should quit. Realign yourself with your reasons why and get motivated again to succeed. Then set your eyes back on the goal.

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phillippians 3:14 ESV

[Free Wallpaper for your Desktop, tablet or phone] Pick up your cross & follow me!

Jesus said, "Pick up your cross & follow me." — Jesus said, “Pick up your cross & follow me.”

Right-click and “save as”. I hope this is a blessing to you.

Let me know what you think.

Pastor Dan

Set sail for continued weight loss & spiritual growth with routine!

Set sail for weight loss & spiritual growth — Routine can be the key to new growth towards your weight loss & spirtual growth.

With the weight loss doldrums behind us lets set our eyes on Jesus and set our eyes back on the goal of Spiritual & Physical Recovery. Press on by looking forward so to speak.

Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Proverbs 4:25 ESV

“fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” Hebrews 12:2 ESV

Routine can get you out of the doldrums — Lose more weight & grow spiritually with routine

Get back to a routine. For me this meant get back on the bike yesterday even though I didn’t feel like it. It meant starting my fast again the night before last, even when I was hungry. It meant get back on the supplements I was taking. It meant jumping back on the scale yesterday and today (which I was blessed by seeing some additional weight loss). It means doing what is right as far as eating right, exercising, and spending quiet time before the Lord. Doing so consistently. That’s the key. Routine will help you build momentum and help you power through the ups and downs of life that are thrown your way.

Look back on the last few weeks and analyze what routines have been working for you. What are some routines (maybe a new exercise routine or reading the Bible everyday) that you can add to your life that would help you become a more physically and spiritually fit person.

Do so and you’ll find that you’ve set sail again on the weight loss voyage of a lifetime. Remember all things are possible for him who believes.

ALL things are possile! — “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” mark 9:23 NASB

Setting the Record Straight About Tomatoes Once & For All!

Tomatoes are full of nutrients. Who would of thought you could turn such a simple fruit into such a complicated thing — Tomaytoe vs. Tomotoe

Well, first of all, I bet your wondering what the big controversy is. There are 2 that we’ll address today, in addition to listing some of the nutritional benefits & reasons why you should be eating these beautiful vegetables (or are they really fruits?).

Ok. The first controversy that I already hinted at, is whether or not Tomatoes are fruits or vegetables.

Scientifically they are…fruits! There you have it you can finally with confidence & conviction tell your friends you absolutely know the truth. If you are a cook and only interested in whether you are working on a savory dish or not, they are most often (by 99% of the Chefs out there) referred to as vegetables. So, if you want to be scientific, tomatoes are fruits not vegetables.

The second controversy, that has gotten press more recently, is the fact that tomatoes are in a family of fruits (or vegetables) that are called nightshades. There’s a great article written by my long-time mentor Mark Sisson here if you want his take on it, but basically nightshades are in a family of produce that can cause some minor reactions to a portion of the human population.

So, if you are not one of those people that are technically allergic to nightshades, the benefits outweigh any of the risk of minor reactions that you could have. If you are not certain whether you do or do not have an issue with them, try a 2-4 week hiatus from them to see if you notice any difference on or off of them. This is admittedly difficult to determine because how can you be certain that it’s not the tomatoes that made you feel funky that day or the Sushi you had with your friends. If you have any doubt, try a little bio experiment out.

Assuming you are not allergic to them, here are some great benefits and unknown facts about tomatoes that I think you’ll find valuable and interesting.

Tomatoes are a great source of Lycopene which may help prevent several types of cancer in humans
Fun Fact: Studies have found that tomatoes do not have to be dark-red in color to have high levels of Lycopene and researchers have also determined that paler tomatoes (orange & tangerine colored tomatoes) have a form of Lycopene that is easier for our bodies to absorb. This is definitely counter-intuitive to this certified nutrition counselor.
Tomatoes are a great source of numerous antioxidants including Lycopene which have been proven to help prevent bone loss (and osteoporosis) in post-menopausal women.
Researchers who compared conventionally grown tomatoes versus organically grown found that the growing method made a less overall difference than the actual variety of the tomatoes when looking at antioxidant capacity. While all tomatoes showed great antioxidant capacity the better varieties are: New Girl, Jet Star, Fantastic, and First Lady. Further research is needed, but these findings are interesting to say the least.
Researchers are only now starting to identify some of the phytonutrients in tomatoes. Several of the heart-health benefits that come from tomatoes are: preventing atherosclerosis, lowering total cholesterol, lowering (bad) LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. A couple of the phytonutrients in tomatoes that have these benefits are esculeoside, which is a glycoside (for you techie types) and also a flavanoid called chalconaringenin. Another one they believe to have significant health benefit is 9-oxo-octadecadienoic acid a fatty acid. Needless to say, you should put tomatoes on your heart-healthy list and stay tuned as the research catches up to our belief that tomatoes are great for you.

After going through this list, I’ll stop looking at pale tomatoes as the less preferred choice. I’ll definitely keep them on my list of go-to fruits (or vegetables for you die-hard cooks) and not feel guilty about buying the hot-house (non-organic) variety.

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Excerpted from the soon to be released Christian Fatloss™ Program

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My Journey Alongside Yours: A fairly normal day along the path of weight loss for me. I hit the mountain today and completed my 11-mile out-and-back mountain bike ride, even though it’s starting to get pretty warm here in Scottsdale, AZ. It was 83 degrees F when I started my about 1 hours bike ride. I’m not complaining about the heat in any way, as some of my friends in Canada right now are seeing -1 degrees C and snow at the time of this writing. I feel blessed to live where I do and don’t even mind when it hits between 105 deg F and 115 deg F on a regular basis in the summer.

I finished out the night right on my calorie budget and am thankful to have the opportunity to share this journey with you. Thanks for joining me on your own Christian Fatloss™ Journey.

Don’t Forget: You’re an awesome Victory in Progress™!

I’m glad we are in this weight loss program together. You’re often my motivation to keep on keeping on and I hope & pray that I am the same for you. Amen!

Empty calendar days are good for the soul & weight loss!

Booked calendars are not good for the soul — Booking empty calendar days lower stress & help make weight loss gains

Running the calendar for five kids and two adults could overwhelm the average person, but my wonderful wife Diana is gifted with organizational skills & talent and runs our family’s calendar. As you might imagine our family calendar is usually filled with baseball & softball games & practices with three kids playing on teams…one of which is playing for two teams in two cities.

Well, this morning Diana let me know that we have nothing on the calendar. “Nothing?”, I asked. “Yep, nothing”, she said. I was in shock when she told me. Sadly, I can’t remember the last time we had nothing on the calendar. Are you in the same boat with me? When’s the last time you had nothing on your calendar?

What a blessing it is to have an empty calendar, eve if it is only for one day. I have to work all day, but that means that my evening has no commitments. My wife isn’t off to run to a meeting somewhere (which she often does) and I don’t have to drive across the state of Arizona to get a child to a practice or a game.

are you stressed out? Not good if you want to lose weight. — Reduce stress on purpose by scheduling empty calendar days. It may help you lose weight or prevent weight gain by keeping your hormone (cortisol) levels in check.

Discovering you have nothing on your calendar may seem an opportune time to plan something. Don’t do it. Don’t kill the blessing of an empty calendar. Instead, surrender this chunk of time to the Lord and ask him what he’d like you to do.

Get yourself in a still, quiet place away from distractions and listen for the “still small voice”.

11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper (still small voice in KJV). 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

You’ll hear the Lord speak to you ever so softly. It’s almost like a gut feeling.

Then do what he says and look for the opportunity to serve him…to fellowship with him…to worship him.

This could mean you use the time to go to your favorite coffee shop with your Bible and open up your ears to allow God to speak the word of life into your life. This could mean you surrender your time to ministering to your wife & children. Whatever it is, do it without hesitation or guilt.

Why not schedule days on your calendar that have no plans…doesn’t that sound silly. Choose a day (for me its Thursday this week) where you refuse to schedule anything and let God take the lead on what you do.

It’s my belief that having a day every week that has no scheduled commitments will reduce the stress level in your life. Surrender that time to the Lord for whatever he chooses and be obedient to his calling it will open the doors of heaven for God to pour himself into your life. As I’ve often discussed before, lowering your stress is a good way to help keep your hormone levels normal and help keep you on the path of gradual and continuous (sustainable) weight loss which is the goal of some of the readers here.

On the opposite end of the spectrum if you keep yourself stressed out all the time its the quickest way to start putting on the unwanted pounds. Unhealthy pounds at that. Combine that with not enough sleep and you have a perfectly ugly storm brewing. Don’t do it.

Be blessed today my friend in the name of Jesus Christ!

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What do you think? Will you take on my challenge to have an unscheduled day in your calendar? Share your victories and struggles in the comments below…

[MUST READ] The “Metabolic Winter” Hypothesis…

Just released to me on his “Private” email list is an amazing article backed by 103 research studies & publications about metabolism, fasting, nutrition, fitness, and the rest of what’s important to you and me and our health. A must read. Warning it is very technical and some of it may be tough to get through for the non-medical types. I think the average person would find HUGE value in reading at least the ‘Putting it altogether” and “conclusion” sections. Let me know what you think in the comments…

P.S. I’ll be writing up my top take-aways from the Metabolic Winter and sharing them with you soon. What’s your biggest ah-ha moment? Please let me know in the comments

Shared with permission of Ray Cronise, BS

Download Metabolic Winter Hypothesis for FREE here:

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/met.2014.0027

Contact Ray Cronise, BS by clicking here.

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Thermogenex

PO Box 12251

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Try new activities for new muscle & weight loss gains!

Keep moving and keep growing — Make great gains by trying new things.

You are going to laugh at me likely when I tell you that today I am so sore that getting up out of a chair is very difficult and walking is impossible without a slight limp. What terrible amount of exercise or activity was it that made this 43 year old fairly fit man so sore he can hardly walk?

I umpired a Majors Level Softball game for my 12 Year-old daughter.

Yep. Umpiring…

In hindsight if you look at the activity I was doing to Umpire the game I was either doing a movement very similar to a squat (you’d see in a gym) or and lunge (also a common gym movement). I did it for every pitch of the 2 hours worth of Umpiring. I estimate that I probably did about 150 – 300 repetitions of the movement with my full body weight.

To make things worse Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) which is what I am suffering from increases for activities and actions that involve long term muscle stress that elongates the muscle…kind of like a squat that is held or a lunge that is held for a few seconds. These are called eccentric contractions and are the most common cause of DOMS.

So, a little warning for you, when you try new activities there a few precautions you can take that will help prevent or reduce the amount of DOMS that you experience when you try new things.

Make sure that you stretch the muscles being used before and after the exercise or activity.
Make sure to stay hydrated before, during, and after.
Make sure to do a warm up of the movement using about 50% of the stress that you expect to see during the exercise.
Take recovery supplement(s) like L-Glutamine (5-10 grams) & Creatine Monohydrate (5-10 grams) immediately following the exercise and first thing in the morning the day after. I take both for a couple of days after, 2-3 times per day depending on how sore I am.

DOMS pain and soreness peaks at about 48 hours after the activity and slowly subsides over the days following.

Please don’t associate DOMS as a bad thing it is a sign that your muscles have had a small amount of damage to them and your body will grow the muscles stronger to adapt (the process known as hypertrophy).

And don’t use it as an excuse to not try new things frequently. Changing things up is a prerequisite of a healthy lifestyle and keeps life (and exercise) from becoming boring.

I hope also that my story about Umpiring will also highlight the fact that even something like Umpiring, which on the surface doesn’t look like great exercise, can have a fairly fit guy so sore he can hardly get up out of a chair. Always be trying new ways to keep your self moving.

Or another way to state it as a mantra to adopt “Always be moving!”.

Please share in the comments below your favorite activity and maybe an activity that you look forward to trying soon.

Be blessed and always keep moving…