Kristen Feola is a personal trainer, a speaker and author of The Ultimate Daniel Fast and Spiritually Strong. Guideposts.org caught up with Feola to find out her top 5 tips for getting spiritually and physically fit.
1. Read the Bible Every Day.
In Spiritually Strong, Feola includes her 6-week Bible study program to help readers get spiritually disciplined. “My goal is to help people establish those disciplines in a very simple way,” she tells Guideposts.org. “Six weeks is not an intimidating amount of time but it still establishes that pattern of reading the Bible every day. Make it a priority.”
2. Get moving.
This is key to getting into physical shape, Feola says. “If you’re starting from nothing, just try to walk 2-3 times a week for 30 minutes. Ease into it so you can gain confidence and get that sense of victory on the short term so you can reach a long-term goal.”
3. Drink water.
Everyone’s got an opinion on how much water you need to drink but Feola says to just jump in drinking it.”People are walking around dehydrated and that’s a huge source of problems. However much you’re drinking now, increase that by 1 glass. How much you should drink varies depending on your weight and height, but start off just drinking more water than you did yesterday.”
4. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables.
We’re often encouraged to eat fruits and vegetables in order to lose weight, but Feola’s got an interesting take on this: “Try a new vegetable or new fruit. Get out of the box.”
5. Remember who you are.
This step is one of the most important. Feola says, “In order to be prepared for everything God has for you to do, you need to be spiritually fit and physically fit. I never want the Lord to call me to do something but I can’t physically handle it because I haven’t been taking care of myself. I want every believer to be in a place that there wouldn’t be any hindrances to what God has called you to do. Everybody doesn’t have to be a body builder, but take care of the temple that God dwells in.”
“A lot of times as Christians we have guilt and shame when we don’t take care of ourselves. You don’t have to feel guilty about what you’ve done in the past. Just get into the joy and satisfaction in obedience to God. If you just do what God says, you will have joy. God wants us to live an abundant life.”
