New Beginnings Health & Fitness Ministry July 2006 Newsletter

(Volume Eight) July 2006

Inside This Issue:

  Welcome
  Who is New Beginnings
  What’s New-New Beginnings 90 Day Holistic Fitness Challenge
  Reminders
  What Are You Eating
  Workout Options
  Journaling Reminder
  A New Beginning
  New Beginnings Scripture for July
  Our Mission Statement

Welcome to the New Beginnings Health and Fitness Ministries family. We consider it a privilege to support your fitness efforts. We welcome your suggestions and ideas, so please let us know if there is anything we can do to make your experience with the monthly newsletter, website, weekly messages or message board more beneficial. We can be contacted at contactus@mynewtemple.org. It is our prayer to bring you words of encouragement and inspiration to motivate you to become fit physically, emotionally, spiritually and relationally. This is your New Beginning and we want to make it an awesome experience for you. As you begin this new adventure we are praying for you.

Who are we?

New Beginnings is a wellness ministry established in 2003 by Carroll Roberts to offer a holistic approach to fitness that includes mind, body and spirit. A wellness ministry also serves to help people help themselves through physical and spiritual exercise and health education. At New Beginnings we believe good health is a gift from God and can be obtained by following biblical principles as we lead a balanced life physically, mentally, spiritually and relationally.

What’s New?

New Beginnings 90-Day Holistic Fitness Challenge!!!!
Mark You Calendars-The challenge begins Saturday, July8, 2006-

Are You Ready?

It’s time to make it personal. We worked it out with the 1st Annual Carolyn O’Neil Fitness Race geared to draw churches and organizations to a better understanding of the need for holistic fitness. Well it’s time to take care of you. The New Beginnings 90-Day Holistic Fitness Challenge is just for you. It is time to get real with yourself about the things that are hindering you and keep you from walking in the total power and purpose that God has for you. Jeremiah 29:11, assures us that God does have a purpose and plan for each one of us. “11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

We may have been hurt by some things that have occurred but that was not God’s plan. He has allowed some things to happen in our lives, but even in that He intends to work it out for our good if we will trust Him with it. It may not make any sense to us, but Proverbs 3:5-8 tells us, 5Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths. 7Don't be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn your back on evil. 8Then you will gain renewed health and vitality. God has our weight issues, physically, spiritually, relationally and emotionally and God has us.

The first question you have to ask yourself before you can accept the challenge is this:
Are you ready to lay aside the weight, the issues, the hurts, the upsets, the attitudes, and to release the people that have brought the hurt? Are you ready to be set free?

This 90-Day Challenge is not going to be a joke. Dealing with our feelings is going to hurt in some cases, but we promise you that if you will just press through it you will reach the promised end that God has for you.
What do I need to do to get started?

Make a decision that you are ready for a change. (Check out some of the articles on the website under encouragement for additional support and encouragement.)
Go to the message board and register if you have not done so already. http://www.mynewtemple.org/aMessages.html
Send an e-mail to contactus@mynewtemple.org. Let us know you want to be part of the 90 Day Holistic Fitness Challenge.
On the Message Board Go to Getting Started under the New Beginnings 90 Day Holistic Fitness Challenge Board and read the message.
Submit any questions to us under the 90 Day Fitness Challenge-Lets Talk About It Forum so other participants can see your questions and the responses, they may want to share their successes and challenges so you will know you are not alone.
Pray and ask God to show you specific areas of your life that need to be dealt with.
Pray and ask God to give you the strength you will need to make the appropriate changes.
If your question or concern is personal and you would like to keep it confidential send it to angela@mynewtemple.org.
Pass this information on to others that you know are struggling in some area. Our goal to use a term coined by a friend of the New Beginnings Health And Fitness Ministry is to become Fit4Life.
If you are a Christian, find a scripture that you can hold on to during this challenge.

Whatever you do even if you are not ready to start the challenge on July 8, 2006, do something. Keep reading the messages posted under Angela’s online diary. Maybe you will be able to relate to something she is saying. If you don’t start at the beginning start when you reach the point you are ready to start. While this challenge has been called the 90-Day Challenge, it is our desire to see it become a lifestyle change.

Reminders from Last Month

What Are You Eating?

Does your weight loss plan seem to be stalled?

Are you working out daily and the inches are coming off but the process seems slow? Well it may be what you are eating or not eating.

At New Beginnings Health and Fitness Ministries, Inc., we encourage our community to:

eat five small meals per day instead of three big meals
plan your meals and your between meal snacks
eat the biggest meal of the day at either breakfast or lunch not at night
finish eating all of your meals at least 2 hours before going to bed
drink at least 6-8 eight ounce glasses of water per day
increase your intake of fruits and vegetables to between 5-9 per day
read labels to ensure the foods you are eating are not high in fat, sodium or sugar content

Let us know if any of these suggestions are helpful by discussing it on the message board.

Workout Options

Walk with your co-workers or fellow students at lunch or after work
Start a walking club in your neighborhood
Go to the gym
Join an exercise or aerobics class
Start swimming or water aerobics in your backyard or neighbors pool (with their permission)
Check out some exercise videos and other exercise equipment
Check out “The Fitness Angel Show” it is still playing 24/7

Journaling

How is it going? Have you started journaling? Journaling is an excellent way for you to keep track of your successes and challenges? Start journaling. Journal what you eat and how you feel when you eat. Write whatever comes to your mind and then try to understand what makes you feel the way you do. Was it something that happened? Was it an experience you had yesterday, last year or as a child that you are revisiting? Whatever it is journaling your feelings, thoughts and actions will help you to get to the root of your eating triggers and your workout issues.

A New Beginning*

“The whole idea of belonging to Christ is to look less and less like us and more and more like Christ.”
- Angela Thomas

What in you needs to be changed to look more like the image of Christ? Is it your attitude, your relationships, your physical body? Whatever it is God can do it in you if you release it to Him. Several years ago, I realized I was angry. It wasn’t towards everyone. It was focused mostly towards men because of the disappointment I had experienced as a youth/young adult. For those who know me personally you know that I was pregnant at the age of 15. I thought I had met the man of my dreams. For those of you that are older than 15 you know that I really did not know anything. In reality I had read too many Danielle Steel books and watched too many soap operas and my view was way too small and immature. I was too young to even have sex or know what it was about. I now know that sex outside of marriage is inappropriate under any circumstances, because it goes against the will of God.

1 Corinthians 6:18-19:
18Run away from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19Or don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,

Well at age 20, I had been disappointed by my son’s father and realized that what I thought was the real thing was, sin and an error in judgment on my part. I still did not realize that I had done anything wrong. I blamed him for everything and I became angry and unforgiving. Now far be it from me at that time to admit that every man I met had to pay the price for his hurting me, but I can tell you 30 years later that was the case. Whenever, I saw him the anger rose up inside of me.

Why do I tell you this story, because my new beginning came when at 38, I realized and accepted that I was angry. I realized that I had allowed that situation to define my future. I could not trust and I had to learn how to trust again. My trust had to be placed in the one who was able to see me through. My trust had to be placed in the one that could handle whatever I gave him without kicking me to the curb for having a bad attitude. I had to put my trust in God and allow Him to let me unconditionally love the people He placed in my life. I had to let God start working on me from the inside out.

Yes, I still have much work to do at 45, but I know that God can do it. Releasing the anger and unforgiveness was the best thing that every happened to me after accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Trust me when I tell you that if you will just release your hurts and burdens to God, He is more than able to handle them. You can trust God, He wants you to. He knows everything you have gone through and He loves you anyway.

Releasing the anger and unforgiveness made me lighter. My demeanor and attitudes are different. I am free. Remember when you hold anger and unforgiveness you in essence give another person power over you and your future. They have long since gone on with their lives and you are still living in the past. My son’s father was married with other children. All I can tell you is that the freedom is wonderful.

“I encourage you to begin to face your past so you can walk into your future.” -Angela Willingham-Executive Director, New Beginnings Health and Fitness Ministries, Inc.

(*Note-To read more on New Beginnings go to Products and Services and order the New Beginnings Temple Time Study Guide)

New Beginnings Scriptures for July 2006

2 Corinthians 5:17:
17What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!

Start Your New Life Today!!!!!!!!

Our Mission Statement

Our Mission is to draw individuals to Jesus Christ through the Ministry of Health and Fitness and to see the Body of Christ become fit in all areas by providing tools and information to empower you to succeed. New Beginnings is dedicated to helping you gain personal, spiritual, physical, mental and relational fitness by developing the courage and confidence necessary to set and achieve goals based on biblical principles. Most people encounter difficulty reaching goals, sticking with a diet or completing a task by trying to make an outward change without having made any inward spiritual changes. In other words, all improvements in your life begin with a change in your mind and spirit.