Fitness Book based on Elijah Muhammad's How to Eat to Live book.

Get Fit To Live: Be Your Best You!

By Audrey Muhammad

All of us were placed on this planet for a purpose. A person who is blessed to find his gift and his or her purpose is a truly blessed person indeed. Sometimes we may find we have a gift, but we don’t know how to use it to help others and to be a testament to the Creator. A person may have a gift of selling, but uses it to sell drugs to his people. Or a person may have a musical gift, but sprinkles it with vulgarity, making the music sour, not sweet. This book is about making ourselves better: mind, body and soul, so that we can be our best and do our best work. According to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, “fit” means adapted or suited, appropriate, proper or becoming qualified or competent. The word “fitness” means being in a state of health.

How can we enjoy our family, our careers or nature if we are not healthy. Years ago, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote a book entitled, HOW TO EAT TO LIVE. This is the “first fitness book” based on Elijah Muhammad’s teachings. He said we should “accept our own and be ourselves.” We should be on a constant quest to improve ourselves. Celebrate and cultivate your talents and skills. Whatever you don’t like about yourself, work to improve it and watch how your love of self grows.

Minister Farrakhan has stated that “there is nothing more powerful than a made-up mind.” Whenever we acquire some amount of success, it is due to God blessing us once we have made up our mind to be dedicated to a particular goal. In many occupations, physical excellence is deemed important. If you are going to be an astronaut, police officer or just want to join the army, some amount of physical mastery is expected.

Exercise is more than an activity to help improve physical fitness, it also improves our mental capacity. Adversity or difficulty helps to introduce us to our ability to endure. How strong are you? When you are tired from jogging for 30 minutes, do you have the mental determination and spirit to keep jogging for another 5 minutes? Do you have the strength and discipline to turn away from a food or activity that is going to be detrimental to you. Fitness competitors are some of the most disciplined people I know. They know that one wrong meal could mess up their “game” the next day.

What are some simple steps we can begin taking after we consult with a physican?

1. Practice praying and meditating on a daily basis. Prayers are “spiritual refreshments” that helps us to stay righteously energized. Remembrance of God is “the greatest force.” Keep in my that our body is the temple that our “Godself” dwells in. Doesn’t the “God” within deserve the best? Pure thoughts help to give birth to pure actions.

2. Practice the principles of Fasting to rid your body of toxins and increase your mind and body’s ability to resist temptation.

3. Practice “eating to live.” Our bodies deserve the best and we should eat what is in line with our physical make-up. Our body is approximately 70% water and 30% solid, just like the earth. The earth has nine planets and we have nine systems in the body. The “eat to live” way of eating includes high water content foods like bean soup, salad and whole wheat bread is a meal that is about 70% liquid with about 30% solid. Eating a meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, bread and rice is like eating dry land and the food will get “stuck” in “no man’s land,” (the colon) and then we wonder why we have problems with constipation, etc.

4. Lastly, practice exercising which is good for the heart and mind because it helps to relieve stress. Our bodies will function much better when we take care of it. How dare us pay someone to walk our dogs, but we won’t walk ourselves.

Make up your mind today to become a better you! I am with you all the way!

May God bless us all with peace, love, health, wealth, and happiness.

(The above excerpt is from the new book, Get Fit To Live: Be Your Best You! By Audrey Muhammad, a certified aerobics instructor and fitness trainer. Her book is available at www.amazon.com. For more information, call (510) 815-4591 or visit www.getfit2live.org).

How do you get rid of Verbal Fat?

How do we get rid of “verbal fat?”

By Audrey Muhammad

What am I referring to when I say “verbal fat?” Verbal fat is referring to the thoughts and words that we repeat to ourselves that have a negative impact on our minds and are of no “nutritional value.” Granted, some fat is needed as stored energy, just as maybe one person saying you can’t do something may be a slight motivation, but no one needs that type of spirit all the time.

Have you heard of the saying “You are what you think about?” Well, I definitely think our thoughts can affect us, no matter what are surroundings may be (there are some wealthy unhealthy and unhappy people). Even if we are “eating” good food, if our thoughts are “bad,” we can ill affect the digestive process in a negative way. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “We can eat the best food, we can take fasts for nine days or for 20 or 30 days if we want to; and we will still suffer if we do not feed the brain with the right food. These two bodies—the brain and digestive tract—have much in common with one another. Whatever hurts one hurts the other. We must treat both well” (How to Eat to Live Book I, p57).

How can we get rid of “verbal fat?” We must exercise or practice replacing negative thoughts with positive producing ones. (Two thoughts cannot occupy the same space and the same time, right?) For instance, instead of saying, “Its hard for me to lose weight,” Say “It’s easy to improve my health if I do something each day to improve it.” Or instead of saying, “I will always be fat,” say, “I will always strive to improve my health. I am a child of God. With Him, anything is possible.” Are you getting stronger? Are you burning some “verbal fat calories?” (smile).

In the book, Get Fit to Live: Be Your Best You, it states, “For every physical law, there is a spiritual law. For every physical reality, there is a spiritual thought.” The book also discusses the examples give by author, Louise L. Hay, who explains in one of her books how negative mental thoughts can lead to certain physical conditions. For instance, “ a loss of appetite may signal [thoughts of] fear or not trusting life, (therefore, you don’t feed yourself.) Depression may be caused by the thoughts of hopelessness and ungratefulness, etc. (Read more about your thoughts and wellness in the book, Get Fit to Live: Be your Best You, available at www.store.finalcall.com).

The saying of “Change your thoughts, Change your life” is becoming quite believable. How do we get “fit to live” and have peace with self and with God? I will leave you with this quote from Minister Farrakhan’s introductory letter to Study Guide #14. Minister Farrakhan states, “Peace with Allah(god) is gained through submission to His Will. Peace with Self is gained through obedience to the knowledge and truth that we know, for it has authority over us and if we recognize the sovereignty of truth above all and submit to is authority, peace comes to Self with Self.[emphasis mine]. The most difficult thing to do is to submit to authority that we do not believe is worthy of our respect or obedience…”

Do you think you are worthy of respect and obedience? Isn’t God worthy of respect and obedience? Let’s answer these questions in the affirmative and get fit to live!

May Allah(God) bless us all with peace, health, wealth, love and happiness.

(Audrey Muhammad, a certified personal trainer and aerobics instructor, is the author of Get Fit to Live: Be your best You! available on amazon.com or write to Get Fit to Live, P.O. Box 61402, Raleigh, NC 27661-1402). Please consult a physician before beginning any new workout or dietary plan. Send questions and comments to AudreyMuhammad@hotmail.com or visit www.getfit2live.org)