Body by God

Making any real changes in your lifestyle may be the greatest, and the most important, challenge you will face here on earth. To truly achieve, long-term, the healthy, prosperous life you were born to live, you must learn how to succeed. The Four Rules of Olympic Success will teach you the rules of winning employed by Olympians, the people who are the masters of success.

The athletes who make the Olympic team or go on to win medals at the actual Olympics are all ridiculously, incredibly talented at winning. They are literally the best—or even better—at success.

If you played a sport in high school or watched one regularly, then you can probably recall someone either on your team or from another one that was so amazingly talented that he or she just dominated your town or state.

Statistically, that dominant, “best” athlete from your town or state most likely never even made a college team. That makes college athletes the “best of the best.”

Then, of all of those college “best of the best” athletes, some will even be good enough to go on to try and make an Olympic team. They will then enter an Olympic trial. In an Olympic trial, the “best of the best” will often be beaten, or even beaten badly. This makes Olympians the “best of the best of the best.”

Even more fascinating is that at the actual Olympics, the “best of the best of the best” will also lose or even lose big to an Olympic medalist. This makes an Olympic Medalist the “best of the best of the best of the best.”

To be an Olympian—or even more, an Olympic gold-medal-winning champion—is so remarkable, it is almost beyond the realm of comprehension.

I wrestled in junior high, high school, and college, and I continue to coach high school and college kids in wrestling and weight lifting today. While I had dreams of being the best of the best of the best, the fact was, I had no idea how to do that. Effectively, I never achieved it. That is why I became extremely excited when I had the opportunity to treat and counsel hundreds of Olympians and dozens of Olympic medalists. While at first my excitement was about having a chance to work with champion athletes, my joy ultimately came not so much in being their doctor, but in being their student.

I not only had the opportunity to work with these incredible human beings and observe and participate in their training and preparation, I also was able to go to the Olympics and other world events with them. Over the years, I began to see the major differences between losers and winners at the highest level possible. The rules of success that made the best of the best of the best athletes winners are also the rules of success in life. I observed that there were Four Rules of Olympic Success.

Following the Four Rules of Olympic Success will ensure that when you apply the principles of your Body by God: The Owner’s Manual for Maximized Living to your life, you will have the best chance to succeed. The four rules are:

Olympians all possess God-given gifts that have made them physically or technically superior to their opponents. Olympians are born with the gifts of speed, strength, and athletic ability. Yet, if these people never discover or develop these gifts, then the gifts will be wasted. They will never become Olympians.

You also possess very special and unique gifts. As a matter of fact, your gifts and talents are designed to serve God’s will and enrich the lives of others. Your gifts and talents are far more important than the physical attributes of any athlete—Olympic, professional, or otherwise. But if you never eat right, exercise, get your stress under control, manage your time, or discover and practice using your gifts, you will never win either.

You’ve got skills. You have been given gifts, though those gifts may be hidden within you. These gifts are from God, which gives you the potential to be the “best of the best of the best of the best” and live a wonderful, healthy, gold-medal life. All you have to do is seek, develop, and not waste your gifts.

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. (1 Pet. 4:10)

A popular Christmas song tells of a little boy who feels that because of his worldly position and lack of money, he is unworthy and has nothing fit to give to the newborn Jesus.

Isn’t that just like us? While God has given us so much, we feel that we have nothing to give back to God and others. Even though God wants, and others need, to love us and to receive love from us, we have a constant feeling of not being valuable.

Fortunately for the “Newborn King,” and all the rest of us who have enjoyed that song at Christmastime, the little boy figures out that he does have a gift—a gift God has given him. He realizes any gift that comes from God is worthy to give a king. The Little Drummer Boy then proceeds not only to give his gift and play for Him, but he plays his best for Him.

You are incredibly valuable. God has given you gifts that He desires you to express to fill the world’s needs. You have an obligation to realize your potential. In God’s ideal scene, everybody is fully expressing their gifts in a way that serves Him and assists Him by helping the world.

When you are using your gifts to fulfill whatever mission God has given you in life, you will find yourself feeling worthy and exceedingly effective, healthy, joyful, and at peace.

Play your drum, or whatever other instrument you play, for him, and play your best. You have gifts fit for the King. Discover and develop these gifts—seek and fulfill your destiny.

No matter where you are in life—shepherd, prince, pauper, drummer boy, or drummer girl—God loves you and is counting on you. No matter what place you may have found yourself in life, God is standing by at all times, waiting for you to feel important enough to come and play your drum for Him.

Your gifts contain your destiny. They are made up of the things you are good at and the things you love to do. When you find and develop your gifts and “go for it,” there is no situation or circumstance you cannot overcome.

My best friend, Brett, comes from a very poor part of the world. However, all of his life he has felt that God chose him for greatness. He knew that he possessed a powerful future.

Brett discovered his gifts, developed them, and his heart told him that God would one day use those gifts to bless others. This gave him the courage to seek and fulfill his destiny. As a result of his attitude and his sincere desire to dedicate his life and his gifts to God and the people around him, he is very happy and successful today. He did this despite the fact that the environment he grew up in was overwhelmingly challenging.

On the contrary, many of his family members, who are also very gifted and talented people, have never escaped their impoverished situation. They failed to use their gifts and express the greatness God placed inside them. As a result, they never had the ability or the courage to leave their circumstances, and they still suffer in a place that Brett, who played his drum for God, rose above.

No plan of yours [God’s] can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)

The Olympic coaches spend hours each week watching videos of the athletes on their teams, as well as the athletes their teams will be competing against, in order to develop a plan for victory. One of my old coaches used to say, “Everyone wants to win on game day, but the one who actually wins is the one who plans to win on game day.”

Even though Olympians possesses great and developed gifts, if they do not possess a superior plan for success, they may not end up where they want to be—on the gold-medal stand.

Many of the lifestyle plans available to us possess information that is not factual or scientific, and that comes from man’s perspective only—not God’s. As a result, these are not superior plans.

Body by God takes information that comes from reviewing the cases of thousands of people who are actually performing the plan, utilizing the latest science in understanding the body’s function, and looking at life from God’s perspective. The plans in this book are superior plans designed for an Olympian ability to succeed.

Goliath was over nine feet tall (and about five hundred–plus pounds). He wore a bronze helmet on his huge head and donned a coat of scale armor weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft had an iron point that weighed six hundred shekels. All in all, this behemoth carried around three hundred pounds of armor and weaponry into battle, for a total weight of approximately eight hundred pounds.

Goliath was the world’s first undefeated heavyweight champion. Wanting to bring victory to God’s army and knowing the incredible draw a fight with the champ Goliath would bring, King Saul did everything he could to find a contender. In an effort to encourage willing opponents, Saul offered the man who killed Goliath great wealth, tax exemption, and even his daughter. That may not seem like much now, but that was a good payday back in Bible times.

Although David was only a lightweight, he was chosen by God as the number one contender to take on the heavyweight champ. While this match took place way before cable or pay-per-view existed, the Bible does a good job of covering the bout.

The line on the fight had David as a 100:1 underdog. But what the line did not know was that God does not choose underdogs. If God picks you, you are the overwhelming favorite to win.

God chose the man with the superior plan. Earlier previews of David’s life show that when David was tending his father’s flocks and a lion or a bear would get a sheep, he would strike the predator and take the sheep out of its mouth. If the beast turned on him, he grabbed it by the hair and killed it. That is a man with a plan. While Goliath’s war plan was to use the same tactics he had always used to defeat mere men, David’s plan was to use the same tactics, skills, and methods he had used to defeat vicious, wild animals.

As a result of his superior planning, David the lightweight knocked out the heavyweight Goliath in the first round. With one punch (rock).

Following his big win, David continued to go through trials and tribulations brought on him by his enemies—and even by his own mistakes. While most people would allow this kind of stress to crush them, David used these challenges to plan for the more important tasks that lay ahead. God knew David would endure and plan. That is why He chose a sheepherder from among all the warriors and princes of Israel to be king.

You have your own Goliaths to fight. You become the overwhelming favorite to win if you follow Rule #2 and possess a superior plan to defeat them.

In preparation for Olympic and world competitions, U.S. athletes attend training camps several months before the event. These training camps involve leaving friends and family behind to go live at an Olympic training center, either in America or somewhere near the site of the competition. Most of the world’s training centers are in small, out-of-the-way towns, and the accommodations are quite a bit below “five-star.”

After a difficult night’s sleep on rough, dormitory-style beds, a shower with no hot water, and a meal that often contained several mystery foods that were far from being ideal for training, the athletes endure two to three rigorous practices a day. These practices include whatever it takes to follow the superior plan that has been developed by coaches and advisors. At the end of these difficult camps, if the athletes have done as they’ve been told, they will be ready for victory.

Unfortunately, while teams of this caliber always have a superior plan, sometimes the athletes do not follow the plan. Injuries, procrastination, laziness, or burnout often will deter some of the athletes from adhering to the schedule and create failure to succeed in the competition.

The pages of this book contain the plan—the information necessary for you to be victorious in all areas of health and life. However, the success you will experience can be measured only by how well you learn and apply the knowledge obtained from your Owner’s Manual.

In Hosea 4:6, God says, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” God doesn’t say, “My people are destroyed for lack of Bibles, health books, audiotapes, videos, motivational speakers, or Web sites.” That is because there is now, and has always been, more than enough information; it’s just that there has never been enough knowledge.

The word for “knowledge” in the verse quoted above also means “understanding” and/or “wisdom.” Understanding and wisdom do not mean that you only come across information, but that you also act on it. In the Bible, “knowledge” denotes action or the ability to perform what knowledge claims is true.

While there are a lot of sources of information and plans for leading a better life, people continue to be destroyed because of a “lack of knowledge.” This is because there is a big difference between information and real biblical knowledge. Information is knowing; and real biblical knowledge is doing.

Knowing without doing is not knowing. If you truly “know” something, it means you are doing it. As a product of that equation, knowledge = results.

In 1998, I went to Sweden with the U.S. World Greco Roman Wrestling Team to help them get ready to compete for the World Championships. Part of my interest in going was not only to work with the athletes, but also to study the Swedish people and their lifestyle. At that time, Sweden had less than half the amount of heart disease and cancer as the U.S. and only a fraction of the amount of infant deaths.

I was not there very long before I discovered many subtle differences in their way of living that would account for their superior health. However, the biggest reason for their better-functioning, longer-lasting Bodies by God was not so much what they ate for breakfast, how much they exercised, or how they managed their stress as it was why they lived this way.

When I was taking a cab ride from the airport, I noticed there were an incredible number of McDonald’s restaurants along the road. In certain areas there were even McDonald’s right across the street from each other. I eventually made a comment to the cabdriver about how surprised I was to see so many fast-food chains in a healthy country like Sweden. He then gave me a lecture on Scandinavian living that changed my perception of health forever.

He told me that when the first McDonald’s arrived, the Swedish people actually shut it down. They did this simply by refusing to eat there. He said no one would eat their food because they knew it was unhealthy. The Swedes would not purchase food from this McDonald’s until they agreed to lower the amount of fat in their sauces and reduce the amount of grease they used when cooking the food. Even since the restaurants complied, the driver said, the people still know to go there only on rare occasions and they know not to order too much.

The real reason Sweden, as well as most other countries in the world, is healthier than the U.S. is that if the people there know something, they act accordingly. If the people of Sweden have knowledge, or the right plan for doing things that are good for them, they follow that plan, which makes their knowledge real biblical knowledge. The result is healthier adults and children.

Americans know that fast-food restaurants are unhealthy, yet we line up at their doors every day.

In America, knowledge has exceeded action. We have a plan, but many people do not follow the plan. This makes our knowledge only useless information. The result is, as Hosea 4:6 says, God’s people are being destroyed.

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. (Prov. 16:3)

Great Olympians are more than motivated to win; they are inspired to be victorious. Motivation itself is often weak and temporary. It comes purely from a short term desire to win some sort of material prize such as a medal, a trophy, or money. Inspiration, however, comes from an inner, burning passion to do things for God, country, or a cause that burns deep within the heart. While many people throughout history have won through sheer giftedness or planning, the greatest were those who were inspired.

MOTIVATION VS. INSPIRATION

Motivation is driven by earthly desire and a need to gain self-satisfaction;
Inspiration is driven by heavenly success and a desire to please God.

Motivation is like showering or brushing your teeth—you need to do it every day;
Inspiration happens once and is there forever.

Motivation can be broken;
Inspiration can be blocked but never truly goes away.

Motivation ends during tough or inconvenient times;
Inspiration endures hardship and failure.

Motivation yields to excuses;
Inspiration will not stop until it sees results.

Motivation is like tiptoeing into a cold pool;
Inspiration gives you the courage to dive right in, take the leap, and go for it.

Motivation changes with changing emotions;
Inspiration is stronger than a particular feeling at a particular moment.

Motivation takes no effort or focus;
Inspiration takes the effort of focusing on God and the responsibilities we all have.

Motivation creates the discipline and interest to change temporarily;
Inspiration creates the obedience to change permanently.

Motivation is driven by a love for self;
Inspiration is driven by a love for God.

No one can follow a plan for long by sheer force of will alone. Without inspiration, when people step onto the court, the mat, or the field of play, they are so overwhelmed or afraid of losing that they do not do what it takes to win. In the end, they create the very thing they feared—a loss. They will not have allowed themselves to win. If David were not inspired, he would have been so afraid of Goliath that when he threw the rock he would have been lucky to hit him on the elbow.

Inspiration is the greatest reason for success, and lack of it is the greatest reason for failure. When your mission is clear and you have not lost sight of your goal, it is not too difficult to stay motivated to follow your plan or apply your knowledge. Unfortunately, all too often, as the cares of the world and the challenges of life arise, missions get cloudy, motivation dims, and it is easy to lose focus on goals. At these times, most plans are interfered with, and the courage to strive for victory becomes less than a distant memory.

Once you get the big picture, inspiration rarely fades totally from sight. You may rest at times, but you will never quit.

While the Olympics are an extremely important event, your daily events are even more important. Throwing a ball, swimming, running down a track, or rolling around on a mat in tights by yourself or with another person is not as important as your real job, your family obligations, your spiritual responsibilities, and your own happiness and longevity.

Get inspired! Every time you win, you may not get a medal on earth as you would if you could outrun or jump higher than someone else, but God pins one up for you in heaven. Shakespeare, Lincoln, Ruth (from the Bible—not Babe), Jeremiah, Isaiah, Peter, John, and Paul (the apostles not the Beatles) never won a basketball game, kicked a field goal, or got a score of 10 on the balance beam, but their names are cherished and will be remembered for all eternity.

The Bible is one of the primary resources I used to write and support the science and beliefs of Body by God. I chose the Bible not only because it is the Word of God, but also because many of the people and principles discussed in the Bible have shaped history and mirror the kinds of lives God desires for us all.

When you learn about the men and women God speaks of in the Bible, you cannot help but be inspired by their amazing ability to overcome their own humanness. They overcame their cravings, feelings, and emotions in a manner that caused God to bless them and reveal Himself to them in countless pleasurable ways. Many of them also managed to get an incredible amount done in a very short period of time. (Jesus’ ministry lasted only three years!)

These heroes made choices in regard to their bodies and their actions that appear so disciplined and faithful it almost goes beyond what we would consider possible today. They are definitely great individuals to model and learn from.

People like Joseph and Daniel had what seemed to be an uncanny ability to control their emotions and stay focused on a purpose despite hideous circumstances.

When you read about the accomplishments of men like David and Paul, you have to be curious as to how it was possible to accomplish so much in so many areas of the world in just one lifetime.

When you look at Moses and Jesus, one of the many things you end up desiring is to find yourself in a place similar to theirs where you are actually hearing God’s voice directing you toward your destiny and reaching out to millions.

I have to assume that during the first two to three thousand years of our existence, there were probably more than just the few dozen heroes God talks about in the Bible. I would venture to say there were probably people who did things even greater than those mentioned in the text. What makes the Bible such an incredible tool of self-discovery and success is not so much what the people achieved, but why they achieved. They did not accomplish things for their own fame or fortune. The great people of the Bible did not accomplish things for their own good. They accomplished things for the good of God.

People think I have discipline. In one instance, a person introducing me onstage to speak at a seminar stated as part of the introduction, “Dr. Ben is the most disciplined guy I know.” However, the truth is, I do not have discipline. Just ask my wife. I am terrible about putting my shoes back in the closet, rinsing out my oatmeal bowl, and filling up the car with gas.

What Moses, Joseph, Daniel, David, Jesus, Paul, and I—to a much lesser degree—have is not discipline; it is obedience. Obedience is a sincere desire to do that which pleases God and supports His work here on earth and beyond. While discipline is self-motivated, obedience is inspired. Obedience is inspired by a love for God.

People do not respond to “have to” or “should.” For instance, “Billy, you have to clean your room,” or “I really should not eat dessert.” “Have to” and “should” require discipline. Discipline is like motivation; ultimately, it runs short. Motivation and discipline are “for me.” The reason obedience is much more powerful and effective is because obedience is not “for me”; it is “for God.” Inspiration comes through the love one has for God. That is what makes inspiration the father of obedience.

Regular people normally fail at the things they have made commitments to, such as diets, exercise, and marriages, because they have committed to these things for themselves. These types of commitments require discipline.

On the other hand, Bible heroes did not fail at their commitments because they were committing for the Lord. They loved God so much that they did not require discipline. They were inspired to be obedient. As Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”

When it comes to levels of stress, body weight, relationships, finances, or fitness levels, you did not just end up with them; you created them.

If you are having problems in any or all of these areas, you may have identified the problem as a lack of discipline. I would like you to change that phrase from “a lack of discipline” (for me) to “a lack of inspiration and obedience” (for God). Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” You, your body, your life, and the entire world you live in are not your own. They are God’s. By committing all of these things and your entire future to Him, you will be inspired to discover the obedience necessary to do as Proverbs 16:3 says and “succeed.”

The important thing to remember is that most of the really cool Bible heroes got off to some pretty slow starts. Some of them had pretty bad middles as well. This is great news because if you are like me, you not only have gotten off to some bad starts, you have also had some rough middles. Fortunately, the most important part of a race is not the beginning or the middle . . . it is the finish.

Just think of yourself as a construction zone. You are a “work in progress.” While your body and your life may look as if they have just been hit by a wrecking ball, remember that for a beautiful new building to be erected, sometimes the old, worn-out structure that was standing there has to be destroyed. For the beautiful, new butterfly to be born and soar to another level, the old, ugly caterpillar has to die.

In reality, there really are no caterpillars, only inspired butterflies that love God so much that they are willing to show obedience to being a “work in progress.”

You are a work in progress. Going from caterpillar to butterfly is a process . . . a slow process. However, during the course of this process there is constant improvement. There is a slow and steady progression toward being all that God created the caterpillar to be.

That is why I created the Body by God 40-Day Plan. In this plan, the goal is to get 1 percent better for God each day for a period of forty days. Anyone can do that! In fact, the programs in this book are so simple and easy to follow that most people continue to get 1 percent better each day for the rest of their lives.

See the Body by God 40-Day Plan in the “Life by God” section at the end of your Owner’s Manual for Maximized Living. It will totally revolutionize your entire life in only forty days!

The Body by God Overnight Success 40-Day Plans

(Alternative 40-Day Body by God Plans)

Deliberate and continual change is God’s way. Nonetheless, if you want miraculous changes, overnight, follow the Body by God 40-Day Overnight Success Programs. These plans for nutrition or exercise will get quicker, more dramatic changes in your health and appearance and help you become a star of before-and-after photos. Follow them both together and you will become an “overnight success.”

While stress management and time management improve with learning over time, it is possible with nutrition and exercise to see results literally overnight.