Body by God

Your Spirit
Your Body
Your Brain
Your Business
Your Relationships
Your Skills
And Your Outlook on Life
. . . for God.

When coaches, fathers, and employers try to motivate their players, children, or staff, they often say, “Give me 110 percent!” This is the modern American way of saying 100 percent just isn’t good enough anymore.

But God has something else in mind. He doesn’t require 110 percent 100 percent of the time. He understands the immense challenge of caring for your BBG.

Therefore, I recommend giving 1 percent. It may not sound like much, but God—and I—understand that change is extremely difficult. That is why, by January 3, most people’s New Year’s resolutions have already gone the way of eight-track tapes, hula hoops, and the hustle.

If you’re a smoker, you’ve probably tried to quit many times. If you are not happy with your weight or your waist size, you have probably begun and stopped multiple diets and exercise plans. Most likely, you have also attempted to be more positive, more outgoing, or struggled to make some other changes in your attitude and fallen short.

Why? It’s not just because you’re weak or unmotivated or don’t know the statistics for problems associated with not taking care of your Body by God. It’s because change is extremely difficult.

That is why I created the Body by God 40-Day Plans. The 40-Day Plans involve getting 1 percent better every day for 40 days. If you take small steps toward change, you can easily get 1 percent better each day. You take little baby, human steps toward God, and God will take big God steps toward you. You still may end up giving 110 percent. It just may take years.

Follow the Body by God “Overnight Success” programs found after the regular 40-Day Plans for nutrition or exercise to effect quicker, more dramatic changes in your health and appearance. Follow them together, and you will become an “overnight success.”

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

Society has lost its health and moral compass. The people of this world are lost and, instead of walking down God’s road of success, they are sprinting down the road of destruction. The reason the Body by God plan covers 40 days is that in the Bible, 40 is the number of complete and total transformation; 40 is the number of days the Bible uses for people as well as total nations to become changed, renewed, and totally revolutionized. In 40 days, you can restore “Happily Ever After.”

By following the Body by God 40-Day Plans and first changing where you are headed, you can help God change where the world is headed. Like the heroes of the Bible, you can be a guide or compass that God can use to help others get back on course. That is why it is the 40-Day Plan to get better not just for yourself, but for God and everyone around you. That is your obligation, that is your direction, and that is your mission.

It is very difficult to change overnight without at some point in the future ending up right back where you started. That is why resolutions fail. You can only truly be committed to something that requires making small, steady changes. You can easily average getting 1 percent better each day for God for 40 days and continue to get 1 percent better each day (or at least each week) for the rest of your life.

The Transforming Power of 40 Days

These biblical forty-day and forty-night events altered ethical, behavioral, legal, and spiritual history forever:

• Genesis 6–8: Noah saw the world revolutionized by 40 days and 40 nights of rain.

•Exodus 34:28: Moses was with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights when he received the Ten Commandments. To this day, the Ten Commandments are the rules at the base of all the laws and ethics we live by.

•1 Kings 19:8: Elijah ate one meal and did not eat again for 40 days and 40 nights, yet he had all the strength he needed to do God’s work and fulfill his destiny.

• Numbers 13:25: The spies returned inspired and renewed after 40 days in the promised land.

• Jonah 3:4: Jonah foretold that Nineveh would be overturned (completely transformed) in 40 days.

• Matthew 4:2: Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights before being tempted by the devil. His holy ability to withstand the temptations of evil launched a spiritual message that would last for all eternity.

•Acts 1:3: Jesus presented Himself to the disciples for 40 days following His resurrection. This revealed to us that 40 days literally means full and total transformation; the death of the old and the rebirth of the new.

If it comes from God, it shouldn’t be impossible to follow. It may not be totally easy, but it should come naturally and at least be semipainless. The 40-Day Plan is one that you can see yourself following for the rest of your life. It’s not a cold-turkey, dive-right-in, change-everything-overnight type of program. It is making small but incredibly positive changes that in time will totally transform every facet of your life. You will look and feel better, change your overall health picture, and completely revolutionize how you look at the world you live in—all in only 40 days!

By being obedient to applying even some of the time-management techniques, nutritional rules, short Quick-Set exercise programs, and stress-management tools for changing perception, you will see how incredibly easy it is to begin making now the best days of your life. Living happily ever after isn’t something you just read about, it is something you can experience 1 percent at a time.

Eat for God, exercise for God, and manage your time and your stress for God. If all that sounds overwhelming, choose just one area. But begin it. There is something magical, powerful, and exciting about beginning.

Come near to God and he will come near to you. (James 4:8)

THE BODY BY GOD 40-DAY PLAN FOR A LIFE BY GOD
IS AS SIMPLE AS A, B, C . . . AND D

The following steps offer specific suggestions taken from your Owner’s Manual. If you read and understand the directions, getting 40 percent better for God in 40 days really is as easy as A, B, C . . . and D.

Apply the steps below in the areas of fueling, moving, managing stress, and managing time in your BBG to completely transform your entire life in 40 days, or simply choose one area to improve for now. Whether you choose to improve 1 percent each day in all areas of your life or in just one or two areas, either way, you are improving for God. He loves that, He will appreciate you for it, and He will be with you every step of the way.

Examples: 1 piece of fruit, 1 bowl of oatmeal, almond butter, almond milk, vegetable omelette using 3–4 eggs, herbal tea, pure water, freshly squeezed fruit juice

Examples: vegetables, leafy salads, avocado, sweet potatoes, brown, jasmine, or basmati rice, 4 oz. (small serving) of fish, chicken breast, turkey breast, or vegetable omelette, raw almonds, walnuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, herbal tea, pure water, freshly squeezed vegetable juice

Examples: vegetables, leafy salads, avocado, 6–8 oz. (large serving) of fish, chicken breast, turkey breast, olive oil-based dressing, vegetable omelette, raw almonds, walnuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, herbal tea, pure water, freshly squeezed vegetable juice

• Low–moderate carbohydrates, low–moderate protein, low–moderate good fat at midday

• Very low carbohydrates (vegetables and salads only), high protein, moderate–high good fat in the evening

Use the Replacement Rule to replace 2 Foods by Man that you consume regularly or are addicted to with a healthier alternative 5 days a week. Use the Vacation Rule the other 2 days a week to eat or drink the foods you replaced.

Example #1: Use hot herb tea, hot vanilla rice milk, or chocolate almond milk 5 days a week to replace coffee. Set 2 Vacation Days aside for coffee.

Example #2: Eat fruit to replace sweets 5 days a week. Set aside 2 Vacation Days to eat a sweet that you crave.

Example #3: Use almond or rice milk to replace cow’s milk 5 days a week. Set aside 2 Vacation Days for using or drinking cow’s milk or doing dairy.

Follow the same plan, but continue to add more Food by God, more full days of eating God’s way (using the Un-Diet Food Guide), and replace more Food by Man. Eventually, you won’t be able to imagine eating any other way!

Add 3 BURST workouts or 2 aerobic activities for 15+ Minutes at Fat Utilization Rate (FUR). (See: Aerobics “Moving Zones” on page 154.)

Example: 15+ minutes of jogging, biking, speed walking, inline skating, or hiking at your FUR

Add 1 upper-body resistance workout and 1 lower-body resistance workout. (See: Resistance Training Programs starting on page 204.)

Example #1: One 20-minute lower-body workout and one 20-minute upper-workout using 3-Minute Body Part Quick Sets

Example #2: Two 10-minute workouts instead of one 20-minute workout using Quick Sets

Add 1 more aerobic and 1 more lower body session if you are a woman, or 1 more aerobic and 1 more upper body session if you are a man. (Soon, missing a workout will actually bother you.)

First thing in the morning, run your 15-Minute “Spiritual Triathlon”: 5 minutes of Prayer Time/5 minutes of Bible Time/5 minutes of Quiet Time. (See Prosperity Times for spiritual growth on page 326.)

• Skill Sharpening and New Skill Development—Prosperity Time: Education Time

• Organization and Planning—Prosperity Time: Playbook Time, Goal-Setting Time

Add 5–10 more minutes to your spiritual Triathlon-Prayer/Bible/Quiet Time, continue to read 2 of the “10 Instructions for Peace by God” every day, and continue to paint solid yellow lines around more Prosperity Times each week. (Your stress, your outlook, and your life will transform before your eyes.)

(D) THREE STEPS TO BECOMING 40 PERCENT BETTER AT MANAGING
YOUR TIME FOR GOD IN 40 DAYS

Define the Mission Work and the Prosperity Times that must occur within it in order to make these lives successful. (See “Setting Up Your Life by God” on page 339.)

By eating only Foods by God and following the Un-Diet program exactly as it is shown in your manual, you will very quickly see radical changes in your overall health and appearance.

Follow the Un-Diet by eliminating Food by Man and eating Food by God according to the Un-Diet Food Guide, and see a brand-new you in 40 days.

By following the “Moving Zone,” BURST Workouts and the Quick Set Program for 3-minute body parts according to the schedules for women and men described in Part 3, you can see fast, dramatic changes.

Women: Do Quick Sets for your lower body two times every 3–4 days and each muscle of your upper body every week, and turn loosely packed muscle (fat) into lean muscle.

Men: Do Quick Sets for each muscle of your upper body every 5–6 days and your lower body every week, and you can literally watch your belly shrink and your muscles grow.

Men and Women: Perform a minimum of 3 BURST Workouts or 3 aerobic routines in the fat-burning “Moving Zones” (FUR and/or PER) each week.

By following the nutrition and exercise plans together, you can actually create unbelievable changes in your physique practically overnight. Following these two programs can make you the type of “Overnight Success” you thought could only be created through computer-enhanced “before” and “after” pictures, drugs, or plastic surgery.

Only God is perfect; you are near perfect—
but getting 1 percent better every day.

Nearly every client or patient I have ever worked with talks about “the good old days.” A time long ago when they used to be in shape, used to follow an exercise program, used to read a lot, used to follow a “strict” diet, used to be a great athlete, or used to be focused on God. Apparently, at some point, “the good old days” became “the bad new now.” The excuse is that their knees and backs went bad, babies were born, they got jobs, got married, or got divorced.

Most nutrition plans, exercise programs, and stress-management tools are like New Year’s resolutions: They last only days. A few glorious days that many people will spend the rest of their lives remembering, saying, “I can remember when . . .” Most plans are obviously not following the 4 Rules of Olympic Success. They must be too unnatural, less than superior plans, too hard to follow, and without inspiration. If they are following the plan only for a few days, that is far from obedience to God.

If I carefully analyze my own obedience to the Owner’s Manual plan, I see that about six times out of ten, I do not necessarily feel like following it. More than half the time, I am not overly motivated to put in my Bible Time, Nutrition Time, Education Time, Exercise Time, and all the other times necessary to attain and keep my Life by God. The reason I usually do follow the plan and have been doing good things for my BBG consistently for years is that, although I do not always feel like doing it, I am inspired to do it anyway—no excuses!

I have heard it said, “Life is one darn thing after another.” I, however, have found it to be more than that—a great deal more.

When you have a birthday and someone asks you if you feel any older, well, you pretty much feel like you did the day before. Birthdays, holidays, Mondays, Sundays, or any days always feel the same or similar to the day before. But they are not. What each day represents is another chance at “it.” Another chance at doing things better than you did the year, month, week, or day before. A better chance at having a higher-quality day, a more moral day, a healthier day, a more joyful day, a day in which you are more loving to others, and a day in which you are better for God then the day before.

Your path is not about reaching the summit of a mountain, a final destination, or getting to the last target. Your path is about continuous development and always moving up the mountain. Life is a never-ending story in which you are constantly opening windows, breaking through the clouds, and watching the sunrise.

Only God is perfect. You are not looking for perfect. You will have faults, and you will make mistakes. However, as long as you are always in a state of perpetual growth, you are a “work in progress.”

You are not perfect; you are “near perfect.” You would not want to reach perfect, even if it were possible, because once you are perfect you can only get worse. Once a tomato is ripe, it begins to rot. You are not perfect, but that is okay—as long as you are working on it. All you can do is the very best you can do. The outcome of your life is ultimately not up to you. It is up to God.

As you continue to work on getting 1 percent better for God each day, often you will not get the results you had hoped or planned to receive. Just keep remembering that perpetual growth and faithful action are your job; the results are His. As you continue to keep trying to do the things you know to be right, an unfortunate but very common occurrence is that you will get discouraged or make errors. At these times, do not quit. Just get back to simply getting 1 percent better for God. When you make mistakes, remember, only God is perfect. You are only “near perfect,” but you are working on it.

Only the divinely wise and the totally ignorant
shall not get 1 percent better for God . . .

Keep a journal of how your life changes along the course of the 40-Day Plan. Record the emotional changes, stress reduction, relationship improvements, and family and financial successes that all occur in your new Life by God.

Take before and after photos and measurements of your weight and your waist, arm, chest, and thigh sizes to see the effects of the Food by God and Exercise by God programs.

Send us a copy of your pictures, measurements, and a short story of how you got 40 percent better for God (or some percentage for God) in only 40 days.