Become “Fearlessly
Fit!”: 10,000 Fearless Steps to Fitness
By Audrey Muhammad
It takes work to improve ourselves and our bodies. It takes time to see the rewards of our
efforts. However, do we believe, that as
“children of the Most High,” that we deserve the best? We deserve to have some time invested into
becoming a better person? Right? Are we worth it? Emphatically, YES!
We are soldiers in
our army, right? Soldiers are required to be fit physically and
spiritually. Being fit will not only help us enjoy life more, but it will
help us perform our duties better. Exercising can make your overall life
better! It can actually make you have
more energy, not less!
Would you believe that one of the leading reasons the U.S.
Army rejects potential recruits is excess weight? However, even after screening out the
“seriously obese and completely unfit, [the Army] is still finding that many of
the recruits who reach basic training have less strength and endurance” than
privates in the past. What has caused
this “unfit to fight” problem? According
to the August 31, 2010 article in The New York Times, “It is the legacy junk
food and video games, compounded by a reduction in gym classes in many high
schools,” Army officials claimed.
Have the same bad habits of too many sweets, processed junk
foods and little exercise affected us as “sister soldiers?” Well, imagine if we combine “eating to live”
with our training program? We will be
TOP soldiers in Allah’s army! If you
don’t have a current training program, you can start off with one simple
exercise: WALKING.
Walking is one of the best exercises that we can perform. It is an exercise that improves your
heart, lowers blood pressure,
strengthens your muscles, strengthens your bones, improves your sleeping and
uplifts your mood. All it takes is 30
minutes or more 5 times a week. You can
take it one day at a time and count your steps if you don’t want to count
minutes.
Whenever I see Minister Farrakhan, he is “on the move.” This is an 83 year old man that “out walks”
most, if not all of us. He helped to
lead us out into the community, how?
Walking. What is my proposal to get us “walking” like Minister
Farrakhan?
1.
Get a
health check up from your doctor.
2.
Begin tracking your steps daily.
3.
Set a daily goal for yourself. (Start with 2,000 steps and work your
up. You can even prepare to walk or run
a 5k race as a goal.)
If you have a smart phone, you can track your steps
with a pedometer, an app like MyFitnessPal or if you have an iphone, your steps
can be tracked when you tap on the little “heart” icon. Another option is you can get a FitBit, as my
sister and I did, and strive for a number of steps per day. Our goal is 10,000 steps per day. However, you can start off by tracking your current
steps and set a goal to increase it by 1,000-2,000 steps a day. According to "The Walking Site," the average
person takes about 1,000-3,000 steps a day. Since it takes about 2,000 steps to
walk 1 mile a day, we usually walk a mile in our everyday lives from walking
around the house, in the parking lot, in the store etc. If the average
person walks a mile a day, we have to find ways to increase our distance. For example, by the end of my average
work day, I usually have walked 2500-3000 steps. When I get home, I may do a workout or jog or
walk around a track so I can work toward my 10,000 steps. If I workout for at least 30-40 minutes, I
usually get my 10,000 steps in.
The goal for each
sisters and brother is to walk, run or
dance 5,000- 10,000 steps in a day, which can easily be done if we workout
for 30 minutes at least 5 days a week.)
How can we increase our steps? Use
the stairs, park farther away from our destination, get up and walk every hour,
or march while watching a video of the Minister and lastly, go on a group
“call-out” and walk around your community.
As the Minister instructed, “Make your own communities a
decent place to live,” we should also make our bodies a decent place to dwell
in. Right? Just as we shouldn’t throw trash on our
streets, we shouldn’t throw “trash” in our bodies. If we reduce the sweets we eat and eliminate
processed foods like white bread and pasta from our diet, watch how the pounds
begin to fall off. We will become
“Fearlessly Fit!”
Get Fit to Live’s 10,000 Fearless Steps program will encourage
and guide us to incorporate “eating to live” and walking/ or weekly exercise
into our daily lives. The first part of
the program will involve sisters tracking their steps, either by walking or
running. The goal is to get moving,
uplift our spirit and lose weight if needed.
(Follow us on Facebook at Get Fit ToLive and share your stepping
progress).
InshAllah, we will all be able to be more pleasing in the
eyesight of Allah and show how the teachings “compliments” us. As sisters, Master Fard wants to “sit us on
top of the world.” Hopefully, we will be
able to sit as beautiful slender queens(smile).
The Messenger says in How to Eat to Live, “Believe in Him, obey and
follow His teachings, and you will always be Happy!” Let’s get to stepping and spread the joy! The MGT that sends me the most steps by May 12,
2017, will get a Free fitness book and CD.
May Allah Bless us all with peace, love, health, wealth and
happiness.
(Audrey Muhammad is
an aerobics instructor and author of the book The Sisters’ Guide to
Fitness. To order the book, send $9.95
to Virtue Magazine, P.O. Box 61402, Raleigh, NC 27661. Send questions/comments to
AudreyMuhammad@hotmail.com. Please
consult a physician before beginning any new diet or exercise program).
