Atonement for the Body: "I'm Sorry, body...I never meant to hurt you."

 

Get Fit to Live

 Atonement for the Body:  “I’m sorry, body- I never meant to hurt you”

 Who said we need to wait until January to make positive changes in our lifestyle.  The Holy Day of Atonement, which is October 16^th is an excellent time for us to thing about what improvements we can make to live a healthy life.  Let us look at the eight steps atonement and see how we can incorporate them into our fitness lifestyle.  (Quotes are from The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March Atonement Message on October 16, 1995.)

1. Point out the wrong- Minister Farrakhan said that this first step is often the most difficult of all because “when we are wrong and we are not aware of it, someone has to point out the wrong.  The most difficult thing is when somebody points it out.  Do we accept it?”  How do we respond when someone points out that we are gaining too much weight or eating something we shouldn’t?  Most important, can we point out the wrong in our diets?  Have we committed a “wrong” to our bodies because we don’t exercise?   We must know what is need of correction.  Therefore, we must each perform a self-examination and self-analysis in order to perform a correction.   (It would also be a good idea to get a physical so that you may have an up-to-date reading of your body.  Please consult a physician)

2. Acknowledge- “To acknowledge means to admit the existence…”  All we have to do is look around and we see the health problems of our community and ourselves. 

3. Confess – Our first confession should be to Allah (God) to help relieve your soul of the burden it bears.  “The Holy Qur’an says it like this: ‘I have been greatly unjust to myself and confess my faults.  So grant me protection against all my fault for none grants protection against faults but thee.’  It is only through confession that we be granted protection from the consequences of our faults, for every deed has a consequence and we can never be granted protection against the faults that we refuse to acknowledge or that we are unwilling to confess.”  If we know we eat too much fried foods, confess and move on to the next step.

4.  Repentance – When we repent, we feel such remorse or shame, that we are determined to never conduct ourselves in such a way again.  Minister Farrakhan states that “Until we repent and feel sick and sorry over what we have done, we can never, never change our mind toward that thing; and if you don’t repent, you’ll do it over and over again.”  We should feel bad about eating an entire pie or gallon of ice cream.  If we don’t feel shame then we are on our way to silencing the voice of Allah (God) within.  That is something we definitely do not want to do; we want to keep God’s voice alive!

5. Atonement – Atone means to make amends.  What are we going to do to start the process of fitness atonement?  Are we going to fast for 3 days and then promise ourselves to eat a healthier diet?  Are we going to start walking 4 times a week?  We have to make amends to our body before it is too late.

6. Forgiveness – We have to grant ourselves pardon for what we have done, or else  we may spend too much time “beating ourselves up” and unable to make a change.

7. Reconciliation/Restoration – “After forgiveness we are going to be restored.  To what?  To our original position…So restoration means the act of returning something to an original or unimpaired condition.”  Wouldn’t you like to have a healthy 20 year-old body and you are 40 year-olds?  Because of our poor lifestyles or “death styles,” we age a lot quicker than what we should.

8.  Perfect Union - When we are in perfect union, we are using our body and treating our body the way Allah(God) intended.  We also will have the beautiful feeling of peace.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to lay your head down tonight knowing that you have prayed, eaten a healthy meal and exercised?   Wouldn’t it we terrific to be able to say, “I have not wronged my body today?” 

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

 (Audrey Muhammad is an aerobics instructor and the author of Get Fit to Live. To order the Book send a $12 money order (Free shipping) to Get Fit to Live, P.O. Box 61402, Raleigh, NC, 27661.  For more information email audreymuhammad@hotmail.com.  Please consult a physician before beginning any new diet or exercise program).

 

 

 

 

Build your Immune System and become Fearlessly Fit!

Some of us may have gone from saying “I don’t have time to exercise,” to saying, how can I exercise in my home?  You and your children will need to be active not only for your health, but for your sanity.  While most of us will be in our homes due to the outbreak of the Covid-19, we can make the best out of an unfortunate situation.  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!

What can we do during this time to protect ourselves and our families?

1.       Pray:  Prayer will give us the security and peace of mind that will relieve our irritation”- Minister Farrakhan via Twitter, June 9, 2014.

2.       Wash our hands with soap for 20 seconds on regular basis

3.       Refrain from touching our face and eyes.

4.       Eat to live: Eating bean soup, fruits and vegetables will help give us adequate vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin C.

5.       Get proper sleep. 

6.       Lastly, reduce stress and condition your heart with a training program.

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 86 year old man that “out walks” most, if not all of us.   He helped to lead us out into the community, how?  Walking.

How can you track your steps?  If you were one of the sisters blessed to attend your MGT class at Saviours’ Day 2020, you received the MGT Smart Bracelet.  If you missed it, you may use a smart phone or a pedometer to track your steps.   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. 

The goal for each sister and brother should be 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, have family “drill time,” dance, get up and walk every hour, or march while watching a video of the Minister.  Although the some of the world has stopped, we must keep moving.  I have started posting “Get Fit to Live” videos that can be played at home.  Please follow @virtuemag on Instagram or YouTube to see the videos and subscribe online to virtuetodaymag.com to get articles and updates.

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.  Just as we should not throw trash on our streets, we shouldn’t throw “trash” in our bodies.   If we exercise and 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!”

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

 (Audrey Muhammad is an aerobics instructor and author of the book How to Set Worthy Goals.  To order the book, send $9.97 to Get Fit to Live, P.O. Box 61402, Raleigh, NC 27661.  Please consult a physician before beginning any new diet or exercise program).

The Wisdom Of Rest

Get Fit to Live Column:
"The Wisdom of Rest"

By Audrey Muhammad

Do you know the impact rest has on your ability to heal and rejuvenate?  In Torchlight for America, The Honorable Minister Farrakhan listed “rest and relaxation” as the 6^th step for preventative care.  Minister Farrakhan stated that getting proper rest and relaxation will “allow your body time to recuperate from the emotional stress and physical exertion of the day, to re-energize itself to meet the challenges of the next day (A Torchlight for America, p. 147). 

One day I was listening to a podcast by Shawn Stevenson, author of Sleep Smarter and he shared how he broke his hip while running when he was a teenager.  He was diagnosed with a degenerative bone disease, but refused to accept it as a “death sentence.” He went on to study nutrition and kinesiology and found that, not only was his diet lacking, he was not allowing his body adequate time to rest and heal.   Sometime later, he improved his diet and started getting at least 7 or more hours of sleep.  As a result, he was able to lose weight AND his hip was healed. 

In his book, Shawn Stevenson discusses many benefits to proper sleep including:  Faster weight loss, better skin, better memory and a stronger immune system.  The author quotes renowned neurologist Kulreet Chaudhary, MD., who says, “Timing your sleep is like timing an investment in the stock market—it doesn’t matter how much you invest, it matters when you invest” (Sleep Smarter, p. 41).    According to Dr. Chaudhary, sleeping between 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. is the best times for people to get the most health benefits, especially for recovery, (p. 41)

The teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad also support the above claim.  “Eating one meal once a day or once every two days, with no meals between, gives the body time to rest the digestive machinery after the previous meal-and this give the blood time to purify itself o the poison from the last meal” (How to Eat to Live Book II, p. 130). 

At an event at Mosque No. 34 in Durham on August 11, 2018, Student Minister Carlos Muhammad, NOI Historian, shared a letter that Master Fard Muhammad wrote to the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.  In the letter written on October 10 1933, Master Fard Muhammad wrote, “You must have rest and time for other walks of life which is also necessary….”  Brother Carlos also dispelled the myth that a person only needs four hours of sleep; a myth that has circulated in the Nation.  He said Minister Farrakhan told him that he couldn’t function properly on that little sleep.  Granted, there are days where we may only get a couple hours of rest, but that is the “exception,” not the rule. 

Getting proper rest also affects your decision making process.   Have you noticed that when you go to sleep at a decent hour, at least at 9 or 10 p.m., that your mind functions better.  Also, when you get enough rest, you are also less likely to overeat; you have more discipline. “The less you eat the longer you live” (How to Eat to Live Book II, p. 176)

Eating properly and at the proper times, between 4-6 p.m., allows your body enough time to digest some of your food so that your sleep cycle isn’t disrupted.  When you constantly lack sleep, other problems may occur.  Sleep deprivation can also lead to mental illness and other ailments.

Overall, sleeping early helps gives us the drive and determination to stay up after prayer and exercise.  When you are able to get proper rest, did you know that your body’s metabolism works better and you burn more fat?  Do something “kind for yourself” each day: pray, eat right, do exercise and get proper rest.

There is wisdom in resting; let’s use it. May Allah bless us all with peace, health, wealth, love and happiness.

(Audrey Muhammad is an educator, aerobics instructor and the author of The Sister’s Guide to Fitness and How to Set Worthy Goals. Please consult a physician before beginning any new diet or exercise program.)   To order either book, send a $12 money order to Get Fit to Live, P.O. Box 61402, Raleigh, NC, 27661 or visit her website www.virtuetodaymag.com).