New Year, New
Variant: ME!
By Audrey Muhammad
As we embark on another new year, my resolutions are a
little different. The things I am
determined to do have more of an urgency to it.
For instance, eating to live is a LAW. Just as the Coronavirus is
changing, I have to change to a better version of me. I had always enjoyed exercising, but for
those who don’t like exercising, think of the benefits you will receive from
simply taking a walk or doing another source of exercise:
- 1. You will help strengthen and condition your heart. (I want my heart to be strong and walking, jogging, dancing helps along with resistance training, especially if you do circuits).
- 2. Exercise strengthens your lungs
- 3. Exercise enhances your body’s ability to absorb nutrients. (This will aid us with the supplements we were encouraged to take such as Vitamin C, Vitamin D3 etc. Please read the Covid Section which is found in the Final Call.)
- 4. Exercise also reduces stress and uplifts your mood.
Number 4 is one of my favorites because traveling to the
store started off being a very stressful event for me at the beginning of the
Pandemic. However, I found doing a short
workout before going reduced stress and made me feel better and stronger. I also thought about how many steps I would
get in the store by walking around. I am
more “intentional” with my workouts.
Furthermore, I have become more intentional with my
eating. Granted, sometimes I would eat a
pizza or two (smile) and say, “Oh, I will work it off tomorrow.” But what if tomorrow doesn’t come? I must think about what is best for my body
TODAY. In How to Eat to Live,
Book I it says, “Eating the wrong food and eating it too often starts trouble
in the physical body everywhere—from the sole of your feet to the crown of your
head” (p. 41).
If we have packed on a few pounds during this Pandemic, the Most
Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave us clear instructions on what to eat when we are
overweight. He said, “Do not eat
spaghetti and macaroni at every meal. If
you are overweight, do not eat it at any meal, and if you want to live a long
time, do not eat it at any meal. Food
such as spaghetti and macaroni is processed, not cooked thoroughly, and is hard
to digest” (How to Eat to Live Book II, p. 11). In the 1991 lecture entitled, “God’s Healing
Power,” The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan encouraged us to exercise and
utilize weights because our metabolism slows down as we get older. Exercise helps to raise our metabolism. He even produced a video discussing health
and we saw him lifting weights with a trainer.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “We must have regularity
in everything we do” (How to Eat to Live Book II, p. 45). We must have regular meals, regular exercise,
and regular prayer. This is one of the
reasons why we are given a time to eat, preferably one meal a day between the
hours of 4-6 p.m., is best. We are even
taught to say our prayers in regular intervals.
Let us strengthen ourselves from within. In the Study Guide entitled “Building the
Will Pt. 4, it states that strengthening ourselves from within is a way to
protect ourselves from outside forces; we have to check internal forces such as
“Greed.” If we check our internal
forces, it can help free us “from any threat of being manipulated by outside
forces; elimination of the internal force deprives the external force of a
connection to our mind and heart.”
Let us strive to be
obedient and make a better version of ourselves.
May Allah bless us all with peace, love, health, wealth, and
happiness.
(Audrey
Muhammad is an educator, aerobics instructor, and author of Get Fit to Live:
Be Your Best You! If in prison, you
may order the book, by sending a $10
money order to Get Fit to Live, P.O. Box 61402, Raleigh, NC, 27661. She leads a 30-minute exercise class every
Sunday at 8:30 a.m. (EST). For more
information, email her at audrey.a.muhammad@gmail.com, Please consult a physician before beginning
any new exercise or dietary program).