WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

March 15, 2010Read: Psalm 32 "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." --Psalm 32:8

Not sure if you've seen this guy, Bear Grylls, in The Discovery Channel's Man vs. Wild series, but he's a former military guy with some serious survival skills. Each show begins with a helicopter dropping him in the middle of some uncharted land where his mission is simple but brutal: Get through the dangerous, unfamiliar territory until he's lifted to safety. And while each episode finds him in a different death trap, his advice always has a familiar theme: stay nourished, use the sun as your guide, look for shelter before the weather hits, and seek the higher ground.

I particularly enjoyed one segment when he revealed what keeps him going when the going gets rough; before each journey, he hides a laminated photo of his loved ones in the sole of his shoe. Hmm...love in his sole. (Sometimes the Lord just tees it up  for us, doesn't he?)

When our days are like the jungle, I say we take Bear's advice. Let's stay nourished with God's word, allowing the Son to guide us. He's our shelter in the storms of life and one day, if we seek His higher ways, He'll be back to lift us all to safety.

--J.P.

RUNNING MAN

Any runners out there? Bikers? Well, this week we'll discuss all kinds of great things about endurance training. We'll share a few programs for you to try, including some fat-burning sessions of both the long and short variety, as well as how to incorporate them into your normal routine. But today, let's just share a quick overview of this thing called cardio.

Aerobic fitness or cardiovascular fitness is the ability of the body to perform exercise over an extended period of time in the presence of oxygen. Such activities rely heavily on slow twitch muscle fibers and include activities such as distance cycling and marathon running. These activities help increase the red blood cells as well as make the heart stronger and more able to deliver blood to the various organs.

Of course, a training program which combines cardiovascular fitness and muscular fitness allows more oxygenated blood to be delivered per beat and increases the amount of myoglobin, an oxygen-mover, in the muscle so that it can take up more amounts of oxygen, allowing more work to be done.

Source: American Heart Association