Rick Warren: What do faith, friends and fitness have to do with losing weight?

Friends, fitness ... and faith!

Food is important: “Food contains messages, instructions and information that tell your body what to do every moment to increase vitality or create disease,” says Warren’s collaborator, Dr. Hyman. “Every bite you take is a powerful opportunity to create healing or infirmity.” He’s `a family physician and Functional Medicine expert, who believes in the power of food as a source of abundance, noting that eating real, whole food can be a doorway to reverse chronic disease, create resilient health and easy weight loss and a clear mind. Warren, Hyman and Amen turned their church’s weight-loss experience into what has become a New York Times bestseller, The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life. They also teamed with chefs to create The Daniel Plan Cookbook: Healthy Eating for Life, full of recipes that benefits the body. “Success dramatically increases when one is connected with others,” writes Warren, “receiving constant encouragement to stay focused and motivated.”

Friends, fitness ... and faith!

On the other hand, “broccoli (if you could actually eat the 7.5 cups!) has the same number of calories but about 1⁄2 teaspoon natural sugar and 35 grams fiber and is rich in vitamins and minerals, including folate and magnesium. Broccoli also contains powerful phytonutrients, which are healing plant compounds that help reduce your risk of cancer and boost your detoxification capacity. And broccoli has very little ability to raise your blood sugar. In fact, when it enters your body, the broccoli has the exact opposite effect of the soda. It creates health rather than destroys it. Same calories – very different results. Clearly, all calories are not the same. It is a matter of quality. So we want to help you focus on becoming a 'qualitarian.'”

Friends, fitness ... and faith!

Fitness: Like food, exercise works better than medicine, says Warren. To succeed, most folks have to remove roadblocks that keep you from exercising and which bring fun back into fitness. Your mind is also a powerful tool to fight off cravings, bad decisions and toxic thoughts. “Every time you have a thought, your brain releases chemicals,” says another of the collaborators, Dr. Amen. “Knowing how to talk back to your negative thoughts is critical to being able to focus on the truth in God’s Word and helping you live in the fullness of mental and physical health God wants for you.” He’s a physician and double-board certified psychiatrist.