Your body is by God. God preprogrammed you to look great, have outrageous health, and experience incredible happiness. In the human body, God created a perfect design, equipped with all the organs, tissues, and cells necessary for health, production, and reproduction. The problem, asserts Dr. Ben Lerner, is when we as humans interfere with God's design for our bodies. Junk food, high-stress living, and neglecting exercise are just a few of the things we do to hinder our bodies' performance.

In Body by God, Dr. Lerner offers a comprehensive plan for getting in touch with our bodies in four areas: nutrition, exercise, stress management, and time management. His "5-in-5" plan is designed to instill the good habits that will lead to optimum health benefits. Readers will learn how to get in shape with 10-minute workouts, reprogram the way they react to stress, and more. "Owner's Manual Tips" give specific ways to apply the material to real life. Our bodies are "fearfully and wonderfully made." With the help of Body by God, readers will learn how to achieve the highest level of performance from God's handiwork.

BODY BY GOD

Thomas Nelson

Contents

About the Author.................................................................xiiiThe Body by God Quick Reference Guide............................................1Introduction: Using Your Owner's Manual for Maximized Living.....................5Part 1: Maximizing Your Life1. The Body by God (BBG).........................................................112. The Poor Genetics Syndrome (PGS) Myth.........................................163. The Four Rules of Olympic Success.............................................20Part 2: Fueling Your Body by God4. Food by God: The "Un-Diet"....................................................355. Understanding the Different Types of Fuels....................................666. The Way God Designed You to Eat: The Un-Diet Food Guide.......................827. The Body by God Un-Diet.......................................................858. Weight Loss...................................................................1049. Rules for Better Fueling......................................................10910. Creating Your Own Un-Diet....................................................119Part 3: Moving Your Body by God11. The Laws of Movement.........................................................13512. Exercising with Air..........................................................14913. For Healthy Muscles, You Must Resist.........................................16614. Resistance Exercises.........................................................17315. Resistance Training Programs.................................................204Part 4: Stress Management for Your Body by God16. Peace by God.................................................................22117. Are You Programmed for Stress?...............................................23218. Owner's Manual Guidelines for Stress Management..............................239Part 5: Time Management for Your Body by God19. Time by and for God..........................................................28920. Mission-Centered Living......................................................30221. Scheduling a Better Life.....................................................313Part 6: Life by God22. Applying Your Mission Work...................................................32523. The Body by God 40-Day Plans.................................................342Extra Body by God Charts and Forms...............................................357

Chapter One

After nearly twenty years in the healthy, happy lifestyle world, taking care of tens of thousands of patients of all ages, and working with Olympic and professional athletes, I have discovered one elemental truth: There is a creator of the human body and it is not me. This understanding has helped me not to create but to lead more people toward a better appearance, healthier body, and more peaceful outlook on life than any other one thing I know.

The true, underlying principle of Body by God is the knowledge that if we took everything we know about how God designed and created the body, multiplied that knowledge by a trillion, and then added infinity, we still would not have even a glimpse of understanding what He has done. No person can make another. The body is not by man; the body is by God-which is really quite fortunate, if you think about it. The things man makes tend to wear out pretty quickly. If body parts were like answering machines, lightbulbs, and auto parts, you'd have to replace them several times a year. If your body were like a computer, it would become obsolete within months and needed to be upgraded, or possibly even discarded for a new one. Luckily for us, the Adam and Eve prototypes are still fully operational today, have never lost their value, and will never become obsolete.

God is not only the Producer; He is also the Executive Director. His power, which created all things, created you. His power is constantly on the job controlling, sustaining, healing, creating, and re-creating every part and system of your Body by God (BBG).

Your BBG is a miraculous gift that God has handed over to you for the relatively brief duration of your lifetime. Showing respect for your gift means showing respect and love for God. Unfortunately, for many this respect and love have been discarded and replaced by stress, inactivity, inadequate nutrition, and a tremendous amount of wasted time.

This irreverence for our bodies is made most evident by just looking at what people are willing to put in their mouths.

It has become the shocking nutritional truth that the most popular food in the world today is not known for its quality, its nutrient content, its geographical origin, or even its taste. Instead, it is known for its speed. It is literally called "fast food."

In fact, with all fast-food restaurants having drive-thru windows these days, service is faster than ever. We do not even have to get out of our vehicles anymore to eat. Now families can eat in vans, just as God intended ...?

Fueling your BBG with what is quickest, rather than what is best, damages your gift, keeps you from performing at your peak potential, and stops you from having the kind of reliable energy you need to best serve your Creator.

Your body is not your own! Your body is not only by God, it is for God, and it is God's. Everyone on earth was placed here with a mission from God. God chooses specific people to perform specific tasks for Him. For that task or mission to be fulfilled so that God's will may be done, you must stay inspired to take care of your BBG in a way that allows it to thrive and live up to its potential.

If you were high on crack cocaine, drunk from alcohol, or suffering with serious pain or illness, could you be successful in your occupation, relate well with others, or take good care of yourself? Obviously not! You would not be able to think clearly, you would be off mentally, and you would be physically tired.

This is an exaggerated version of what happens to you when you put the wrong food in your BBG, when you treat it improperly by never moving off your couch or away from your desk, and when you experience too much stress.

The toxins, chemicals, and unhealthy materials that exist in fast foods and other poor-quality foods, as well as the effects of stress and lack of movement, harmfully affect the mind and body. Rather than creating the more obvious and massive dysfunction brought about by cocaine use, alcohol use, or pain and illness, dietary poisons, anxiety, and inactivity more subtly irritate your system, affect your moods, cloud your mind, and rob your body of strength and health. As a result, your effectiveness, your relationship with others and God, and your length of time on this planet are negatively affected.

Sickness, disease, the pains of poor health, defective relationships, chronic failure, and persistent unhappiness are just the symptoms and side effects of not caring for your life the way God intended.

My goal for working with all of my patients and in writing this book is to move people toward taking care of themselves not just Dr. Ben's way or any other doctor's or author's way-but God's way.

I am looking to help you remember that your body is by God, for God, and is God's. Your Body by God is a gift from God. What you do with your BBG is your gift to Him.

BODY BY GOD: NO ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

Man cannot make a body. Therefore, man cannot fix a body or truly determine its needs. God, on the other hand, can make a body and knows exactly what it requires at all times. Inside your Body by God is a symphony of thousands of functions and chemical reactions we know about, and endless ones only God knows about. All these functions and reactions happen at precisely the right time, at the right place, and for all the right reasons. Each moment of each day, the body is repairing tissue, creating new cells, and balancing billions of tiny little operating systems.

Because we have no idea what is really going on, all we can do is respect God's BBG, see its vast potential, appreciate its brilliance, and place no interference in its natural path. Your Body by God does not need your help to thrive and survive in this world. How can you help something you did not create and cannot begin to understand? God needs no help nor interference. This book, your Owner's Manual, will help you to figure out how to stop interfering.

God needs no help, just no interference.

If you place one artificial substance inside the BBG or do one thing to disturb it's function, then simultaneously you get hundreds of thousands of counteractions or side effects. However, when left alone, without interference, the BBG always knows precisely what to do to keep or get itself well, without side effects, and all the instructions come inside the packaging.

You hear of saving the ozone, restoring the rain forests, rescuing endangered species, and preserving our water supply. Yet, again, how can we save something we have no idea how to create? God does not need our help to save the things He has so magnificently created, He just needs us to stop interfering.

If we got rid of the ozone, the rain forests, all the clean water, and all the animals, we humans would die. However, if we got rid of the humans, the ozone, the rain forests, the clean water, and the animals would flourish.

When it comes to proper operation of the BBG, everyone knows that stress, lack of exercise, and eating a donut instead of an apple are bad for you. Yet war, depression, couch potatoes, and candy bars are flourishing. We keep interfering with how God created us to live and to function. As a result, many of us now live with or are even born with suffering.

Parts 2 through 5 of your Owner's Manual cover how to fuel, move, and manage stress and time with your Body by God. All guidelines follow science, technology, and, most important, the wisdom of God. This leads you away from interfering with God and toward working with Him. For optimal function, peace, success, and to extend the life of your Body by God, it is imperative that you be inspired to read, understand, and apply the guidelines.

There are laws by which the Body by God is governed. No matter how good a person you are or how noble your intentions, if you break those laws, you interfere with God. Sooner or later, if you interfere with God, you will suffer less than pleasing consequences.

The more you understand your Body by God, the more you work with God and not against Him. This allows you to better establish God's will in your life and your BBG. Using the materials in this book, myself, my family, and people all over the world are attaining higher levels of health, appearance, peace, and success than they ever imagined possible.

GOD'S RESOURCES

The wisdom for taking care of your BBG and your life can come only from God. Following and worshiping Plato, Socrates, teachers, doctors, psychiatrists, and fitness and weight-loss authors will never truly work out. If you get on your knees and call to them, they will not answer, and if you give them a bucket of dirt and some water they cannot make a human being.

Many years ago, in order to create Body by God and know that it was what God wanted and not just what Dr. Ben wanted, I had to rely on the following sources:

Natural Occurrence: All the methods in this book abide by the laws of nature. When applying them, you will find that they feel natural and are not overly difficult or painful. Additionally, the Owner's Manual programs have been successfully used by tens of thousands of BBG's in clinical and nonclinical settings all around the world.

Scientific Data: Anything that comes from God makes scientific sense. The rules of bodily function and all the laws of the universe come from God. God is the Creator of all anatomy, physiology, embryology, physics, and biochemistry. Therefore, studying and researching how the human body responds to exercise, nutrition, and anxiety helped me to better understand how God designed the BBG to eat and move and why we need to reduce stress.

Common Sense: By continuously attempting to comprehend the Bible, interpret nature, and study science, I have been able to use some common sense to tell how God has created the BBG to work and interact.

The Bible: The Bible is the best "Owner's Manual" ever created for matters of spiritual conduct, morality, and respecting God. Body by God: The Owner's Manual for Maximized Living is a supplement to the Bible. The Bible was my resource for developing the principles of behavior that I have recommended. Additionally, this book is a guide in the areas of nutrition, exercise, stress management, time management, and total life prosperity.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from BODY BY GODby BEN LERNER Copyright © 2007 by Ben Lerner. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.