How To Walk Your Way Back To Health

For over 20 years, I, along with our team here at Hallelujah Acres, have been telling people who desire to improve their health that the very best and fastest way to achieve that goal is to change what they eat and begin exercising. The diet change that we have been promoting all these years encourages a person to stop consuming the Standard American Diet (SAD) of cooked food that has been the primary cause of their physical problems and to begin consuming a predominantly raw, plant-based diet that promotes the restoration of their health. Millions of people around the world have made this diet change and experienced the elimination of most of their physical and psychological problems. Tens of thousands of them have reported relief from over 170 different problems as a result of this simple change in lifestyle, and they say that they don’t get sick anymore. Sadly, there are those individuals who have found themselves, for one reason or another, unable to make this diet change. The result? They continue to experience deteriorating health, often becoming so discouraged that they have thrown in the towel, so to speak, and given up all hope of ever regaining their health.

Good News

For those who find themselves in just such a predicament, I have some good newsto share! Besides a diet change, there is another starting point on the road to wellness! It’s called walking. Even people that are repulsed at the word “exercise” find walking to be a pleasant activity that they can actually enjoy. That makes walking an excellent way to begin a journey that can lead you back to health. But before we share how walking can become a starting point in the restoration of your health, I want to show you a simple change that is even more important than taking you take your first step... I’m talking about what you eat.

Important News

I am convinced beyond a doubt that eating living (raw) plant-sourced foods, including an abundance of raw vegetable juices, is the very best and fastest way to restore the body to wellness. Our body is a living organism, comprised of living cells and designed by God to be nourished with the living (raw), plant-sourced foods grown in a garden. Exercise alone cannot heal. If a person desires to totally restore wellness to their body, it will require a change from the diet that causes physical and psychological problems to a diet of living food. This change will not only eliminate the cause of those previous problems, it will also provide the body with nutrients necessary to rebuild the cell structure of the body, including the immune system.

5 Ways to Restore Your Health

Here are five ways the foods on The Hallelujah Diet help restore health:

1. Living, plant-sourced foods along with large amounts of raw vegetable juices will begin to normalize body weight and increase energy if a person is overweight.
2. Increased energy is a catalyst to exercise even more!
3. Increased exercise will necessitate deep breathing.
4. Deep breathing will bring copious amounts of oxygen into the body.
5. Increased oxygen will oxygenate and stimulate cells, including brain cells, and thus produce a more positive outlook on life, along with an increase in energy, thus encouraging a person to continue their journey to wellness.

Ultimately, a complete restoration of health requires that the body be provided with the nutrients found exclusively in living plant sourced foods along with exercise. Without rebuilding the cell structure of the body and restoring the immune system with living, plant-sourced foods, total wellness cannot be achieved. Now it is possible to WALK your way back to health, but it is a slower process because ultimately a diet change is necessary if a person truly desires a complete restoration of their health. See Genesis 1:29 for God’s instructions regarding the foods He designed our bodies to be nourished with:

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat (FOOD).” – Genesis 1:29

7 Steps to a Walking Program

What I am going to share next is for those who want to begin their journey back to health with a walking program. It is also what I recommend for all of those who adopt The Hallelujah Diet because as much as a simple diet change will begin to improve health, it must be combined with exercise if one is to obtain the very best results. Walking can become the catalyst for unbelievably wonderful and exciting benefits. Simply going outdoors and walking in the fresh air can become the turning point in your journey back to health.

1. Step one is to get a good pair of comfortable walking shoes.
2. Figure out a measured mile distance to walk - this could be around the block four times or even up and down the driveway 40 times.
3. Time yourself.
4. Keep a record – Record the time it took to walk that mile in a journal.
5. Go beyond your comfort level. The next day, walk that same mile again, only try to walk it a little faster. Record the time. Each subsequent day, you should try and decrease the time it takes to walk that mile until you can walk 1 mile in 15 minutes (speed: 4 mph).
6. Increase the distance - When you can walk a mile in 15 minutes, increase the distance to 2 miles and walk those 2 miles each day until you can walk two miles in 30 minutes (two 15-minute miles)
7. Build on your success - After achieving 2 miles in 30 minutes, stretch your daily walk to 3 miles in 45 minutes. Your final goal is to walk 4 miles in one hour.

If the weather, neighborhood pets, or an unsafe environment preclude you from walking outdoors, there are often malls available for safe walking. Where there is a will, there is a way!

Experts Recommend 20 Minutes of Exercise Every Other Day

Personally, I do not consider 20 minutes of exercise every other day to be adequate to restore and maintain health. Most of our forefathers were farmers and did physical labors for as many as 16 hours each and every day. Rhonda and I personally try to get in at least 60 minutes of aerobic exercise every day. Most days we walk at least 2 miles, at a fast pace, in both the afternoon and evening hours. In addition I work out on my Fit10 portable fitness equipment doing both stretching and resistance exercises most every day. Fast walking increases oxygen intake while the resistance and stretching exercises along with the walking helps build and strengthen muscles. Fast walking also helps to build and strengthen the heart muscle, the most important muscle in the body. If the heart muscle is not kept healthy and strong through aerobic exercise and superior nutrition, it will be unable to pump that life-giving, oxygen-filled blood throughout the body. And remember, the Bible says:

“The life of the flesh is in the blood.” - Leviticus 17:11

Bouncy Alternative to Walking – A Mini-Trampoline

If bad weather or an unfriendly environment prevents walking outdoors, and visiting the mall is not an option, there are other ways to easily accomplish an exercise program. One way is with a mini-trampoline. A mini-trampoline allows you to have as vigorous a workout as you want, right in your home, day or night. Another of the benefits of a mini-trampoline is that it minimizes jarring of the skeletal system and joints. It also promotes lymph movement which helps the body eliminate toxins and prevent toxic build-up.

Tips for Your Mini-Trampoline Workout

A good way to begin a workout on a mini-trampoline is to mount it and just begin a slow bounce without removing your feet from the mat. Then slowly increase the speed and height of the bounce and begin breaking into a slow and easy walk. From this point you can go very easily into a more aerobic mode by beginning a slow jog, and then into a faster and faster jog as you increase speed and height of knees. An easy way to increase the benefits of your mini-trampoline workout is by holding a one- to five-pound weight in each hand. For an even more exhilarating workout, light weights can be placed around each ankle. Each time you place additional weight on the body, you increase the effectiveness of the workout. A mini-trampoline can give a person an excellent aerobic workout in their own home. A guard rail to hold onto is even available on most models for those who are unsteady on their feet. Plus, in addition to walking and jogging exercises, the mini-trampoline offers the potential for other workout moves including jumping jacks, sit-ups, etc

Keep It Simple and Affordable

At Hallelujah Acres, we like to keep things as simple and as affordable as possible. That applies to The Hallelujah Diet, itself, as well as our exercise program. One can spend a lot of money outfitting a home gym. Treadmills, elliptical machines, stair climbers, and other pieces of exercise equipment can cost in the thousands of dollars. But what I have outlined above is a very inexpensive means of having an incredible workout, and the pieces of exercise equipment I recommend combined, cost only a few hundred dollars. Walking Shoes - A good, well-made pair costs less than $100. Go to a reputable shoe store to make sure that you know your correct size and width. Fit 10 - The next item I recommend is the Fit 10 exercise system which also costs less than $100. This inexpensive piece of equipment will build muscle in just five minutes a day, and in an additional five minutes, you can perform stretching and aerobic exercises as well. Mini Trampoline - Like my other recommendations, the Urban Rebounding mini-trampoline costs less than $100, too. A more expensive, but superior-built mini-trampoline costing more than $100 is the Needak Rebounder. If you cannot afford the purchase of any equipment, don’t let that deter you. Just get some weights you can carry in your hands or on your ankles as you walk to increase the aerobic workout. Even carrying a can of beans from your pantry in each hand while you walk will help.