In Strength and Fitness

We are more than simply a fitness organization. We are intentional about our faith, living life well, and being our best in whatever role(s) we find ourselves in life. We aim to honor God with everything we are. And we want to help you do the same.

When you become a Body & Soul® Fitness student, you’ll be given a free copy of our most current devotional booklet. In this, you’ll find our current playlist of songs/artists, and spiritual content that we hope will encourage and inspire you. Download a copy of our previous devotional booklet.
February 5, 2023
Friends
Impact

If you fail to plan, to plan to fail. Have you ever heard that before? The New Year is the perfect time to lay out all sorts of plans we desire in our life, with top priority for most being our health. Everyone has head-knowledge of what are the most popular components of a healthy lifestyle-nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what to do and THIS is the year that I will do it!” But there is an important component of our overall well-being which became crystal clear to me during the pandemic...

January 25, 2023
Fat or Phat?

As a “faith and fitness” organization, Body & Soul® has over four decades of experience helping individuals address their health holistically from the physical and spiritual perspective. We have six exercise programs with modification levels in each. There is truly something that every body can safely do and enjoy. Our instructors are nationally certified group fitness instructors, and we deliver training that is current and relevant. Trainings during and since the pandemic have, for instance, focused on mental health tools, posture assessment/impact/correction. Programming and choreography for our programs likewise incorporate cutting edge fitness research and development. Most of all...

January 22, 2023
spiritual growth

I have two grandsons 10 weeks apart in age. These cousins constantly measure themselves against each other. They both want to be the tallest, but of course they have no control over their height. 

Thankfully, spiritual growth is not like physical growth. We do have some control over our maturity. Although only the Holy Spirit can bring spiritual transformation, He won’t do it without our obedient cooperation. 

This time of year is perfect for evaluation and goal setting. Think this sounds too analytical to be “spiritual?”...

January 15, 2023
 

Some of my electronic devices have an option to return to the original factory settings.  I think this option is only deployed in desperate times, when the device has gotten so messed up that the easiest way to fix it is to just start fresh.  There’s usually a warning as you start to engage the reset button, because it WILL erase, unrecoverably, whatever is stored there that didn’t come from the factory—photos taken, documents written, etc.

Sometimes I wish there was a “factory reset” button for humans...

January 8, 2023
land-of-the-living
Impact

The dead of winter leaves many disheartened. SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is a form of depression my own friends and family struggle with annually. At times they don’t even feel like they’re part of the ‘land of the living’, wanting only to hunker down and hibernate until spring. But for many, SAD symptoms can improve by engaging with the ‘land of the living’, refusing to pull the covers over your head. Others find relief through light therapy because sunlight is lacking during winter’s shorter days....

January 8, 2023
love prays
Impact

At a critical time in my life a Christian movie about love and godly marriage was produced and made it into theaters. The Kendrick brothers’ Fireproof movie of 2008 spoke to me, and I was ‘all in’ with their accompanying book, The Love Dare. The film’s main character journeys through this 40-day challenge as his marriage is dissolving. God changes his heart and saves his marriage! Better than Hallmark!

I have re-visited my “Love Dare” book repeatedly over the past 15 years...

January 1, 2023
Habits
Impact

I am lucky that I am a creature of habit. I don’t usually do things randomly. I like to have a plan and I’m pretty good at sticking with the plan.  A habit is “a settled or regular tendency or practice.” Habits are the things we do again and again until they become such a part of our life that we don’t even notice we are doing them. So it seems to me that a key to living a healthy life is to establish some healthy habits for both the body and the soul. One “body” habit that I have settled on...

December 25, 2022
Merry Christmas
Impact

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel, Krismasi Njema, Boldog Karácsonyt!

As this greeting is translated into different languages the meaning is slightly different, yet very much the same. In English the word merry means cheerful or happy...

December 18, 2022
advent peace
“All the history of humankind, all the hatred we embodied, the death we so frequently inflicted on the innocent, the pride and arrogance with which we ruled and dominated nations, deserved violent retribution. But down came no lightning bolt of judgement, no nuke or slaying black-cloud. Instead, came a baby. Peace inhabited all that violent pride. Not warring against it, but growing amidst it. Displacing it eventually through a refusal to accept the world on the terms that violence dictates.” - Commoners Communion...

December 11, 2022
Fat or Phat?

It’s that time of year -- when we all are thinking about weight loss, making resolutions, and putting together a strategy to do something about it.

Body & Soul® instructors are primed to help, especially with recent training. At the 2022 RECHARGE™ annual training convention for Body & Soul® instructors, education focus on the hips took a surprising and interesting turn in the “Fat or Phat” session...