Honor your temple: work off pounds while praising your higher power

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About a year-and-a-half ago, Reggie Brooks was at the top of his game. He received good money for lectures on real estate investing, and was listed on the same programs as Donald Trump, he says.

But just as Brooks was to speak before about 350 people at a conference in Chicago in the fall of 2006, he could not make: it to the podium. His body shook uncontrollably, his muscles convulsed and he broke into a sweat, Brooks recalled recently from his home in Los Angeles. The talk was canceled. "My assistant said she could see my muscles moving underneath my shirt," he says. "They wanted to rush me to the nearest hospital, but I kept saying, 'No. I just need to rest.' I thought I was Superman."

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Brooks, 59, recovered and business is still good. But it was the scare of a lifetime. His kidneys, liver and spleen were all on the verge of failing, the result of a poor diet, lack of exercise and stress. That forced Brooks to change his diet and begin exercising. To do so, he received help from a higher power, he says.

"There is an intelligence in every single one of us," he says. "Some call it God. Some call it Jehovah. Some call it Allah, but that source has an embedded intelligence that says when you are ready to make a change, that power and that strength is there and ready to help you make that change. That is what happened with me. I became so totally committed to making that change, it seemed as though a channel opened. And through that channel, I received the energy, strength and knowledge I needed in order to effect that change."

One path, he says, led him to Angela de Joseph, a Los Angeles-based certified fitness trainer and sports nutritionist, who runs a faith-based 12-step program that combines meditation, simple diet changes and an easy exercise regimen to flex physical and spiritual muscles. De Joseph says the faith aspect of her Christian program represents the winning formula that really helps clients get in shape. Her book, Angela de Joseph's Body-Blast, is a faith-based nutrition and exercise guide. She is the director of the health ministry at Arise Christian Center in Westchester, a city just outside of Los Angeles.

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"We must honor our temple," de Joseph says of the body. De Joseph begins each session with prayer and against the backdrop of uplifting and buoyant gospel music, leads her clients through a total body workout. The 50-minute routine includes bicep cuds, squats, lunges, calf raises, leg curls and leg lifts. She uses dumbbells to add resistance to help develop muscle tone.

She also teaches clients the elements of healthy eating--not dieting. "A diet is a temporary eating program that is based on deprivation," she writes in her book. "It causes stress, lowers your metabolism and gives food too much control over your happiness." On the other hand, healthy eating involves a change in lifestyle that includes eating "living foods," such as fruits and vegetables, she says.

Practitioners of yoga have made the connection between mind, body and spirit for centuries. But increasingly, Christians and nondenominational believers are searching for spiritual outlets as stress overtakes our daily lives. That relief becomes important, especially when the repercussions of stress-filled lives are health problems, such as those experienced by Brooks. "I can easily say that when this health thing happened, I understood then how precious life is, how fleeting it can be," he says. "Through this spiritual channel, the perfect trainer showed up in my life."

De Joseph is one of several trainers who use spirituality to inspire and train clients. A progenitor of the movement is fitness guru Donna Richardson Joyner, executive producer and creator of Sweating in the Spirit, a workout video. She uses gospel music combined with "praise dancing" and aerobic movements to motivate participants. Another trainer is Benita Perkins, founder and executive producer of Bennie Girl Produc-tions, which sells inspirational fitness videos online. She also speaks at the American Heart Association, encouraging those who are looking to add a spiritual bent to their diet and exercise routines.

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The movement has inspired churches to participate in exercise programs, especially larger congregations. In Chicago, St. Sabina Church on the South Side is urging its 2,000-member congregation to honor their temples by participating in a weight-loss challenge, says Kimberly Lymore, associate minister. Five churches are participating in the challenge and the church that loses the most weight wins $5,000 for its coffers, she says.

"If our temples are not in order, then it is difficult to do the things that God needs us to do," Lymore says. "We want that mother and father to be able to care for their kids, and to see them grow up and grow old and have their own kids. In order to do that, they have to be healthy."