I used to think that rest was a four-letter word and I would rather diet than rest.  I couldn’t slow down because I felt that would take away “my edge.”  After all I am a type A personality; an intense, highly motivated individual and did I mention I was a perfectionist?  My compulsive tendencies left me constantly tired and very often sick.  I was home schooling my 3 older children, running the kids to swim and baseball practice, having a baby at age 42, helping run our business: Hitting.com, and traveling back and forth between Arizona and California twice a month.

After three long years of placing extreme demands on my body both physically and mentally, I was diagnosed with Epstein Barr, an autoimmune disorder, and in 2001 I was faced with a life threatening lung disorder.  I ended up in the ICU department of the local hospital with respiratory failure and nearly died.  By God’s grace my life was spared but I went home only to find out later that I had developed another condition - panic anxiety disorder; leaving me an emotional and physical wreck.  This had developed because of the constant release of stress hormones released by my body to try to keep up with my lifestyle.  My perfectionism, which is an oxymoron since no one is perfect, drove my body into adrenal exhaustion.  I was devastated.
What shocked me more than anything was the revelation that I had brought all of this havoc on myself by not following the simplest health principle of all - rest.  Needless to say, I learned the hard way that rest is a vital component not only to general health but to weight loss as well.  Everyone knows what God did on the seventh day - He rested.  I was too stupid to realize that God’s principles are always for our best.   You want to take one day each week when you can refrain from your normal daily activities and treat yourself to some rest and relaxation.  Read a good book, go to the movies, take a long nap, do mindless things and don’t do anything that requires the mind or the body to function as it normally does during the week.