Day 3 is winding down and it has been a good day. Getting up early enough was still a challenge. It helps because my family and friends know what I am trying to do, and I know they may ask how I'm doing. (That and the world may be watching since I share my thoughts here.) I am still maintaining my goal of eating fewer calories than I can work off. As soon as I got up I walked for 30 minutes. For the first 15 minutes that I was walking I wondered why it was burning more than it has the previous days, and then I realized my children had ambushed me. They like to get on the treadmill and change the settings and one of them had increased the incline enough that I could feel it, but not enough to see it.
For breakfast the kids and I ate oatmeal. It has to be a God thing because previously oat meal was not one of my favorite meals. It also helps that my wife introduced me to the oatmeal with fruit and maple that you can get at your local McDonald's. Now if I take the kids to breakfast I can get the oatmeal instead of a sausage egg mcmuffin, a hash brown, a breakfast burrito, and a Diet Coke. (I was only fooling myself.) By adding the fruit to it it seems to be more filling.
Lunch was a challenge today because I met the church board members for lunch and a meeting at a Mexican restaurant in town. I did better on the meal because in the past I would have wanted the biggest combo dinner that they had. Instead I got the grilled chicken, covered in grilled vegetables, and cheese. The toughest part about a Mexican restaurant is the chips and salsa while you wait for your food. (I ate more chips and salsa than I needed to.) If anyone has any tips on how to survive the chips and salsa I'm open to suggestions.
For dinner we had breakfast. My wife fixed the meal and I modified it to help me with my weight. I had two eggs, fried in the non stick pan with fat free cooking spray, two pieces of turkey sausage instead of pork, and two pieces of toast with low fat margerine spread. After dinner, I hung out with the kids and then went to the gym to work out. Lunch was tough, but as a whole the days was good. No eating after 6:00 PM, not even 3 almonds tonight!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
How did I get here?
I believe it was George Santayana who said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Therefore, I believe that it is important to understand how I arrived at this point in my life. As follower of Jesus Christ, I believe that He desires to be Lord of our lives. This means everything, not just the few hours a week that we attend church.
Too many times we compartmentalize our lives into segments. As believers I think that we often separate our lives into secular and sacred. However, God desires to be Lord of all areas of our lives. That means He should be the Lord of our souls, our intellect, our emotions, our businesses, our families, and even our physical bodies. For me, allowing God to be the Lord of my physical body is one of the hardest things for me to do. Especially, when it comes to food.
My wife and I have been married for a little over 13 years. However, I can still remember our first fight as a married couple.The reason I remember the fight is not because I am bitter, but because it was over food. My wife had come home from work, and we decided to make sandwiches for dinner. First, I opened a can of soda and then poured it over a cup of ice. Well, as you know, when soda is poured into a cup of ice it foams up quite dramatically. As soon as this happened I picked up the cup and drank all the foam before it disappeared. The end result was that I had very little soda left to drink and I needed a second soda.
My wife thought I was crazy. However, I picked up my soda foam drinking habit as a child. When Dad came home after work he would always pour himself a soda and let my sister and I drink the foam before it disappeared. So to this day I am still addicted to soda foam.
Next as we made the sandwiches my wife just slapped hers together in a couple of seconds. I, on the other hand, took 5 minutes to make a ham and cheese sandwich. I took my bread and spread mayo on one slice and mustard on the other. (When doing this it is extremely important that you spread the condiment over every part of the bread so that there is not a dry bite.) I then placed the ham and cheese on the bread in such a way that none of it overflowed past the edge of the bread. The end result is a sandwich that has meat, cheese, mayo, and mustard in every single bite. The way a sandwich should be!
Even though it may be weird none of this is what caused the fight. What caused the fight was that while I took 5 minutes to make the sandwich I only took 5 seconds to eat it. On the other hand, my wife made her sandwich in 5 seconds and took 5 minutes to eat. She asked me, "when eating that fast how can you even taste your food? I responded, "quickly."
You see for my wife she eats to live, but I live to eat. The fight was actually over different values that we have regarding food. For her, food is a necessity to live. For me, I live for food. The experience of preparing and eating food is to be enjoyed and remembered. Many of the greatest memories I have from childhood involve food. Eating a seafood meal in Paris, France and eating Gouda Cheese in Gouda, Holland and going on volksmarches (hikes) in Germany with my dad and eating a bratwurst and brochen (a German roll) at every check point.
One of the reason I enjoy food so much is because it has become a source of comfort and entertainment for me. I've come to realize that I need to stop using food as a coping mechanism for dealing with stress. I also need to stop associating good times with food. While I believe this will continue to happen, one of the things I can start doing is looking for other ways to be entertained. Instead of going out for a meal, maybe I can do a game night so that an activity other than food is the focus. More importantly, I need to rely on God for comfort and peace, not food. If I need a change of scenery to relax when I'm stressed, maybe I can work on my Mustang or play my guitar. Maybe if I start to be deliberate on how I approach food I can begin to have more discipline in this area of my life.
I know that God is faithful and with his strength I can overcome.
Too many times we compartmentalize our lives into segments. As believers I think that we often separate our lives into secular and sacred. However, God desires to be Lord of all areas of our lives. That means He should be the Lord of our souls, our intellect, our emotions, our businesses, our families, and even our physical bodies. For me, allowing God to be the Lord of my physical body is one of the hardest things for me to do. Especially, when it comes to food.
My wife and I have been married for a little over 13 years. However, I can still remember our first fight as a married couple.The reason I remember the fight is not because I am bitter, but because it was over food. My wife had come home from work, and we decided to make sandwiches for dinner. First, I opened a can of soda and then poured it over a cup of ice. Well, as you know, when soda is poured into a cup of ice it foams up quite dramatically. As soon as this happened I picked up the cup and drank all the foam before it disappeared. The end result was that I had very little soda left to drink and I needed a second soda.
My wife thought I was crazy. However, I picked up my soda foam drinking habit as a child. When Dad came home after work he would always pour himself a soda and let my sister and I drink the foam before it disappeared. So to this day I am still addicted to soda foam.
Next as we made the sandwiches my wife just slapped hers together in a couple of seconds. I, on the other hand, took 5 minutes to make a ham and cheese sandwich. I took my bread and spread mayo on one slice and mustard on the other. (When doing this it is extremely important that you spread the condiment over every part of the bread so that there is not a dry bite.) I then placed the ham and cheese on the bread in such a way that none of it overflowed past the edge of the bread. The end result is a sandwich that has meat, cheese, mayo, and mustard in every single bite. The way a sandwich should be!
Even though it may be weird none of this is what caused the fight. What caused the fight was that while I took 5 minutes to make the sandwich I only took 5 seconds to eat it. On the other hand, my wife made her sandwich in 5 seconds and took 5 minutes to eat. She asked me, "when eating that fast how can you even taste your food? I responded, "quickly."
You see for my wife she eats to live, but I live to eat. The fight was actually over different values that we have regarding food. For her, food is a necessity to live. For me, I live for food. The experience of preparing and eating food is to be enjoyed and remembered. Many of the greatest memories I have from childhood involve food. Eating a seafood meal in Paris, France and eating Gouda Cheese in Gouda, Holland and going on volksmarches (hikes) in Germany with my dad and eating a bratwurst and brochen (a German roll) at every check point.
One of the reason I enjoy food so much is because it has become a source of comfort and entertainment for me. I've come to realize that I need to stop using food as a coping mechanism for dealing with stress. I also need to stop associating good times with food. While I believe this will continue to happen, one of the things I can start doing is looking for other ways to be entertained. Instead of going out for a meal, maybe I can do a game night so that an activity other than food is the focus. More importantly, I need to rely on God for comfort and peace, not food. If I need a change of scenery to relax when I'm stressed, maybe I can work on my Mustang or play my guitar. Maybe if I start to be deliberate on how I approach food I can begin to have more discipline in this area of my life.
I know that God is faithful and with his strength I can overcome.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Day Two
Well, day two has been a success! However, because I stayed up until 11:30 PM last night 5:20 AM came really early this morning. While getting up and getting started was hard to do, I did find that once I was working out my energy levels increased.
For breakfast I had a bowl of oatmeal with some fruit in it, and for lunch I had deer stroganoff. Some out there may ask why deer? First, the price was right because it was free. As a pastor in a country church I occasionally receive gifts from the deer hunters in the congregation. Besides that, isn't deer just a feral cow? On a serious note though it is a good source of protein and is lower in fat that your average domestic cow. I also cooked using fat free sour cream to help lower the fat content of the strognaoff as well. The amazing thing is it still tasted great.
Dinner tonight was more of a challenge. On Wednesday nights we have a meal at the church. It never fails I always eat too much at church. As I went through out my day I was thinking to myself only eat one plate of food. With God's help and a reminder from my wife I succeeded. On the menu tonight were beans and ham, cole slaw, green beans, potato salad, corn bread , and dessert. I did better than I usually do. I ate a bowl of beans, a small piece of corn bread, a serving of potato salad, a serving of cole slaw, and I bypassed the dessert. I also managed not to eat after 6:00 PM. Correction at 9:30 PM I ate three almonds.
While not perfect, today was a marked improvement of what I would normally have done. I was more deliberate and thoughtful in the food choices I made and was eating more to live. While I am still a supersized Christian I did not eat a single supersized meal.
For breakfast I had a bowl of oatmeal with some fruit in it, and for lunch I had deer stroganoff. Some out there may ask why deer? First, the price was right because it was free. As a pastor in a country church I occasionally receive gifts from the deer hunters in the congregation. Besides that, isn't deer just a feral cow? On a serious note though it is a good source of protein and is lower in fat that your average domestic cow. I also cooked using fat free sour cream to help lower the fat content of the strognaoff as well. The amazing thing is it still tasted great.
Dinner tonight was more of a challenge. On Wednesday nights we have a meal at the church. It never fails I always eat too much at church. As I went through out my day I was thinking to myself only eat one plate of food. With God's help and a reminder from my wife I succeeded. On the menu tonight were beans and ham, cole slaw, green beans, potato salad, corn bread , and dessert. I did better than I usually do. I ate a bowl of beans, a small piece of corn bread, a serving of potato salad, a serving of cole slaw, and I bypassed the dessert. I also managed not to eat after 6:00 PM. Correction at 9:30 PM I ate three almonds.
While not perfect, today was a marked improvement of what I would normally have done. I was more deliberate and thoughtful in the food choices I made and was eating more to live. While I am still a supersized Christian I did not eat a single supersized meal.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The First Day
Wow! Today was the first complete day of my weight loss journey that I believe God has called me to. Because I have struggled with my weight for at least the last 20 years I have decided that this time would be different. In the past I have tried diets, and while successful for a short time I have always rebounded and gotten heavier after I stopped dieting. So this time I believe that God is calling me to a lifestyle change. To begin my journey I am going to strive to be more active (begin getting regular exercise), I will try to eat to live instead of living to eat, I will reduce the number of calories that I am eating, and I will strive to improve the quality of calories that I do take in.
My first goal is not to lose a ton of weight, but to have the option of buying clothes at my local Walmart if I desire to. Currently if I want to find clothing that fits I have to either shop at a Big and Tall store or at the local farm supply store. While I do not mind shopping at either of these places I do not want to have to because I cannot find clothing that fits at my local Walmart.
Today I believe that I was successful. I got up early at 5:20 AM and walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Because I was up early I was also able to fix the kids breakfast before school. (This was an unplanned benefit of this new lifestyle) For breakfast I ate a bowl of oatmeal with some fruit in it and then dropped the kids of at school and went to work. While at work I drank an unsweet tea through out the morning, For lunch a coworker and I dropped into Subway where I splurged and got a foot long Roast Beef Sub, a bag of baked Lays potato chips, and a Diet Pepsi. After coming home from work the family and I had grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup for dinner. For desert I a small piece of orange cranberry cake. While a grilled cheese is not the lowest fat sandwich around I did manage to only eat one and did not keep looking for food after eating my one bowl of chicken noodle soup. At around 8:30 PM I was feeling hungry so I ate three almonds. Yes, you read correctly. I said 3. However, it served the desired purpose which was to take the edge off the hunger I was feeling. While it may not be a perfect day I did manage not to go for seconds and I managed not to snack a lot before bed time. As I wind down the day I am actually looking forward to tomorrow.
My first goal is not to lose a ton of weight, but to have the option of buying clothes at my local Walmart if I desire to. Currently if I want to find clothing that fits I have to either shop at a Big and Tall store or at the local farm supply store. While I do not mind shopping at either of these places I do not want to have to because I cannot find clothing that fits at my local Walmart.
Today I believe that I was successful. I got up early at 5:20 AM and walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Because I was up early I was also able to fix the kids breakfast before school. (This was an unplanned benefit of this new lifestyle) For breakfast I ate a bowl of oatmeal with some fruit in it and then dropped the kids of at school and went to work. While at work I drank an unsweet tea through out the morning, For lunch a coworker and I dropped into Subway where I splurged and got a foot long Roast Beef Sub, a bag of baked Lays potato chips, and a Diet Pepsi. After coming home from work the family and I had grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup for dinner. For desert I a small piece of orange cranberry cake. While a grilled cheese is not the lowest fat sandwich around I did manage to only eat one and did not keep looking for food after eating my one bowl of chicken noodle soup. At around 8:30 PM I was feeling hungry so I ate three almonds. Yes, you read correctly. I said 3. However, it served the desired purpose which was to take the edge off the hunger I was feeling. While it may not be a perfect day I did manage not to go for seconds and I managed not to snack a lot before bed time. As I wind down the day I am actually looking forward to tomorrow.
Monday, March 28, 2011
In the beginning...
Today begins a new adventure in both my physical life and spiritual life. For some time God has been dealing with me about my weight and how it affects all areas of my life. So today I am beginning a physical and spiritual journey to get back into shape.
Like many people when I was younger I was in much better shape. However, currently I am the largest I have ever been, and it is much too large. I am reminded that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, but instead of a temple I am a Gothic cathedral with flying buttresses.
My starting point today, March 28, 2011, is 6'1" and 338lbs. I currently wear a 4XL shirt and size 48x30 jeans. My hope is that with God's help I can change my lifestyle. lose weight, and improve my health.
In future spots I will share some of my past and how I have arrived at this point, as well as how God has been challenging me to start this journey.
Like many people when I was younger I was in much better shape. However, currently I am the largest I have ever been, and it is much too large. I am reminded that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, but instead of a temple I am a Gothic cathedral with flying buttresses.
My starting point today, March 28, 2011, is 6'1" and 338lbs. I currently wear a 4XL shirt and size 48x30 jeans. My hope is that with God's help I can change my lifestyle. lose weight, and improve my health.
In future spots I will share some of my past and how I have arrived at this point, as well as how God has been challenging me to start this journey.
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