About 2007 I was coerced by my wife to be in a set of family photos. There was a photographer at church that Sunday and she somehow got us signed up for a family portrait. Pictures are one of my least favorite things to be involved in :( Anyway, a few weeks and hundreds of dollars later I was mortified! At just under 300 pounds - I was a little on the large side. I had slowly migrated from a college Lacrosse player to triple X and honestly loved every bite along the way.
Seriously and as a side note, I really at my core don't understand why anyone would choose not to eat the entire half gallon of Blue Bell in one sitting. So So So yummy :) Also, Large Pizzas are single servings - Just Sayin'.
Back on track, I spent a few years saying woe is me and then a few more trying to make up my own diet system. Then I got serious one day when I was passed up for a job I wanted and was told I just was (literally) too fat!
So I decided to get serious - I hammered on the web, looked everywhere, considered some really crazy and expensive systems, bought a juicer, almost took a hormone replacement system from a doctor (yikes) and then settled on a supervised ketosis system… Basically Atkins Level One with almost zero carbs…… The weight fell off for a few months until I really came to have a strong dislike for most meats (Bacon doesn't count because it is in it's own category of yumminess.) But this only worked for a little while and about half of the weight returned…… :(
Then last summer my geekness was tweaked by a little device that tracks all kinds of stuff in your normal day :) My friend bought one - and I reluctantly bought one…. HOLY Cannoli - I was confronted with actual real hard data! I was consuming a great deal of calories! I was running, but not consistently! I was not sleeping more than a few hours a night! I was eating at the wrong times! I was actually doing it wrong! With all good intentions, I was simply doing it wrong :(
Slowly, while continually staring at the date, I started to make changes in my world. I studied the truth of my behavior and changed my ways. I lost between 6 and 7 stone and don't know where this might go next. Truth, when found, is contagious and worth following with reckless abandon.
I could unpack this in many ways, but the simplist one is this... Why when we think we are following God do we continue to disregard His word and make up our own methods? Why is it always our way until we see a picture of what we really look like? Looking back, I wish I had made better choices over the past twenty years. I would not have had to work so hard for six long years to fix those poor choices.
At COTHA we are making the tough choices about our future as a community every day. This is a Healthy Vibrant Community and I Love it here :) Let's continue to affect change in ourselves as well as those around us by being and doing things with excellence.
(BTW - I now weigh 15 Stone - Which no longer classifies me as obese, just over weight :)