100 lb Year
Originally published at Shane's Shack. Please leave any comments there.
Weight has been a struggle for me for as long as I can remember. I’ve had periods of great success in my life, seasons of great control, but ultimately I’ve always bounced back - plus a few. Today, August 11, 2009, I turned 33 years old. I’m not old by any stretch. However, it has become agonizingly clear to me that with each passing year, weight becomes more difficult to lose.
I’m a realist. I don’t try to explain away my eating habits with psychology. I simply eat to much sugary food, too much crap. And when I do eat good foods, many times I over do it. I drink too much soda pop and sugary drinks. I hate exercise. It’s not that I don’t understand its value, and I’m not lazy. Exercise bores me to death. I’ve spoken with people who say that once you develop a routine, you begin to love it. I’ve had times in my life when I had a great routine; I still hated it. No the simple truth is that a love of sugary food and a loathing of exercise will almost always equal fat.
Why now? Well, it really has nothing to do with shame or fear of bad health or anything like that. I am actually comfortable in my own skin and I am reasonably healthy for my lifestyle. My blood pressure is good, I’ve got good strength, I don’t have any chronic aches or pains, the list goes on. There are two primary reasons for doing this:
- My health maybe good now, but it isn’t sustainable over the long term at my current weight.
- This is more of a spiritual issue for me than a physical one.
I’ve come to realize that in many ways, I am enslaved to my body’s desire to eat when I really don’t need to eat. This is a big spiritual problem. As believers, we’re not supposed to give our bodies desires control of our actions. That control belongs exclusively to the Holy Spirit. So this is a big stronghold of sin in my life which I want to tear down.
How will you do it? The best way to deal with sin is to meet it with violence. I intend to become violent with the desires of my body. Drastic measures are the only measure that will do the job. My intention is to completely cut sugary foods and drinks from my diet. I will not ween myself from it, though. Starting tomorrow, Aug 12, my eating habits will change permanently. Once upon a time when I was young, I went without sugar for three years of my life. It’s time to return to that way of eating. No candy. No pop. No sugary desserts (good thing this starts tomorrow!).
Exercise, will be a different tactic. I’m positive that most of my weight will shed from a change of my eating habits, but to lose those last 20-30 lbs, I will need to include some extra activity. Still working on that. Trying to think of ways to incorporate activity into my routine everyday that can burn a few extra calories here and there. Who knows, ultimately I may have to break down and go to the gym, but I’m going to try to avoid that if at all possible.
To you, my friends and readers, all I ask for is accountability. Check back here frequently and monitor my progress. Let me know you’re watching. I will post weekly weigh-in’s so you can monitor my progress, and periodic photos so you can visually see my progress.
So before I retire for the night, here are the statistics for August 11, 2009, 11:33 PM:
Yep, there's 100 lbs of excess love and tenderness tucked away. I carry it well fortunately.
Current Weight: 289 lbs
PS: I have no idea if my scale is the same as a doctors scale. I’ll be going by my scale. 100 lbs is 100 lbs whether it’s on my scale or his, right?