My Story & Why You Need to Read This...

My Story

As the old hymn says, "this is my story..."

I was living my dream.

I was inspiring young lives as a youth pastor.

There were Monday meetings at a local coffeeshop with excessively large cups of sugar filled coffee and even larger blueberry muffins warmed with butter dripping off.  There were Wednesday night bible study with sugar cookies.  Afternoon mentoring meetings with students over several McD's large sweet teas.  Thursday night youth group with a full stocked candy shop and my  pre-sermon Slim Jim that I would snap into.  Throw in special events with pizza and convention weekends with sugary snacks and eating out every meal. And I have not mentioned the 100's of hot dogs consumed at every community or church outreach ever hosted.

All in the name of being God's servant to the youth of that community.  I was sacrificing for the gospel and what was being laid on the alter was my health.

In a sense, ministry was killing me.  Okay, not specifically the ministry. I take responsibility for the poor food choices I made.  But the environment I existed in was causing a slow painful death to every article of clothing hanging in my closet.  My waistlines were gasping for air with every pizza party! The buttons on my button ups were beginning to cry for mercy. Super hip skinny jeans were a non negotiable when you have too much hip and and not enough skinny.

The Day God Spoke in an Animated Voice

Leadership is a dangerous environment.  Church leadership seemingly even more so.  A recent study showed 76% of all Evangelical pastors are overweight or obese.    Sure I was chubby, a little overweight but never in my mind did I see myself as obese.

Until that day...

I stepped foot for the very first time onto a Wii Fit board.  For starters there is this annoying beeping sound as it resembles an alarm clock while it "prepares to measure" you.  Then once it has scanned you like a TSA security screening it takes your skinny "Mii" character and inflates it like a helium balloon.  That day I thought my animated Mii was going to float right off the screen as these insulting words in the kindest animated voice screamed at me "that's obese."  I had just became part of the 76%.

That became my wake up call, coupled with the fact I had recently learned of my dad acquiring Type II Diabetes, a completely preventable disease.  I was determined to no longer be insulted by that animated voice.  I was determined for that voice to call me healthy!

The Outsider

At that same point we were transitioning ministry positions.  We moved from a larger church to smaller family style church.  Similar to the one reference in my blog "The Lie the Church Told Me".  Transitioning from a Slim Jim inspired, sweet tea drinking youth pastor to a leader who was testing the waters of tilapia and broccoli I became an outsider.

The funny looks when you pass on Sunday morning donuts.  The odd stares when your church fellowship plate has more veggies than desserts on it.  When you show up to an impromptu meeting still smelling like the 2 mile run you just finished, you get that odd look.  Suddenly, one of these things does not look like the other.

It was like becoming an outsider.   As a leader I have walked a mile in your shoes.  Then I ran a mile in those shoes, then 2 miles in those shoes, then 3 miles in those cool sneaks!  Then I put on a different pair of kicks and went crazy with Insanity.  And in that process I found something, I didn't have to be part of the 76%.  I was becoming part of the 24%.

It Costs

As leaders we have to do better.  Here is my challenge to whether your are in church leadership or in position of leadership in the marketplace, just start!   Leaders love to look at bottom lines, so here is what it is costing you "being 15 to 45 pounds overweight can cost you $500 per year. Being 50 or more pounds overweight can cost you up to $5000."

This became my reality when we signed up life insurance.  While at the my largest weight when we signed up I was considered a "high risk insurer" due to two major factors one my weight being over a 30 BMI and to my profession as a pastor.  It was a high premium based on the fact of those contributing factors I was more likely to die sooner in the eyes of the life insurance company.

Two years later, after several hundred miles in the sneaks, a sweet tea detox and lots of sweat when we change life insurance companies I was no longer a "high risk insurer".

It is going to cost you to get healthy - cost you time, energy, money.  But they return is valuable.  The return is life. The return is greater energy. The return is greater creativity.  The return is some very practical way is that in the long run that cost will save your life and you money.

 What is your story?  I would love to hear it.  Post it in the comments below.  

I ate my feelings and...

In our continued stream of thinking along nutrition and my continually belief that confession is good for the soul...I am an emotional eater.

When it rains, it pours highly carbohydrated snack foods in a Noah's Ark style flood.  In order for me to achieve the success of my goal weight and maintain that healthy, the one thing I have to find control over is my emotional eating.  I tend to eat when the stresses of life become overwhelming.

So here are 3 alternatives to eating my weight in snack foods:

1) Workout - pop in a DVD and sweat it out.  Pushing my physical fitness and releasing endorphin keeps me from binging.

2) Run - while similar to working out, running allows me to put my body on cruise control and engage my mind in some thinking and processing.  It gives a chance to escape to another place (both physically and mentally) and avoid the snacks.

3) Laugh - The proverb says that laughter is good medicine.  Being able to find humor in laugh is healthy.  While whatever the situation was may not have be funny at all, there is plenty in life to find laughter in.  So laugh, smile, and take your hands away from the sweets and salty.

I have not perfected being an overcomer of emotional eater.  I am working on it.  I try to use these alternatives to stuffing my face.  In an honest reflection, I really don't feel any better by eating.  While I satisfy my taste buds, I upset my belly and worse really don't emotionally feel any better.  (SAD FACE)

21 days in the rearview

January 7th I put a ground and said NO MORE!   I weighed in at 184.7 pounds, by far the most I had been in several months.  Let's be honest, it was a steady diet of monkey bread and Christmas cookies for about 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year's.  While tasty on the tongue, it was killing my around the gut!

So I kicked of 2013 with Les Mills Combat, Shakeology, and focusing on what I eat and as of today, I weigh 180.1.  Not the weight loss I hoped for but seeing some great results in the change in my shape.  While I do have a weight loss goal that I want to reach my focus is really beginning to shift.  I could press and workout extra, trim additional calories and get completely stringent to get to that goal.  And that would be fine.  But what I know about myself is that if I sprint to that goal, I will eventually run out of gas and while I might hit that number on the scale I know that my weight will yo-yo back up.

As with most things in life, the "tortoise" wins - slow and steady wins the race!!  My goal is to become actively healthy, not just a specific weight.

RESULTS HAPPEN HERE!

I would love to hear your comments!

Day #14 Full Swing

Missed the blog yesterday, but no worries, I did not miss the workout.  Here are some thoughts for your today!

Back full swing, sort of.  

While I am a huge advocate of exercise that is organized and planned out, I am also a huge sports fan.  Today was the start of baseball, well sort of.  My sons play and today we started winter hitting practice.  Remember as a kid when you just went and did.  You played baseball, skipped rope, hide and go seek, and just ran to run.

I think we need to get back to that youthful mentality.  As adults we become calorie counting, treadmill running, heart rate monitor wearing individuals in order to achieve a certain goal.  There are times when we just need to go to go.  Go golf, go swim, go for a walk, go be active.  No calorie counting, no heart monitor wearing (unless doctor recommended), what is the point of being fit and healthy if you are not enjoying it.

Here is why I love being a fit and active dad.  This Spring I will take hour long stretches of throwing pitch after pitch to a 9 and 11 year old.  I will hit ground ball after ground ball.  I will throw fly ball after throw ball.  I will run after errand throws, demonstrate 500 times how to properly chase down a ball in the gap and how to round second base.  I won't count calories burned, but count myself blessed.  Blessed that I have the health and energy to do these things, which was not always the case.

I exercise and eat right so that I spring and summer can be spent giving my best at the ballpark, because they deserve my best....

What activities can you do or do better because you chose fitness?  POST IN THE COMMENT SECTION

REST DAY

Day #11 A Plan

Do you know you are going to eat tomorrow?  Most of us do not know what our next meal is.  Having a food plan keeps you on track and less likely to get your hand into something that you are going to regret.  Part B of that whole concept is to stick to that plan.

I had my food planned out today for lunch.  And then it happened.  I thought what a great partner to my vegetable shop but some tortilla chips from Qdoba that were in our break room.  Halfway through my lunch I punch my foods into MyFitnessPal app only to find out my expected amount of calories on my lunch had just doubled...that's right doubled.  My serving of chips that I assumed were about 120 calories were 250. YIKES!

Now 130 extra calories is not the end of the world.  Yet it was a failure to stick to my plan that cost me the extra.  Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me...What I and you need to make sure is that we don't get fooled into extra calories by not A. failing to plan out meals in advance and B. fail to stick to the food plan you set out.

Knowledge is POWER, but only when that knowledge dictates and determines your behavior.  PLAN, PLAN, PLAN!  Stick to that PLAN!

EXERCISE:
Insanity - Pure Cardio

Day 7 - Finding Insanity

To rest or not to rest was the question of the day.  I chose not to rest. As a matter a fact did something on the far opposite end, Insanity. Now I believe that rest in your exercise routine is essential.  It allows the fatigued muscles to rest, restore and rebuild. Don't short change yourself on rest.

Rest is an interesting idea.  It is Biblical principle as foretold in the creation story.  It is cultural principal based in our 5 day work week.  Yet, it something we probably don't do enough of.  We live in noisy, loud, busy, overwhelming worlds.  We have demanding schedules for ourselves and for our children.  The one thing we probably don't do enough of or do properly is rest.

Where I am now focusing my attention is improving my productivity.  If you are productive in your working time then what you have freed up is time to rest.   I am personally working through Chalene Johnson's 30 day push challenge.  It is a 30 video based personal development on being organized and efficient...leaving time for rest.

If you life has been life mine typically when you go looking for rest all your find is insanity!

MEALS:  (just the calories)
Breakfast: 383 (I did treat myself to French Vanilla creamer in my coffee)
Lunch: 370
Snack 1: 315 made my Shakeology with Silk Fruit and Protein.  SO GOOD!!!
Dinner: 360
Snack 2: 360

EXERCISE:
Insanity Cardio Resistance and Power...sweaty is mess!

Changed Lives...become the change

Gaining Confidence

Let's play word association.  I say workout, you might say sweat, fitness, exercise, lifting, smelly gym socks.  The word that may not come to mind is CONFIDENCE.  The origin of the word comes from the Latin word confidere which means to trust, to have faith in.  This definitely does not bring to mind images of bulking up, trimming down or getting fit. Yet, there is an interesting correlation between personal confidence and your level of fitness and health.  Self-image and self confidence are linked!

As you push the limits of your body and achieve new levels, you start create a belief in yourself of accomplishing new limits.  As your body begins to take shape from that of a pear to that of healthy and strong, you start to see yourself differently.  Every time you achieve one goal there is a drive ignited in you to push to achieve a new goal.  This attitude bleeds over into other areas of your life. In turn that affects how you present yourself to others, resulting in a greater level of confidence.

When you feel good about you, others take notice!  When you believe in you, you show it!  Run the next mile, do the next set of push ups, push play on Insanity or P90X.  Not only will you be rewarded by building a stronger, faster, learner physique, you will be rewarded with a greater sense of self-worth.  The changes you find will be more than just physical...they may just change your life!

When to give up...

The truth of the matter is your mind will quit before your body is ready to.  Let's face it none of us like pain, but pain is what is required to see change in your physical appearance.  There is that mechanism in your body that fires a signal to the brain telling it to stop whatever it is doing that is causing the pain.  This mechanism is an amazing feature when we touch a hot stove, stick your hand in snow or slam your finger in the door.  But this feature is a hindrance from success when it comes to achieving optimal results in your physical fitness.

A trick I have used to trick my brain is the "one more" approach.  When I started my weight loss journey with running, it was the one more stoplight or mailbox approach.  My brain was telling my body to stop, I had to speak louder than the voice in my head telling it "just one more...".  I would reach that mailbox or streetlight and I would have to tell my brain "just one more...".  I would do this over and over until I reached my final destination on my run.

When it comes to physical conditioning through lifting and training, I think the "one more..." approach is just as necessary.  In order to break through barriers of weight loss, training, or conditioning you have to break through the mental wall that keeps you from reaching your peak.  As an Insanity graduate, there were days I went through the motions of the workout, but I realized if I wanted peak results I had to give peak performance.  In short I had to overcome the voice in my head and push out one more push-up.  Press through the pain of 10 more seconds of high knees.

The point of giving up is the point where you can physically give no more but even then you say to yourself "just one more..."

A Fitter You!

When in doubt...try!

All my life I have heard the expression "When in doubt..." then followed by some sort of lame advice.  Doubt is one of the things that creeps into our minds that can prevent our bodies from achieving maximum success.  Doubt is the thoughts that keep us from putting in the work.  Doubt is the thing that keeps us from making wise choices with our food.  Doubt can single handily set you back on progress.

If the workout looks hard, you "doubt" you can do it.  Not big on veggies, you "doubt" you can eat healthy.  Here is your homework...replace doubt with try.  If the workout looks hard give it a TRY!  Don't like broccoli, give peppers or asparagus a TRY.  Doubt will keep you from trying things.  Let me help you out, you will fail.  You may fail to complete every sit up, push up, burpee.  You will fail and munch on some high fat food.  Fail TRYING, then you are not failing at all.  You are attempting to make progress.  The greatest failure is to fail without ever trying.  So try, try, try!  And when you fail pick yourself back up and try, try, try again.

My Why...

I remember the first time I watched The Biggest Loser. I know it sounds sappy, but I remember tears welling up in my eyes and a lump in my throat while I watched morbidly obese people begin their journey toward getting healthy.

At the time, I was near 215 pounds myself.  I thought of myself as "slightly overweight" but never obese.  Every year as I set goals for that year was the same goal: lose 15 pounds.  And every year I failed to do anything about it.  But each season I would watch as incredibly overweight people shed pounds and gained years on The Biggest Loser.  I blamed my lack of ability to change my own life on time, on my job, on my inability to do it on my own, on my lack of knowledge, on whatever I could find to blame it on.

Then my mom bought a Wii Fit.  And that is when an insulting anime voice called me "OBESE".  I had never realized it or even considered -- pudgy, chunky, "filled out"...maybe, but never obese.  That is when the journey started for me.  I wanted to prove to myself and a Japanese animated voice that I was no longer obese...as matter of fact as of right now when I weigh in it tells me I am healthy.

My Why I became a Beachbody Coach is because I first hand understand the struggle of gaining and losing weight.  And those tears and that lump in my throat watching people I personally will never meet change their life on a TV show is multiplied even greater when someone I know, someone I love changes their life and health forever.  Do I hope to make money?  Absolutely.  But more than that I hope to make an impact.  I hope to play a role in seeing people change their health, change the health of their families.  I hope I make a small imprint in this overall challenge to "End The Trend" of Obesity.  I do it because I want the join of seeing others change the voice of their life that calls them OBESE to calling them HEALTHY! 

That is why I began the journey to a fitter me...

If you would like to start the journey for yourself or would like to help others start the journey by becoming a BEACHBODY COACH.  I would love to talk more with you.