Archives for May 2017

05/11/17
Day 58 Extreme Accountability Challenge Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Total weight loss to date 43.4 pounds
85.6 pounds to go

Even when I was younger and thinner running was never my thing. It just seemed so boring to me. Especially long distances, stride after stride, what’s the point? Well I’m sure someone that loves running looks at it completely differently.
This process of losing 129 pounds, sometimes feels like what I imagine a marathon must feel like. I’m making amazing progress, not bragging, just saying, I’m dropping 3, 4, or 5 pounds every week. The weight is coming off fast. But the miles are long. I have to confess if it weren’t for the Extreme Accountability Challenge, I would have accepted a 20 or 30 pound weight loss and said “I did well, but I’m going back to eating whatever I want whenever I want.” That was how I used to think, that’s how you get to 304 pounds! My personal recipe for physical disaster.
Not this time, thanks to all of you that are posting your weight daily with me and for the countless others that comment, like, or just view these posts, it keeps me on course.

I have this hope, no this vision, that there will be countless others, that could not find a way to control their weight that will forever change because of what they see happening through this Extreme Accountability Challenge.
My prayer for you if you are like I was regarding eating, is that you will use this accountability to find life again, to be free from the addictive pull of overeating. Yep I said addictive. Food was my drug of choice for decades. Get well with us.

Press forward.

 

175 pounds here I come!!!

05/10/17
Day 57 Extreme Accountability Challenge Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Total weight loss to date 42.8 pounds
86.2 pounds to go
Today marks the beginning of the 9th week of posting my scales daily to Facebook. I was talking with Hyo Kim last night and remembering the day that he helped me get the courage to metaphorically “jump off the cliff” and commit to posting my weight loss journey on Facebook everyday. As most of you know, it was an idea that I had come up with weeks before. As I told Hyo, the fact that he and I met was no accident and the brief convention that we had will forever change my life. Hyo lives 20 minutes from the Pacific Ocean, I encouraged him to go there and drop something heavy in the water and see if he can count the waves and ripples that are created. I doubt he can. That’s the effect of him encouraging me to take action. Pretty cool. It’s also the effect you could have today.
I know what we’re doing is unorthodox, most “experts” recommend not to weigh everyday. Well documentation beats conversation. The experts way didn’t work for me but weighing everyday in front of all of Facebook is working pretty well for me and some others.
Going against conventional wisdom is never easy, it’s unconventional, it’s risky. As my Dad used to say, “A turtle never moves until he sticks his neck out.”
Do something unconventional, unorthodox, and maybe even stick your neck out, then watch and see if you can count the waves and ripples that you create.
Go make some waves and press forward.

175 pounds here I come!!!

 

 

05/09/17
Day 56 Extreme Accountability Challenge Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Total weight loss to date 42.6 pounds
86.4 pounds to go

Going on this weight loss journey was decades in the making. Dozens of attempts at losing weight, all of them probably would have worked, but the common denominator in all of the failed attempts was me. No I don’t consider myself a failure, I just didn’t really want to give up the food that I loved long enough to get healthy. I wanted a lottery ticket to weight loss. The truth, there isn’t one. Extreme Accountability was the only thing that I could think of that would create the lasting change that I so desperately desired.

When I was in the men’s clothing business back in South Carolina, I was always glad to see a customer that was going to his high school or college reunion, he would usually spare no expense to look younger and thinner. Well imagine going to your high school and college reunion every morning and getting on the scales in front of everyone! That will keep on your eating program. I bet you wouldn’t cheat, that’s what the Extreme Accountability Challenge Participants do every day. It works.

I’ve never posted the 304 pounds picture that was my wake up call but today I am. It took some time and a coach to give me a push to take action and post my first weight of 298 pounds but 304 was where I started.
I may post it every day as a reminder to anyone overweight and ignoring the inevitable. Yes I’ve lost over 40 pounds in less than 2 months, I’m so thankful for that but what if I had done something about my weight before?

175 pounds here I come!!!

Press forward.

05/08/17
Day 55 Extreme Accountability Challenge
Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Total weight loss to date 42.0 pounds
87.0 pounds to go

This morning the thought of perseverance came to mind. The number of times that I gave up on losing weight, believing that I was destined to be fat. I was exhausted with trying, disoriented with the thoughts of failure after failure and still I couldn’t stick to healthy eating. Until now. Now it makes sense to me when it didn’t before, why I had to and you must persevere, no matter what you face today, whether it’s your weight or something else…persevere.

I was reading this passage from Oswald Chambers, “My Utmost for His Highest” this morning. It really spoke to me and encouraged me, I hope it does for you also.

Pressing forward!

MAY 08
The Faith to Persevere

Because you have kept My command to persevere . . . -Revelation 3:10

Perseverance means more than endurance- more than simply holding on until the end. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, but our Lord continues to stretch and strain, and every once in a while the saint says, “I can’t take any more.” Yet God pays no attention; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, and then He lets the arrow fly. Entrust yourself to God’s hands. Is there something in your life for which you need perseverance right now? Maintain your intimate relationship with Jesus Christ through the perseverance of faith. Proclaim as Job did, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). Faith is not some weak and pitiful emotion, but is strong and vigorous confidence built on the fact that God is holy love. And even though you cannot see Him right now and cannot understand what He is doing, you know Him. Disaster occurs in your life when you lack the mental composure that comes from establishing yourself on the eternal truth that God is holy love. Faith is the supreme effort of your life- throwing yourself with abandon and total confidence upon God. God ventured His all in Jesus Christ to save us, and now He wants us to venture our all with total abandoned confidence in Him. There are areas in our lives where that faith has not worked in us as yet- places still untouched by the life of God. There were none of those places in Jesus Christ’s life, and there are to be none in ours. Jesus prayed, “This is eternal life, that they may know You . . .” (John 17:3). The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering. If we will take this view, life will become one great romance- a glorious opportunity of seeing wonderful things all the time. God is disciplining us to get us into this central place of power.

Copyright (C) 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All rights reserved.

175 pounds here I come!!!