06/03/17

Day 81 Extreme Accountability Challenge
Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Total weight loss to date 54.0 pounds
75.0 pounds to go

I don’t know why another 1/10 of a pound really matters, but to drop below 250 pounds is a pretty big deal. This accountability thing really works if you happen to be paying attention. While conventional wisdom says don’t weigh daily, our group of renegades is debunking that myth. I cannot speak for everyone else that is posting and part of the Extreme Accountability Challenge, but I credit this process with giving me the willpower to overcome the “head hunger” that has added over 100 pounds of fat in the last 35 years. I know that I have to face the scales daily and post them to Facebook. That’s a powerful appetite suppressant!

While I have probably lost over 1000 pounds, I have gained over 1300 pounds. The net result wasn’t good, and it was getting worse. This accountability is helping me stay the course, I’ve never lost over 50 pounds before, I’m in uncharted waters. My resolve is stronger today than when I started. 75 pounds to go, it will happen, 250 pounds, will be a distant memory, and I will be healthy and fit for life.

Bam!

Press forward.

175 pounds here I come!!!

06/02/17

Day 80 Extreme Accountability Challenge
Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Total weight loss to date 53.6 pounds
75.4 pounds to go

As I was riding my bicycle this morning along North Fletcher Avenue in Fernandina Beach, my thoughts went to undertow. When the water’s current pull you out and away from the safety of the shore. Whether it’s weight that you’ve gained or some other

challenge that you’re facing, you’ve been pulled for a reason. It might not make sense today, but it will. The currents of your life may be easy like they are in the picture of the ocean that I took this morning, or you may be facing challenges that you’re not sure how you will survive. Either way you’re being pulled for a reason.

A friend of mine, Captain Jeff Andrechyn, who flies around the Globe in an Airbus, wrote a blog that really spoke to me and continues to, I keep an excerpt from it on my computer’s desktop, it is comforting and true. I’ve included it for you.

“I want to say to every financial disaster out there, every divorce, every disease you have, every untimely death that has touched your life with profound loss, every career disaster and personal bankruptcy, every journey into the unknown, they are all leading you home. All of your suffering will simply merge you with Jesus, your Captain, who is stronger than all of the adversity. He has been given the job by His Father to bring you safely home. You are never alone in this.”
From the blog, The Never Ending Dream of Home, by Jeff Andrechyn

Press forward.

175 pounds here I come!!!

06/01/17

Day 79 Extreme Accountability Challenge
Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Total weight loss to date 53.8 pounds
75.2 pounds to go

The Wisdom of simplicity and the simplicity of wisdom.

For decades I’ve made the thought of weight loss into this complex process that I could never seem to grasp. My 18 year old son Joshua, who stays in great shape, when he was about 13 told Angie and I “It’s really simple, keep a caloric deficit until you reach your goal weight.”

Nah!
It’s much more complicated than that!

But it’s really not, it’s the behavior that gets in the way of the desired results.

Go figure, The Wisdom of a 13 year old.

So here’s the plan if you really want results.

1- Pick an eating plan that works for you and will almost certainly yield results over time if you stick to it.
2- Stick to it. 100%. Find a way to stay as motivated on day 100 as on day 1.
The way I came up with is the Extreme Accountability Challenge, posting my weight daily so that I don’t get off track. I am tempted most days to get off track and cheat, but I committed to posting my weight loss journey on Facebook everyday, so it gives me a big stick to beat those cravings back with and stay the course.
3- Find an exercise that you would rather do than to not do. I think this doesn’t make me lose weight much faster but it gives me more energy and overall health.
4- Press repeat until you reach your goal!

Keep it simple and..

Press forward.

175 pounds here I come!!!

05/31/17
Day 78 Extreme Accountability Challenge
Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Total weight loss to date 53.0 pounds
76.0 pounds to go

Are you selling your birthright?

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom. ) Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.
Genesis 25:29‭-‬34 NIV

The parallel between eating my way to an untimely death and Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup is pretty interesting. One thing is for sure, if I’ve destroyed my health what good will my birthright be?

I was clearly on my way, eating myself all the way to 304 pounds, but I realized what I had to do. “What’s that?” You may ask. The answer was and still is, WHATEVER IT TAKES TO LOSE THIS WEIGHT! If putting myself out there on Facebook and make a complete fool of myself was what it took, so be it. I’m pretty useless dead. So that’s what I did and am doing every day. One thing I haven’t talked about is, I make it a priority to tell someone new every day about this journey. It adds more fuel to this fire, and yes makes me even more accountable. I will get this weight off and be in the most incredible shape of my life.

Why bother?

I have so much to do, become, see, experience, and give. Angie, Blake, Adam, Joshua, and Ashley ( My wife and 4 children) for starters. That’s why.

This may sound like a bunch of Bible mumbo jumbo, it’s not. I believe we’re all hear for a reason, you might call it your birthright.

Let me ask you a question, if I told you that I would give you $100,000,000 and all you had to do to keep it is to go live out that which you have always dreamed of, do that thing you’ve always dreamed of, what would it be?

It’s probably your birthright.

Are you selling it off for some present comfort? Are you afraid of what people will say? For all that money, could you ignore the critics and the temporary inconveniences? I bet you could.

Do whatever it takes.

It’s more valuable than the $100,000,000.

Press forward.

175 pounds here I come!!!