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!!!

 

05/07/17
Day 54
Extreme Accountability Challenge
Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Total weight loss to date 41.8 pounds
87.2 pounds to go.

About 4 years ago, my wife Angie came across a bargain at Beall’s, one of her favorite stores here on Amelia Island. It was a pair of citrus green casual shorts in my size at the time. When she brought them home and I tried them on they were pretty tight but at the time I weighed around 275 pounds and knew that I could wear them if I just lost 10 pounds or so.

They got folded away in a drawer with some other clothes too small for me. Instead of losing 10 pounds I kept gaining weight. About a year ago in one of my many “I’ve got to do something about my weight” moments, I came across those bright green shorts and tried them on. At the time, I weighed in around 290 pounds, it was really ugly, I could barely get them over my hips, not a prayer of buttoning them. But on that day, I did something different, I hung the shorts in my closet where I had to face them every single day.

Since then I’ve tried them on many times, if they could talk, they would’ve been laughing hysterically at me over the last year, until yesterday. Yesterday when I reached for those green shorts it was different. It wasn’t me wishing anymore. It was game day. And yesterday the citrus green shorts fit! I had never taken the tags off, but yesterday I did, I conquered the green shorts. They taunted me for years but if you saw a man with a beautiful woman, Angie, gorgeous teenage daughter, Ashley, walking around the Fernandina Beach Florida, Annual Shrimp Festival in a pair of citrus green shorts that actually fit a little loose. That would’ve been me.

Last night as I folded the green shorts away, it hit me, these will not fit me in a few weeks, the green shorts will be too big.
I’ve found some other smaller clothes to look forward to wearing, to take the place of the green shorts.
For the first time in my life, thanks to the Extreme Accountability Challenge, the healthy lifestyle plan that my coach, John Davisson, is teaching me, and you, everyone watching and reading about our weight loss journey and holding us accountable, I know that I will get this weight off and live a longer healthier life.

175 pounds here I come!!!

Press forward.

 

05/06/17
Day 53
Extreme Accountability Challenge
Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Total weight loss to date 40.8 pounds

Even though it took me decades to gain my 129 pounds of fat, I want it off now! Crossing over 40 pounds of weight loss is a big milestone for me, but an even bigger one is my conviction that I am going to be 175 pounds before the end of November. I set a lofty goal in the beginning. To reach 175 pounds by Thanksgiving, not so I could pig out on Thanksgiving day, but so that my life would be forever changed.

Before I jumped into this journey of posting my scales daily to Facebook, when it was just some silly idea, that me, a desperate fat guy had, to force myself to once and for all stick to a healthier lifestyle and forever get this weight off, I had no idea that so many would jump in and join me in this journey. I was hoping, but completely blown away by the encouragement and support of those that post your scales daily to Facebook with me and many that are liking, commenting, and maybe privately doing your own weight loss journey.

But going into this, I took it seriously, guys I’m posting my weight to the world, so I had a plan of action.
I couldn’t just wing it.

1- I got a health coach, John Davisson, who helped me plan my meals down to the bite.

2- Extreme Accountability, posting my weight every day to everyone.

3- Moderate exercise in the beginning, I like biking or walking.

4- If it didn’t work to change plans after 30 days or so.

Number 4 is the biggest, if it wasn’t working I would change my plan. But it did, 30 days in I was down 27 pounds!

Just posting my weight loss journey was important but having a plan that fit me and got results was equally important.

The thing that posting my weight loss journey on Facebook assured was that if what I was doing wasn’t working I would find something that did, everyone would be watching.

So if you’re struggling, I’m not telling you what to eat or how to exercise, that’s for the experts. All that I’m saying is doing the same thing the exact same way over and over and expecting a different result, well I think that’s the definition of insanity.
I’m speaking primary to those of you watching us post our scales, not to the brave souls that join me every day and are posting their scales to Facebook. I know they will get it done and achieve their health goals.

175 pounds here I come!!!

Press forward.