The Secret to Our Weight Loss (which is no big secret)

       Over the past eight months I have been working to reduce my weight to what is generally considered "healthy."  My wife, Ashley, had been working for several years - slowly, but surely, reducing her weight as well.  Since January 2011, we have lost a total of 90 pounds between us and have dramatically changed our lives.  Because of this, many people have asked us "how did you do it?"
       Truthfully, it was one of the most difficult, simple things to do.  I'll break it down into four parts in order of importance to my success and then give you a recap of the results at the end.  Please feel free to send me any specific questions about what we have done. Of course, I'll go ahead and tell you that this or any change in diet and exercise should always be supervised by a qualified physician (and I am not a physician).  So...here goes.

       1. Spiritual Grounding -This is not the first time that I have tried to make a change, but every time I tried to "diet," I failed miserably.  What made this change different is that Ashley and I began our journey very differently.  We made our relationship with God in Jesus Christ as a primary focus of our change.  We took seriously the call for disciples to spend time in prayer, Bible study, and fasting.  This time is different because God through the power of the Holy Spirit has been with us throughout.

       Twelve step programs are definitely onto something: you have to admit that you are powerless over your addiction before you can begin the process of healing.  Many of the eating patterns that are encouraged by modern food processors are inherently (and I believe intentionally) addictive.  Without God's help, it was impossible for me to break the cycle of addiction to certain foods.  Even now, I sometimes have to take time to refocus my efforts on what I want my spiritual and physical health to be.

       2. Combined Effort -The second critical element is that my wife and I are in this venture together.  I think that you may have noticed that there were lots of "we" mentioned in the previous area.  That is because Ashley and I committed to this journey together.  We talked, prayed and planned together.  We made a commitment to change the way that we would eat -- together.  We hold each other accountable for our journey toward better health; we each have a stake in the other one being around (and in good health) as long as possible.
       We had tried for years to change things separately.  The problem is that when one person is trying to eat healthy foods and the other one continues to bring things into the house that aren't, the healthy eater gives in more often than not.  When we were not working together, we would undermine each other by the choices we would make.  Once we made the decision to work together, things began to fall into place. 

       3. Changed Diet - Again, I will state that you should always discuss changing the way that you eat with your physician. We knew that we had to come up with a plan that was doable for the long term.  One of the main books that we used as a resource was Dr. Dan Colbert's book Toxic Relief.  Bottom line is that we began to examine what we ate and now try to live by the basic idea "if God didn't make it, we should probably not eat it." For example, God made sugar cane, but we make refined sugar; therefore, we avoid refined sugar in all of its many forms.


       Processed foods are all suspect, as are additives, preservatives, and fried foods. You're beginning to get the picture.  Eating big snacks after 8:00pm is out; we just cannot eat that late and maintain a healthy weight.  Our meals and snacks consist of lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats (Well, my wife is a pescitarian so she only eats fish, eggs, and dairy)
       We continue to support one another in learning about healthy eating choices through ongoing reading and education.  It also helps to talk with others about what we're doing.  I have discovered that most people are supportive even if they do not want to eat the way that we do.

        4. Moving your Body - One more reminder about your physician -- before you begin any exercise, the two of you should have a conversation.  Yep, no surprise here. Parts 1 and 2 work to get the heart and mind working together toward success.  Changing the diet and exercise work to remove the excess weight and build up a new, healthier body. Honestly, I could have lost much of the weight that I have without a lot of exercise, but working out has strengthened my muscles and accelerated the process.  For my part, I try to exercise 4-5 times a week with a minimum of 30-45 minutes.  We try to make our family times active as well so that we can all work together to be healthier as a family.

       That's it...four parts including Spiritual Grounding, Combined Effort, Changed Diet, and Moving your Body. What were the end results? For me, I have transformed from

         With the exception of my socks and shoes, I have had to almost totally replace my wardrobe - a wonderful problem to have.  Not only have I replaced my XL sizes with Medium, I have weaned myself from ALL of my prescription hypertension medication.  I now take supplements (garlic, red yeast rice, cayenne pepper, etc) that naturally keep my blood pressure in the normal range.  Another benefit has been the lessening of my springtime allergies with the total elimination of any hint of allergy induced asthma I had experienced every year since 1994.  Also, Ashley says that my terrible snoring has all but disappeared.


       This has been an incredible journey that I am excited to see where it goes.  Fortunately, I know that God goes with me to give my family the grace and strength to continue to make the best choices for our family.

       Thank you to all those who have cheered for us on the way.  I hope this helps those who face the same struggle that I do.

Grace and Peace,

James










    Sept. 2010


 




 



    
                            
May 2011
 

Preview for May 13, 2011 sermon

Here is an excerpt from Phillip Yancey's book  What's So Amazing About Grace?

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods' appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace."

          After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and the Muslim code of law -- each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.

          Aware of our inbuilt resistance to grace, Jesus talked about it often. He described a world suffused with God's grace: where the sun shines on people good and bad; where birds gather seeds gratis, neither plowing nor harvesting to earn them; where untended wildflowers burst into bloom on the rocky hillsides. Like a visitor from a foreign country who notices what the natives overlook, Jesus saw grace everywhere. Yet he never analyzed or defined grace, and almost never used the word. Instead, he communicated grace through stories we know as parables.

          -Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 45.

Enjoy God's beautiful gift of grace in Jesus Christ!

In Honor of Holy Humor Sunday

A preacher's little boy inquired, "Daddy, I notice every Sunday morning when you first come out to preach, you sit up on the platform and bow your head. What are you doing?"

The father explained, "I'm asking the Lord to give me a good sermon."

The little boy said, "Why don't he?"

Edited from H.A. Williams' book Tensions:

            No wonder the Pharisees, who seem to have been always wholly serious, had to have Jesus put down. He made their piety look ridiculous.

            Who in reality had ever witnessed a pious man blowing a trumpet before he put a dollar in the offering plate? And then there were camels going through the eyes of needles, not to mention camels being swallowed easily by those who choked when they swallowed a gnat.

            And worse: idlers who were given full pay, stewards who were successful cheats, wicked sons being distinguished on their return home - what had all this nonsense have to do with religion?

            …but Eternity had the last laugh after all. Here are Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod and all theirs, have done their duty getting rid of a dangerous fool. He is safely dead. Now they can concentrate on the serious matters to which their lives are dedicated.

            But behind their backs,  the fool has popped up again like a Jack-in-the-box and is dancing about even more vigorously than before. People here, there and everywhere are falling under his spell…

            If that isn't funny, nothing is. The resurrection is the supreme, the final, the ultimate joke. And since laughter is highly contagious, perhaps even the hardest heart will in time catch the disease, turn around, see the joke, and then laugh with the rest of creation because the kingdom of God has drawn near."

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An elderly pastor was searching his closet for his collar before church one Sunday morning. In the back of the closet, he found a small box containing 3 eggs and 200 $1 bills.

He called his wife into the closet to ask her about the box and its contents. Embarrassed, she admitted having hidden the box there for their entire 30 years of marriage. Disappointed and hurt, the pastor asked her, "WHY?"

The wife replied that she hadn't wanted to hurt his feelings. He asked her how the box could have hurt his feelings. She said that every time during their marriage that he had delivered a poor sermon, she had placed an egg in the box.

The pastor felt that 3 poor sermons in 30 years was certainly nothing to feel bad about, so he asked her what the $200 was for.

She replied, "Each time I got a dozen eggs, I sold them to the neighbors for $1."

At the conclusion of the sermon, the worshipers filed out of the sanctuary to greet the minister. As one of them left, he shook the minister's hand, thanked him for the sermon and said, "Thanks for the message, Reverend. You know, you must be smarter than Einstein."

Beaming with pride, the minister said, "Why, thank you, brother!"

As the week went by, the minister began to think about the man's compliment. The more he thought, the more he became baffled as to why anyone would deem him smarter than Einstein. So he decided to ask the man the following Sunday.

The next Sunday he asked the parishioner if he remembered the previous Sunday's comment about the sermon. The parishioner replied that he did. The minister asked: "Exactly what did you mean that I must be smarter than Einstein?"

The man replied, "Well, Reverend, they say that Einstein was so smart that only ten people in the entire world could understand him. But Reverend, no one can understand you."

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A farmer named Muldoon lived alone in the Irish countryside except for a pet dog he for a long time.

The dog finally died and Muldoon went to the parish priest, saying
"Father, the dog is dead. Could you possibly be saying a Mass for the poor creature?"

Father Patrick told the farmer "No, we can't have services for an
animal in the church, but I'll tell you what, there's a new denomination down the road apiece, and no telling what they believe in, but maybe they'll do something for the animal."


Muldoon said "I'll go right now. By the way, do you think $50,000 is enough to donate for the service?"

Father Patrick replied "Why didn't you tell me the dog was Catholic."

A slightly "humor impaired" preacher attended a conference to help encourage and better equip pastors for their ministry. There were many well known and dynamic speakers present to provide the guidance necessary.

One speaker boldly approached the pulpit and, gathering the entire crowd's attention, said, "The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman that wasn't my wife!" The crowd was shocked! He followed up by saying, "And that woman was my mother!" - The crowd burst into laughter and he delivered the rest of his talk, which went over quite well.

The next week, the pastor decided he'd give this humor thing a try, and use that joke in his sermon. As he surely approached the pulpit that sunny Sunday, he tried to rehearse the joke in his head but it suddenly seemed a bit foggy.

Getting to the microphone he said loudly, "The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of another woman that was not my wife!" The congregation inhaled half the air in the room. After standing there for almost 10 seconds in the stunned silence, trying to recall the second half of the joke, the pastor finally blurted out, "...and I can't remember who she was!"

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The teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his boots.

He asked for help and she could see why. With her pulling and him pushing, the boots still didn't want to go on. When the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost whimpered when the little boy said, "Teacher, they're on the wrong feet." She looked and sure enough, they were.

It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet. He then announced, "These aren't my boots."

She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, "Why didn't you say so?" like she wanted to.

Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off. He then said, "They're my brother's boots. My Mom made me wear them."

She didn't know if she should laugh or cry. She mustered up the grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again. She said, "Now, where are your mittens?"

He said, "I stuffed them in the toes of my boots..."

Her trial starts next month.

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          A woman left work right away after receiving a call that her daughter was at home sick with a fever. She stopped by the pharmacy to get some medication but discovered when she got back to her car that she had locked her keys inside.

She didn't know what to do, so she called home and told the baby sitter what had happened. The baby sitter told her that her the fever was getting worse and suggested, "You might find a coat hanger and use that to open the door."

The woman looked around and found an old rusty coat hanger that had been left on the ground, possibly by someone else who had locked their keys in their car. Once back at her car, she had no idea what to actually do with the coat hanger.

So she bowed her head and asked God to send her some help. Within five minutes an old rusty car pulled up, with a dirty, greasy, bearded man who was wearing an old biker skull rag on his head. The woman thought, "This is what you sent to help me?" But, she was desperate and also very thankful for the assistance.

The man got out of his car and asked her if he could help. She said, "Yes, my daughter is very sick. I stopped to get her some medication and I locked my keys in my car. I must get home to her. Please, can you use this hanger to unlock my car?"

He said, "Sure". He walked over to the car, and in less than a minute the car was opened. She hugged the man and through her tears she said, "Thank You So Much! You are a very nice man."

The man replied, "Lady, I am not a nice man. I just got out of prison today. I was in prison for car theft."

The woman hugged the man again and with sobbing tears cried out loud, "Oh, Thank you God! You even sent me a Professional!"

         One day God was looking down to earth and saw all of the evil that was going on and decided to send an angel down to earth to check it out.  so God called on a female angel and sent her to earth for a time. When she returned she told God, "yes it is bad on earth, 95% is bad and 5% is good."

          Well, God thought for a moment and said maybe I had better send down a male angel to get both points of view. So God called a male angel and sent him to earth for a time. When the male angel returned he went to God and told him yes the earth was in decline, 95% was bad and 5% was good.

          God said this was not good and decided to send a letter to the 5% that were good and encourage them, something to help them keep going. Do you know what that letter said?.........................................

          Oh, you didn't get one either?!