Back from vacation and I was thrown right into preaching last Sunday (I did volunteer before I left), running a youth group overnighter, and then finalizing the preparation for a wedding ceremony that I'm conducting in a few hours. Shoulder is still bothering me and I've just been swamped. Now that I have all the excuses firmly in place, it's time to reveal my fabulous weight gain. I'm up 4.6 pounds which officially puts me back at 244.4. Not proud of that but it is what it is. I have this wedding reception to make it through then my schedule is fairly clear so I should be able to buckle down and get working on this healthy change again.

In my quest to get healthy, I've started to do something once unthinkable. At least in my mind. I was getting up early and heading out to ride my bike. I got two days in then had to take a couple days off because my wife was away. No problem. I was planning on getting back on my bike starting this morning. Now the however.

However, on Saturday I took my youth group tubing at the lake. It was a great day, until my last run. Our driver tried to kill me. I love him but I promise it's true. The final turn had us whipping across the water, and then the tube flipped. Found myself skipping across the water. No big deal, but by Sunday morning I struggled to lift my left arm. Spent all day Sunday in considerable pain. Today has been painful, but thankfully I'm regaining mobility.

So anyway, my great plans to continue my bike quest has been temporarily placed on hold until my arm is healed enough to get back out there.

Just a quick update as I run out the door. I lost two pounds this past week. Broke back under 240.

It's both a sad and a happy day. Sad that I allowed myself to climb all the way back up to where I am. Happy that I'm at least headd back in the right direction again. Well, that's about it for right now.

Okay, I've promised myself that I would once again take up the weekly accountability of posting my weight on my blog. Just so we're all clear, I started using sparkpeople.com about three weeks ago. My starting weight on this journey was 247 pounds.

The scale graphic to the right shows my current weight. Additionally, it also shows whether that is a loss or a gain from the previous week. Green means I lost and red means I gained. So without further ado, this past week I lost 2.2 pounds and now I'm officially at 241.8 pounds. That was as of Friday morning. Kelly and I went away overnight and I wasn't great. I have six days to work like crazy to negate that bad two days.

This blog has been extremely quit. Too quiet. The reason is simple. I've started blogging somewhere else. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I've recently joined sparkpeople.com. It's an online community to help people get healthy. I track my calories, exercise, and several other things on the site. It's free so that's a plus. Anyway, they encourage you to blog there. These past two weeks I've been trying to get my mind back into the mental game of wanting to get healthy so I've been focusing my time there. Plus, while I don't mind posting updates here on my success or lack of it, I didn't want this blog to become a place were I vent about my lack of willpower and the amazing power of a doughnut to tempt me. That's what my other blog is for. So if you've been worried where I've gone, I'm going to do my best to be back here more frequently. The scarier part is that I don't think people have probably been all that worried.

As I use to do in the past, I going to publicly be posting my weight and hopefully loss of weight on Fridays. Come by to chuckle or encourage me.

As humbling as it is for me, I have started dieting (yes, healthy lifestyle change) again. I'm still doing calories, but I'm using the site Spark People. It adds a a social component that I probably need. It really helps to know that some people are checking what you eat and encouraging you. Anyway, that's were life has me. I'm shooting for that 180 mark again and will reevaluate from there. That's 67 pounds to reevaluation so I have some time. First weigh in is Friday. Not looking forward to it.

Thanks to the snow, we had to cancel youth tonight. Once the kids were in bed, I continued work on a personal project. An addition to blogging, I also keep a journal. There are some things I'm thinking and praying about that need to remain private. My journal is comprised of both these private entries and blog entries. Originally, these were separate. I've been working to move all my blog entries into the journal.

As I was working on this, I came across so many tiny pieces of my history. I read my thoughts after I injured my back. I found humorous little stories that I had written about my children. I even read my triumph of making it under 220 pounds.

I came away with a couple thoughts. I need to write more. Memories are so fleeting, but they become more permanent when recorded. Second, I've really blown the progress I was making with my weight. It reminded me that it's time to step up with some self-control. Maybe it's time for that weekly weight posting again. Anything to get me moving.

Sometimes taking a moment to look back and review can help you prepare to move forward again.

Anyone that has read this blog knows that I'm fighting the diet battle. After slacking off, I'm trying to hit it hard again. Thankfully I'm still below my all time high. Everytime I get serious I go through the first several days where I'm just hungry. Okay, I'm hungry every day but I digress. Without fail, when I get serious we get an ad from Pizza Hut in the mail. In the ad there is always the same picture. It's one of their sandwiches with what looks like boneless BBQ wings on it. It looks amazing. The funny thing is I've yet to try one. When I break my diet I go other places. Yet without fail the ad shows up when I start trying to be good again. I'm beginning to believe that Pizza Hut has singled me out for diet destruction. I'll show them, I think I'll call Papa John's.

On Facebook? The original post resides at www.focusedjourney.com.

Well, I haven’t posted my health report for quite some time. I got off the diet and have been a little embarrassed by the results. I went from a low of 213 all the way up to 234. I can blame my vacation and many other things, but it comes down to the fact that I simply quit. Anyway, I’m hitting it hard again. The possibility of heading to Kenya has got it into my mind again that I need to do this. There’s no doubt that it would be beneficial to have the weight off.

So that leads me to today. I am currently 227 pounds. That’s a loss of around 7 pounds in less than a week. It’s always nice kicking off the diet because the first pounds drop off so quickly. Then, it slows down.

I’m leaving the picture with red text. Green has always meant loss, but I’m not considering it loss till I’m back down to where I was.

Well, I haven’t posted my health report for quite some time. I got off the diet and have been a little embarrassed by the results. I went from a low of 213 all the way up to 234. I can blame my vacation and many other things, but it comes down to the fact that I simply quit. Anyway, I’m hitting it hard again. The possibility of heading to Kenya has got it into my mind again that I need to do this. There’s no doubt that it would be beneficial to have the weight off.

So that leads me to today. I am currently 227 pounds. That’s a loss of around 7 pounds in less than a week. It’s always nice kicking off the diet because the first pounds drop off so quickly. Then, it slows down.

I’m leaving the picture with red text. Green has always meant loss, but I’m not considering it loss till I’m back down to where I was.

Last week I was away for church business for a few days and when I returned this blog remained untouched as I caught up on work. So, this week’s health update comes two weeks after the previous one. That’s my build up for my explanation. From two weeks ago, I’m up 0.4 pounds. However, from last week when I didn’t blog, I’m actually down 6 pounds. Yeah, I gained some weight on my trip. It’s mostly back off now. The current weight resides at 214.2 pounds.

This weekend entails me taking my wife out for her birthday, a family gathering celebrating multiple birthdays in May, and of course Memorial Day. If I would have stayed on track I could be closing in on 200 instead of losing the same five pounds again and again.

On Facebook? The original post resides at www.focusedjourney.com.

I really fought for this weight loss. Dumb to say, but psychologically it was extremely difficult. I just want to eat something that was different and tasted good. I did my best and thankfully was able to get some weight loss. I am currently at 213.8 pounds. That is a loss of 2.2 pounds from last week. It’s also my new low.

Next week I’m taking a trip for my church and will be eating out multiple times. I’m going to try to get into the workout room at my hotel and be cautious on my food intake, but I’m still not looking forward to next Friday’s weigh day.

The graphic screams my frustration. Up 2 pounds to 216. I can’t seem to break this barrier. Not saying I did a great job all week but overall I did pretty well. I need to sit down and really reevaluate what I’m doing.

On Facebook? The original post resides at www.focusedjourney.com.

I’m writing this Friday health update and to be honest, I’m a little depressed in writing it. As the graphic shows, I lost one pound. That’s success I know, but it’s a lot less than I wanted. I know the factors that played into it only being one pound.

1. We had a Valentine dinner at church. I worked it, but I also ate it.
2. Valentine’s Day itself was calorically bad.
3. The leftovers from Valentine’s Day were also calorically bad.

I have been overweight a long time, but last week I dropped four pounds. I’ve read enough to know that four pounds is an amazing amount to lose in one week, especially since I haven’t really started exercising yet (it’s beginning soon). Yet, I’m human and had mentally psyched myself up with thoughts of dropping below 220 in two weeks. Unrealistic I know, but that’s what I was thinking.

Another one of the struggles is summed up in two words, Auntie Anne’s. As yesterday’s post so eloquently states, I had to find a new pair of running shoes. The heel is falling off the pair I’m wearing now. Added craziness, I’m still wearing the old ones until the mud and melting snow dries up so I don’t get the new ones covered in mud. As I searched for a pair, I found myself at the mall still trying to find a basic shoe at a good price. The journey led me past Auntie Anne’s pretzels. I am a bread and pretzel lover and nothing screams to me like a hot pretzel dripping with melted butter. I whipped out my phone and checked online for calorie information. One pretzel was 370 calories. You could drop some calories by omitting the butter but that defeats the purpose of the pretzel. It was a battle supreme as I debated whether or not to get one. The fact is that I had enough calories in my budget to eat one. Yet, I didn’t get one. I don’t know what depressed me more, the fact that I’m overweight and I have to count calories or that I had enough calories left to get one but I didn’t.

On the exercise note, we just got Wii Fit and the balance board. Google Wii Fit if you have no clue what I’m talking about. Around here it’s been impossible to find. We’ve called Best Buy several times on Sunday afternoons after seeing their advertisement in the paper only to have the person on the phone basically laugh at us. Every time they were sold out within moments of the store opening. Even online it’s been difficult. The only places I could find them were selling them for over forty dollars more than the retail price. Sorry, I can wait. Anyway, Wednesday morning I got an email from Amazon.com stating that they had received a shipment of Wii game systems. I figured there was a good chance that they might have gotten the Wii Fit in stock too. I was right. I ordered and chose free shipping which means it was going to be a week or so until we got it. It came last night. Major shout out for Amazon and UPS for having it get to us in one day. Played with it last night. It can’t replace a gym, but it was fun and got me moving. It’s a good start.

Well, that’s enough for now. I try to limit myself to writing about my health and weight to once a week since this isn’t a diet blog. Yet, it is part of my journey.


Reading this on Facebook? The original post resides at www.focusedjourney.com.

Just a quick entry on my weight progress. Today’s weight is 227.4. That’s over 4 pounds of loss this week. Can’t even describe how good it feels to blow goal number one away. Even better, my low last summer was 228, but that came after a week of fighting the flu. I’m below that without the aid of sickness. I haven’t consistently weighed in the 220’s since college.


Reading this on Facebook? The original post resides at www.focusedjourney.com.

It’s been a long time, but I was posting my progress on my “healthy eating lifestyle” on this blog as a way of being accountable. Health is part of the journey we are on. Anyway, I stopped posting for a simple reason. I stopped working on it and started gaining. Since the beginning of this year I have been working on it better than I ever have before. We have a nice two week menu rhythm going on now with some flexibility to change it up when our tastes need it. I am currently at 231.6 pounds.

Right before I started again I weighed and was back up to 249. That was my motivation. Looking back through my blog, I saw that I had actually reached 230 last September. I know for a fact that I hit 228 last summer, but that was after a week of fighting the flu and barely eating. So, I’m happy where I’m at and I’m hoping that by next week I’ll drop into the 220’s. That 230 mark is one of my first goals. Dropping under 220 is goal number 2. That’s what I weighed in college. After that, the next goal is that magic 200 mark.

I survived all day Wednesday and I thought I was going to survive this round of sickness. After church, I didn’t feel right but I chalked that up to still being tired from the previous days. Thursday morning proved that my thoughts were wrong. After spending six hours alternating between bed and kissing my toilet, I was finally able to move to my chair. The rest of the day was a combination of back pain, nausea, and a monster headache. Good day.

Another weigh day. I lost .4 pounds. Yeah, make sure that you read that little dot. This was a really bad week so I’m happy that my weight didn’t go up. Going to be heading to a ministers gathering this week so this next week will be tough. Got to keep it up though.

The blog has been a little quiet as I worked through a week long stint at substituting in addition to my responsibilities at the church. I’m really looking forward to heading out to the Forum next week. It’s good to have a few days to hang out with other ministers.

Another weigh day. I lost .4 pounds. Yeah, make sure that you read that little dot. This was a really bad week so I’m happy that my weight didn’t go up. Going to be heading to a ministers gathering this week so this next week will be tough. Got to keep it up though.

The blog has been a little quiet as I worked through a week long stint at substituting in addition to my responsibilities at the church. I’m really looking forward to heading out to the Forum next week. It’s good to have a few days to hang out with other ministers.

I had a great day with my Servant Core student leadership team today. Did some training and then some dreaming about the future of our youth group. God’s doing some great things and I want to see them continue.

Anyway, today is Saturday and weigh day. My current weight is 231.4. That’s a 1.4 pound loss from last week. I was really looking forward to breaking that 230 mark, but it looks like I have to wait. Actually, I’m quite glad for the loss that I had. Had a bad day during the week, but overall I was good this week. Unfortunately today was bad and Monday won’t be great since it’s Labor Day. Gotta keep hitting it though.

According to my stats I have some new readers. Thanks for stopping by. On Saturdays I usually post my weight. Wacky I know. I lost 30 pounds last summer and then stopped. Over the course of the year I crept back up 10 lbs. Looking at the scale finally got me fired up to do it again. I have a long way to go but at least I feel mentally ready again. So, a week ago I started up again on my diet. I post the weight here for two reasons. First, it’s accountability. Nothing’s more embarrassing than having to post a huge weight gain. There’s been several times in the past where the thought of posting my weight kept me from blowing it one day. It may sound crazy, but it helps. Second, I talked with my youth once about being open and honest before God and others. My desire and need to lose weight is simply reality. I don’t want to hide that. I want to run and have fun with my children without getting tired so easily. So, long explanation for why I do this.

So, the weight for this week is 232.8. The digital scale keeps me from interpreting the number like my old dial scale allowed me. That’s a loss of 2.8 pounds which is healthy weight loss. So, there we have it.

One final note. If there is a Saturday where I don’t post, feel free to leave a comment or email me asking me why. Even that thought gives me motivation to make sure I keep hitting it hard.

I can honestly say this has been the worst vacation of my life. An entire week spent recuperating from a back injury, and the process isn’t even completed yet. Just so things are updated, I am moving much better. Getting out of a chair and off the couch are no longer a battle between desire and pain. Yes, to get off the couch I had to roll onto the floor and land on my knees. After that, I would slowly use my hands to walk up the wall. Feels really good just to stand normally. I still have some knots in my back that are causing some pain, but usually only after I stand for awhile. So I’m moving around a lot better, I just can’t do it for long periods of time.

I’ve been talking about how I wanted to relax on my vacation, and this forced me to do it to the extreme. I was able to read a novel just for the pleasure of reading. I was able to clean up and organize a ton of family recipes on my computer. And, today, I was able to leave my children with their grandparents and take my wife out to lunch at a great little Hungarian cafe. By the time we got home my back drove me to my chair, but it was worth it to have some time just to talk with my wife.

It’s hard to realize my vacation is over when it feels like it never began, but so goes life.

Still on vacation. Still in pain. Moving better, but it’s coming slowly.

My vacation started two days ago on Thursday. A week to relax, spend time with my family, and have some fun. My first project was to help my parents clean out their shed. No problem. My lower back started hurting right afterward. Sore from the work. It’s been sore before. By that night I could barely get off the chair. Friday I had to make a trip and I could barely walk. Then, looking in the mirror, I realized from the waist up my body was crooked. Strange sight. Thankfully, I found a chiropractor that was open on Saturdays. Several adjustments later and I think I’m starting to get better. I can walk better and rise from a chair easier. There’s inflammation and that is still causing problems. Hopefully it will die down soon. So, here I am on vacation and I’ve been pretty much relegated to sitting in my chair or lying on the couch.

It’s been a long time since I recorded about my diet. Well, I sort of quit before Novemeber, but I just picked it up again. Good news, my recorded low on this blog was 230. As you can see, my weight as of yesterday is 231.4. At least I haven’t gained it all back. That would be a little depressing. I’m hitting hard though. First major goal is to hit below 220. Then, down below 200. The saddest part? I had the flu about two months ago and when it was over I was around 223. So close. Anyway, I’ll get there.

Oh, we bought a new digital scale. No more “interpreting” the dial to make yourself feel better.

UPDATE: Looking back, I saw a tiny entry that said 228. Oops.