By day an Associate Professor in Physical Therapy at Marymount University. By night a husband to my beautiful wife Julie, a dad to my wonderful daughters Cara and Emma. A servant of Christ trying to build the kingdom.
So, after a furious bout of writing for my other blog, and a Sunday morning sermon shared with my beautiful wife, I am back in the gym and hitting the cardio harder than ever. I recently blogged about my venture into P90X and to be honest, I may pick it up again. However, I have become one of the millions who started the program and stopped it, but probably one of the few who have stopped because they were not losing enough weight.
When I began P90X I was hoping that it would be the workout that would take me through the end of my challenge and help me achieve my goal. Sadly, even though they were awesome workouts, my weight loss stalled at 40,000 feet. I needed to jumpstart everything again and this week decided that I would increase my workout to a daily 1000+ calorie burn workout with a heavy emphasis on the cardio aspect but still working to include as much weight work as possible.
What a week it has been! So far I am on track with this new plan and so far the weight loss has begun again. Woohoo!! I have a little over 20 days to go and about 29lbs to lose, which, to be honest is not really healthy, but I am going to give it my best shot.
I would also like to re-issue a challenge to all my readers (well both of you) that you consider sponsoring a child through Compassion or, if you already do, then that you would take the challenge to find a sponsor for a child among your friends. I would love to reach my goal of weighing 210lbs by October 20th 2010, but I would even more like to achieve my goal of inspiring the sponsorship of 210 kids.
Next week is the Catalyst East Coast leadership conference in Atlanta GA and there will be approximately13,000 pastors and leaders in attendance. I have volunteered to help out at the Compassion International booth while we are there and I am still hopeful that my story will be told from mainstage during one of the sessions. At this point, my part in this adventure is to continue to work as hard as I can to try to reach my weight, I know that God asked me to step into this adventure and the care of the children and the challenge of sponsorship is something that He can do. I covet your prayers and encouragement for the next few weeks.
If anyone is interested in joining me and Julie on a little celebration meal at the end of this month then start setting some money aside as I have my eyes set on Fogo Du Chao in DC for a night of belly busting food. Just let me know.
I twittered this recently but thought it was worthy of a full post on my blog. There is something so innocent and wonderful about kids and this past week I experienced that with my oldest daughter. Cara came into my bedroom the other day as I was putting on my t-shirt and she stopped right in front of me, reached both hands out and placed them on either side of my stomach. With a surprised exclamation she shouted out, "Daddy, where has your big belly gone?"
This was the cutest thing I had heard in a long time, however I had a moment where I realized that I needed to make sure my answer was something that would not frighten her, but something that she could handle. You see, about two weeks ago we had to say goodbye to our faithful family dog who, from just before Christmas, had lost a lot of weight due to liver disease. I didnt want to say anything that in Cara's little mind would somehow connect Daddy's loss of his belly, with Ollie's loss of weight. In a moment of inspiration I told her that "my big belly had been mean to me and he wasn't my friend anymore." This satisfied her and she left me in piece to continue getting dressed.
Later that morning, as we were sitting on the sofa downstairs, Cara pointed out her discovery of my loss of belly to her mom. "Look mommy, Daddy's belly is gone.." which would have been perfect had she just stopped there. But, 5 year olds have the amazing ability to say it like it is and, as she leaned down on my now reduced stomach, she realized that there seemed to be more to lose. She grabbed my remaining belly fat in between her two hands and said, "I guess you need to keep going until you lose this part too!"
Great, one moment she is my biggest encouragement, the next she is my biggest critic. I wasn't put off by this latest comment, but struck by the simple honesty and truth of her words. When I set myself this challenge, I didnt set it to get half way and feel so good about myself that I just stop and do complete the task. No, I set myself a goal, and I need to keep my eyes on that goal. I set myself the target of 210lbs. I went to the gym today and weighed in - 256lbs. That is 58 pounds in almost 5 months - a little ahead of my target of 10lbs a month.
The goal is still 210lbs, and with the simple words of my daughter in my ears I will be setting off on the second half of my journey with renewed enthusiasm and rekindled desire for success. 210 in 2010 here we come.
As I have continued to say, the weight loss is only the inspiration to encourage people to sponsor a child through Compassion - I need a lot more people to do that. If you are interested in becoming a child sponsor please follow the links on this site to Compassion and begin to change the life of a child today.
Wow! It has been a while since I was on here telling my story. A lot has gone down since my last post - including my weight. I hopped on the scales this morning and read the number 259.4lbs - I AM BELOW 260!!!
What a great feeling to know that despite traveling to a conference (not eating the best of stuff while there, nor exercising), almost traveling to Belfast (another long story that I will blog about on my other site) and then juggling my girls, my jobs and my life, that I have still managed to continue to drop my weight and reach an all time low weight for me. I dont think I have weighed in the 250's since I was in my 20's. So excited.
In other news: Dione and I traveled to Atlanta for the Orange conference - pretty great stuff, and I had the chance to meet with Ken Coleman from Catalyst and continue to share my journey on this adventure. He is working on a piece for Catalyst 2010 in October where all being well, I will have a chance to inspire more people to step up and sponsor. I also had the chance to hang out with Aaron Foster (one of the Catalyst team) and it was kind of strange to have people say, "Hey, you are the guy from the podcast! How's it going?" Going to check out some supplement stuff that Aaron uses so when we get to the summer and the last push to lose that final 30lbs or so I have all the right nutrients in place.
I met Mr Jinnohara, the father of one of my students, who lives in Hawaii and heard my story through the Catalyst podcast. That was a trip. it really brought home to me that through the power of media, this message is being spread and people are being inspired.
The most encouraging thing that happened recently occurred only a few days ago. I was sitting with some faculty colleagues in between meetings and they asked what my blog was all about. It was great to share with them my journey this far. Very exciting.
Finally for this little update - I received a message from one of our new sponsors who was very excited that she had received her first letter from her sponsor child. She was thrilled, and I was so happy that not only was her sponsor child now being cared for, but that her sponsor was also being blessed through the communication.
I do need some help though. If you go to a church that you think would be interested in sponsoring children and would allow me a short amount of time to share my story and provide opportunity for them to get involved then please, please, please get in touch with me. At this point I think there are somewhere around 70 children who have been sponsored through 210 in 2010, but my goal is to reach 210 by October. It is time to push the boat out and find more sponsors.
Thank you all for your encouragement and your support. This has been an awfully big adventure.
On Sunday we showed a simple video that we compiled to highlight what 210 in 2010 is all about. We hope that you will catch the vision and be inspired to get involved in sponsoring a child through Compassion International.
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor then please visit http://www.sponsorshipchallenge.org/210in2010 and select the child that is on the left hand side. You can follow the links to find a child that you want to sponsor and then follow the instructions.
So, regular visitors to this site will notice that I exchanged the Compassion International banner from the top of the page with a GREAT SPONSORSHIP CHALLENGE picture. This picture is also a link to my Sponsorship page. How cool is that
The Great Sponsorship Challenge is a new web site that Compassion International have set up where people, like me, who are trying to inspire other folk to sponsor kids can go and register to sponsor a child and know that their sponsored child will count against the appropriate challenge. I set my self a goal of getting 210 sponsors and so far I know of 1 who started already, but many others who are interested in sponsoring children.
If you attend Mt Oak Fellowship then you will have the chance to sponsor kids on Saturday April 17th and Sunday April 18th if you attend our FAMILY FUN NIGHT (Saturday) or church services (Sunday).
If you DO NOT attend Mt Oak, or you know you wont be able to attend either of the two dates in April then you can now go to my Sponsorship Challenge Site and select a child and begin the process of rescuing a child from poverty.
What an amazing opportunity we have to change the world, one life at a time.
So, what say ye?
Is it time to save a life and rescue a child? Sign up today.
Well, it is about time! It has been a very busy two weeks that have kept me away from my blogs - and there are so many things going around in my head that I hope I have the strength in my arms to put down here in print.
Now where were we when we were last together? Ah yes, I had just made it into the 270's region and had stepped into a new frontier. Well, my progress has continued and I have reached the last bastion of the 70's with my most recent weight reading as 270.2lbs. Only a day or so before I will cross that new frontier and enter the 260's. Wow, haven't been that slim since some time last century.
Ok, so news updates. I received 60 packets of information on children that are in need of sponsorship through Compassion International. If you are seriously interested in sponsoring please drop me a not back on this blog - I know that Heather couldn't wait and has already begun sponsoring her child. It is going to be an amazing next few weeks as the reality hits the road and people step forward to rescue a life. It is going to be an awesome month.
Saturday April 17th will be our FAMILY FUN NIGHT at Mt Oak when we want to invite everyone to come out and have a good time playing carnival games and learning more about child sponsorship. On Sunday April 18th at our 8:45 and 10:30am services we will spend our time together hearing more about Compassion and of course, there will be an opportunity to sign up and sponsor a child.
This is the time when I really want to encourage people to step up and talk about sponsorship to their friends and lets get these kids taken care of.
I will write a new blog about a new training experience that I took on tonight - Body Pump! I have never met Les Mills (the guy who came up with Body Pump and RPM) but after this evening's session I am sure that he must be wanted in many countries for crimes against people's muscles. I ache - but you need to check back tomorrow to read about that.
This quick post - a reminder to get the kids sponsored.
Hi faithful followers, and fellow fat losers. That is - losers of fat, and not losers who are fat - that would be rude. Anyhoo, my beautiful wife and I took a break last week from everything - kids, work, church, Maryland, electronics - everything but each other and took ourselves out to Las Vegas for a few days. I was really looking forward to having this free time with Julie but I was a little concerned that the saying of 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' wouldn't quite apply to the calories we would consume and I didn't want what I ate in Vegas to make the plane journey back to MD with me.
One thing that this challenge has definitely done has made me much more conscious of what I eat and how long it will take me to sweat those calories off, so 4 days of eating out in restaurants and the like could have been a set back. Having said that, I am the one who is in control of my arms and hands so if I dont put it near my mouth then I wont eat it. We stayed at a beautiful hotel (without a casino) with a fully kitted out fitness center - and I made sure I got a work out in at least on 2 of the days we were there. The other days our exercise consisted of walking, walking, more walking, climbing stairs, walking some more, climbing down stairs followed by a last little bit of, yup you guessed it, walking.
The highlight of our trip for me was the day we spent at the Grand Canyon. Wow! That is one impressive hole in the ground! As I stood at the top looking to the canyon floor some mile or so below me I was drawn to the notion of how good it must be to be able to walk down to the bottom and look up at the rim towering above you. We were only there for a few hours so that wasn't possible - plus the amount of snow on the trails would have made for an interesting decent. I did hear myself say though, "You know, it would be a great guy's trip some time to come out here with some good friends and hike to the bottom for a a few days and hang out by the river." The words were out of my mouth and I was a surprised as my wife that I was even considering the possibility of walking the 7-8 miles of trails down the 1 mile vertical decent to the canyon floor. But maybe next year that will be an option. Anyone want to come?
So, getting back to the challenge - well, to my great delight what I ate in Vegas was passed in Vegas and I didn't bring any extra of me back to MD - in fact I lost a pound while I was out there. Today when I stepped on the scales I achieved another milestone. Today's weight was 284.5lbs - that is only 1/2 a pound away from a total drop of 30lbs, and 3.5lbs under my driver's license weight - my 10 year old driver's license which is up for renewal in October.
So after a week of quality Julie and me time, a week when we reach another target and a week when I have been contacted by people from all parts of the country (thanks to the Catalyst podcast and blog) I am ready for the next few weeks. I am ready to reach the 40lb drop and the 50lb drop. I am also looking forward to the Compassion International Sunday when we will hopefully see a lot of children sponsored.
For those of you who have been following this challenge from the beginning, you will know that the inspiration for me starting this challenge came from a conference I attended in October 2009. I watched a young man recount his story of how as a young boy he was a sponsored child with Compassion International and how his sponsor faithfully wrote to him, encouraged him, supported him and now he was in training to return to his home village to help the people there. Moments later they brought out his sponsor and 10,000 people melted along with Jimmy as he openly wept with gratitude and thankfulness for this stranger who had supported him.
So fast forward to today and I am driving in my truck heading back from clinic listening to the podcast from the Catalyst team - Brad Lomenick and Ken Coleman - when they go to a piece where they talk about e-mails people have sent in. Ken begins to read an e-mail by an Associate Professor from Arlington, VA - IT WAS MY E-MAIL!!!
You can listen to the segment here I could not believe it. They want to put my Challenge on the catalyst web site and help me find the 210 sponsors!!! Unbelievable. Thank you God - this is going to be an awesome experience.
should really be done on a bicycle. (Jason's proverbs)
You know, our society screams at us everyday. Most of those screams we ignore or tune out in the hope that insanity will not beset us, but there are some screams that are louder, more attractive, and packaged more prettily than others. Those screams are the numerous weight loss advertisements and pitches for the right product for you.
I wonder as I watch the latest celebrity to strut their stuff on 'Jenny Craig' why we never see them sweating their butts off (literally) in the gym. Why we don't see the camera shot cut to a sweating blob attempting to get one leg in front of the other before the treadmill ejects him (or her) off the back of it and into a wall. You know you would laugh at that, but would it sell you the idea of what weight loss and good health is? I doubt it. It is much better to think that we can write a check, wait for the mail carrier to deliver a box of food to our door that we are then rationed on until the next delivery. Didn't something like this already happen during the great wars? The only difference in these rations is that of course you need to go and buy the main ingredients for your newly acquired diet before you assemble the pieces.
Why is it so difficult to limit the amount of things we put in our mouths? Is it really more difficult than that? Isn't there a simple philosophy that is you want to lose weight then don't eat more than you are willing to burn off. Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist and explodes over their keyboard about the importance of balancing the major food groups accurately (coffee, chocolate and cake - any type of cake) I understand all that stuff - even the conflicting information which Al Gore's invention provides into our homes.
What I have noticed is that the self-discipline of restricting calorie intake seems to be too difficult for many to cope with as they abdicate responsibility to Jenny or others to package their food, prepare it and eat it. This abdication allows us to blame someone else when it doesn't work - when our results are not what we see on-screen but are much more typical. We follow someone else's plan so we can blame them for our failure. It's the American dream.
So let's flip this thought of taking responsibility to the whole point of my endeavor this year - to see children rescued from lives of poverty and given a chance to have access to food, shelter, basic healthcare and to build up and support these families as they raise these precious little children.
Have you considered sponsoring a child through Compassion International? What has stopped you? What argument have you used to abdicate your responsibility of being in the top few percent of wealthy people in the world and yet not willingly sharing some of your wealth to support a child who struggles just to eat every day? Check out Compassion International's web site and see what this group is all about. I am supporting them because they work with local organizations to support entire families as they support these precious children.
Are you willing to sponsor a child and make a difference? Are you maybe not in a position to support a child long term, but maybe could give a one time gift to support the work of Compassion? Don't listen to the arguments that will rationalize why you need to spend your money on food that your diet says you shouldn't have anyway. Take some time and make a donation. GO TO THE DONATE LINK ON THIS BLOG AND HELP THE CAUSE!
So we are well on our way with our challenge and I have some very important news to announce - I am working with Compassion International to identify a country and a region where we can sponsor all our children from. Why is this big news? Well, if we sponsor a number of children from one region then we could potentially plan and take a trip to help serve these children in a real practical way.
Now that would be awesome!!
Can you imagine the joy that we could bring to just one child by sponsoring them? Now let's magnify that to sponsoring that one child, and their best friend who lives next door? Now add the little girl they play with who lives down the street. Pretty quickly as a group, we could sponsor a lot of children from the same village or town, or even region. Now, keep that imagination going and come with me on a mission trip in a summer or two when we go to that region to visit our sponsored children and build them a new church or well, or whatever they need. Now that is a vision I can give towards.
So, I want everyone who reads this to seriously consider sponsoring a child, but dont do anything about it yet. I am working to set up a Compassion International Sunday event in April and by that stage we will have a region identified, a group of children in need of sponsorship and we can collectively take the plunge to serve and reach out to those who need our help.
O yeah, I almost forgot. The milestone reached today was I now weigh 299lbs - I am under 300 and steaming ahead.
I want to begin this post with a government health warning. There are pictures at the end of this post which will seriously make you ill. Please be advised, if you are eating, or have a queezy stomach, better leave this one and come back to it another day.
Anyhoo, for the brave of heart and strong of constitution, this week has seen an increase in the aches in the old body - I knew exercise was bad for me - but also a steeling of the determination to try to inspire as many people as possible to reach out and help children who are living in poverty.
The earthquake in Haiti has heightened the world's awareness of how those living in poverty truly live. The images from the devastation have shown the reality of life for so many children. There have been heart warming stories of rescue and survival, but the overwhelming heartache has been the thought that hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives - and hundreds of thousands of families have been affected, and an already incredible orphan issue has been magnified multiple times.
Derek Torsani, a gifted young man from Mt Oak designed a t-shirt with the simple, but inspirational message of "MY DESIRE IS TO INSPIRE" emblazoned across the front. I bought two of these shirts from Derek. One that fits me now, and one that will fit me in a few months time. I am struck this week by the longevity of the challenge I have set myself, and the determination it will take to achieve it. But, with the images I have witnessed on the tv this week, I am reminded of the fact that for me, there is an end point, a goal, a finish line. For those living in poverty, there is no end in sight.
Well, for a small number of children, we can give them an end point to their suffering. We can give them a brighter future, where their needs are taken care of. We can be the difference in their lives.
Are you ready for some horrifying images? I show you these as a sign of my dedication to this challenge. I have posted these pictures as a humbling declaration that I have lived my life for me, and now it is truly time to make a difference. The British band Delirious? have a some which contains the line, "I'm going to be a history maker in this land..." and this week the cold reality of my challenge has struck me that I want to live out that lyric. I want to be a history maker in this land, and by doing so create a new future for hundreds of children in other lands.
Will you join me? Will you give what you can to end poverty in the life of a child?
The following pictures were taken on Saturday January 16th 2010. I post these as a reminder of my excess and as an inspiration to the change that can occur in one life, and the change that can multiply in hundreds of lives, because of that one change.
So, our week of prayer and fasting is complete, there is food in my body again and my weight rose a little from my fasted weigh-in last Friday. One thing that I have noticed over the past week or so with this challenge of mine is that while I am not focused on my weight, never a healthy thing, I have become more aware of any sort of exercise that I am involved in, and more importantly how it affects me. I have become more conscious of things like heart rate, not just to make sure I have one, but how quickly the old ticker is ticking. I haven't put the title of this post to the test by the way, in case anyone calls child protective services. But I have noticed that I have become more careful with my food intake, with my exercise activities and with scheduling my week to try to include some form of exercise - all good things.
What has been eye opening to me is that while I set myself this challenge and wasn't sure how I was really going to attempt it, I have made choices. Choices that will ultimately over time help me achieve it, or choices that will ultimately help me fail in my quest.
Why does everything in life come down to choices? Why does everything that we say, do, achieve, fail at come down to the choices that we make? Why do we not understand that simple fact? If we make better choices then we put ourselves in a better position to succeed. Now I know that things outside of our control can occur, and we cannot choose for them, but here is the kicker, when the unexpected happens, the important thing is how we choose to react to the unexpected.
I chose to exercise this morning. I chose how hard to push myself. I chose when to stop. I chose what to eat and drink when I returned home. Did I choose wisely?
My 210 in 2010 challenge is not ultimately about my weight loss, that is the vehicle I have chosen to try to inspire people. My challenge is about inspiring people to help those who, by no choice of their own, are unable to support themselves or their families.
You have a choice too. You can choose to help me reach my goal and choose a new path for a child somewhere by going to Compassion International and following the process of sponsoring a child. Or if that is too big a choice at this time then you can join my 210 in 2010 Cause and DONATE to Compassion International by clicking the DONATE button and following the information there.
While I would love for you all to choose option A, or even Option B, there is a third option which is equally as valid. Option C is that you choose to tell one of your co-workers this week about my Cause and about the work that groups like Compassion International are doing.
What do you choose?
P.S. if you really want to count beating your kids as cardio you need to do it for at least 30 minutes - and that is wrong, isn't it?
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