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.
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.
Last Saturday saw the culmination of the twelve week long Gold's Challenge, which I joined back in January to provide some encouragement and accountability for me with my challenge. When we started this adventure they took a series of measurements and a couple of photos. This past Saturday they took more photos and re-measured me. Do you want to know the scores so far?
Ok, so here is where we have come.
Initial weight = 314lbs -:- Present weight = 267lbs -:- total loss = 47lbs
Measurement around stomach = dropped 7 inches in girth
Measurement around waist = dropped 3 inches in girth
Measurement around thigh = dropped 3 inches in girth
You want to see some photos?
Here we go
NOW THE MOST EXCITING NEWS SO FAR!
This challenge has not been a simple weight loss adventure - it has a much more important challenge - to see 210 children sponsored through Compassion International. On Sunday April 18th at Mt Oak Fellowship we had our Compassion Sunday services. I had asked Compassion to send em child sponsorship packets for children in El Salvador who are in need of sponsors. They sent me 70 packets.
We held our two services, with the wonderful David Burke as our guest speaker and through the grace of God and the generosity of our congregation, 69 out of the 70 packets were taken home by people with the intent of sponsoring these children.
THAT IS AMAZING!!!
I am sure that there may be a few packets returned next Sunday, but our congregation has been inspired and they stepped up this past Sunday to rescue children from poverty.
If all 70 of these children are sponsored then I am 1/3 of the way to achieving my sponsorship goal. WOW! That is amazing.
When I started this challenge I set my sights big - lose 100lbs and inspire 210 people to sponsor children. I am nearly half way there on the weight loss and 1/3 of the way there on the sponsorship. This is a time for celebration, but also a time to push through to the end and see both goals met.
If you would like to support this cause and sponsor a child then follow this link (http://www.sponsorshipchallenge.org/210in2010) and take a step towards rescuing a child from poverty today.
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.
So I was minding my own business Monday morning when I innocently posted on Facebook that I was heading to the gym later that afternoon. PING! I get an invite to join my buddy and his wife at an exercise class called "Body Pump". Now I have heard a little about Body Pump - most of it involved "lots of reps" and "really tiring". The limited observations I have had of the classes it looked like the spawn of a love encounter between Richard Simmons (step aerobics) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (weight lifting). Being the fearless adventurer I agreed to join them and to take my first "Body Pump" class.
How short my memory is when it comes to classes with the name 'Les Mills' associated with them. I should have read the first blog I wrote after taking my first RPM class - it would have helped prepare me. So let me give you the run down.
We set up our 'steps' and laid out our mats - one for you to lie on (this was certainly an attractive idea) and the other was for your barbell to rest on. If the weights need their own mat to rest on, this can only mean bad things are about to happen to my muscles. Why do the weights need to rest - they aren't doing any of the work - are they?
Our instructor arrives and she is ready to go. She looks like she has been mainlining Verve or some other 5 hour energy drink. She reminded me of some of the stuffed animals my kids have where you pull the string in their back and let them go. Well, someone had pulled her string and she was off. This however is not a bad thing - if you are about to put people through 60 minutes of misery then you should be excited about it - it is the only way to get everyone to stay with you.
So we started with the music pumping and the instructions to follow the leader coming across the microphone. Here is where 'Body Pump' met the 'Dopy Bump' - ME! I am a relatively coordinated individual but now I was trying to follow the instructor moving arms and legs, check my 'form' in not one, but two mirror walls and all the time not drop the weighted bar in my hands. I was going up, when she was going down. I was curling while she was rowing. It was all a little confusing. The worst thing that I think that crossed my mind was that the class participant in front of me was only 5 feet tall and really didn't provide much cover for my unskilled maneuvers to hide behind.
The warm-up ended - yes, that was just the warm-up. In true sadistic Les Mills fashion, the following 55 minutes was a whirl of weights, steps, reps and muscles pumped full of lactic acid. So that was what this was all about - pumping up my muscles with a waste product - nice.
The most difficult part of the class for me was not related to the weights or the timing, it was trying to balance my delicate frame on the aforementioned step that we had laid out before we began. We were instructed to lie down on the 'step' to perform our triceps routine. I lay down as instructed and my head fell off the end of the step, practically hitting the floor. In my attempt to slide down I found one little issue. We had placed exercise mats on our steps for comfort. What I soon learned was that these mats don't slide too well on the steps, and the human body (at least mine) didn't slide too well on the mat. Long story short, in an effort to reposition myself along the step so my head was actually resting on something other than the floor I skootched (yes, skootched) down the step, and my shorts, for some reason known only to themselves, decided to stay where they were. So, here we all are, lying on our steps, pushing our weight bar over our heads, and I am the only one in the room with a self inflicted wedgie - oh the joy.
Finishing the track we rolled up off our steps, some with more grace than others - well, than me, and everyone stood up preparing for the next track. As surreptitiously as possible I retrieved my drawers from their new storage location and continued as best I could with the class.
I must say, the class was fun, if not a little difficult to follow along with, especially with my lack of coordination. The one thing that did surprise me was the after effects. I left the class feeling like I had worked out but not completely exhausted. I decided to jump on the treadmill and do 20 minutes of fast incline walking. I finished that, stopped at the grocery store and headed for home.
After sitting down for 30 minutes or so to eat dinner I tried to stand up. That is when I realized that the long stumps attached to my hips no longer worked. My legs were doing their best Elvis impersonation - they left the building. So I pretty much stayed on the sofa for the remainder of the evening and having contemplated sleeping there too, I dragged myself upstairs and collapsed. I guess there is something to this Body Pump stuff.
I guess this Dopy Bump will just have to go back to another class for more punishment.
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.
It was a decade of wide bottomed trousers, plaid pants, big hair, and even bigger soles on your shoes. It was 10 years where music transitioned from the ethereal sound of bands like Yes, or Asia or even Major Tom by Bowie through to the steady beat of the disco era and John Travolta strutting his stuff on Saturday night fever to the outrageous anarchy of the punk bands.
The 70's were a decade of transition, a decade of change, a decade that many look back to with nostalgia and many more look back to and try to forget. The 70's for me were a decade of transition when we made the move from rural Indiana to Belfast, Northern Ireland. When I made the move from the US public school system to the NI school system. It was a time of change.
Right now I have entered a new 70's phase - a decade that I haven't seen in a long time. The 70's I have entered is the 270's - pounds that is. I mentioned last time that I have dipped below the 280lb mark and it is official, this is the week I will reside in the 70's and maybe just for a little while next week too. I dont want to stay here too long though, while the 70's were fun, they were nothing to match the 60's and the wild time that was had by one and all then. So I am headed to the 60's, I am headed to a place I have not been in a long time.
Posts
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.
