FITNESS FRIDAY!!

While I readily recognize that I by no means am going to be gracing the cover of a Men's Health magazine anytime I soon; I do greatly value fitness, eating healthy and strive to take care of myself as best as I can.  So, with that in mind, I am setting aside Friday's on our blog to talk about things related to health and fitness; not because I am an expert but because it is something I care about and wish someone would have clued me in on earlier in life.

For those who may not know some of my story, when I got married almost 9 years ago, I weighed in at roughly 320 lbs (I am not 7'4" so that's not a healthy weight).  It hurt when I walked, I got out of breath going up stairs, I wouldn't go to the beach because I was embarrassed, and I greatly lacked confidence in who I was.  I walked around ashamed of who I was, and so to escape that shame, I ate.  And ate. And ate some more.

Me back in the day...yikes!!!!!

Than, one day, soon after my wife and I got hitched, I stepped on a scale, and it was like God peeled back the scales on my eyes and I saw who I had become.  I decided than and there that I was going to do something about it.  I started making better nutritional decisions; and getting active.  I immediately eliminated all fast food, fried food, soda, and began walking.  This dropped me down to 280 lbs in about 2 months.  I lost weight quickly and with the weight loss came immediate confidence and a desire to see more weight come off.

My wife and I moved to New Orleans soon after we got married and we decided that instead of cable, we would invest in our health, which is when I went from walking to running (thank you elliptical machines for helping me transition) and shed another 30 lbs.  When Katrina hit and we lost everything and relocated back to Tampa, FL - that was where I began plateauing some, even though my fitness level increased.  I started running all the time, but I allowed some of the bad food back in my life - and so it was a bit of a push.  I would run hard in the morning, but eat less than stellar throughout the day and see little to no progress in my waistline.

I have never dropped below 200 lbs healthily (I have in the past been below that number, but it was due to fasting - which is not about weight and never a good way to lose poundage) and that is my new goal.

Since my family relocated to North Carolina, I have made excuse after excuse about why I am not working out, and I am back to feeling like each day I live in guilt about how I ate and behaved the day before.  No more excuses and no more laziness.  Today, as I went to the gym for the first time in awhile, I remembered something I believe God taught me a long time ago;  if our bodies are truly TEMPLES (which the Bible says that they are) and we are to care for them (which it encourages us to do) than of course Satan would try and attack our bodies through food and self-indulgence.  He would try and make us feel lazy, guilty, ashamed and embarrassed about who we are.  He would whisper lies into our ears about how we can't, won't, or shouldn't get out and get active  He would make that ice cream, or pizza look so much better than it ever tastes.  And we are all too eager to allow ourselves to be deceived and we become worshippers of our stomachs, just like the Corinthians.

Here's me and my lovely bride today!!

So, today - I repented of worshiping my stomach, and for laziness - and I am done with excuses!!

I have decided that because of some knee pain I have had from a slip at work, I am going to run a little, but not push that too much, so my knee can recover, but I am going to begin swimming!  We pay a bunch of money every month for a membership at the YMCA - and I am going to begin swimming. It is a full body exercise, and super difficult and something I have never really tried to do for healthy reasons.

Today I swam 250 meters, it took me about 8 1/2 minutes and between each 50m lap, I had to stop and breathe.  My hope is by next "Fitness Friday" I will be able to say it took me less time, and I was able to go a little further!

My encouragement for everyone reading this, is to do two things this week:

1 - PRAY before you eat - and I am not talking about a recited prayer or "thanking God" for this food.  That's fine, but I mean search the heart of the Lord and see if what you are about to put into your body will benefit and help, or destroy?  Slow down and make food choices carefully and don't allow what tempts the eye or nose to lead you down the wrong path.

2 - GET OUT and do something - whether it is walking, jogging, riding a bike, swimming, sit-ups, pilates, or even stretching - just try to do SOMETHING active for a set amount of time each day!