One Pastor's Perspective

Ok, so the last 27 pounds are proving to be the hardest.  I guess that is always the way it is.  I am at 75 pounds right now and still working hard!  In fact, I am writing this blog because Keith White encouraged me to share it.  The kitchen part of this diet, for the most part, is in a good place.  The workout routine is getting there, and one of the first things of which I am reminded is that it doesn’t need to be a ROUTINE.

I am very much a creature of habit.  I think that is why I migrated towards IT and did so well in it before I surrendered to ministry.  When I talk about comfort zones, I am very much talking to myself FIRST and FOREMOST.  I like consistency and normalcy in everything in my life.

HOWEVER … to keep my metabolism off guard, there HAS to be a level of variance.  The experts around me tell me that if I work myself into a rut in my workout, my body will adjust and will not burn calories efficiently.  They are correct.  I lift weights three days a week and, due to my left arm, I cannot vary that too much.  But I haven’t mastered that by any means, so I am guessing that one is okay.  On days that I lift weights, I do 40 minutes on the elliptical machine as my cardio.  Again, I can vary speed and resistance to help with that.  On my non-workout days, I do speed interval (alternating between walking and running) on the treadmill for 45 minutes.  Again, I can vary the times I run within that workout so it seems to be helping.

AND THEN … Lane Johnson of Anytime and I were talking a few weeks ago about how to help the gut situation I have.  The ol’ gut it getting smaller, but I need to work on it.  I know you cannot target train for fat loss, but what I’ve had going on in that area is not good and has not been.  We talked about the crunch machine, a machine that I can use every day.  Lane challenged me to get to the place where I could do 100 crunches a day.

The first day, I did 40 and thought “NO SWEAT!!”  The next day I did 60.  On day three, I literally could not do ONE.  It was so sore I could barely move.  So I took a day or two off.  That led me to the following Monday, where things seemed to turn a corner.  I was able to do 100 that day but it took forever.  From that point on (it was several weeks ago), I have been able to do 100 a day for six days (I do take Sundays off from workout to allow my body a day to rest.  Plus, there is so much else going on every Sunday that I just can’t pull it off).  In the last couple of weeks I have increased the weight and I constantly vary the number of crunches in a single set.

So, I am still working on all of this.  I have gone from a size 44 in pants to 36.  And I am still working on it.  Slowly, but surely.

One of the most often-asked questions of my quest for fitness is “How do you stay motivated?  What helps you keep it going?”  I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, and here is a shot at what I think helps me keep going …

1.  It all started with me finally hitting a place where I was SICK OF BEING SO BIG.  I hit an all-time high on the scale, and honestly started thinking about life and how short it might be if I continued on that track.  Life is a huge motivator.

2.  Diana and I are doing this together.  We are eating basically the same foods.  Makes it so much easier to accomplish since we have the same goals in mind.

3.  THE SCALE.  In the 75-ish pounds I have lost to this point, I have had a few setbacks, but not many.  Haven’t hit any hard walls yet, although I’ve come close.  I am finding if I stay true to the plan, eventually the roadblocks come down.

4.  CLOTHES.  It feels really good to be able to walk into a store and buy clothes off the rack THAT FIT.  Not have to order shirts or search for the shirts I like in extra huge sizes.  It is also a great feeling to try on a pair of pants I bought in March because none of my old jeans fit anymore, and now I find that they look just as bad.  And are falling off of me.  (And I am getting rid of my fat clothes this time.  NOT KEEPING THEM as a fall back, because I really do not plan to get that big again.)

5.  PEOPLE.  People notice.  Some have been encouraging me for months.  Some are just noticing.  Just this week, two different people asked me “Are you losing weight?”  My response:  “A little.”  LOVE IT!!!  All in all, it helps!

6.  I FEEL BETTER.  The more I work out, the more energy I have and the more I am able to do.

And, even if I have a big setback, I KNOW I can do this.  And I know deep down that God wants me to be in good health.  And, honestly, people are much nicer and friendlier when you weigh under a metric ton.

Philippians 4:13 (NIV)  I can do everything through him (Christ) who gives me strength.

Yesterday was a hard day for me.  And I KNOW other parents have done the same, but it was a first for me …  (In fact, I told my mom last night that I know how she feels when all of your kids load up within a matter of hours and go far away …)  And that is what we did:  Sent Drew to Brunswick, GA, and then three hours later saw Krissy off to go back to Clemson.  WOW….  Harder than I thought.

Krissy has been doing the Clemson thing ever since the fall of 2009 when she enrolled at Clemson.  She is now living there, graduated last year, and working on getting into PA school.  I’m kind of used to her leaving after 5 years.

Drew is another story.  He has been gone before, and even been far away, but I’ve never packed him off for an entire summer!!  So yesterday morning there was this feeling in the pit of my stomach all morning.  He left after church and drove down to begin his summer with Golden Isle Ministries.  It was a melancholy day until RA recognition service last night.  As I watched the video of their year in review, I saw pictures of RA camp.  It was the picture of our boys “sinking canoes” that brought it all back to me.  That little fellow with his buddies sinking canoes in Lake Chillywater as me and the other dads watched.  It made me think not only of Drew but about Alex Pettigrew and Matthew Andrews, who are serving down at Garden City Retreat Center (not as far away, but gone for the summer just the same).  I thought about these three young men who have been active at Ebenezer since they were babies and how they have grown up hearing about living God’s will and finding your calling.  And it hit me:  Even though I am sad about not seeing Drew every day this summer, he cannot HELP but do this.  He has been training for this moment for his entire life!!!

So … knowing that he is pursuing God’s will REALLY IS greater than feeling sad about his being gone.  Suddenly there was a peace about this I never had before.  Love how God can take even a hard day and turn it around to His glory!!

I read the other day that you lose weight in the kitchen, you tone and build muscle in the gym.  That is VERY TRUE.  Because I have been doing cardio and lifting weights (at times) in the gym since 2001.  I can only imagine how HUGE I would’ve been if I had not been doing that.  But here is a glimpse at what I’ve been doing since January 3rd, because I DO believe it has a direct impact on my weight loss.

Six days a week, I have a goal to burn 500 or so calories.  On the days when I lift weights (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) I try to burn 400-450 calories on cardio.  I usually do 40 minutes on the elliptical machine at Anytime Fitness, Florence.  I am constantly reminded to mix things up and not get into too many routines, even while doing cardio.  When the body naturally adjusts to what you are doing, even cardio doesn’t have the same impact.  The best thing you can do for your body is mix the routine up.  On days when I am NOT working out, I sometimes mix up the elliptical and treadmill, or walk on the treadmill for 45 minutes, or walk/run on the treadmill for 45 minutes.  If I am unable to get the gym, I walk in my neighborhood and use the Runkeeper app on my iPhone to track distance, time, and calories burned.

WHEN I STARTED cardio, it was all I could do to do 30 minutes at a time.  You have to work your way up, and you CAN do it.  I have found the longer times and distances to be much easier now that I have lost a small village of body weight.

As I wrote before, I lift weights three days a week.  And before you hit the weights, PLEASE talk to someone at your gym for direction.  I have been at Anytime for over two years now, and when I started with weights I had a session with a trainer who was aware of my arm breaks and the hardware that I still carry in my left arm.  He showed me some things I could do that would make an impact and yet not goof my elbow up.  When I was at the Florence Y, the folks there were always ready to help with a machine or schedule a weight orientation.  I cannot stress enough the need to use machines properly and NOT mess your back or other muscles up.  It’s worth taking the time to learn to do it right.

Right now, I am doing a couple of different arm curls, a chest press, an overhead press, leg curls,  and a leg press.  I started small and have worked my way up.  I have also discovered recently that I can now do a push-up.  For a long time after I broke my arms, I could put very little weight on my left arm.  I could only push very little with my left elbow and the pressure felt wrong.  The fact that I can now do a pushup is a direct testament to lifting weights.

If you are looking for a gym, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND Anytime.  Lane Johnson and his staff want to see you succeed!!!  They will show you machines and exercises, challenge and motivate you, and they are all great!  My biggest encouragement is for you to find a gym that you like.  I like Anytime!!!  You find your place…  (If you want a pass to Anytime, email me at davidrwike@gmail.com and I will help you out!!)

I tried to get Diana to be a guest writer on this topic today.  But we were unable to pull this off.  The next logical question is “What are you eating??”  My answer:  GRASS.  Lots and lots of grass.

Untrue.  There are two things about how we are eating:  We are eating more healthy foods, and we are eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner (well, like a prince, too).

A typical morning will find me making a two egg omelette out of Harris Teeter egg product (it is really good, and I have tried others that ARE NOT), turkey sausage crumbles from Jimmy Dean, and 1/8 cup of Sargento Chef Blends 4-State shredded cheese.  Along with that, I have a bowl of Special K Fruit and Yogurt blend OR Banana Nut Cheerios.  Diana fixes an oatmeal with nuts, honey, cinnamon, and craisins.  If we have to vary from this general menu, I try to keep my total breakfast calories between 400 and 500 and the MyFitnessPal app will help with that.

LUNCH finds us not eating out as much as we used to, but if we do it will be at a restaurant where we know we can find something healthy and low calorie.  We find healthy menu items at Chick Fil A, Subway, Wendy’s, Scholtzky’s, McAlister’s Deli, Lizard’s Thicket, and probably another place or two I am forgetting.  Again, I try to keep this meal around 400 calories and use the app OR the restaurant nutritional information as a guide (the app will allow you to enter foods from a restaurant not in their database).  MOST DAYS we eat at home and eat leftovers from supper, or make a salad with Baby Spring Mix from Sams, grilled chicken, feta cheese, and a vinaigrette dressing.  If I eat that for lunch, I will also eat an apple or orange to make sure I am getting close to 400 cals.  Also, we have a chicken salad recipe Diana found on the web that uses Greek yogurt, a little low-fat mayo, salt, pepper, and craisins.  I try to boil a chicken and keep some of that in the fridge too.

DINNER again finds us not eating out as much, but if we do we use the restaurants above.  I am now trying to make sure dinner is NOT the largest meal of the day.  One of the things I have always done before (I think it is a RULE in the South) that we have a BIGGGGG supper.  I try not to have a huge supper and not to eat anything after 7pm if possible.  Some of the things we eat for supper are:  A LEAN hamburger with low fat cheese, grilled chicken (LOTS OF GRILLED CHICKEN), grilled pork or roasted pork loin, mixed veggies, green beans, corn, lima beans, couscous, roasted potatoes, baked potatoes, grilled zucchini, and a variety of other veggies.  We try to eat a balanced meal with one green vegetable and one starch.

The way we manage portion size and calories is we measure the food we eat at home.  If a serving size says 2/3 cup of corn, that is all we get (and that is a lot).  When I eat chicken or pork, I weigh the amount I put on my plate and log the calories accordingly with a food scale we bought a Wal-Mart for $15.

For snacks, we keep apples, oranges, Kind protein bars, strawberries, fruit salad, etc. around.

HONESTLY, there are probably a couple of days a month when I cheat and even then, I try to control portion sizes.  And if it looks REALLY worth it I will have a little dessert.

I am sure I have left out some really important details, but this is a general idea of how we are eating.  And so far it is worth it!!  My doctor approves of this, my blood work a couple of months ago was PHENOMINAL, and it is still working so far …  One of the tricks to keeping it off will be to have a plan for maintaining, and MyFitnessPal has that mode available.  And I plan to keep using it!!

Next time, I will write about what is going on in the gym ….

I really haven’t blogged much about my weight loss.  But lately the only question people ask is “How are you doing this??”  Sometimes I answer with a joke answer, like “I only eat lettuce.”  There are other answers, but I won’t go into those now …

But, seriously, since January 3rd I have lost 60 pounds and gone from a 44 waist to a 38 waist.  And my method has been simple … There are three elements to my lifestyle change.  Here they are:

On January 2, 2014, I had lunch with two friends and one of them is a body builder / trainer.  He dared me to try the “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper” thing.  So this all started with me eating a two-egg omelette with cheese and sausage, a bowl of cereal, and two cups of coffee every morning.  I have that or an equivalent of that every day.  (I have moved to turkey sausage and the Harris Teeter brand of liquid egg to cut back on calories.  I am a sausage and egg critic, and that omelette tastes really good!!)

Honestly, I am doing lunch and dinner both as a prince.  Both are reasonable meals.  I haven’t arrived at the place where I can do the pauper thing yet.  Maybe one day, but for now this is working!!

Then a few days later, another friend told me about the MyFitnessPal app for iPhone.  (They also have a website so this can be done on a computer).  It is free and has a massive database that will help you log calories.  I have never logged calories before, but this has become easy.  It also has the tools to build your own recipes and it will calculate nutritional values for you.  I now log calories at every meal and snack and it really is easy …  However this app showed me how unhealthy I was eating.  For years, doctors and others have told me that you lose weight in the kitchen and you tone in the gym.  And I always said “But I am not eating bad …”  MyFitnessPal showed me how BAD I was really eating, even though I thought I was doing well.

Now, we are eating lower calorie meals, but they are GOOD meals.  And smaller portions.  And, here I am 60 pounds lighter!!  We search the internet for lower calorie recipes and there are some on MyFitnessPal.com

So now I am on track.  Forty more pounds to go.  Making progress almost every week.  I have been exercising in the gym since 2001, but I am now able to hit it harder than ever before and I exercise 6 days a week.  And I FEEL like doing it.  I am lifting weights three days a week and blasting cardio all 6.

And, most importantly, I have a plan to MAINTAIN once I get to my goal.  MyFitnessPal and Anytime Fitness play MAJOR ROLES in that plan.

So, that is where I am.  And so far, so good.  And if you start a journey like this, best of luck!!  Let me know and I will encourage you, and you can do the same for me!!!

I’ve got to admit, one of the things I preached about on Sunday is one of my greatest struggles.  I am working on this, but it is one of my most difficult struggles and I know many others struggle with it, too.  It is TRUST.  Especially after I’ve been burned.

I am a pretty easy-going guy.  I try to live and let live, to do unto others as I WANT them to do unto me.  And I know Jesus commanded us to love not only our friends, but our enemies as well.  To pray for those who persecute me.  But I struggle.  I struggle when people lie to me.  When people do or say things to me or about me that are less than Christ-like.

In Luke 17:4, Jesus told the disciples  “If he (your brother)  sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”  The disciples responded “WOW!  THAT WILL TAKE A LOT MORE FAITH THAN WE HAVE!!  HELP US!!”  I have prayed that prayer many times.  And I have learned something else:  Even if they don’t repent, the best thing I can do is FORGIVE.  Because, when I hold on to grudges or bad feelings, I am hurting MYSELF way more than I am hurting them.

And I struggle with this!!  So pray for me, and I will pray for you!!  Hope you have a great Holy Week next week and I hope you are already preparing your heart for what God will do!!

I am SICK AND TIRED of playing around.  For years I have been kind of living this lifestyle that is damaging to me.  A foot in one world.  A foot in the other.  I cannot do it anymore.  Yes … I am taking a serious and aggressive approach to losing weight!!

It all started three weeks ago with a new friend.  We were talking about the fact that I have been drinking breakfast smoothies and stay hungry the rest of the day.  He asked me to try the “Eat like a King at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a pauper at supper” approach.  (Okay … I am not doing the pauper thing yet). He encouraged me to eat a big breakfast, full of protein, fruit, and grains.  Get all of the metabolism pumping.  Then, for lunch, something reasonable.  And for supper I am doing something else reasonable, too.  He dared me to try it for a month.

Then, at the deacon soup supper at EBC, Diana and I were talking to ANOTHER friend and she told us about the MyFitnessPal app for my iPhone.  (They have a really cool website too.)  It helps me manage calories and FULL nutritional info on the foods I eat, exercise, and the amount of water I drink in a day.  It has an elaborate database with all kinds of foods.  I can scan the barcode of snacks and foods I eat and it automatically enters the nutritional info.  I can build recipes with the exact ingredients I put into a meal and it will combine them and calculate the nutrition based on the number of servings it makes.

There is another thing it does that I like that explains why I have been unable to lose weight to this point.  It has fast-food information from all of the restaurants I frequent (or USED to frequent) and I have discovered that all of these grilled chicken salads and sandwiches I would eat, thinking they were good for me, are just as bad as the fried stuff!!  Well, maybe they are a little better, but from a calorie and sodium standpoint, they are AWFUL!!  You can find some good things at Wendy’s and Chick-fil-a, but those are the only two I have found so far that have acceptable foods.

And two and a half weeks in, I have lost 9 pounds.  But I have a long way to go.  Pray for me!