In my weight loss journey, momentum has been especially important. Weight loss tends to lead to more weight loss.

I have been on my current commitment (down to 200 pounds by November 1st) now for a week and half. It has been difficult to do. I have not seem much, if any, weight loss. This week was starting to trend downward but yesterday bumped up a bit. That is very frustrating when you are doing so well eating.

This morning, though, I was down quite a bit. The scale said 207.8. Yesterday it said 210.6 so that is pretty significant for one day. I think my body is readjusting to weight loss mode and is finally letting off some weight.

So today, I get to enjoy the momentum of that weight loss. It just makes me want to do it all the more. I know I will probably still have some setbacks, but right now I am on fire to get this done.

Thank you, God, for the momentum you gave me this morning!

I have not posted in a long while. I blame it on being unbelievably busy the past couple of months and just not having time to really even think about writing something. Hopefully, this is the restart of my bi-weekly writing.

I have been thinking about my weight recently. I have been hovering now between 210-215 for, well, a couple of years. It has been that long since I have been down below 200. While I have still come a very long way from where I use to be, I am really not happy with where I am. 200 or below has always been where I feel I should be.

For a week or so now I have been contemplating making a commitment to be down to 200 by November 1st. The reason I don’t just jump in an make it is when I make a commitment like this, I make it to myself and more importantly to God. That means I have to do it. It would be sinful for me to make this commitment and not do everything in my power to complete it. So, I have not rushed into it. Looking at the calendar, this would give me 10 weeks to do this. About one pound a week.

Okay, I have just decided (literally, right before I typed this line). I am going to do it. After praying about I feel it is the right thing.

So I commit to God that I will be to 200 pounds or less by November 1st, 2010.

Last Saturday morning, I ran an official 5k. I had only one goal, that is to run the whole way without walking.

A couple things going against me. First, I usually run at night. This 5k was at 8:30 in the morning. Second, it was warm. Even though it was that early, it was a pretty hot day and the humidity was way up. I was sweating just standing around before the race. I was wondering if Houston’s weather had finally found me.

This would be my first time to run with anyone around. When I run, I am a loner. My first step was to make sure I was running MY pace and not the people around me. At the start, however, I actually had to go slower than I wanted. Once it started spreading out, it was easier to go my pace.

I felt pretty good through the first 10-15 minutes. Then it became a mental battle to keep going. The last half mile was absolute torture. I just kept telling myself I was not allowed to stop. God is the only reason I did not stop. It had to be His strength, cause I did not have it.

That is me coming to the finish line. As you can see on my face, I was really struggling. But I made it. I ran the whole way. My official time was 34:28. I finished 85th out of 125.

There were a few other people from church running. Here is a pic after we all finished.

I have now completed my Couch to 5K program and also completed a 5k. The natural question now is “What now?”

For now, I have decided to keep running three times a week for at least 30 minutes. I would kinda like to complete a 5k much more easily which will require me running and building up my endurance. We will see.

Special thanks to my family for their support. It means a lot. And also all the encouragement I have gotten on Facebook. Thanks!

Well, I have worked through the Couch to 5K program and am coming up to the end. Last night I successfully ran for 30 minutes straight which is the final goal of the app I am using. However, I am still not at 5K. 5K is 3.11 miles and I am at 2.76 miles so I still have a ways to go.

Saturday, June 12th, we will see if I can make it the whole way as I am running in a 5K. Even though I know there is no pressure whatsoever to run the whole thing, I am still a little bit nervous as I do not want to have to walk any. The other thing is that I always run at night. I usually start at 9:00pm. This 5K is at 8:30 in the morning so it will be quite different than what I am used to.

Not that it is important, but I have wondered if I can call myself a runner now. I still cannot say that I enjoy running. Around 20 minutes into each run I start questioning why in the world I am out there and how not fun it is.

I do, however, feel really good about running AFTER I run. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment and knowing that my body is healthier because of it. I guess for now that will have to be my motivation.

As for my weight, I have not lost anything. I am still hovering around 210. I still maintain that weight loss comes more from how you eat than how much you exercise. If anything, all this running has made me more hungry and caused me to take in more calories.

I will let you know how the 5K goes.

This past Friday, I ate a couple of things I should not have. Basically, I let food control me instead of the other way around. Friday night I prayed that God would help me have a good day Saturday with my eating and I just asked him to take away my appetite.

Saturday, indeed I had done a good job. Around 4:30, I decided to go do my running for the day. I usually go after dark, but since there were rain chances, I decided to go ahead and do it.

This was not an easy one. I had to jog 20 minutes nonstop. I was able to complete it, but barely. Afterwards I was exhausted and even a little dizzy. But guess what? I had no appetite the rest of the day!

I did eat a little something just because I could tell my body needed it, but I was not ever really hungry after that.

Course, I did not think about my previous night’s prayer until Saturday night when I was about to pray again. It hit me what I had prayed for. It happened. May 15th, 2010 is another day I can clearly say that God answered my prayer!

I am now 2-2/3 weeks into my Couch to 5K program. I have to say that so far it is going very well. This weeks schedule has me doing two sets of running 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, run 3 minutes, walk three minutes. I was a bit nervous with the three minutes, seemed like a big jump. However, it has gone very well and last night was actually pretty easy.

Course, I have already snuck a peek at next weeks plan and again I am getting nervous. It alternates between 3 minute and 5 minute runs. But hey, that is next week.

I bought me some Bluetooth headphones that I really like. They cover my ear (instead of allowing the wind to get in) and of course, they are wireless. They have really enhanced my enjoyment of the music I listen to while running.

Right now, it is all Christian music that I have changed week to week to keep it fresh. I have committed to not picking a song while running and just trusting that God will have the right song play that I need at that particular moment. He has come through. When are start getting weak, always seems the right song is playing to keep me going. Sometimes I just cannot keep from turning my palms up and praising God.

As for my weight, I have not stepped on the scale all week. Adding exercise has always bumped my weight so I do not want to know right now. I have been eating good, so I am doing all I can do so there is not much point in weighing right now.

The past couple of weeks my eating has gone really well. I have, for the most part, been in control instead of letting it control me. Still, I have moments where that is not true.

I have seem to hit a wall with my weight. I have been hovering around 208-210. It is a bit frustrating, but God has given me patience.

Browsing through apps for my phone, I ran across one called C25K. Apparently, there is a running plan out there called “Couch to 5K” and this app helps with that. It is a two month program to be able to go from no running to running three miles (or 30 minutes). It got me interested. I have long liked the IDEA of being a runner, but found out many times I do not really like running. However, I decided to give it another shot.

I bought the app and started it this week. My first night of doing it, started out really easy. For the first week you run 60 seconds and then walk 90 seconds. It repeats many times for a total of 30 minutes (the app lets you know when to run and when to walk). I was pretty wiped by the end, but not so much that I did not want to do it again. I felt good.

I like running in my neighborhood at night. Wouldn’t you know, as soon as I get started we get a forecast of rain every day this week and into next. I had to go to the gym last night to run on a treadmill (which I hate). It was okay but it was too easy. Guess I need to adjust the incline or something to make it more like running outside.

Anyway, as all my attempts at starting exercise have done, my weight actually goes up when I begin. I am assuming it is from water retention in my sore muscles. Should work itself out eventually. Again, patience is important.

By my next post, I will be three weeks into it so I will let you know how it is going.

Couple of significant things going on in my life right now…

One is baseball season. I am coaching Stephen’s baseball team. This is significant because I cannot stand to coach, yet, I cannot stand NOT to coach. I love coaching baseball. I really love getting to be involved with Stephen in this way and enjoy getting to know the other kids. I also really love being part of the game. What I do not like about coaching is that I feel totally inadequate. I do not know enough and I fear letting down the 11 kids on my team and their families.

The other significant thing right now is my truck. Last week I went out to check our practice field to see if we could practice (It at rained/snowed the night before). Things looked good until I drove on the dirt road and my truck sunk in the mud. Not wanting to pay for a tow truck to drag it out, we worked for an hour (Stephen was out pushing) to try and get it it out. About 25 feet from being out, something broke in the transmission and it would no longer go into gear. Now, not only did I have to get a tow truck, I am now looking down the barrel of paying to get my transmission fixed. By the way, car problems are one of those things I always struggle having peace with. Not only because of the costs, but also the inconvenience.

So now, I have two things to keep me awake at night. You cannot believe how much baseball can consume my mind at night. Things we need to work on. Things I need to remember to teach them. How to deal with certain situations. And on and on. These things will even invade my dreams! Sometimes I wake up and half asleep I think about them.

Course, the truck repairs are also worrisome. How much will it cost? When will it be completed? Where will the money come from? What will we have to give up to pay for it?

Monday night I found myself not wanting to go to bed. I purposefully stayed up late (little after midnight) watching TV to make sure I was very sleepy when I went to bed. It helped, but that is not really a long term solution, is it?

So is all this worrying helping anything? Is it solving anything? Of course not. This worry is caused by not trusting God enough. I know in my head that I can trust Him. He has proved it over and over and over. I just need to let the trust infiltrate my heart.

I have never been successful at not gaining weight when I travel. It has just been too hard to do my diet. Usually, I turn off the diet switch when traveling and anything goes.

We spent a few days in Dallas at the beginning of this week (Spring Break) and it was not very different from any other trip (as far as my eating). I did have a few victories I would like to share.

On our way out of town, we stopped at Taco Bell for lunch and I ate off the low calorie Fresca menu. For dinner, we stopped at one of my favorites, Fuddruckers. I went with a buffalo burger which is lower calorie/fat than beef. On top of that, I got full and STOPPED eating with more than 1/4 of my burger left. I also passed on eating Michael’s leftover fries. My normal activity on trips is to never leave anything on my plate or anyone else’s. So feeling full, acknowledging that feeling and stopping my eating was a major victory for me.

Monday morning I was not hungry so I did not even go downstairs in the hotel for breakfast. I do not normally eat breakfast (because I am not hungry for it) but it is hard to pass on FREE food, but I did on Monday. Tuesday, I only had a small bowl of cereal, but I was feeling a bit hungry (or I convinced myself to be hungry).

All the other meals were my normal self where I clean my plate. Twice I can remember going too far and ignoring that I was full. So while this was one of my best vacations ever (in regards to my eating), it was not as good as it could have been.

Last Friday I was back down to 208 and this morning I was at 213. I suspect just eating right for a couple of days will drop that down pretty quickly. I am really desiring to be back below 200 so I am going to be working hard on that.

In my previous post, I stated how well things were going and that I was down to 208 pounds. Not two days after that, my patience was tested.

For some reason, I went up two pounds to 210 in one day. I track all my eating and looking back on that day, I had eaten well. Nothing out of the ordinary. I was on my plan. But for some reason, I went up two pounds.

I was okay, I figured it was just an anomaly and it would quickly fix itself as long as I stayed on track. I was wrong. I went even higher up to 212 the net couple of days.

Are you kidding me? I am doing everything right and my weight is increasing. This was testing me. Am I gonna freak out, get angry and give up? Or am I going to keep going on and trust that it will work out. Honestly, my thoughts went back and forth between those two things. But in the end, I stayed calm and patient.

As of today, I am back to 209. Still needing lots of patience since I am not even back to where I was two weeks ago. But I am good.

So my question is, was God behind this testing or was it just something that happened? I guess I do not really know the answer to that, but I do know this… God is using this time to help me grow (I mean spiritually, not physically).

My prayer for a long time has been to take my desire to eat away. I would much rather be in a place where I had to eat rather that constantly wanting to eat. I fear, though, that this is my “Thorn in the flesh” that I will have to deal with the rest of my life. Right now, I am at peace with that and this recent testing helped a lot.

I have the rest of my life to lose the weight. My battle is not the weight, but the control food has over me. Only God should have that kind of control. The weight loss is simply a side effect.