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Archive for the 'journey to 100' Category

May

My journey to 100: Weeks 8-9

Categories: health, healthy eating, journey to 100, life and weght loss

I feel bad about last week for a few reasons. First of all I didn’t work out at all last week. I ate more than I should have. Through it all though God was gracious to me and I didn’t gain a pound. So I began working out again (after my week long break) this past Saturday and things have been going well. I felt a level of frustration after upping my calories to 2000a day. The two weeks I did it I saw a combined weight loss of 5 pounds. Before this I was averaging 5-7 a week. So this week (Saturday-today) I dropped my caloric intake back to 1600 calories and the results have been great. I lost another 4 pounds in the last 3 days. I’m starting to notice little things as well like;

my fingers are much thinner
the knuckles in the back of my hand of sticking out now
my jaw line is re-appearing (slowly but it is getting noticeable)

These are just little things but big things to me. It helps keep me going. I am hearing more comments from people as well. One lady this past weekend at church said, “Hey it’s great seeing less of you around these days.” I thought it was pretty funny. Most people would have taken it as an insult but I knew she meant nothing but good things by it.

So now I’m at 360. I’m down 37 pounds. I am looking forward to losing 13 more to make it to my half-way point. I want to celebrate losing 50 pounds and then again once I hit the 100 pound mark. I’m thinking of tattoos. Any suggestions?

Apr

I got Naked

By serial youth pastor 0 Comments

Categories: Jesus, faith, frustration, healthy eating, journey to 100 and weght loss

That’s right. I did it. This morning on my way to work I stopped and got Naked along the way. Get your minds out of the gutter. That’s not what I mean. It has been a year or so since I’ve purchased any Naked juice. This morning I remembered our local Sunmart sells it so I stopped and bought a bottle. I now remember why I am so fond of Naked juice. It’s unbelievably awesome. I’m trying hard to make smart food choices in my journey to 100. Over the last 2 weeks I haven’t lost any weight. So I’m dropping my calories down to 1800 a day in hopes this will spur on my weight loss once again.

I’m frustrated but I’m still plugging away working out and mainly focusing on cardio now. I’m 15 pounds from the halfway point in this journey and that excites me. I’m hoping to be a little past the halfway point by the end of next week. I would be very excited over that. I have come to a realization though while commenting over at Soon 2B Healthy. Here it is…

It’s so easy to become the person who we don’t want to be by over-focusing on that person. Maybe that doesn’t make sense. The more I focus on losing the wieght the more I feel “weighed down.” So I took 1.5 weeks off of working out. Today was my first day back and it was awesome. I did gain like 2 pounds back over that 1.5 weeks but hey I’m ok with that. I have come to realize that this journey of mine is going to be a slow going one and now I’m ok with that. When I started I wanted it to be over fast and since then I have realized it won’t be it’s really kind of freeing in a sense.

Through this process I am falling in love with God in a different way now. It’s hard to explain but I have a greater appreciation for who he has made me to be. It’s an awesome thing.

Apr

My journey to 100: Week 7

By serial youth pastor 3 Comments

Categories: healthy eating, journey to 100, my life and weght loss

I can’t believe I’m already 7 weeks into changing my lifestyle and eating habits. It has gone really well. I have learned so much over the past 7 weeks. Not just about making healthy choices with eating but also I am beginning to dream big again. Seriously. I am able to focus more on what God wants me to do. I think this is because I am learning to really love myself. I know it sounds corny but for the first time in a long time I really value who I am. I had gotten to a place where I wasn’t happy. I knew I needed to lose weight but wasn’t doing anything about it. Everyone wanted me to do it but I didn’t really care. I never wanted to do it for them. I always wanted it to be something I would decide to do for myself and no one else. That day came 7 weeks ago. I was just miserable and knew this was something I have to do.

With that being said I lost another 4 pounds this week. So here’s the rundown so far;

Week 1 - 397
Week 2 - 390
Week 3 - 384
Week 4 - 377
Week 5 - 371
Week 6 - 367
week 7 - 363

That’s a total of 34 pounds in 7 weeks.

Apr

My journey to 100: Week 6

By serial youth pastor 3 Comments

Categories: health, healthy eating, journey to 100 and weght loss

6 weeks down. It feels good to say that. This week was a slow weight loss week. I changed my diet a little bit and I think that has something to do with it. I went from 1200 calories in a day to 2000. I really think my body just needed to get used to the increase in calories more than anything.

Here is a rundown of my weigh ins so far.

Week 1 - 397
Week 2 - 390
Week 3 - 384
Week 4 - 377
Week 5 - 371
Week 6 - 367

So that’s 30 pounds lost in 6 weeks. I feel pretty good about that. Hopefully this next week will be a better week for me. Thanks for hanging in there and praying for me through this time.

Apr

The week of frustration

By serial youth pastor 0 Comments

Categories: journey to 100

So this is the week I feel like I have fallen off of the road on my journey to 100 pounds lost. Alright so it’s not that bad…just majorly frustrating. I haven’t lost a pound yet since last Thursday. So frustrating. I was doing so good with weeks of 6-7 pounds lost….now I feel like I’m at a wall. So questions run through my mind right now such as…

am I doing something wrong?
is it time to step up the pace on my cardio? (which I feel like I have been doing anyway)
what the HECK is going on?

My conclusion is it’s Matthew’s fault. He suggested my new cardio and eating plan. I’m just giving him a hard time.

Please keep praying for me on this journey. It’s weeks like this that are so hard.

Apr

My journey to 100: Matthew McNutt

By serial youth pastor 1 Comment

Categories: friend's blogs, health, healthy eating, journey to 100 and weght loss

I have always been a fan of the show the Biggest Loser. I have watched every episode of every season that I can. I have to admit I have always had this thought in the back of my head, “Maybe I should give it a try” but I always thought I would never make it on the show. I have a ton of respect for the people that go on and lose a ton of weight and are successful in keeping it off. In the 3rd season this guy from Maine named Matthew McNutt was on. I found out he was a youth pastor and so I was rooting for him automatically. Of course he didn’t go on to win the show but he did lose an amazing 176 during the span of the show. That’s pretty crazy.

This past Monday I decided to do something I don’t usually do. I decided to email Matthew to ask some questions about this whole process. He emailed me back and said he thought it would be easier talking on the phone about it. So I gave him my numbers and on Tuesday he gave me a call in my office. It was pretty surreal. The thing is it felt like we connected right away on the phone. It was like we had known each for years or something. It was just really comfortable talking to him. I guess it was the fact that he has been where I’m at and is where I want to go. We talked about nutrition and eating. We talked about cardio and what he did to lose the weight. He told me I should try to get 2500 calories a day in and that is was OK to snack after my workouts at night before I go to bed. The key is to keep within your allotted caloric intake. So in other words if you’re only allowed 2500 calories then save back 200 of them for a snack at night. Your body needs to fuel to replace the glycogen your muscles use up while you’re working out. It really started to make sense.

Over a few emails and the phone call Matthew let me know he wants to keep in touch with me. So now I’m going to be shooting him weekly emails with progress and questions and for moral support. I think it’s a pretty awesome thing and God lined this up.

Matthew I know you’re reading this so thank you for taking the time to invest in me and my journey. You truly are a great encourager.

Apr

My journey to 100: Week 5

By serial youth pastor 2 Comments

Categories: health, healthy eating, journey to 100, my life and weght loss

I just finished week 5 of my journey to 100. I’m already feeling a lot better but I still have a good ways to go. When I started this I never imagined our students would rally around me to see me do this. The response has been a little overwhelming. The scary thing is that they are really watching me to see how I do and if I fail or not. At the same time it’s like a huge weight has been taken off of my shoulders too. To have not just one person but about 100 students get behind me on this has been amazing. Each week they are asking me what I have lost. Some are starting to tell me that they can see the difference already and that they hope I make it. I will make it.

Some things have changed this week and they are all for the better.

I’m back to working out 2 times a day
I’m eating 2500 calories a day
I’m up to 3.2 mph on the treadmill for 45 out of my 60 minutes
I’m doing an hour on the treadmill in the morning AND at night as well as weight training
my clothes keep getting bigger

These are just a few things that are going on.

My total weight loss through 5 weeks is 26 pounds.

Apr

My journey to 100: Lunch

By serial youth pastor 2 Comments

Categories: health, healthy eating, journey to 100, life and weght loss

I have to admit I am pleased with where I’m at in my journey to losing 100 pounds. I think I am a little behind on where I should be weight wise but overall I am pleased. I made a move Monday and did something I don’t normally do. I looked for some help and pointers in this whole thing. So I made contact with someone who has done this before and may have been a contestant on the Biggest Loser from season 3. I am not using his name yet becuase I have not asked for permission and I think that’s the right way to handle it. However I know he will read this post so consider this me asking. Anyway we talked Monday on the phone for a bit and he gave me some great advice and pointers on eating. I’m now boosting my meals to 500 calories each and am trying to have 3 snacks a day.

Between breakfast and lunch
Between lunch and dinner
And one when I get home at night from working out

I do get asked fairly often what my meals look like now so I thought I would post a picture of a normal lunch for me at this point. It varies sometimes but usually lunch or supper look fairly close to the picture above. Here is the calorie breakdown;

Roasted Turkey sandwich - 280 cal
sliced apple - 160 cal
sugar snap peas with ranch - 75 cal
total = 515 calories

Tomorrow I will post my new weight for this week.

Mar

My journey to 100: Week 4

By serial youth pastor 0 Comments

Categories: health, healthy eating, journey to 100 and weght loss

Upon completing my 4th week of my journey to 100 I have realized something. This whole working out thing makes me tired. The last 4 weeks have flown by too. I have decided this week to only go in once a day and do a little over an hour of cardio and that has been helping me have more energy. I have also upped my calorie intake to about 1800 calories and this has helped a lot as well. People have started noticing the difference and I am seeing it more and more myself. Here are some changes I am noticing;

my hands are getting thinner - my knuckles in the back of my hand are sticking out more
I’m down one pant size
I’m down 1.5 notches on my belt
I have more energy

I weighed in this morning. I’m content with my weight loss this week. Last Thursday when I weighed in I was 384. Today I was 377. That’s a 7 pound loss in one week. So my 4 week weight recap is this;

Week 1 - 397
Week 2- 390
Week 3 - 384
Week 4 - 377

I’m hoping for a double digit week this week. I would love to be in the middle 360’s by this time next week. Thanks for praying for me in my journey I greatly appreciate it.

Mar

My journey to 100: People are noticing….

By serial youth pastor 1 Comment

Categories: health, journey to 100 and weght loss

So not a lot of people yet but still. I had 3 people come up this weekend and ask if I was losing weight. It’s so nice when people actually notice. It’s definitely more fuel in the fire for me to keep going. This morning when I got up I tried on some jeans I bought around Christmas that were a size too small and they were loose on me. Then I tried on a fleece jacket I haven’t worn in 2 years and it fit pretty good. Just when I was feeling like I wasn’t making any progress I had some pretty good confirmations. It’s nice. I have 2 plastic totes full of clothes I want to fit into again. Now it looks like it won’t be too far off.

The past 3.5 weeks have been hard work but now it’s starting to pay off. So nice to finally be able to see it.