Encouragement from Surprising Places

I never thought that I'd be encouraged in my journey towards fitness and health by the U.S. Army, but I was!  Not directly, of course.  I am not in the Army, and I have no desire to be.  I have tremendous respect for the men and women who are serving in all branches of the military, but I must admit that the Army is the LAST organization that I would choose to join voluntarily.  Guess it's a good thing I'm about to become too old to be drafted...

So how did the Army encourage me?  I read an article in last Monday's The Blade newspaper (reprinting an article that originally appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) about how the Army is promoting healthy choices in the chow line.  They're using a simple color code over the foods to indicate their healthiness.  Red = bad, don't eat much of this.  Yellow = slightly better, can eat more.  Green = good, eat lots of this.  Green foods are highest in protein and fiber and lowest in calories and fat.

Why is the Army working to change their soldiers' eating habits?  Because it costs too much to deal with the injuries that poor nutrition and heavy exercise can create.  For example, the number of hip stress fractures at Fort Jackson, an Army base in South Carolina, in 2000 was 30.  In 2009, the number had jumped to 135.  Those injuries cost taxpayers (you and me) plenty.  "The army spends roughly $65,000 to train a soldier.  But a soldier who gets injured costs a lot more.  Hip stress fractures might cost $300,000 to rehabilitate and might mean that the person will never serve."

I'm encouraged by these changes in the Army for two reasons:  1) I'm excited to see that the same food choices that I'm learning to make are being offered in a place that I'd never suspected would even try.  I hope this means that as a society in general, we are starting to turn a corner on the overwhelming number of bad food choices vs. good food choices whenever we eat somewhere other than home.  2) I am glad to know that the healthcare dollars that mount up  because of poor food choices are starting to sink into our collective consciences, and somebody decided to do something about it.  I'd much rather see our tax dollars invested in the kinds of things that improve health rather than debilitate it.

Maybe more people will begin to think like Private Esparza:  "I don't eat bread anymore.  I try to eat a salad with every meal." 

Sounds like good advice to me!

* * * * * * * *

Just in case you haven't noticed ... I'm posting my weekly weigh-in results in a table to the right.  And I am excited to report that today I broke the 230 barrier, coming in at 229!!  I went "shopping" last night in my basement, pulling out the clothes from my "230 Bucket" that had been put away just in case I ever got back below that weight.  I couldn't believe all the shirts and pants that I can now wear again!  The waist measurements on the pants are "38" and they fit!!  Whoo-hoo, I'm excited!!  Took all the old "42's" out of the closet and folded them to go to Goodwill.  However, I will keep one pair of pants - the ones that were starting to get tight before I began this plan and I thought I was about to become a "44" just so I can have a comparison reference to re-encourage me when I start to feel things slowing down.

I'm amazed that I've been able to drop about three pounds per week for the last two months.  Praise God for working on me and in me - all the credit goes to grace.  Nehemiah Leadership Institute friends, you may not recognize me when you see me next week!!

What does it take to have a "Bod 4 God"?

My wife bought a book a while back called Bod 4 God:The Four Keys to Weight Loss, written by Rev. Steve Reynolds.  "You might like this," she said.  "You ought to take a look at it sometime."

"Yeah, I'll do that," I responded, mentally adding it to the long list of books that I've promised to look at without making a time commitment for actually doing so.  If you could see the pile of books in my office, you'd understand that it could take YEARS for me to actually get through all of them!  So Bod 4 God never really garnered my attention.

And I have to be honest: I really didn't care to look at that book.  Last fall, I had no motivation or incentive great enough to stir me into action.  I was what I was, and I wasn't interested in whether or not I could change what I was.  But all that changed in January 2011, as I documented in my post, "Fresh Starts in More Ways Than One."  Over the last month, I've been motivated and incentivized (is that a real word?) by the Holy Spirit to lose weight, build strength, eat right, and rededicate my body as a worthy temple for God.  So I picked up Reynold's book and started reading.

Steve Reynolds got the moniker "The Anti-Fat Pastor" when Fox News did a report on him several years ago.  Like me, Reynolds is a pastor who's dealt with weight issues all his life.  As a kid and young man, football kept him in fairly decent shape, but he swore off exercise after his final season in college.  He was "good" on that commitment and ended up weighing 340 pounds, became diabetic and was poised to deal with all the other health issues that obesity brings.

Here's what happened next:

Then, with God's help, I found a way to begin taking small steps, and those small steps led to a new lifestyle.  They led to life.  I've lost more than 100 pounds and am still losing.  I no longer need medications for my diabetes.  I now control it through my diet.  Now I really feel good and have lots of energy.

OK, so he's got a good personal story to tell, but will his small steps really be effective for anybody else?  What are these steps anyway?  He offers four:

1. Dedication: Honoring God with your body
2. Inspiration: Motivating yourself for change
3. Eat and exercise: Managing your habits
4. Team: Build your circle of support

Take the first letter of each step and you get D - I - E - T.  I'm sure that's intentional.  It's also true.  This is exactly what I've done in the last month.  And so far I've lost nearly 20 pounds in six weeks!  It must be more noticeable in the past few days because I've gotten many more comments.  And like Reynolds, I'm starting to really feel good and have lots of energy!

In my last post, I opened what I thought was a giant can of worms: overeating = overweight = sin.  Maybe if I'd used that as the headline, I would have gotten a bigger reaction.  What I got instead was a giant collective cricket chirp!  Silence; no comments whatsoever!!  So I'd like to unpack that idea a little more and see what happens...

Steve Reynolds writes:

Christians are the most overweight people group on earth.  We are more overweight than Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and every other religion you can name.  Christians should be the most healthy people group, especially when we consider the physical condition of Jesus Christ, our Founder and Leader.  Jesus Christ was in such great physical condition that he could walk 40 miles [from Tyre to Sidon], not in Reeboks but in leather sandals; and yet his followers on this planet are unhealthy, overweight, sedentary couch potatoes.

Wow!  No holding back there, but blunt and in-my-face.  And if you're reading this honestly, it's in your face, too.  I think Reynolds is right.  As a whole, we Christians do not do a good job of following in our Leader's footsteps when it comes to healthy living.  (Nor for that matter, in a lot of other things, either - but that's a blog post for another day...)

I've started walking on a more regular basis with my wife, but I can't do 40 miles!  I'd like to be able to do four miles!!  And so I'm working to complete a 5k run/walk this coming summer and do it in under an hour.  That won't make me the fastest walker - much less runner - but it will show that I can do more then than I can now.  And I can do it not for my glory, but for God's.

That last sentence is the most important statement that I've made in this post: do it for God's glory.  A "Bod 4 God" requires that it not be about me.  While I might enjoy the attention and compliments for myself, the nice words really aren't for me, but for the One who lives and reigns within me.

I like the approach that Steve Reynolds takes with Bod 4 God.  He includes not just info about food and portion control, nutrition and exercise, but also biblical content to support all of that.  If I just want somebody who can tell me to exercise and eat right, it's not enough.  I need to live right, and that means more than what I eat and drink, or how much weight I can lift.  Reynolds suggests daily Scripture reading, having a special time alone with God.  He also encourages weekly memorization verses, so that the Bible is internalized and brought to bear on our attitudes and appetites.  The end result is designed to  ...

"fill up the inner man.  When my inner man has been stuffed full, my physical man won't be so hungry, and I will have better control over what I eat." 

If you're interested in reading more of Reynold's plan, you can find his book on Amazon, Christianbook.com, or search on "Bod 4 God" on your favorite search website to find it elsewhere. You can also visit his website: http://www.bod4god.org/

The Super Bowl and the Subconscience

I must be a subconscious Green Bay Packers fan.  Not because they won last night's Super Bowl, but because I really packed in the foods last night while watching the game!  Or maybe I'm a subconscious Steelers fan, because I didn't sleep very well last night after they lost.  Actually, I didn't sleep well because of what my body couldn't turn over even though the Steelers turned the ball over three times.

For an appetizer, I enjoyed a very tasty artichoke dip with jalapenos on crackers.  It's cream-cheese based, and very good, but also quite loaded with sodium.  For second course, I had a small amount of my wife's "world's best guacamole" and multi-grain Tostitos.  Then for the main course (after halftime), I had a plate full of refried bean nachos with more of the "world's best guacamole."

I won't go into the details of my misery following that feast that kept me up during the night, but I do want to share the lesson that last night's experience taught me: Our bodies prefer to eat healthy!  Our cravings for the salty, fatty, sugary, and spicy are learned, not innate.  And when we start trying to unlearn those cravings by focusing on healthy eating, the body reacts badly when they are periodically reintroduced! 

I think God may have designed that reaction as a warning against unhealthy food choices.  It's like a sub-category of the conscience's effort to keep us doing the right thing.  The conscience has four primary activities that help us determine the difference between good and bad decisions:

• prompting - "You know what is right.  Do it!" 
• confirming - "Yes!  That was right.  Way to go!"
• warning - "Uh-oh, that's wrong.  Watch out!"
• accusing - "No!  That was stupid/wrong/selfish.  Don't do it again!"

The prompting and warning activities precede our decision/action; confirming and accusing activities follow our decision/action.  Prompting and confirming are both positive activities that generate feelings of pleasure, joy, happiness and satisfaction.  Warning and accusing are both negative activities that generate feelings of shame, guilt, remorse and regret.

However, we can work to circumvent and ignore all four of the conscience's activities.  We can even get the conscience so twisted up that we gain pleasure when we should feel shame, or satisfaction when we ought to feel regret.  Ever hear the phrase "guilty pleasures"?  Now you know where that comes from.

My conscience was aware of what I was eating, and all four activities were present.  I was prompted not to eat very much guacamole after already consuming perhaps a whole cup of artichoke dip (when the single serving size is a tablespoon!). So when I only ate a teaspoon of guacamole with about three chips, my conscience confirmed that choice.  ("Atta boy!")

Unfortunately, I chose to ignore my conscience's warning on the nachos.  It told me to eat only half of what was on my plate, but I ate the everything!  Therefore, I was up and down all night long dealing with the accusing activity in the bathroom.  Sure those nachos tasted really good going down, but not so good as they passed through my system.  So believe me when I say that I will focus my attention on what my conscience prompts and warns, so that I can get more confirming and less accusing results - no matter who's playing in next year's Super Bowl!

"Eat This, Lose Weight" the Headline Screams

I received the February 2011 issue of Readers Digest last week.  The cover features two sunny-side-up eggs and a slice of curved bacon.  The overall effect is a smiley face.  In bold all-caps is the headline, "EAT THIS, LOSE WEIGHT: The New Science of Dieting."

If you've read the last several posts of this blog, you know that I'm working on weight loss and healthy living, so this cover obviously intrigued me.  What is this new science that says I should eat bacon and eggs?  Something new from Dr. Atkins?  Wait, isn't he dead?

So I turned to page 110, and read the interview with Gary Taubes regarding his new book, Why We Get Fat - And What to Do About It.  (Unfortunately, RD hasn't posted the article online, so you'll have to read it in the paper format.)  Taubes isn't specifically an Atkins Diet shill, but he does support most of what the Atkins diet proponents say.  But that's not the point of this post.  Taubes is clearly on to something else when he said this in the interview:

"There's this absolutely fundamental idea when it comes to weight and obesity - that the way we get fat is that we take in more calories than we expend.  It's the gluttony and sloth hypothesis: We eat too much and exercise too little.  It sounds undeniable, as commonsensical as can be, and it's actually nonsense - it doesn't tell us anything meaningful about why we get fat.  If I get fatter, its obvious that I must have overeaten.  But if you ask the question, Why did you overeat? Well, that question I can't answer - not with the calories-in/calories-out theory of weight gain."

While I don't think the calories in/out ratio is nonsense, Taubes is absolutely right that the science behind that theory ignores the question of why the ratio is out of whack for so many of us.  Even more, it doesn't help us to know how to get the ratio back into a correct balance over the long haul.  The Yo-Yo dieter is the person who works to fix the ratio, succeeds for a while, but then the ratio gets out of whack and the pounds pour back on.  The cycle continues until one of two things happens: either the person gets the ratio permanently in balance, or the person quits trying.

I can't guess at how those two groups break down, but I wouldn't be surprised if the split were less than 5% balancing their ratio long-term and more than 95% giving up trying.  The latter group is instead increasingly turning to something more drastic than watching what they eat - they're reducing their internal capacity to eat.  Yes, bariatric surgeries: stomach staples, gastric bypasses, lap bands, etc.  A family member had this done, and the results were truly remarkable: more than 150 lbs were shed in a little over 12 months.  But there are other stories where the dream became a nightmare from complications, botched procedures, infections, etc.  I'm not convinced that's right for me - especially since I want to get to the why of Taubes' question.  Why do I overeat?

"The past 40 or 50 years, obesity research has basically been an attempt to explain why obese people just don't have the moral rectitude of lean people, without actually saying that.  It's terribly damaging.  It's inexcusable, but it's still conventional wisdom.  Most doctors don't want to deal with obese patients because they think they're dealing with someone who simply doesn't care enough to do what they do: eat in moderation and exercise."

Hmmm ... did you catch what Taubes has done in each of these quotes?  He says the established science behind obesity is treating overeating as a moral issue:  the "gluttony and sloth hypothesis" and "moral rectitude of lean people" versus fat people.  But, he says, they don't really want to admit to that.

Fat people are immoral??  That sounds terrible.  But what if it's true?  Is being overweight an example of sinfulness in a person's life?  Nobody likes to be called a sinner, and yet all of us are sinners.  No one wants their specific sins spelled out, yet confession is required. (See 1 John 1:9)  So if over-eating is a sin, then I should name it as such, confess it as such, and then repent of it.

Repenting means to do something different.  In this case, don't overeat.  Simple, right?  Not!  Remember the Yo-Yo dieters syndrome?  Or the 220,000 Americans who underwent some form of bariatric surgery in 2009?

I don't have the wisdom to provide the answer to this question.  I can only deal with it within my own self-limitations.  So far, I've successfully changed my behaviors in a way that weight is coming off.  I'm actually wearing a pair of slacks from my storage bucket today that were put away years ago as too tight to wear.  Cool!! New slacks and I didn't go to the store to buy them!!

Take a look at the Readers' Digest interview (if you can get a copy).  Read the articles on Atkins and bariatric surgery.  What do you think about all of this?  Should we think of it as sin?