Yup…you guessed it…fat.
Now sure, you can wrap it up into cute little terms like pudge or water weight or “you’ve let yourself go.” You can tough it up and say, “Goo, Chunky, or even Porker, but when you boil it all down, the truth is that the older you get, the more you have to watch your food intake and exercise. Please don’t misinterpret what I am saying. I watch my food intake, but it is more of watching it as each bite enters my mouth and eventually packs on the poundage. Oh, and exercise? Thinking doesn’t qualify. Neither does watching Gilad (that Italian dude on FitTV that has been on for years)…nope, doesn’t make the list.
So why bring this up? Well, my wife and I were daydreaming about our days that we first started courting and all. Then a guy passed by us. Then I asked her the question that no man should ever ask his bride and vice versa. “Would you prefer me to keep my physique or look more like I did when we were courting?” Now, as a bit of a background to this…when I was in 10th grade I was pushing about 215 lbs and decided that I weighed too much. Then dropped about 50 pounds over about 9 months. I stayed around the 170 lbs mark until I left for college. Gained about 10 lbs of muscle and about 20 lbs of pizza…erghm, fat. When my wife and I started courting in the fall of ’02 I was a solid 220 lbs. Stocky, but a little soft (like a teddy bear). Since that time I am more teddy bear than stocky at a whopping 25? lbs or so.
So here is the absolutely ridiculous part…I have lost my weight before. I know what it takes for me to lose a lot of weight. It is actually not difficult for me to lose. So what gives?!? Why am I still packin’ on the “lbs?” Well, it isn’t convenient to lose weight. Truth be told, that is. I mean, you have to eat differently, your clothes don’t fit right so you have to go out and buy new ones. then people compliment you “Oh my, you have lost some weight haven’t you?” Makes me want to ask them why they didn’t have the “nerve” to come up to me and ask something like, “Hey, your gut…is THAT where they hid Jimmy Hoffa?” Then again, I’m not getting younger and we are expecting a new bundle of joy at the end of March/start of April.
So I am on a journey…a long one. I know that diets don’t EVER work, but you actually have to change your lifestyle to effectively lose weight. I am putting this out there for a few reasons:
1) I know that some of the ones reading know what I am talking about…it is just the stats on it…3/4 of Alabamians are obese…
2) This is sort of a public announcement for some accountability
3) This is actually a biblical thing. There are a lot of references to keeping your body healthy. Sure, a few of them speak that it is in vain, but that is only if you are seeking that more than God or it is effecting your relationship/time/etc with God. Paul talks a good bit about it. (He must have been a runner, i guess)
Anyway. Blog-followers out there, just know that I am going to be working harder to make this state less of a Chunk of blubber. I might not make that much of a difference dropping a hopeful 50-60 lbs, but at least I will be able to teach my kids self-control honestly.
Prodigal Thinker 