Eternal Principles

Eternal principles are not limited to time and are not just good solid theory. Eternal principles are those principles that when applied and practiced individually or as a group they just plain work every time. Sometimes science can explain it, but sometimes science just has not caught up to it. You can not make science your god nor should you make religion your god. God is God and reveals himself in religion and science, but just as an author does not own his words God does not simply own the truth, he lives it. By living the truth perfectly he has power by it and through it. Eternal principles are what help us understand the laws of Nature and Natures God. Eternal principles are what makes True Religion and True Science one and the same. 

A New Goal In Sight

I already mentioned that I signed up for a 1/2 marathon. This is monumental for me. I am asthmatic. In fact I have heavily moderate asthma. When I was in High School I played football, but I had my inhaler with me always. Wind sprints would kill me because of the starting and stopping. When I ran the mile I would run faster than most of my fellow line men and they would get mad at me for running so fast, but I knew I couldn't last forever, and if I stopped then my asthma would kick in. After High School I jogged on rare occasions, but nothing on a regular basis. I began to look at it as painful and painful was not good. So I stopped. And so now 20 years later out of desperation to win a contest I began jogging again and while I don't love jogging I love the results. The freedom to move like I have not moved in many years if ever. Does it hurt, yea some days my knees hurt, my Achilles tendon is often tight, and my right foot hurts like crazy every morning before I stretch, but it sure beats heart burn and the inability to breath. It also is fun to know that I can push myself much harder than I thought I could. Freedom is my goal and I am winning. I am now nearing the mark of 60 lbs since mid January and it feels absolutely fantastic.

From couch potato to parking a little further away from the entrance. From a hard time walking up stairs to a half marathon in 8 months... It is going to feel great. I am feeling much more aerodynamic and by the end of August I should be that much more :) Last Saturday I jogged 6.3 miles in about 1hr and 15min. Ending with my signature 140 yard sprint.

As I continue to move more and eat less I am realizing that it is not that hard. I still have sugar cravings that I have to ride out, but keeping my portions down I feel no guilt and I continue to lose weight.

Freedom is when what takes your breath is not the hike but what you see while you are hiking, that is freedom...

Eat Less Move More, becoming Physically what we already are Mentally
56lbs down since January. 

The Anticipation of Something Beautiful

Sometimes our anticipation for something beautiful can be destroyed by rushing the process. A butterfly requires exactly as much time as it takes for it to emerge from its cocoon in order to survive. Opening a rose bud before its time will deprive you of enjoying its greatest potential. Patience is a virtue and virtues lead to happiness. Part of the beauty is savoring each stage of development in God's creations. Life is not meant to be rushed into or out of, but enjoyed, savored, pondered, and shared.

Cory's Chipotle Pepper Stew

This recipe exceeded my expectations. I had 2 lbs of stew meat and I was thinking about fajitas, DeeAnn suggested a stew. So this morning we gathered the ingredients and I made it at work. Oh, it was both yummy and satisfying and the flavors are still rolling around in my mouth. MMMMmmmmMMMM.....


1 Large Red Bell Pepper medium fine chopped.
1 Large Onion medium fine chopped
1 16oz can of Kidney Beans
1 16oz can of Garbanzo Beans
1 16oz can of Stewed Tomatoes blended
1 16oz can of Diced Tomatoes w/ basil, garlic, and oregano
2 lbs Beef Stew Meat
1 pkg Grill Mates Chipotle Pepper Marinade
1 C. Water
1/2 C. chopped Cilantro

Cut the meat into roughly 1 inch by 1/4 inch pieces and then brown it. Add the onions, peppers, and water along with the marinade seasonings. Simmer about 15 minutes add the Tomatoes and Beans simmer another 15 minutes then add the Cilantro.

Sprinkle with Cheese and a dollop of sour cream. Yum Yum. :)

Sometimes Losing Is Winning

Winning an argument does not always make you a winner. Life is not always about finishing first. There are times when finishing is simply a matter of putting one foot in front of the other as many times as is needed to cross the finish line. And sometimes losing an argument may just mean a happier marriage. And that makes everyone a winner.
The need to appear to be right often leads one to looking foolish. Those who truly are right, more often than not, have learned that by accepting that they are not always right. There is a certain strength that comes from knowing you are right, but not feeling the need to insist on it. 

Becoming Physically What We Already Are Mentally

Becoming Physically what we already are Mentally is probably the least obvious yet most important aspect of the program we design for ourselves. This principle forces us to look at why we want to lose weight and what we want to look like when we are done. It is important to note that those with eating disorders often look in the mirror and see what they do not want to see. So, instead of looking in the mirror and seeing what we do not want to see, we need to assess where we are at briefly, but dwell more on what we want to become. When we look in the mirror we want to  briefly see where are at, but more importantly we should imagine definitions forming and unwanted parts of us disappearing. This does two things, if we are honest with ourselves. First, it gives us a hope. We are looking for progress. Second, it locks in to our subconscious a blue print of where we want it to take us. So, be very careful and as detailed as you can when you program it into the subconscious. Always make it a positive image.

The subconscious mind is a powerful tool. It is like a heat seeking missile once we tell it what we want, it will find a way to get there for good or for bad. The subconscious mind is resourceful and creative and it has no limits to its potential possibilities. So, we must tell it what we want then listen as it guides us there. Once we are locked in to the subconscious we do not need a formal diet to tell us what and what not to eat, our body will start telling us what we should and shouldn't eat. It will start telling us if we are not exercising right, it will nudge us in one direction or another until we either tell it we no longer want that goal or until we comply with its demands. It is a good idea to expose ourselves to as many ideas as we can during this process because the subconscious will filter and relay information to our conscious mind, those things which are right for us. For example, as I did this, words like metabolism and fiber came to my mind.  I began doing some research on what they are and what they do. This led me to a list of different kinds of foods that, funny enough, I realized I was craving. I also noticed that by eating the things that were good for me the need for sweets either led me to better healthier alternatives, or the cravings were minimized.

Who we are is an important question we have to ask ourselves in the process of losing weight, because often times those of us who have gained a lot of extra pounds have made a conscious or subconscious decision to gain our weight. These are usually very emotional reasons not always logical. We have trained ourselves to eat more for comfort even though in the end eating for comfort does not solve the problems we are trying to fix with food. Not only that but our mindset when we eat for comfort tends to tell our body to hold onto it. Depression and anxiety have been linked to weight gain. Understanding this can be helpful in flipping that switch that will help us to eat less than we want. Instead of eating more learn how to be comforted by flavor rather than a full tummy. Then practice keeping the flavor in your mouth longer and savor it. Truly enjoy it, try to understand why that flavor brings you comfort.

Sleep is another subject that should be addressed when it comes to losing weight because it effects not only our mental effectiveness but also our physical effectiveness in losing weight. A tired body does not have the ability to exert itself nearly as well as a rested body. I have also found that my body seems to warm up faster in the mornings when I have gotten a good nights rest, which means my metabolism is more responsive. Mentally being awake is important especially when you are trying to push yourself. When we are exhausted our self doubts seem to have far more influence over our body. This particular principle is one that I continue to struggle through. I understand it in my head, but I am still working on getting it inside of me. Which tells me I have many more mental clicks to go before I have this all figured out. :)

Be Good! Be Kind! And Be Happy! Enjoy!

Becoming Physically what I already am Mentally.

Moving More- My thoughts on Exercise

At the beginning of my competition I was pretty much anti exercise routines. My thoughts were that I did not want to start something that I did not feel I could or would keep up. Too many exercise programs start you out with an hour of making yourself look and feel foolish. I have watched others attempt them and they end up with a boat load of exercise videos and or exercise equipment that sits and gathers dust because they feel they do not have time to do what they think it will take to become fit again. I didn't have the money nor the space in my home to do that, although I have a couple of videos and a couple of pieces of equipment that I have tried.

I have come to realize that those people on the commercials did not get on the commercials by using the equipment, they got on the commercials because they looked good to start with. It is easy to get caught in the trap thinking if you buy what they are selling I will become like them. Well, we all know that is what they are trying to do, but we continue to fall for it, and if it helps us get started it is worth it...I guess. 

Anyways, my philosophy is Eat Less and Move More. Becoming Physically what you already are Mentally. As the competition heated up I realized that not only did Move More mean to get up off my butt and move, but it meant move in different ways. So I started out simply by parking further away when I stopped at the store. I started sitting on an exercise ball while watching the television. I found the Biggest Loser 10 minute workouts. I just decided that I had to do more than just walk if I was going to stay in this competition. So I just started moving more in as many different ways as I could think of. Exercise routines have become a filler for me. I have done Tai Chi, swimming, jogging, hiking, walking, basketball, Biggest Loser's 10 minute workouts, as well as their Yoga, and Cardio Max routines. I have decided that I will just keep trying different types of movements, including dance, possibly martial arts, and biking. As I earn more freedom I will take the opportunity to try new ways of moving. I have learned that to keep being effective you have to change things up. Your muscles seem to get used to certain movements, and when they do the exercise seems to be less effective. Sometimes you have to try something else and then come back to those exercises you like the most. Most important about thing about Moving More is that you just keep trying until you find those exercises you like the most then you find some more and change them up. 

When you first start trying different forms of movement you may find yourself feeling very awkward and uncoordinated. I felt like the ugly duckling swimming before swans, so do not feel like you have to look graceful, just understand that moving more is your goal and graceful comes somewhere down the road...at least I hope it does I certainly don't think it has reached me yet, but I look better than when I started. 

Just keep moving that is what it is all about. When it becomes too easy that is when you can try to analyze what you are doing wrong, until then move until you sweat then sweat some more. 

One thing that did help as well was that I used a sauna suit on my big push days usually that was Fridays and Saturdays. I did add Thursdays in towards the end. The sauna suit maximized the heat my body was producing. This was particularly helpful, when I did not have a lot of time to build up my internal heat. 

MAKE SURE YOU DRINK LOTS OF WATER when you sweat a lot you need to keep yourself hydrated or you may undo the good you are doing. 

Still dropping this makes 51 lbs since January

If you have access to a gym or to a trainer my hats go off to you. I would take advantage of it. My approach was born out of lack of resources and a determination that I wanted to do something to get myself feeling better. I was tired of killing myself from the inside out and making excuses for why I wasn't able to breath, sleep, or have energy to do anything. I was tired of being depressed and knowing that I could do something about it. I was tired of looking down the road and seeing myself in an early grave or worse having poor health and suffering old age without a good foundation of fitness. 

I have always said that the stress of worrying will kill you faster than the weight you carry, but at some point the weight you carry is going to stress you right out of the game. So don't worry about your weight, just get up as start doing something a little more each day. Stop making excuses for why you can't do it and look for reasons why you can and should do it. If you do not have a reason why then find one and hold on to it. 

The benefits from losing weight goes far beyond the lbs you lose. What you get is your life back! What you get is your own slice of Freedom. And that freedom is priceless. 

Justice And Mercy Through Forgiveness

Forgiveness releases us from our offenders. The greater the emotional trauma they cause the greater the need to forgive, but the less inclined we may feel to forgive.
Forgiveness is God's gift to us so that we do not have to carry the burden of being a victim.

A victim is one who has suffered injury, whether that be physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, or otherwise.

In Doctrine & Covenants 64:10 we are told..."of you it is required to forgive all men."  That does not mean that justice will not be served, only that we give it to God to extract it.

Forgiving those whom have injured us allows us to progress beyond the injury. If we do not forgive those who trespass us we allow bitterness into our hearts. It is like drinking poison hoping our trespasser will die. By forgiving we release them from holding our emotions, our mind, and our spirit.

We have no power to inflict justice, but God does. However, He has no power to enforce justice until we give him that power through our own forgiveness.

Without faith we do not trust that God will see that justice is done so we have a tendency to carry with us the burden of thinking that we must bring justice about. Without faith we often feel that the balance of justice has been unfairly placed upon us.

God has given us the gift of being able to forgive others that we may experience the Mercy of God, that mercy being the relief from carrying that burden of justice.

Eat Less- My Thoughts On Dieting

At the beginning of our Biggest Loser challenge. I shared my thoughts on diet and exercise. I was not a big fan of either. Rather my opinion has been if you eat less and move more you should be able begin losing weight. This experiment is an on going process, but so far I have tested my plan and found it has worked well for me.
In the process of discovery I have somewhat refined or maybe just defined what Eating Less and Moving More means to me. In this entry I am going to share my discoveries on Eating Less.
First as part of eating less means you must recognize what you are eating. Sometimes it is not what we eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner that may be killing us. Sometimes it is the incidentals, those things you eat without even thinking about it, the pieces of candy from a candy bowl,  the snitching you do before you eat your meal. Sometimes it is the kinds of things you snack on. Some food is specifically designed to make you want to eat more. Everything adds up a little at a time. So, take an inventory of what you are eating.
Sometimes eating less means cutting your portions back from seconds and thirds to only eating one helping. I chose to use a smaller bowl and eating seconds only sometimes. I accomplished this by realizing that if I really liked something I did not have to eat it all right now. I sometimes would wait a half an hour to have my seconds. I also realized that when something tasted good leaving it in my mouth longer was more effective at satisfying my desire than eating more.  Another thing I realized was that if I liked it a lot I could either make it again or I could buy it again. It took the bite out of my desire to eat it all before it disappeared.
I also realized that if I limited what I could eat it left me feeling deprived and from previous experience that was asking for failure. If you feel guilty for cheating on your diet you are likely to drop the t off your diet and that mean killing it. Guilt is your enemy. No matter how you choose to deal with your eating you must avoid guilt at all cost. Guilt may cause you to gain 5 lbs even if your cheat was only 6oz. Realizing that your body has good craving and bad ones will help you also realize that it is not that hard to tell wish is which.
I also came to the conclusion that once I started eating less my body began to crave more good foods. I also began to look up the foods that I craved on the internet and discovered that many of the things that I was craving were foods that increased my metabolism. Higher metabolism means better calories are burned off easier. So, go on a mission of discovery. Find out about your cravings. Discover what your cravings will do for you or to you. Sweet is a powerful craving learn what you can do to satisfy that craving with good foods and you will find out that eating less is not so hard. Salty is another powerful craving that can be lessened by experimenting with herbs and spices or you can find Mrs. Dash seasonings, as well as I am sure many others. The key is you must learn to work with your cravings not against them.
Don't starve yourself. Eating less does not meaning not eating only controlling how much you eat. Plan your snacks eat slow, but eat something every couple of hours especially when you start to feel hunger. Don't let your body think it is starving, but don't think you have to eat a lot to stop feeling hungry. Eat a little then wait. Fat foods actually make you feel fuller for a longer period of time. I am finding that a small scoop of peanut butter is fairly satisfying.
If you eat for emotional comfort to deal with stress, you must understand that more than likely the reason you do not feel capable of dealing with stress is because of your eating. Comfort foods are a temporary solution for a permanent problem and in the end turns our emotional stress into physical stress as our body holds onto it.


The final thing I want to talk about is water intake. When I started my contest I drank lots of water. I used a 59oz container to measure my intake. I started out drinking almost 4 of those per day except on weekends. I found it harder to drink water on weekends because when I am not at work I do not always have immediate access to water. Water is good because it helps remove poisons released from your muscle tissue and fats cells through sweat and or urination. Drink lots of water. The bonus is that it helps you feel full faster just not for long.

Commit To Your Marriage

Sometimes it takes a commitment to the marriage to survive the pot holes that will happen along the way. Marriage is not easy. It requires work, forgiveness, and compassion as well as commitment. We are all weak at times and without a commitment to the marriage it is easy to find yourself uncommitted to your spouse or your spouse uncommitted to you.
When we were courting we relied heavily on making ourselves attractive to each other. Whether that was physically, mentally, spiritually, or otherwise we sought to impress each other. We couldn't think about being separated. We thought all we wanted was to spend time together. However, something terribly magical happens once you get married. All that time you thought you would have together suddenly dries up and disappears. Work and or school begins to demand more time. Between church callings, work, and the lovely bill collectors, the stress begins to mount. Suddenly all those things you had in common get forgotten and all the things you ignored, didn't know, or didn't want to think about come to the surface exposing you to the less flattering qualities of your spouse. Then comes finances. Suddenly your spouse begins to look...shall we say...not so attractive. At this point we look in the mirror and we start to question our own attractiveness.
So many things happen that distract us from each other, including the world's definition of marriage and family. No wonder divorce becomes an easy solution to our hectic life.
Without a commitment to marriage it is easy to fall out of love and see breaking up your family as a solution to the lack of feeling love toward your spouse. When you are committed to the marriage you may fall in and out of the feeling of love a few times and as long as abuse is not involved you can still understand the importance of the marriage. What a commitment to marriage really is, is a commitment to the third personage of your marital covenant...The Lord.

Reporting in Week 4 Post Competition

This past month has been difficult reflecting back it is probably the hardest month I face each year. Thanksgiving is a single days big meal. Christmas time really isn't that bad, a few more sweets than other times, but nothing I can not minimize the damage. January is when I tend to get depressed or be prone to it. But April starts off with a family breakfast and munch fest at my mom's house while watching General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is my youngest son's birthday on the 3rd of April so we usually go out to eat for that. Our Anniversary is on the 18th, and our oldest daughters birthday is on the 26th. This year we had all those things, plus we had a luncheon celebrating my youngest boys baptism. May we had a luncheon after my brothers baby was blessed as well as another luncheon to celebrate a baby blessing of some dear friends of ours. Follow that up with a funeral luncheon for my Aunt and a Mothers Day dinner at my sisters and I think I could have easily gained my weight back had I not kept my portions in check. I will admit that I struggled this month, but in the end as of Saturday morning the scale had not changed since the previous week. My low day was on Thursday morning when I weighed in just above 250 lbs. Unfortunately by Saturday morning I weighed in exactly the same as last week. Probably due to the lesson I learned while moving more.

Exercise this week consisted of some Yoga and some jogging. Wednesday was my peak performance for jogging. I started off on a 2 mile jog and ended up jogging 4.9 miles and I felt like I could have kept going...that is until morning came. It was in the morning that I began to realize a learning experience was being set up. It was apparent to me that in the morning I was having a difficult time moving and even stretching became difficult. Though your body can do it without warm ups and cool downs. It requires a lot more time to recover afterwards. I also learned that if you do not warm up before you stretch, your muscles do not want to stretch willingly. Friday's stretches did not feel very effective either, but I went jogging for a mile and found myself feeling okay, but not great. As I was getting dressed my back felt like it was trying to slip a disc in my lower back. I knew exactly what had happened when I felt it. the muscles where just too tight. A trip to the Chiropractors and I was back on track, but I was a little behind on the exercises. Sweat has been hard to come by the last couple of weeks. I have put in some good workouts, but I don't think I have challenged myself enough. All in all I feel pretty good...not great, but pretty good about this week.

Distractions are bound to happen. Don't feel guilty. Guilt is an emotion prone not only to weigh you down spiritually, but physically as well. Be kind to yourself and maintain an eye of faith on your goal. Believe it will happen and it will. Though my weight has not gone down my clothes are definitely telling a different story and I continue to become Physically what I already am Mentally.

Using weight as your sole indicator as to whether you are going to be happy or not, is not a good idea. Weight is a good goal only if you recognize that weight is not what your real goal is. We want to be able to fit into nicer clothes, we want to breath better, we want to look better, we want more energy, we want better health, or we want to conquer our appetites. In other words we are looking to increase our freedom. That is why we want to lose weight. If we get what we really want we will recognize that Eating Less and Moving More is how we get and keep what we really want, and we will appreciate the process.

No Social Freedom Without Financial Freedom

Some espouse the idea of total social freedom but they believe that wealth should be redistributed. Is this not a contradiction in and of itself? How can you enforce one morality while giving a pass to all others. Or how can you promote one immorality over another? What would happen to justice? At what point are Social and Financial  issues separate?
I may not like what someone does with their money, but when do I have the right to take it from them, because I feel they have abused their rights? Many people abuse their social rights and commit crimes doing it. Would we simply turn the other cheek and allow other social depravities to run rampant?
As a society we have laws that are suppose to protect our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And when someone breaks those laws they are suppose to be punished. To simply deem someone immoral or illegal because of their financial status is itself immoral. We can not deem someone immoral just because we think they are doing something wrong, otherwise we would have chaos.
You can not have social freedom without financial freedom. A man can not be forced to change his heart without the agency to do so. Whether that heart is bad socially or financially. Each man must work out his own salvation and if he tries to work out someone else's salvation he will lose his own. It is not our job to see that our brother does right, only that he has the opportunity to do so.

Reporting in Week 3 Post Competition

My third week of post competition has gone better than I expected. I wanted to jog more this week, but weather kinda put a damper on things. So, some jogging, some Biggest Loser 10 minute workouts, and some Yoga, and I feel like I put myself back on track. I am finding that a good work out in the morning is good to get the metabolism kicked in, but I have to either work longer than my usual 20-30 minutes in the morning, or I have to add something like an extra jog in the evening once or twice a week when I hit a plateau. So, Saturday evenings 3.5 miles really helped me get back on track.
As for Eating less I have to say this week was a challenge with Baby blessing parties, and the baptismal luncheon for my youngest son, there was plenty of opportunity to go over board, but I felt I did okay for the most part. I ended the day with my run and a soak in a jetted tub.

I finally decided that Saturday mornings are just not going to be possible every week for weigh ins so, I am going to weigh in whenever I can and post it for my own accountability.
I am going to also start turning my focus from reporting each week to more detailed tips on my portion control, mental clicks, and moving more. If you have questions about specifics let me know and I will try to answer them as best I can.
Remember, the more good you do to your body the more good your body will be able to do for you. Freedom is the goal.
When you look in the mirror stop looking at what you do not want to see, but look at what you want to see. The mirror will become your friend instead of your enemy. 

Reporting Week 2 Post Competition

Another week of post competition and I am realizing that I need to give myself a harder deadline to reach my next goal. The past two weeks I have increased my exercise but I also ate more. I am noticing that I have been eating kind of in a hurry and that is making it easy to eat more than I should. I have to readjust the pace of my meals. The other thing that I need to do is plan my desserts. Every week seems to have one or two nights that I know I am going to see sweets on the menu, usually not at our house. If I plan it in I am usually okay. If I keep my portions small it does not kill my over all plan.
The mental click that I have to work with is when I go to my mom's house for family get togethers. Family get togethers usually mean munchies. Thank goodness this does not happen more than once a month... for the most part. And even though I ate more than I usually do I filled up on mostly the veggie tray to start with.
Moving more does not bother me nearly as much as it used to. The ability to move more is the reward for moving more when you did not want to. This week I jogged 4 days, Tuesday was my favorite day because I jogged 2 miles while on vacation in Wellington, Utah, did Yoga 1 day I swam for an hour one night, and I got to hike on Saturday. Hiking was incredible, it was rewarding, and a reminder of why I want to keep doing cardio. It gave me a glimpse at the freedoms I have been recapturing. I am excited to see the other incidental freedoms that I have created for myself by doing what I did not want to do.
This week I thought I might have gained weight again, but not being in town on Saturday morning kind of made it hard to know one way or the other. My scale at home makes me feel like I might be back on track but I have not been on the official scale so hopefully next week I can post my numbers again. I feel like my body is going through some major adjustments so we shall see where it is taking me. I have increased the use of weights when I am at home watching T.V. and sitting on my exercise ball.
So, even though I felt like my eating was out of control, mostly because of the two vacations and Easter, I look back and I think I did pretty good. My exercise felt off, but an honest evaluation says I moved more just in different ways and different places. I may not have sweated as much, but as long as I am staying active and doing what I can I will count that as a plus.
Eating Less and Moving More is bringing me new freedoms I could not imagine only 3 months ago. I am excited to see what else I can do this summer.
Keep on keeping on. I apologize for no numbers the past couple of weeks. Saturdays don't seem to work for weigh ins anymore so I am either going to have to change the time or the day of my weigh ins, but I will keep you posted.  

Crashing Is Part Of Life

Every once in awhile we hit a wall. We just feel like throwing in the towel and giving up. But something inside us whispers the slightest encouragement giving us the strength to keep going. Sometimes it just happens. We just have to pick ourselves up and remember why we started in the first place. All the sweat and pain we go through will pay off if we just don't quit. So you scraped your knee. So someone hurt you. So, you pulled a muscle. All are good reasons to quit, but if you do you lose all that you really want.Those things are going to happen, accept it and stand back up and keep moving forward. If we allow our emotions to rule our lives we will end up in a heap upon the floor. Sometimes you have to do those things you do not want to do and tell your emotions to take a back seat. When you hit that wall you have to tell it to move. And if it doesn't then you have push through it. Do not let it stand in your way. Peace and Happiness awaits you on the other side. 

Reporting Week 1 Post Competition

I have given myself a week off. Not completely off but I did not expect to lose this week. I did not weigh in on the "official" scale this week, but next week I will start anew.
This week was DeeAnn's second week on here Belly Fat diet. I am not following it completely, but as she is on it I am somewhat on it as well. Some of the menu calls for more than I can eat now a days. However, we had a couple of bumps in the road. A Thursday Wedding reception, was by the biggest bump, but in reality it was not off my "diet" it was just a temporary concentration of sugar. :) I enjoyed it very much and knowing that I can do it again makes it easy to not need more for a while.
Tonight we went to Ruby Rivers for dinner with Joel and Joy Nelson. We ordered the steak and coconut shrimp, and we split it. It was extremely filling even cutting it in half.
As far as moving more I have to say that I did not do very well toward the end of the week, but next week will promise to be different. At the beginning of the week DeeAnn started jogging so I spent my time with her and I will call that extremely effective. With school out I wont have to take the kids to school. So I will be doing a little extra. I need to reach my 50 lbs lost mark in the next 2 weeks. So we will continue to show the progress. Sorry, about no pic this week. I had an early Convention this morning and was unable to get to the scale. I doubt that there was a loss this week, but I will guarantee it next week. 

Knowing The Signs Of Our Times

We have signs that help us maintain order and civility. We have signs that help minimize the danger. We have signs that give us information. And we have signs that let us know where we are at. Some signs have words and some signs have symbols.Each sign as a role to play in making our life a little easier. But we must also be aware of the the signs that are posted to distract us from our destination.

Learning to read God's signs can help us see past the distractions of life and keep us on course. Knowing the signs of the times will help us minimize danger, maintain order and civility, and not only helps us know where we are, but who we are.

Thinking Beyond Your Own Comfort...

There are some subjects that make me nervous talking about. Not that I don't have my own opinion or that I am afraid to share it, but that I am not exactly sure how to share it with the reverence that it deserves. One of those subjects is homosexuality.

I do not understand homosexuality, but that does not mean that I am completely ignorant. It just means that I have to take some things on faith until my understanding can be turned into a perfect knowledge. Until then I have come to separate the homosexual, someone with same gender attraction, and homosexual acts. I do not believe that being a homosexual is a sin. That to me would go against everything I know about God. I believe God loves all his children despite their challenges. That being said I believe that homosexual acts, just as any other sexual acts outside the bonds of marriage are a sin. I also believe that man's attempt to redefine marriage does not redefine God's law of marriage nor His definition.

It would be unfair of me to condemn a man for his challenges, when I suffer from my own. Nor is it fair for me to assume that my challenges are greater than anyone else's, so I won't. I was introduced to a blog that I would like to share with you. It is www.gaymormonguy.blogspot.com. This man discusses the challenges he is facing as a practicing member of  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am grateful for his willingness to share his insights into overcoming temptation and his feelings on some very tough issues that he faces on a daily basis. In principle I believe that we might all relate to him with our own challenges.

Sometimes we have to look beyond our own comfort to understand our own faith and when we are willing to do this our own faith is increased and our ability to love is increased. And that my friends is what life is all about.

Ignorance breads fear and anger that leads to hate and violence, which will destroy our faith. We must look past our own comfort for understanding so that our faith may be confirmed.

A New Beginning- The Next Time You See Me......

Well the contest has come and gone and now it is time to renew my commitment. As I started this competition I realized that I would have to make some changes that I could live with, or I would end up right back where I started from. So, though the competition is over the journey is just begun. My next goal is to get to 220lbs and then evaluate whether or not to go lower. I weighed 220 as a senior in High School, but when I am done I will probably be a lot more firm than I was in High School. So we shall continue reporting in as I learn along the way....

This morning DeeAnn and I got up and together we started a new chapter in our lives. As we dawned our shoes and a our sweat jackets we stretched, walked out the door, and we started jogging together. I have never been so proud of my wife as I watched her struggle past her pain and jogged her first 1/2 mile. I then jogged another half mile with DeeAnn walking/jogging behind me.

The greatest thing I have learned in this contest is that I could do it. I don't need a gym membership, nor do I need a nutritionist or a trainer. What I did need was the will to start. Once I had the will to start then I needed the hope of finishing. Another thing I learned was that God has given me information to prepare me for this very journey and my bet is that when you make your decision to do the same you will begin to remember things that will help you as well. Mental clicks, are those ideas, ah has, or light bulbs that suddenly make things make sense, and will help you solidify your commitment to yourself.

Making myself accountable to my friends on facebook did two things. First it created an expectation of success in myself and in others. And second, it set me up to be encouraged, because I know my friends. Encouragement gave me the energy to do a little bit more than I thought I could, because deep inside I knew that it was giving inspiration and encouragement back to my friends.
As you lose weight you begin to realize the freedoms that you gave up by allowing yourself to get in such poor health. You also begin to respect yourself for doing what you know you should. Is there a value you can put on that? I sure can't.

I still feel that stressing out about weight will kill you faster than the weight itself, but certainly the stress of the weight you carry will kill you. So, don't stress about it, just get up off the couch and start Moving More and Eating Less. Find out for yourself what it means to be free of the emotional crap you are literally carrying with you. It is time to get out and see more of what God has given us by Eating Less and Moving More. Don't Give Up on Yourself!

Eating Less and Moving More and More. 

Becoming Physically what You already already are Mentally.

Reporting in Week 12- The Final Judgement

Before and After
I am The Biggest Loser 

This is the final week of the contest. However it is not the final week of my journey. What started as a fun competition has turned into a life changing experience. From having a hard time walking up stairs to jogging 5 miles without stopping this week has given me the confidence that I can do whatever I want to push myself to do.
I am not a health guru and I can not say what I have done is "technically" correct, but I truly believe that if you listen to that voice inside of you it will tell you what you need to do to get started. It doesn't take much, but it will ask you to do a little more than you think you can. In my case it asked me to give it 10 minutes and I answered the challenge. I have had my struggles and in reading my blog you may see those struggles, but in the end I have been able to push through and conquer myself.
We will begin our report on Saturday this week. With General Conference comes some traditions that might have spelled danger for me. After Priesthood Session my brothers and I have a tradition of going to Dairy Queen for ice cream. I happen to like the Pecan Mudslide. However, this time I ordered a small Hawaiian blizzard substituting banana for strawberry, I ate only half of it. On Sunday we have breakfast together, biscuits and gravy, french toast, bacon, eggs, fresh squeezed orange juice, and fruit. Normally this is a challenge but this year I took one of each and ate more fruit...okay I ate more than one piece of bacon, but the protein was necessary for my workouts this week.
Monday started out with a mile jog. It was Tuesday that I found out how close the race really was so I jogged 2 miles in the morning with my sauna suit on. After work I sent DeeAnn home with our van leaving 5 miles between me and home. The clouds were rolling in for our next storm so I jogged the 5 miles without stopping it took me just over an hour and at the end of the jog I continued my traditional 75 yd sprint. That I felt was a turning point. On Wednesday I dawned the sauna suit and jogged my 2 miles. That was probably the hardest 2 miles I have jogged yet. At work I worked my abs pretty hard on my exercise ball. On Thursday morning I jogged the 2 mile rout again with my sauna suit. On Friday I was going to treat this day as a last chance opportunity and take half a day off of work, but circumstances did not allow it. I ended up doing the full 3rd week Biggest Loser Yoga with my sauna suit on. I was going to jog as well but weather was against me. So, when I came home from work an opportunity to run opened up and I jogged my 2 miles before heading to the West Valley Rec Center to have some fun with the family in the pool. I swam 4 or 5 laps and did some misc. exercises along with playing in kiddy pool with the boys. Saturday I was unable to jog again, but I dawned the sauna suit and did the Biggest Loser Cardio Max with my buddy Bob. I tried to go through the second work out but I was completely drained at the end of the first. I thought I would try the Biggest Looser Yoga to finish my work out, but I got through the warm ups and I had no ability to balance. My legs were done.
This week my 2 mile jogs were almost harder mentally than my 5 mile jog. The 5 mile jog was harder to start and easy to finish, while the 2 miles were easy to start but harder to finish. I went through more teeshirts this week and have never sweated so much except maybe during High School two-a-days in the August heat.
My goal was to lose 6lbs that would make it a 2 percentage loss and I figure that would be pretty hard to beat at any level. Funny thing was I kept thinking that I weighed in at 260 lbs last week. Mentally I was already there. So when I weighed in I was pleasantly surprised with my second biggest weight loss since week number one. So the finally weigh in....

Final Weigh ins 254.4 lbs making my total
weight loss for 12 weeks 46.4 lbs
Eating Less and Moving More
Becoming Physically what I already am Mentally!