Marie and I went bowling last night for the first time in like 5 years.
We were the only ones there who were not in a league. It was a bit scary.
Couldn’t stop thinking of Jim Gaffigan the entire time. Almost every joke of his came to life.
“You can do it. We’re praying for you.”
My buddy, Aron Kirk, and I have been talking about our personal time with God recently, and yesterday he challenged me to join him in starting a Bible reading plan that Elevation Church developed called New Thru 30. It takes you through the entire New Testament in 30 days.
I thought about it for a little bit, and I couldn’t think of a reason not to, so I officially started this morning. 12 chapters of Matthew. Such good stuff. For some reason, I’m seeing things in a completely new light than when I’d last read these verses. Life is different every time I read it, I guess. There were a couple of things I was really convicted about. Overall, it was just what I needed.
Aron and I have also talked a bit about fitness and just generally taking care of ourselves for a while, and he said that he also set the goal to work out more days than he doesn’t and asked if I wanted to join him on that too. Of course, I did. I need to get back in the groove of things and not let myself slip since finishing P90X last year. A couple of extra pounds have already managed to slip themselves in over the last couple of months. It’s great to have accountability when you’re going through something like this.
I’m looking forward to making it through the whole New Testament over the month of February and getting back in the habit of taking care of myself physically as well as spiritually. The goal of this month for me is to refocus things and make sure I’m on track to go through 2010 with my priorities in order. I am even planning an interesting weekend in a few days that I’ll fill you all in on later.
If you’re interested in joining Aron and I in going through the New Testament, you can read more about it on the New Thru 30 website.
Thinking of literally completely deleting my Facebook account. Can anyone think of a good reason why I shouldn’t? Seriously?
So, now that the holidays are over and life is starting to get “back to normal,” I’m finding a push for motivation in areas where motivation has been lacking lately. There are things I’ve been wanting to set goals for, but just haven’t done it yet. I know what I need to do, but I’m letting life get in the way.
It’s easy to get beat down with life happening. It’s easy to say that I’ll start tomorrow. It’s easy to just push it to the side. But the right thing to do is to start right now. The right thing to do is to write it down. The right thing to do is to make sure I have accountability with it. The right thing is to just do it. No excuses.
Anybody else struggling with this mess?
Any suggestions?
What a whirlwind the last couple of months has been.
A few days into 2010, things seem to be somewhat returning to “normal.” I’m actually looking forward to that.
Been listening to a lot of new music lately on lala.com. I have become a huge fan of this site.
One album that I hadn’t really listened to lately that I was really impressed with is Seabird’s Rocks Into Rivers. They have been on tour with David Crowder Band, and we saw them a few months ago. They are actually from Northern Kentucky as well, so that made me even more interested in their music. Even if that hadn’t been the case though, this album would still be pretty great.
Take a listen for yourself. You can go sign up for lala.com if you want and add their album (or anything else) to your playlist. You can read more about lala.com on their website.
Several weeks ago, we did a series at ACC called I Love My Church. The majority of the message for each of the two weeks of the series were stories told by folks from ACC and how their lives have been affected because of our church. It was amazing to hear how lives and families have been changed by God through ACC, and it was humbling to be a part of such a cool project.
Here are the videos so you can see for yourself.
Week 1
Week 2
Steven Furtick, Lead Pastor of Elevation Church, posted this video of his son talking about financial management.
He makes some good points. If Elijah can do it, why can’t so many adults?
Let’s help fix this problem that keeps so many people from living within their means and giving their first fruits to God.
Trust me. It can be done. It doesn’t matter what situation you’re in. You can work through it with a plan.
Dave Ramsey helped Marie and I see God’s plan for our money, and it has done absolute wonders in our life. It changed everything about us – for the better.
If you have questions and don’t know what to do, talk to someone who is winning with money. Not your broke uncle who is 60 and still has a 30 year mortgage and two car payments. If you can’t find anyone like that, e-mail me and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.
You are not weird. You are normal. Most people are fighting the same problems. We just have to get over ourselves and move beyond them. Then you can be weird. Being weird is awesome.
Let’s stop making excuses for not doing this God’s way.
Start now. Make a change today.
Here are 10 things that I learned while going through P90X.
I have spent the last 180 days with Mr. Tony Horton, and he has proceeded to whip me into better shape than I thought I would ever be in again. A lot of you have asked me to post my pictures and share a little more of my story. So here goes.
This is how things have changed over the last 6 months of my life.
Before I get into this, I want to give an absolutely huge amount of thanks to my hot wife. Without her helping me eat right and supporting me, I would not have followed through on this. She even changed her own eating habits to support me in this. She is a huge blessing in my life, and I thank God that he put her here with me.
Brace yourself. This could be is a lengthy post.
I switched doctors to go to someone closer than I had been driving (30+ miles), and he required a full physical for all new patients. I’m expecting all the standard stuff: “You could probably drop a couple of pounds,” “Oh, you’re on blood pressure medicine because it runs in your family,” “Turn your head and cough,” etc. Simple enough, right?
WRONG.
First off, he is the best doctor I have ever been to in my life. I was at his office for no less than an hour and a half. He asked me every question imaginable. He probably knows me better than I know myself now. Then he asked me to take off my shirt and hop up on the table. That’s where it all officially changed (and no, this isn’t turning into some sexual harassment story).
Now, I know I was a few pounds overweight, and I also know that I thought I was pretty good at hiding it with my clothes on. However, when your doctor says, “Dude, when did you get those?” “Those what?” “Those moobies?” you know something is wrong. When he later asks his med student intern if he should write down “S.M.B.” under chest exam and then explains that it stands for “Small Man Boobs,” and you then realize that he’s only half joking (and wonder if it’s now part of your permanent medical record), you really know something is wrong.
Needless to say, I left that day completely and totally pissed off. As I should have. That is the nicest thing a doctor has ever done for me. It was in this moment that he changed my life, just by “poking” some fun at my lard laden body. It was just what I needed to hear, whether he knew it or not at the time.
I made a follow-up appointment for 3 months later, and I went about the business of changing my life.
As any good nerd would do, I began my research. I wasn’t interested in some fad diet or meaningless workout program. I wanted something that worked. I wanted something practical. I wanted something concrete. I wanted something that would give me great results for the right reasons.
I didn’t want to go to the gym and work with a personal trainer, and I didn’t want just general guidelines. I wanted a complete plan that I could do at home within my schedule and that showed me what to do, what to eat and how to change my life. I had never exercised in my life (at least not regularly), and it was time to change that. And I had to figure out a way to do it that wouldn’t cause me to burn out and quit 2 weeks later.
After some discussions with a friend and some online research, I eventually stumbled across P90X. I thought to myself, “wow, that sounds pretty good.” Then I watched the videos on their website, and I thought to myself, “maybe I should start a little slower.” P90X is ridiculous. So I did some research on it’s little brother and predecessor, Power 90. This seemed like a good fit, and the results were seemingly undeniable. It was all common sense: eat right and exercise. Duh, Einstein! “Oh, and here’s a book on how to eat and some DVDs to workout with.” Exactly what I was looking for.
I officially committed and ordered Power 90. No turning back now. It was starting to get real.
Brace yourself. Here’s what I looked like on this day (click thumbnail for larger view – if you dare):
I weighed in at 177.0 lb. I had started at about 185 a couple of weeks before this since I knew I had a doctor’s appointment coming up. I had started to eat a little better and lost about 8 lbs by this point already.
I wrote my first official Josh is a Big Loser post. Continuing to change how I eat and what I do.
This is the day I officially started Power 90. Day 1 pictures were taken and measurements were recorded. It was time to spend almost every day with Tony Horton and the Kids.
These were my first official Day 1 pictures (I didn’t look too happy, did I?):
My starting weight for Power 90 was 173.5 lb. I had dropped 3.5 lbs getting ready to start by eating less and running a little bit.
Day 30 came pretty quickly. I was super excited because I saw major results during this past month. My weight dropped to 168.0 lb, and I was noticing some major changes in the mirror.
At this point, I started thinking about what was coming next. I didn’t think I wanted to stop after Power 90.
Surely I couldn’t do P90X…or could I?
I ordered P90X on this day.
Day 60 was upon me, and changes were still coming. My doctor had switched my blood pressure medicine on my first visit, and it was becoming apparent that it was making me very tired. Since starting Power 90, my BP had dropped to extremely good levels, so I called in and he told me to scale back my dosage and then eventually took me off of it completely (I had been on it for years)! That made a HUGE difference in my energy, and my BP was still holding great. Score! Also, I was down to 164.5 lb. Things were going exactly according to plan. Sticking to the nutrition plan made a big difference.
For some reason, I decided to look at the ceiling during these pictures…
My 3 month follow-up appointment with “Dr. Blunt” had arrived. I was more than a little nervous going back for some reason. I really wanted to make sure he wouldn’t need to put me back on any kind of BP medication. Thankfully, all was well with that.
When he first walked in, I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised when he looked up and grinned from ear to ear. He shook my hand and told me congratulations. He was more than thrilled with how far I’d come in 3 months. He was even more thrilled when I told him I wasn’t done yet. This was only Day 79 of 90.
“All right. Moment of truth. Take off your shirt.”
I proceeded to remove my shirt, and he proceeded to literally applaud my progress. Can’t say a doctor has ever clapped for me before.
I left the office that day flying high as a kite. I knew what I was doing was working, and it pushed me to keep going.
Our country’s Independence Day was also my own personal independence day. Day 90 fell right on the Fourth of July. I had stuck with it for 90 days, and now I felt like a new man. Heck, I was a new man.
My weight was down to 162.0 lb. I had met every goal I had set out to accomplish so far. I was thrilled. My doctor was thrilled. My wife was thrilled. Everyone was thrilled.
Where, oh where did my moobie go? They had disappeared (mostly), and I had replaced them with a nice sunburn on my arms (thanks to Sports Camp).
Now that I had lost the weight, it was time to get in the best shape of my life. Throwing caution to the wind, I started P90X the day after I finished Power 90.
The insanity of P90X began. New journey. New pictures. New shorts.
Severe pain from working out like I’ve never worked out before. This never officially went away during the 90 days.
Day 28 of the X. Four weeks in and time to change the workouts up. Bring the pain again.
Am I starting to see some abs? Where have those been hiding all this time?
I celebrated my 29th birthday feeling better and in better shape than I ever have been.
Day 56 brought me 8 weeks into the P90X journey. Still feeling good and getting much stronger. Time to really change up the workouts and push through to Day 90.
Day 90 has arrived. I have completed 180 days with Tony Horton. He has brought me from the weak, fat, sloth that I was to the much leaner, stronger me.
I’m still not where I want to be, but I’m putting a bookmark on this page of my life. I obsessed for 6 months about getting my act together, and it has changed my life.
It’s still hard to believe that I went through this transformation in just 6 months.
Here’s what Power 90 did for me:
And here’s what P90X did for me (not quite as dramatic from looking at the pictures, but look at the numbers below to see more):
Here are my before and after fit test results showing how much stronger I became during just P90X:
| Prior to Day 1 | After Day 90 | |
|---|---|---|
| Resting Heart Rate | 62 | 57 |
| Wide Front Pull-ups (2 fists wider than shoulders) | 2 | 8 |
| Vertical Leap | 16″ | 22″ |
| Push-ups | 36 | 57 |
| Toe Touch (inches past toes) | +4″ | +7.5″ |
| Wall Squat (min:sec) | 1:24 | 4:20 |
| Bicep Curls (w/ 20 lbs) | 20 | 46 |
| In & Outs | 18 | 112 |
Here are my before and after measurements showing how much I lost during Power 90 and P90X (180 consecutive days):
| Power 90 – Day 1 | P90X – Day 90 | |
|---|---|---|
| Biceps | 13.125″ | 14.0″ |
| Thighs | 22.75″ | 21.5″ |
| Chest | 39.5″ | 36.75″ |
| Waist @ Bellybutton | 39.125″ | 33″ |
| Hips @ Pantline | 37.75″ | 34″ |
| Weight | 173.5 lb | 160 lb |
I’m down to about 160 lbs, which is 25 lbs lighter than my heaviest weight. My goal from this point on is to lose some more of the body fat and continue to get in better shape and to be able to do more pull-ups (my big weakness through this whole thing, having never done them before this). I think I may do the Lean version of P90X to accomplish that, but I know that a huge part of it will be my diet. I have to keep it clean to shed this fat. It’s going to be tough.
But for this week, I’m going to take a well deserved break (for the most part). I’m exhausted!
In the next few days/weeks, I’ll post some more of my thoughts about going through this, such as things I’ve learned, things I liked and disliked, etc.
If you want to view my progress pictures through my Picasa account, you can do so by going here:
Yesterday marked the fourth anniversary of a great day for me. September 24, 2005 was the day that Marie walked down the aisle and I fooled her into spending the rest of her life with me. Score!
Seriously. Behind the day I accepted Jesus as my Savior, this was the greatest day of my life.
Last night, however, did not echo that same excitement. Okay, maybe it echoed excitement, but not in the same way.
I spent the night with my bride in the Emergency Room. Marie was having some pain in her side, and we went to get it checked out. Everything turned out fine, and it’s likely that she had pleurisy, and she’s okay now. But it was an evening full of surprises, to say the least. I’m just glad she’s okay now.
Interesting how things can turn out, even when you have something else planned. Not exactly how we figured we would spend our anniversary evening, but hey, at least we got to spend it together!
Now to shift gears completely.
Last weekend we finally got to go fishing at my parents’ new place. I hadn’t been in ages, so I was looking forward to it for quite a while.
I wasn’t expecting a whole lot since it’s a fairly small pond, but it was actually pretty good. I caught five fish of four species, and the last one I pulled out was a decent size catfish.
Not a big fish by any means, but it was definitely the biggest fish I’ve ever caught. Oh, and it’s filthy because after I got it out of the water, it broke my line when it went insane and was flopping around in the dirt.
Overall, it was great to just get out there with all three of my brothers and our family and spend some time away from the business of everything else in the world. I need more of that. I think most of us do.
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