This is Day 12 of the Extreme Accountability Challenge.
This post is pretty lengthy so please forgive me in advance.
When I started posting my weight loss daily to Facebook on March 15, 2017, it wasn’t something that I came up with that morning and just snapped a photo of my scales with my phone and posted. Heck no! John Davisson and I have talked all the time about what would make me stay the course and lose this weight forever. You see John is proof that it can be done, he personally lost 65 pounds 10 years ago and has kept it off since. he teaches people a simple program that’s worked for literally thousands. I listen to him because he has walked in my shoes, he’s not just some thin guy with an opinion or because of his certifications, I listen because he was fat and now he’s not and hasn’t been for 10 years. So it’s not some fluke. But this is not about the program that he teaches, it works, that’s not even in question. There are probably dozens of programs that would work. The question John knew to ask, the one that really mattered was “when are you going to stick to the program “, what would make me do what I know would work but I had been too busy, unfocused, lazy, no unwilling. Ouch!!! Yep there it is… unwilling… to stick to his or any other program. I knew the answer for me was accountability, but I needed the kind of accountability that I couldn’t talk my way out of, if you’ve ever seen Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein and heard his speech before going in the room with “The Monster” , then listened to him begging to get out of that room, that’s the kind of accountability that I needed. So I said “what if I posted to Facebook?” That was several weeks before I shared that with my Life on Fire Challenge Coach, Hyo Kim, and on the morning of March 15, 2017 I jumped. I told Hyo that it felt as though I was standing on the edge of a cliff and about to cliff dive for the first time. Hyo challenged me to step up and jump…I did. I did not because I wanted everyone that I am friends with on Facebook to see my scales everyday but because I am 55 and still the same kid that I was when my wife Angie met me in the Humanities building of the University of South Carolina, at 8 am the first day of class our freshman year. I still have dreams, goals, desires, just like I did then. The difference today is that I know we are not promised tomorrow and my life and your life are more important than we will ever know. From our immediate families, the communities, states, countries we you live in. You and I are here for a reason that we will will probably never fully understand the weightiness that our lives have this side of eternity. Make no mistake about it, to quote my friend Gary Barkalow, author of a book I highly recommend, “It’s your Call” says we are on a battle ship not a cruise ship in this life.
I don’t have control over everything that goes on around me, I can’t stop every conceivable thing that could cause me to die, but I really don’t want to speed it up any. I have and you have a lot left to do, I can choose to stick to my eating program and use this Facebook accountability as a way to lock me in the room with “the Monster”, my overeating, and tame it once and for all. I believe God placed us all here to accomplish something incredibly important, some few will see some things many will see but all important and take time. I don’t see many 300 pounders running around at age 80. That’s only 25 years away for me now and truthfully I want to make a difference and be here many years after age 80. So here’s the deal, Esau, from the Bible, another book that I highly recommend, it’s been a best seller for a long time, actually before the New York Times was a thought.
Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew.
Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom. ) Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.
Genesis 25:29-34 NIV
I believe that there are many of us selling our birthright to overeating and obesity. I for one am done with that, I have a lot to do.
Since we’re talking about it, if you are saying but “I don’t have the tools” or you don’t believe you know what to do, well I’m no doctor, but I’m pretty sure that Calories in minus what you burn gives you a weight loss or weight gain or you stay the same. There is no miracle diet or exercise plan that’s going to save you or me. I have to behave!! And you do to.
I love what God tells Moses when he is telling Moses all the amazing things that he was going to do through Mose, Moses then tells God he doesn’t have what it takes,
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
Exodus 4:1-4 NIV
Pretty cool! He had what he needed, then fast forward to the banks of the Red Sea
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
Exodus 14:15-16 NIV
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that God told Moses to raise the same stick that he had when Moses was telling him all the reasons he could not succeed. God made that stick a tool used for the parting of the Red Sea!!
Soooooo what’s this all have to do with losing weight and posting it to Facebook, well if you have 5, 50 or even 500 pounds to lose, ask yourself, what’s really holding you back. You have a lot of things a head of you to accomplish and the enemy, and yes I believe there’s an enemy that doesn’t want us to live out our God given Destiny, will use any means to stop you. He will ever use our overeating and obesity!
I can just imagine us hanging around in heaven and running into say, William Wallace, and listening to his stories of fighting and dying for what he believed. Then he glances over to me and asking about my story and me saying well I fought valiantly but The Burger King defeated me!
You and I are better than that, so here’s what I say, I have nothing to gain from you posting your weight to Facebook daily and joining our Extreme Accountability Challenge, but what’s it going to take for you to do something about your health. I know it’s weird but normal is obese and dead at 65 or younger. Join us now and change forever. It’s the hardest and the easiest thing I’ve ever done.
Private message me if you would like to join us. That’s all I’ve got.