Almost 10 weeks ago I had a bright idea on The Christian Nerd Podcast. I challenged Ron to a weight loss competition and whoever lost would have to buy the other Star Wars: Battlefront. Tomorrow is our final weigh in and I’m pretty excited. I’m going to continue running and counting my calories, but I won’t have to be so intense and focused after tomorrow.
Last week I weighed in at 184 lbs., which means so far I’ve lost 20.5 lbs. After nine weeks of running and counting calories, I’m pretty proud of that accomplishment. I’ve still got more to lose, but I’m definitely happy with the progress that I’ve made.
Here are some lessons I learned during the past 10 weeks.
- Get a friend: I know it won’t shock anyone, but it’s definitely been easier to stay on track with a friend. Ron and I work together and hang out together outside of work. We had plenty of opportunities to encourage each other, share tips and talk about how much we missed pizza. It helped to have a friend slowly running along to same path.
- Competition: Probably more important than having a friend was having a competitor. I was blessed with the heart of an athlete but not the body of one. I wanted to lose weight to get healthy and win Battlefront; but more than anything I wanted to beat Ron. Not because I don’t like Ron, I love Ron; I just also love winning.
- Unhealthy: My competitiveness made my pursuit to get healthy a little unhealthy. Last week especially I got too competitive. I ran too much. I ate just enough. I ignored other responsibilities in order to go on another run. It’s easy to justify behavior like that, though, because I’m getting healthier. I brought it down a lot this week and have hopefully found a healthier balance.
- Steward: God calls us to be stewards of everything that he’s given us. In church we like to talk about stewardship in terms of money and the environment. We talk very little, though, about being good stewards of our bodies. This is the only body I’m going to have before Christ returns and I haven’t always treated it well. Exercising and eating better are just different ways of honoring God and obeying his command to be a good steward.
- Food: I still love food. I eat toast, drink smoothies and generally avoid hamburgers and fried foods. I still love hamburgers and fried foods and want to eat them again. However, where before I ate them on a regular basis, going forward I will eat them on special occasions.
I’m grateful for the past 10 weeks but I’m happy they’ll be over tomorrow. Today I’m going to count calories and probably double up on my running. Tomorrow morning after weighing in, though, I’m going to find some pancakes for breakfast and hopefully a giant plate of meat for dinner.
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