At first I didn't do much of anything about my weight other than kind of wishing I wasn't so heavy. After a few weeks of wishful thinking and hoping that somehow I would lose weight just by being more conscious of it, I quickly decided this wasn't doing anything to help my situation. Yep, I was going to have to do something different.
So the first step for me was educating myself about weight loss. Google search here I come! I found out all kinds of stuff about weight loss as you can imagine and after much reading and becoming more educated about the subject, I finally came up with a plan. Eat less, exercise more. Sounds easy, but it requires something I didn't have up to this point and that was commitment and discipline.
My second step was to make a commitment to lose weight. Until I became committed to the task, it was just a dream. With commitment came all kinds of ideas on how to make it happen. I set a goal of how much weight I wanted to lose. I developed a tracker to measure my results weekly. I calculated how many calories I needed to eat each day to begin losing weight. I decided to stop drinking sodas. I decided to eat three good meals a day instead of skipping breakfast as to jumpstart your metabolism in the morning and start burning fat as early in the day as possible. I realized that if I walked every day then I would burn even more calories helping me to achieve my weight loss goal even faster. I decided to snack less in the evenings as I watch television. And finally, I determined that I could eat whatever food I wanted, just smaller portions at each meal. You see, my commitment set me on a path to make a plan... now comes the discipline part. The part where it takes discipline to execute the plan. Yes, the hard part.
This was the third step of doing something different to get a different result. I stated earlier that it was the hard part of doing something different and it was, but only in the beginning. The reason this was the hard part was because this is when I had to simply get going. Up till now it was all just a plan. Yes a plan of action but without action it's just a great plan. Results are not improved because of great plans, results are improved because of acting upon great plans. Without action, it's just a dream.
Final step for me was to maintain. After weeks of eating less, measuring results, walking more and snacking less, I saw the pounds coming off. I ended up losing 28 pounds over a 3 month period. All I did was stick to my plan and measure the results. I did notice that as I began to get into better shape I was beginning to lose less weight each week. Eventually I was at an ideal weight, I felt good, I think I looked good. I actually had to buy some new clothes because the old ones just didn't fit anymore. But the weight loss slowed tremendously and my goal now was to maintain my weight goal through my new established routines.
I tell you all this to parallel similarities with our Christian life. In my case, I felt I've lost my focus in my Spiritual walk with the Lord. I've come to a place where I know that I'm weak and for a lack of better terms... fat and lazy and in need of different results. I would say that the last few weeks I've repeated the exact same process that I did in the beginning of my weightloss journey. Wishful thinking for change. Sure I'm convicted and know I need to change, but as of yet, I've not made the commitment to do so. Seems I keep making excuses as to why I can't make it to church. Often my prayers are shallow and more and more infrequent. My bible study happens less often and about the only time I spend time with God anymore is in my car listening to bible studies or sermons on the way to work (I have an hour drive to work.) I'm feeling disconnected. I'm not lost, but I'm way off course. Just as I said earlier when describing my weight gain... I'm simply headed in the wrong direction.
Different results demand different actions!
Pray for me as I seek the Lord's guidance and ask for strength to re-commit myself to living my life for him. May He give me a heart of commitment and a desire to set goals to grow into the Christian he desires me to be.
May this commitment refocus my attention on His plan for me through our daily walk together and a renewed attention to his word, the bible.
May I have the strength and stamina to be diligent and disciplined in my actions and behavior as he shapes and molds me.
And through this may I see different results. May I be a different man.
It's time to lose the weight of the world and become fit for Christ!
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13
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