Higher Jesus, Higher!

Last week I told you that I was going to try and start eating according to 'The Zone' diet. Well, I had intended on going to the store and gearing up for the first week of being in the zone, but that didn't happen until Sunday morning, so I've not been on the diet for more than 12 hours now, but it feels good so far.

The way you eat breaks down like this:
- Food is broken up into one of three macronutrient categories: protein (for rebuilding muscle), carbohydrate (for sustained energy), and fat (because your body uses it as a lubricant if you will).
- Blocks are used to denote how much of something you should eat to get the correct amount at each meal (1 block protein = 7 grams of protein, 1 block carbs = 9 grams of carbs, 1 block fat = 1.5 grams of fat).
- I'm trying to eat no more than 20 blocks in a day, meaning that at each of my 5 meals, I'm trying to consume 4 blocks of protein, 4 blocks of carbs, and 4 blocks of fat.

It takes some getting used to, but I'm confident that this last 25-30 pounds will come off relatively quickly if I can stick to this diet closely, then I'll reevaluate and determine where I'd like to go from there.

I dropped down to 248.8 pounds this morning. That's significant because last Wednesday I was down to 249.6, and I was thinking that it was just lost water weight, but with this finding this morning, I'm thinking that it's actual fat being burned off. I'm going to start seriously looking at taking creatin (sp?) to build up some more muscle. Who doesn't want to be totally jacked right? Well not me, I'd just like some more wiggle room within my diet.

--End of workout post, beginning of church related post--

Last night at church we discussed more of what we as Christian's should be hoping for about heaven. Both the physical and the spiritual side of things, and how that relates to the bodies that we presently occupy here on earth. Thad didn't go too far into things, so I'm not going to sit here and discuss something I don't yet comprehend, but he did ask a fun question: what is one thing that you're really hoping for when we get to heaven?

Some of the answers were typical:
- Seeing Jesus
- No more pain
- Seeing loved ones again
- Big pearly gates

I had an answer in mind, but in an effort not to look like a total attention whore, I didn't speak up. You know when you have a baby that's about 7-11 months old or so? They are at that point where they are able to interact with you and have fun, laugh, and smile (I do really well with these babies, not so much with the ones who can't yet emote). I love throwing them up in my hands, letting them just escape my grip and then catching them again. The babies seem to love it as well. Well my dream for when I get to heaven is to have Jesus do that with me. Silly huh?

Getting Started

The fact of the matter is that I don't blog already, reason being, I'm just not sure that anyone wants to read what I have to write. So, lets get started with that assumption, that not many people are going to be reading this, but I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway.

In February of 2007 I started a journey to drop some weight. (In a future post, I'll get the beginning of the story down in the blog, just not right this minute.) I was not completely prepared for the changes that my body would undergo, both in good ways, and in the new struggles that it would present in myself. More importantly than the physical changes have been the emotional ones that I've gone through. Most of them have been amazing, and some of them have just sucked.


(Picture of the roommates and I, circa November 2006 at the Texas A&M-K.U. football game in Lawrence. Estimated weight, 370+ pounds.)

To make my first real confession, these last six months or so have been some of the most trying in my life. I haven't really lost any weight in that time, though I have gotten stronger, lost some inches, and begun to feel more positive about who I am as a person, I'm still trying to come to grips with lots of who it is that I'm becoming.

In trying some new things out, I was given the suggestion of beginning a weight loss blog. I think its a wonderful idea, one i'm not sure how many of you will follow along with, but one that i think will allow me to get some things off my chest that are both good, and right at the time. Along with some things that are not so good, and not right, but that still need to get out there.
Alright, I'm starting to get sick of this notion that the only way to track a life change like I'm experiencing right now is with weight, so I'll note most of my progress mainly with just how I feel about myself. Sure, the weight i carry will often be a major factor in that mood, but in time I'd like for that factor to play an increasingly smaller role in the process of chaning myself.

For now, I feel ok with who I am. I started eating more from the Eat Clean diet, and I feel energized. It's been good stuff so far, and the food is more promising than lots of stuff you see in weight loss plans. Mostly fresh vegetables and fruit, with some fun things thrown in there like flax seeds and bee pollen. I havent gotten the bee pollen yet, but I'm gonna run to the store in the morning and pick some up. The author (the name escapes me at the moment) swears that on some oatmeal with a banana mixed in is delicious, I'll let you know. (Picture: me about a month ago, singing some song, terribly i assure you, weight 265ish pounds.)
I plan of getting some more stuff down in the next day or so.