My Best Friend Is My Enemy

I love garlic.  People who know me think that’s funny since garlic and the onion are close relatives and I despise the onion.  So today my best friend also proved to be my worst enemy.  I took about 40 kids from Shuvah to the House of Shabu Shabu today.  If you don’t know what that is, we need to have another conversation just about that.  But for time sake, it is a great “make-it-yourself” Japanese place, where in this case, you can have unlimited garlic if you ask for it.  So, I did.  It all tasted great!

So I get home this afternoon and Mar starts saying things like, “Oh no, you had garlic, didn’t you?”  Or, “I can smell you from downstairs.”  Or, “Ummm, no kisses for you today.”  I have basically been demoted from husband to the garlic leper colony.  I guess garlic has its way of making me stink.  How could you, my trusted friend, come and stab me in the back?

It reminded me of a time in college when I had a date (with a girl who wasn’t nearly as hot as my wife…in fact, she was cold) and unfortunately had garlic.  I remember going to the store and buying anything and everything that I could to spare myself…parsley, vinegar, gum, mints, mouthwash, a replacement head.  Nothing worked.

I am hoping that somehow I wake up tomorrow morning and everything is all better.  I am not sure that is going to be the case.  So, if I happen to see you at Calvary tomorrow, sorry.

This is where the Bible is a great comfort.  I found a great passage that reminded me that I am not alone, there are others who have been in my shoes.

Job 19:17-22

17“My breath is offensive to my wife,
And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
18“Even young children despise me;
I rise up and they speak against me.
19“All my associates abhor me,
And those I love have turned against me.
20“My bone clings to my skin and my flesh,
And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21“Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,
For the hand of God has struck me.
22“Why do you persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?

Father Of The Year

Yesterday Mar threw a baby shower for a friend, so Noah and I went out for some male bonding. I wanted to do something like white water rafting or see the rodeo, but I remembered we live in Orange County where that stuff doesn’t exist. So we went to Fashion Island to go ride the carousel and check out the koi pond.

I was holding Noah’s hand as we walked across the stones (the same ones in the picture) and he stepped right off and into the pond. I still held his hand, managing to save his life by the way, and pulled him to safety. Yes, he was mostly wet. His pants, shoes, socks and shirt. What I remember most was hearing the gasp from all of the moms around the area watching the idiot dad almost drown his kid. At this point I would like to reiterate, I had his hand the whole time and never felt for even a moment that I couldn’t pull him up. As I have told a couple of people (including Mar) this story, they seem to be judgmental thinking that I should’ve reacted even sooner to pull him up and saving him from even hitting the water. I will remind those people of my 9 years in Little League as a catcher when my reaction times were praised as “better than average.” You don’t stay starting catcher in Little League for 9 years because you have poor reaction times. If anything, my reaction time has improved over the years. I kill all of the flies in our house, although not like Mr. Miyagi with chopsticks, but still, I’m fast. For you naysayers, I say I caught him before his head submerged and I challenge any of you to do better.

Since Mar was only about 45 minutes into the shower at this point, I couldn’t go back to get more clothes, plus, that would mean Noah staying wet for at least another half hour. Noah, though sopping wet, still wanted to see the fish. Being the GREAT father that I am, I sat his wet little body on my lap and we watched the huge fish swim around…while he shivered. I actually started to get cold too because I was now wet. I decided we needed to get up and do something about this before he caught pneumonia (as if that could actually happen from being wet and sitting out in the cold).

Knowing that I was already in trouble with Mar (for something I didn’t even have control over) I knew I had to salvage the situation. So, I did something my wife couldn’t be upset with…I took Noah to Babystyle to get some new, dry clothes. For those of you unfamiliar with this store, this is where the trendy Newport Beach babies shop. So, $62 later (thanks for the coupon Shelley) my boy was dry and looked even cooler than when we had started.

Here’s how the points played out…

Getting a new outfit for Noah at Babystyle – 100 points

Dropping Noah in the koi pond – minus 200 points

Total for the day – minus 100 points

Actually, Mar loved the outfit, and I wasn’t in as much trouble as I thought I would be! Now when I try to remind Noah about the cool big fishies, he says, “Noah fall down…wet…cold.”

I’m in…

OK.  I am deciding to get into this blog thing and do it seriously.  I will try to be consistent, I will use people’s real names (not their initials) and I will try to keep it interesting.  You can read the posts before that I dragged over from blogspot.  It pretty much chronicles my journey of losing weight over the last year.  More to come tomorrow.

Mercy Me

Well, I found myself in an unusual place tonight. I went to a top 40 Christian band’s concert and found that I liked it. Someone in our church wanted Mar and I to go to a concert. The only conditions were that it was a Christian concert and that we bring them something back. Since Mar is about ready to pop and couldn’t make it through a concert at this point, I took my sister and her husband to see Mercy Me at Crossroads Corona.

Mercy Me was good, and the talking stuff in between the songs was really pretty motivating. Aaron Shust was one of the guys who opened, which means that he has one hit song that gets played on the FISH about every 20 minutes. He will probably stay a one hit wonder, but I was happy for him and his 15 minutes of fame.

The surprise for me was this group I’ve never heard of called “Monk & Neagle.” Besides having the worst band name I could think of (their last names), we actually tried to show up late to miss them. Fortunately we got there in time and saw them. Awesome! Two acoustic Taylor guitars (I talked to them afterwards…Monk plays a Taylor 714 and Neagle plays a Taylor 414…I like the 414 much better), tight harmonies and storytelling lyrics. They really were amazing. I actually moved from my seat on the side balcony and snuck up front to partake. It was amazing.

Then I bought their album. It is OK, but it is nothing compared to their live performance. Why is that the case with every band? I can’t think of a band I like better on CD. There is something about live performance that is stirring and so raw and organic. I always walk out of concert, and really, just about any concert, and I feel like I want to practice guitar more, write more songs (and better songs) and want to move closer to God. Music always stirs me. But now I’m home, I want to play, but, both of my guitars are at Calvary and my whole family is asleep. I guess the inspiration will come another day.

Breaking 200

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing. Let’s just say July and August were busy. But, I have also been busy losing weight. Thankfully with the busyness and stress of the last month I did not fall off the wagon like I would have in the past. I would like to say that I have been strong, but the plain truth is that my body no longer lets me do what I want to do, so my habits are changing. I couldn’t binge like I used to if I tried. Believe it or not, I don’t miss the binging, the full stomach or the guilt. It actually feels pretty darn good!

This week I broke 200. I NEVER seriously thought I would make it this far. After having nothing but failures for the last 12 years, you tend to become pretty pessimistic and cynical about anything working. Right now I am 198. Can you believe it? I can’t.

Some cool stats…before and after.

Pant size before: 44 waist (felt tight)
Pant size now: 36 wait (feels loose)

T-Shirt size before: XXL pushing XXXL
T-Shirt size now: L or XL depending on brand

Blood pressure before: 120/80 (normal)
Blood pressure now: 100/60 (better)

Resting pulse rate before: 90bpm
Resting pulse rate now: 60bpm

BMI (Body Mass Index) before: 48.6 (morbidly obese)
BMI now: 31.9 (simply obese, ha!)

I will be getting some blood tests soon to see how my cholesterol and other things come through. Mar says I have stopped snoring too!

I am posting some more pics so you can look back and see the difference. It is at these times that I see the most change. Thanks for the support!

Cool…

Compare, Contrast

Some pics to review…

217.5

OK, OK, OK. I can hear some of you yelling at me and upset about the fact that I have not written in a while. Quell your anger and let me write! Today I weighed in at 217.5. Not too shabby! Things are going well. I was back East at a conference last week and the day before I left, I had reached my second goal of 221 pounds. I feel great! Today, I realized that I have dropped more. I am realizing that things in my life are changing. First off, historically, this conference that I go to back East I have always blown any diet I was on at this place. This year I did great. Food was not the centerpiece of my thoughts while out there. I really had some good time to exercise (went on some good walks), read (read 3 books), and hang out and have some good conversations.

I am also changing my mindset. Things are becoming less of a battle and believe it or not, food is becoming much less important. I am not sure exactly when this happened, but it is probably even still in process of happening.

I stayed at a friend’s house in Virginia on the way back. He had the lap-band procedure done. We shared notes and he taught me a good piece of advice. He cuts all of his food before he eats anything to ensure he doesn’t eat too much. I liked that idea, so I’ll be doing that from now on.

My next goal is to hit 199. Deep down in my heart I’d like to hit this goal by VBS, which starts August 6. We’ll see. I’m in uncharted territory now and am excited for what’s ahead. By the way, in case you don’t read Noah’s blog, Mar and I are having another baby boy on November 17. We’re so excited.

I’ll be in Thailand for the next two weeks, so check that blog instead as well as this one (www.shuvahthailand.blogspot.com). I’ll give some updates on what our team is doing, but I also want to track with some of you how I am doing on the eating side of things. I think this represents a challenge. I have told everyone on the team traveling with me about my procedure so I have some accountability. I just hope I remember to eat slowly, eat enough and to eat the right things. Keep that in prayer.

234

Still losing weight. 5 pounds this week. 67 pounds total. 13 pounds to lose before July 14 (trip to Thailand) to reach next goal of 221. I guess Marilee was right, exercise does make a difference. Crazy to think I could see the 220’s next week. Thanks for the support!

239

I have said “good-bye” to the 240’s and “hello” to the 230’s. I was 239 this morning on the scale. That’s 4 pounds for the week, 62 total in the last 9 weeks and 18 more to hit my next goal. One immediate goal I have for this week is to exercise a total of 4 times. I really passionately hate exercising, but I know it is key for me to do well losing weight. If you think about, pray for my discipline. I have already done once today. My plan is to go tomorrow night, Wednesday morning and Friday morning or night.