past weekend

working out is so hard to continue to do. It is even harder to not fall lazily back into your old way of eating and living. I desire to continue to shred the weight and continue losing but at times it is really hard. pray for me because I am looking at a wall but I do not know how to maneuver over or around it. Had a good time this weekend with friends eating out, Genghis Grill, and pa rousing around, at rangers/astros game Saturday, and visiting friends in old town of sherman. Loved every second of every second. even got to eat at an old time fav restaurant, Tin Star. love you

my 8's

8 things I am looking forward to
1. Centrifuge Youth Camp
2. Going out to dinner with Sarah and Matt and Erin and Marcus on Friday.
3. Visiting some friends on Memorial Day
4. Tomorrow (Thursday) my day off
5. weighing in at 199 (soon hopefully)
6. My surprise trip from Sarah
7. editing a video here in a little bit
8. Matt Dugan updating his blog

8 things I did yesterday
1. ate breakfast
2. made a video for church
3. watched the Lakers Game
4. went to dinner at Jaliscos
5. went walking/running for an hour
6. found out a friend is also going to the Astros game on Saturday
7. encouraged Sarah as she recovers
8. went grocery shopping

8 things I wish I could do
1. skydive
2. buy anything I wanted
3. see students leading other students to a faith in Jesus Christ
4. buy a new phone
5. play golf once a week
6. Eat whatever I want and still loose weight
7. fly to a different city once a month
8. be a more inspiring leader

8 shows I watch
1. ESPN
2. The Bounty Hunter
3. The Biggest Loser
4. Survivor
5. The Hills
6. The Fantasy Factor
7. House Hunters
8. Diners Drive-ins and Dives

8 people I tag
Sarah
Michelle
Eric
Matt
Erin
Kenya
David
Bobby Bones

Busyness

Busyness and Apathy are definately of the devil. I believe that was the first thing the devil set out to create as the biggest distraction to God. God is so great and so good and so loving and so big and so awesome, but if we pay no attention to Him because we are so busy or lazy, either extreme, then we completely miss Him. Tonight some of the youth and I were watching "How Great is our God" tour teaching series by Loulie Giglio. He illustrated how big other stars and galaxies of stars are than the planet Earth, and how our God has created these large stars and planets, but can hold all created things in the palm of His hand. I am awed that God, the creator of the universe and all galaxies everwhere, desires for me to spend time with Him. I know I should. I know I want to, but do I consistently spend time with my Lord, NO. Why, you might wonder, because of either busyness or apathy. Either I busy myself with insignificant things in this world that matter to little or nothing or I am apathetic about my spiritual life and seem to do nothing. If God is so great then why don't I worship Him with every second of my life? With everything I say, with everything I do, with every place I go, with everything I look at, with everything I write? All I can say to that is I DUNNO! I was walking today by myself around the neighborhood and began thinking about this. I started saying to God, "I know you are real and that you are apart of my life but sometimes I need to hear from you. God I need to hear from you." Then I get to church and watch this video with the students and think to myself, "how foolish are you!" God has created a world of amazing things that demonstrate who He is and how great He is and I do not even take time to observe them. I do not even take time to listen to God talk to me through His creation. This morning in sunday morning study our topic was worship. We learned how we have fooled ourself into believing that worship takes place in a church building. The truth is worship does take place in a sanctuary but as 1 Corinthians 6:19&20 states, "your body is the temple of God...therefore honor God with your body." Worship takes places with you wherever you are. If that's at a church building, a mall, at a restaurant, or at a bar. God is worship when we worship Him, but unfortunately we usually become one of two previous mentioned states of being and skip on doing what we were created to do. My desire is to work on this, to be conscious of this and maybe I feeling of closeness to God will be different.

losing weight

Sarah and I and a couple of friends have been challenging each other to loose weight since Jan 10 of this year. sarah and i have changed how we eat and we work out everyday or at least try to. We weigh in each month to see how much we have accomplished each month. I started this thing saying I just was ready to be smaller because I felt like I was getting to a scary size and weight. I was buying XXL shirts and sometimes having difficulty wearing dress shirts from department stores because they were not carrying a big enough size for me. I weighed in on Jan 10 at 274.4 pounds, which probably most people would not guess I weighed that much. I feel like I was on my way to 300 lbs if I did not change some things. So I did. I have not been drinking soft drinks, starbucks, sweet tea, or really anything but water for the most part. I have seriously cut portion sizes and typically eat healthy things. My diet consist of grapefruits, fiber one bars, sandwich & soups, and a healthy dinner. I probably drink 90 o. unces of water a day which is a lot of bathroom time. All this to say that these things are working. Middle of the morning today I weighed in at 225.0 lbs. Almost 50 lbs in 3 1/2 months. BUT. I have gotten to a place where I am scared now. I do not remember the last time I was smaller than 225 or so. Maybe my freshman year of high school I might have weighed 215-225, but I do not even remember for sure. I am not sure what I am going to look like being below 200 lbs. It sounds crazy to even talk about. I am scared that I will weigh that and still look at myself and think I am fatter than I want to be. I am scared that keeping myself that thin will beceome an obsession. I am scared that I will have lots of loose skin that I can not get rid of. Are these thoughts valid? Should they be considered? I do not know but as I continue to loose weight I continue to battle the inner struggles that kept me overweight and feeling like, "I am just a big guy." I just don't want to be the big guy in the room anymore. I want someone to look at me and say "hey little guy come over here" but I am still the guy called if they need something big or heavy moved because I am the big guy. These are my inner struggles currently as I strive to shred the fat & weight

Blogging

I think for most of you that are reading this, you are a blogger yourself on your own little blog url, so you might relate to this. Do you ever blog away your thoughts with hopes that people are going to read your blog and then respond in some form, fashion, or avenue? I think I did not originally begin the blog to have people comment, but since blogging away my thoughts on random subjects I have enjoyed the two, TWO, comments that I have received. The other day I am looking over my recent blog wondering if I had received any comments since it was a post that asked for some response back, and I see there is the number 1 beside the comment portion of my blog. I get a little excited thinking this is going to be a good response to the question I asked. I was wrong! It was a comment saying that I had not included this person in "the blogs that I read" section. I was glad to have received a comment, especially from this wonderful friend. BUT it was just not the comment I was looking forward to reading. Maybe you, yourself have had this very same situtation happen to you. Maybe that is the common thing that happens in the blogging world, but I am not sure I like that part of the blogging world. People want to know but not always be known. That kinda reminds me of a good thought. That God wants us to know Him and to make Him known. i wish i was more like God, He is so Godly!!! well that's enough for now.

Encouraging Spiritual Growth

I have realized that I do not have the power to make people grow spiritually with their relationship with God. I also know that I struggle with my own relationship with Him. The truth I know though is that God is real and without Him I would have nothing. I am not sure that others I know actually believe that. I truly believe people believe they would be alright if there was no such thing as the God of the Universe, the creator of all things everywhere. We live our lives with such oblivious ignorance to the fact that God desires a day by day moment by moment relationship with us, His creation. We think that swimming or fishing or basketball or cars or food or school or acceptance from others is more important than pleasing our heavenly Father. The devil is the father of all lies and he is here to steal, kill, and destroy. He steals our joy, he kills our worship with thoughts of other things, and he destroys our relationship with God by keeping us busy with unimportant things of life. I just do not understand how to motivate students, parents, or adults to pursue God whole-hearted with a zealous passion for Christ to be known, but to think of it and be truthful, I do not even know all the time myself. I realize all the time that I can not impress people to do things that they do not see me model for them. Godliness is desired because it is seen in others and portrayed by our Creator of the Universe. Thank you God for loving me in spite of my sinfulness and inability to do anything good without YOU. Turn my struggle into my strength for Your Glory and not my own.

Dang Good Day

I call this a swell of a day not because it was the best day ever or the best day in a long while but just because of several factors. I woke up this morning and I was in the 220's, which on Jan 10 I was 274. Then I made my daughter some dang good pancakes, which I did not partake cause I wanted to stay in the 220's. I then ran the fastest 22 laps around our gym that I have ran in competition, which is still a slow time by some people's standards. I then was able to eat some lunch, rest a bit, and then after Kailey woke up, headed off for some shopping with the girls. I ended up getting a new shirt for $8 and might I say it was a size L, which again on Jan 10 I only fitted into a XXL. Next we made our way to Rosa's Tortilla Factory where I was able to celebrate a bit, which was very nice to be able to experience. I love me some chicken soft tacos, chips & queso, and refried beans with rice. Goodness it was GOOD! Lastly we made our way home, where we suited up in our workout attire and walked/ran a couple of miles. It was a Dang Good Day!!!