Weight Loss (slow and steady), Lent Week 3 and Other Notes

Three weeks into Lent and the benefits of more healthful eating habits are quite evident. Two of the biggies for me have been no fast food and taking the stairs instead of the elevator at work. I can now make the 80 stairs to the fifth floor sign-in station without being too out of breath and no longer avoid the occasional trip downstairs for some fresh air on breaks. (Week 1 I never went downstairs on break because it meant having to climb the stairs when it was time to go back to work!)

Although I haven't completely shunned junk foods, I have cut back on them quite a bit. To be sure, I've had some doughnuts, cookies, candy bars, potato chips, etc., but rarely snack between meals now and have only had seconds at a meal once in three weeks. I've cut back on the afternoon sodas (and associated caffeine) and I think that is helping me to get a more restful sleep. In addition to all of that, I believe the one day per week, 24hr fast is a good healthful practice and I've used it to get back on track after a less disciplined weekend. The end result is that I've lost 15.8 pounds in the same three weeks.

I do realize that Lenten sacrifices aren't supposed to be about personal benefit. However, Christians often refer to the body as a temple and quite frankly, most of our temples are in great states of disrepair. For the most part, we feel pretty comfortable talking about five of the seven deadly sins. Those are the ones that are your sins and we tend to lie about them being our sins (Incidentally, while telling lies is definitely wrong, it's not on of the seven deadlies.) Gluttony is not one that we want to talk about because it's pretty hard for a guy that's 50 pounds overweight to talk about gluttony without a bit of shame. And we don't talk about sloth because we're not really sure just what that is but we think it has something to do with being lazy but is probably more than that (it is) and...well, it's just easier to avoid the possibility that we might be guilty of that one, too.

Back to the temple thing...

I'm just trying to clean things up a bit; be a better steward of the physical body that God has given me. I'd like to take these simple habits and make them a part of my normal routine well beyond the dates of the Lenten calendar. It is my hope that after six weeks, they will be habits and will just come to be the way I eat. I do expect that the rate of weight loss will slow as I continue to lose weight, but hope that it will continue to drop off until I reach a more healthful and maintainable weight.

I've also managed to restrain myself from controversial political posts and comments over the past week or so. It's funny how I can post some things that I see as relatively neutral but are received with anger or as misrepresentations of the truth. (sigh)

As always, thanks for your comments and encouragement. I appreciate the anonymous comments as much as I do the ones that identify the reader.

John <><

"Beware the Ides of March."
On this date in 44 BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Roman Senate.