1 Corinthians 10:13

I have had a huge problem for a long time with one particular misinterpretation of scripture that is extremely commonplace in Christendom, and after I heard "He Said" by Group 1 Crew this morning I couldn't put off blogging about it any longer.

The whole concept of the song (more or less directly quoted here) is, "I know life sucks for you right now, but don't forget what He said – He won't give you more than you can take." Yay, warm fuzzies!

The only problem with this is that the Lord never said that. I believe that people take 1 Corinthians 10:13, which states that he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bare, and twist it into meaning that we'll always be able to deal with any challenges that face us (yes, we will be able to deal with temptations, but 99% of the time when you hear people say, "He won't give you more than you can handle", they are talking to people who are overwhelmed with life, which is not the same thing as temptation).

So this is a complete distortion of this scripture and it drives me nuts. Not to mention the fact that the logic is fundamentally flawed. At some point the Lord is going to give us more than we can take. We'll die. So the saying might hold true... except not. "He won't give you more than you can take... until life kills you. So, you'll either make it through this or you won't."

The drive home

There's nothing like the drive home from the gym in my piece of crap car on a beautiful night, after a day when the weather was my year-round preference (something like mostly sunny with a high of 69). You roll down the windows and let the fresh air cool you down while you take the 15 minutes to reflect on the day. There's something about working out that puts everything in perspective. You think, How did I treat people today? Was I the best I could be at work? Did I sin today? How was my diet – could I have made better choices? And you either feel good or convicted. Either way you look forward with hope to tomorrow.

And then you get home and go ahead and prepare an amazing fat loss snack like this 1/2 roast beef sandwich with generous amounts of tomato and horseradish sauce:

Wait, is that white bread? Surely not! Ah, yes, but it is high quality sourdough bread, which digests much more slowly than regular white bread and is therefore a welcome addition to a healthy diet (please don't use it in lieu of wheat bread, though).

Sheetz and trans fat

The mantra "all things in moderation" does not apply when it comes to trans fat. It is a straight-up killer and should be avoided altogether. Many people have heard and understand the dangers of this substance, but what those in the tri-state area might not know is that the primary trans fat culprit is none other than Sheetz. Many products at Sheetz contain not just trace amounts of trans fat; they are packed to the brim with the heart-stopping stuff. Some people think that Sheetz is a more healthful alternative to McDonald's and other fast food places, but nothing could be further from the truth. For the most part, fast food joints have completely removed trans fat from the menu, but Sheetz continues to stuff their donuts, fries, and any other oiled items full of it. It's unbelievable, especially because Sheetz is fully aware that they are killing people and they have ignored numerous campaigns aimed at removing trans fat from their store. Really, other than Sheetz, the only place you can find trans fat now is in random, low-budget snacks and margarine. There's no excuse for what Sheetz is doing, and I would really recommend avoiding mostly everything but cold cuts on the MTO menu and investigating the label on everything else in the store. It's hard to believe how much trans fat they're putting in items that you wouldn't even expect to see trans fat in. And you certainly can't have their donuts (you'd be much better off with Krispy Kremes). Let that be the take home message.

Muffins

I just made delicious whole wheat, turkey bacon, egg, cornmeal muffins. An excellent, healthy on the go breakfast!

New goals

We're getting close to another weigh-in (Monday April 2). I'm excited about making that final push this week so I see something good on the scale for this 3-week period. My goal is 5 pounds (for a total weight loss of 13 pounds) but any time you're trying to lose weight, the period following your initial loss is always the hardest, and I can tell that my body is not losing as quickly as it did the first 3 weeks. To compensate for that I have to kill it even harder at the gym and that will be my goal this week. Then, I think the theme for the 3 weeks after that will be NO MERCY. The schedule will be easier, the distractions will be fewer, my body will be working for me, and there will be no excuse for not dropping at least 6 more pounds.

So what is my short-term goal? To lose at least 6 pounds for each of the next 7 three-week periods. This will be a total weight loss of 55 pounds in 27 weeks. It will be September, and I will be in the mid-170s for the first time in my memory. From there, I'll assess what more is needed. I have a thick body, so that could be an ideal weight for me. But if not, I'll charge it up and lose 10-15 more pounds by the end of the year.

Change in perspective

One good thing that's happened on my journey so far is that the foods that make me feel bad have changed. The foods that I used to eat every day are now the ones that are indulgences, and the foods that used to be indulgences are essentially nonexistent. To use a sports analogy, you keep adding better players to the depth chart and eventually your starters are backups and your backups are off the team completely.

Yesterday I spent the whole day (all three meals, and snacks) at a men's retreat in Buffalo Mills, PA. All of the food was literally set in front of me and I didn't have a choice of menu options. I tried to keep my proportions in check, and I think I did pretty well. But at the end of the day I felt like, "Man, I need to make sure I have a really good day tomorrow because today was really bad." In actuality, I ate a pretty normal, balanced diet yesterday, and I ate less than most of the other men. The fact that I still feel bad about that speaks volumes to me. When a "normal" eating day makes you feel bad, I think you're on the right track.

Now, obviously there is a danger to take this too far, so I understand if red flags went up for you when you read the last sentence. I realize that it would be easy to get locked into this and go overboard, but I'm not at that point yet. I am just at a point of recognition of good habits, and any time you feel bad about breakfast potatoes the way you used to feel bad about Double Quarter Pounders, that's a positive thing and a conversion I'll take.

Bodies

It's so interesting to me that our bodies are naturally wired to gain weight and store fat, yet having that excess weight and those extra fat deposits increases our mortality so much. Also, our body doesn't want to work out, and it fights us tooth and nail when we push it... but if we don't, that hurts us worse in the long run. I think these things are great examples of how weak we are as human beings. Our flesh fails our better parts.

Florence + The Machine - Shake it Out

Anonymous people – Where Red and Blue Make Green special report

At Where Red and Blue Make Green, there has been a series of comments from an anonymous user, self-dubbed as "xx". I have no idea if "xx" reads this blog, but if you do, here is a message for you. Please note that this message is not for "**", who has conducted him/herself in a much more respectful way.

What is your reasoning for being anonymous?

The only reasons I can think to justify being anonymous are a) You want to say things that you would be uncomfortable saying to Amy's face, or b) You don't want anyone to know that you read and comment on a blog about sex.

To be honest (and I'm really not trying to be rude here; I'm just trying to state my opinion clearly), the first reason shows a lack of maturity and a lack of trust in your ability to express your opinions in a graceful, personal way, and the second reason exemplifies the very nature of the kind of people Amy is trying to reach through her blog (those who are hush-hush about sexuality). Neither are good reasons IMO.

It would break my heart, but I would say these things to your face if I knew who you were. Whether you were an immediate family member, a friend from church, an extended family relative, or a distant acquaintance who really doesn't know Amy very well (as I so dearly hope is the case given the apparent crass nature of some of the comments).

xx, it hurts me that things have to be like this, and it bothers me that someone we probably know and love is upset. Amy didn't say that she would only respond to comments that she "likes." She welcomes differing opinions, and will respond as able, but she does not condone comments that seem to be written with any of the following: bitter feelings, condescending or backhanded remarks, or an argumentative spirit. There is no reason for any of that and Amy's recent post simply explained that she doesn't have time to rehash the same issues over and over again (as often happens in cases of comments like I described) and she might not spend her time responding if she feels that it is not a respectful, good discussion that could be beneficial for everyone.

So, I would heartfeltly ask you to examine the reasoning behind your comments and try not to be abrasive. We still welcome your feedback, but you usually aren't coming across respectfully. If you are not respectful, Amy may not respond. But if you are (and this has been shown to be true in many other cases with other people), Amy will happily thank you for your comment and move forward with the discussion.

Thank you,

Joe

The Pop Tart

There is one thing I have been craving lately – Pop Tarts. And there's one sort of Pop Tart I've been wanting the most... the Hot Fudge Sundae kind of Pop Tart. And today at work, out of nowhere, I had a Hot Fudge Sundae Pop Tart literally show up in an outstretched hand right in front of my face. "Here, Joe" they said. I looked at the Pop Tart, and I before I could even think anything, I heard myself say "No! Pop Tarts have no place in my lifestyle." And I was happy.

Then they said, "But it has 7 essential vitamins and minerals", to which I responded, "Yeah, and so did my multivitamin this morning."

Food, I'm sorry – you just can't win with me right now. You ain't got the right to tell me when and where to go, no right to tell me.

-8

Well, as I alluded to in my previous post, today is the day to weigh in after being on this journey for exactly 3 weeks. And weigh in I did.

I was so nervous. All the thoughts of the changes I've made, workouts I've done, and things I've given up came to mind and I couldn't bring myself to look down at the scale for a couple of minutes. But when I did, I discovered that I not only met my dream number (6 pounds), I knocked it out of the ballpark.

I lost 8 pounds over the last 21 days.

I haven't been this happy in a long time. And I just felt a burst of energy and a surge of willpower.

Time to go grab some oatmeal! I'll need it 'cause I'm killing the gym tonight. :)

Excited to get on the scale

We are in the 3rd week of my journey and I've decided to get on the scale at the end of week 3.

I would like to think I'm ready for anything, but I'm pretty nervous. I am hoping for 6 pounds of weight loss but that might be a bit extreme, especially since I've been doing a lot of muscle building and to see a loss of zero would not be surprising simply because I'm theoretically replacing fat with muscle at this point. A lot of people who have taken a road similar to mine haven't started really shedding pounds until later in the journey.

We'll see what happens on Monday!

This is what it's all about!

Breakfast: minus saturated fat and quick-release carbs

We just enjoyed a delicious breakfast of whole wheat French toast with Silk and sugar free syrup (and no added butter and powdered sugar!), with turkey sausage and egg whites on the side. This is exhibit A for diet killer turned power fat loss meal. Keep the flavor, drop the saturated fat and quick-release carbs!

Great Fridays

Sometimes, when you're feeling drained by your job and the boss tells you it's going to get worse – much worse – over the next 2-3 months, you need a day chock-full of personal victories. Yesterday was one such day for me and it couldn't have come at a better, more unexpected time (think about it – long week, working the late shift to start the weekend, feeling overrun and wanting to coast on into Saturday). Because the nature of my job prevents me from getting specific, suffice it to say that I was able to overcome something that had been dogging me for the past week, while at the same time catching up on a bunch of tasks that had piled up and setting my team up for a much less stressful week next week. And I can't forget the most gratifying part of all – when the source of the task that had been dogging me went out of his way to credit me for keeping my word and behaving in a professional, competent manner while doing so. I think that energized every nerve of integrity in my body and it served as validation for the way I approach my work. That things kept going so well was hard to believe – it was like a non-stop rush of positive energy that I couldn't control. I'm invigorated, and very thankful that this happened when it did.

Chocolate chip... biscuits?

So tonight I wanted to try my hand at whole wheat, Splenda sweetened, Smart Balance/skim milk fattened chocolate chip cookies. They came out looking, smelling, and tasting more like a chocolate chip breakfast biscuit, but so be it. It was a good experiment and I have some tweaks in mind for next time I use the recipe. And, to be honest, they're actually pretty scrumptious!

Cholesterol levels

I got my blood screening results from the hospital in the mail this week, and they were surprising. They're not ideal, but they're also significantly different from what the nurse told me over the phone. So different, in fact, that I think she must have had my results confused with someone else's. At any rate, they have been posted to the "About Me" page, and here they are for all to see immediately:

Total cholesterol: 222
Bad cholesterol: 154
Good cholesterol: 42
Triglycerides: 131
Blood sugar: 100
Blood pressure: 133/81