The one thing I have never spoken about in public is my weight – to go even further, my morbid obesity. I was 367 pounds at the beginning of this story, two weeks ago today. I believe that God is challenging me through the book “Radical” to deal with this issue. I am scared to death and excited about my future all at the same time. I know He has not given us a spirit of fear, so I am left with joy and excitement as I journey towards the woman that God created me to be.
Over the past month I have been forced to examine places in my soul that I had long ago buried under pounds of self-indulgence. A few weeks back I watched a counter tick off the number of children in the world dying of starvation during one hour of church, I was faced with the uncomfortable reality that I am the size of THREE average women. Though our family tithes and even gives to and participates in missions, sponsors a child and participates in adoption/orphan care projects, the percentage of our income that has been spent on FOOD – unhealthy food at that – is shameful. If you asked my friends what I am passionate about, Sonic diet coke would hit the top of the list before many things of true importance.
If I was created for God’s glory, then it is time for a RADICAL change in my life.
At just the right time, and I strongly believe it was divine intervention, our friends TJ and Casey shared with us their success on the “24 Day Challenge” through a company called Advocare. TJ lost 16 pounds during his challenge and has gone on to lose over 40 pounds in 4 months. Casey has lost almost 20 pounds! They chose to sell the products and are using the extra income to fund their adoption – bringing in an average of $1500 a month.
TJ and Casey’s story spoke to my heart. I need to lose 200 pounds. I need to feel great and have more energy to be the best mom I can to my two growing girls. I need to be healthy for them so that I am can be an active participant in their lives. I don’t want to have to ask for a seatbelt extension or worry if I will fit in the airplane seat when I fly to West Africa again to serve for a week. I am excited to begin the process to adopt another child but have been praying about additional income to save for it without so much fundraising.
So, I took a leap of faith. As a team, Brad and I started the 24 Day Challenge on September 9, 2010. I didn’t even own a scale that would weigh me, so I had to order one to weigh in! I was amazed that on the first day of the Challenge I was not even hungry at meal times. Two weeks later we are proud to say that Brad has lost 15 pounds and I have lost 10 pounds. And there is more…
The energy we have is amazing. Without even realizing it, we look back over our first 2 weeks on Advocare products and see that we have completely cleaned, purged and reorganized our home. Instead of coming home and crashing on the couch at night we have been motivated to DO something. We are having fun cooking dinner together, playing with the kids and accomplishing little projects at home that have been on our “list” forever! We have simply have not been LAZY.
There’s much more to share but I don’t want to ramble on.
This I know: All the times I have been challenged to care for widows, orphans, the poor, and broken, I have left out the reality that if my body is unhealthy I will not be able to answer that call. If I continue to throw away money on an unhealthy lifestyle, how will I be able to give to those in need? It’s time to do something.
I invite you to join me in a quest to get Radical about your health so you can be the person that God created you to be, for His glory. If God is for us, what can stand against us?
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