From Shack to Temple Weight Loss Wednesday Paleo Rocks!!

I have discovered something over the past two weeks. Eating paleo/primal/cave man is two things: expensive and awesome!! I have managed to lose 8 pounds over the past two weeks (242 to 234) and I have got to eat..........a lot. I don't have to skimp on serving size and count calories. That may change as I progress, but only time will tell. I want to lose a bunch of weight and I am already almost 20% there. How amazing is that after only two weeks.


BlueBerry Nut Balls



I have had urges and temptations galore. I walk into our break room some mornings to a couple dozen Krispy Kremes sitting on the table. The next afternoon I walk in to several boxes of Oreo Double Stuffs. There has been left over wedding cake from the weekend before as well as our kitchen making amazing smelling things: fresh bread, cinnamon bread with icing, cashew chicken, fried chicken, etc. Some days it is rough, but I have so far avoided temptation. 

I have found ways to do that. I have nuts and fruit with me at all times. I have a recipe for blueberry nut balls that is good. It is macadamia and walnuts, coconut oil, unsweetened coconut, dates and blueberries and it sates my sweet tooth. Over the weekend I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with cacao nibs, pure maple syrup, cinnamon, organic pumpkin, nutmeg, coconut flour, butter from grass fed cows, pure vanilla extract, cloves, ginger and sea salt. It was a special treat, but they were amazing!

Main dishes have been salmon, top sirloin, pork tenderloin, tilapia, shrimp and chicken breast. Lots of eggs and uncured bacon and ham as well as vegetables out the wazoo. I don't think I have ever eaten this many vegetables in my life. And I like it. Then I have occasional sweet potatoes and sweet potato baked fries, tons of water with an occasional squeezed lemon and various decaffeinated hot teas. Good Earth Sweet and Spicy hot tea is my favorite by far! 



I realized how dependent I had become on caffeine. It took me over a week to have energy after 9ish in the morning. I would get up at 4, go to the gym and workout, come home to make my wife and I scrambles then go to work. An hour or two into my work day I would be physically and mentally exhausted. That has passed, thank God!

What I have discovered so far is that as long as I am eating foods that I enjoy and adding some variety I am fine. I do not constantly miss the foods that I used to eat. There are times when I have sweet cravings, and those need to be tackled as soon as possible. I can't cheat, because I have no self-control when I do. Instead, I use a mixture of cacao nibs, unsweetened shredded coconut and a variety of nuts mixed together. Fruit has saved my butt also.

Add that to the exercise I am getting everyday and the 30 minutes of prayer my day starts with and I am feeling better than I have in a long time. Will talk to you in two weeks and keep you updated on how my fight against food is going. Right now, I am winning and that is awesome.

Here are some of the pictures of the treats I have created with my wife and enjoyed eating over the past two weeks:



Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies







Paleo Pulled Pork





Top Sirloin, Sweet Potato Fried, Bacon Wrapped Shrimp, Salad

My Daily Scamble Ingredients Just Add Eggs





Apple Cinnamon Pork Tenderloin

Stop Pimping Jesus Out

I am going to start this off with an instance in particular that I see as condescending and sad. It is when someone on Facebook does what I consider to be pimping out Jesus. They also do it with soldiers, puppies, cruelty to animals, etc. What I am talking about is the random posts on Facebook that say things like, "Click like if you love Jesus," "Leave a comment if you follow Jesus," "Copy and paste this as your status if you support our troops" and "Forward this to 10 of your friends and you will have happiness."

Just wrong, period! People are using these things to get likes for their pictures and sites. You want to post something and have someone like it, write something original. Take your own picture, don't take someone else's and use it with a snappy caption pimping out Jesus or our troops or abused animals to get likes.

You want likes and follows, be honest. How about saying, "Like this site if you support what I am doing to bring the message of Jesus to people" or "Leave a comment if you support what I am doing." It is okay to use yourself and what you are personally doing. But using Jesus, pictures of soldiers or discussing what others are doing that you have no involvement in to curry favor is not the way to do it.

I am saying this because if you love and follow Jesus, your walk will show it. If you support the troops, donate to a non-profit set up to help them. Same with abused animals. If those poor dogs being abused and killed break your heart, adopt your next dog from the pound or shelter and not purchase it from a breeder or puppy mills. Finally, if you want to be happy and you are not, make changes in your friends, habits, activities and employment.

Just an FYI, I love Jesus and I would say that I have a good relationship with Him. Not great, but it is progress not perfection we aim for. That said, I have never commented or liked one of the posts that wanted me to prove it in some inane ways. I also support our troops yet I have never copied and pasted a status to say that I supported our troops. Finally, I have never forwarded an email to become happy, find love, not die in 7 days, keep a puppy from being killed or prove my faith.

We are called to be SALT AND LIGHT, NOT COMMENT AND LIKE!! Trust me, if you think that you are living on the wrong side of God, no amount of sharing an email or liking a post is going to change that. People who try to tell you that it will are misguided at best. Using God to get likes, salvation to get comments and people's fears to get shares is not right. If you want to get those things, then there are ways to get it:

1. Photograph something amazing 
2. Write something meaningful
3. Record something that catches people's attention
4. Start a non-profit benefiting a group and pour yourself into it

I want you to know that I am guilty on occasion of overdoing some things on Facebook and probably Twitter. At one time I had Facebook and Twitter linked and was double posting on Facebook because of it. I am also no longer going to use hash tags and @insertTwitternamehere on Facebook as that is not the right language. If you are on a social media network, use it and then take the time to post on the next social media network using their format.

My problem was that I was lazy and I realize that if I want people to have an interest in what I am doing, I need to show that same interest in them. Rick Warren says, "People don't care about how much you know until they know about how much you care!" If you care, you will take time out to do things well. You will use original content, not steal others.

I also share my faith very openly and honestly. I was out of hope, lost and ready to give up on life. Through Christ I found hope and a reason to live. He saved my life. If you discover something that saves your life, know that if you share it with others it could save theirs too and you don't do it............you suck at life. You are simply not a good person. Not judging, just saying!

I also talk about the exercise I do and the food I eat on occasion. The reason for that is I am in the middle of losing a goal of 60 pounds, and 70 would probably be good. I have other friends that struggle with weight issues and impulse control that are encouraged by what I say. At least, that is what they tell me. Because of that, I share about dieting, exercise, Jesus and the things that keep me positive. I hope that it will allow others to get a better outlook on life and overcome some of their struggles.

In closing, if you can be positive that is great. If you have nice, uplifting things to say then by all means say them. If all you do is complain and trash other people, then maybe you need to keep that to yourself. Let me know about you. After all, that is what I care about.

From Shack to Temple: Week 6

I realize that it has been 4 weeks since I wrote a blog in this series as I talk about my weight loss. The truth is, I got sick 3 weeks ago and went off the diet. I finally was feeling better by the beginning of the week. I am a male, and not to stereotype us, but I am the biggest baby when I get sick. If I have to get stitches, not a big deal. If I am sick, I moan and groan and whine all of the time. It is actually pretty pathetic and you should pray for my wife......she is a saint for putting up with me!

To continue with my illness, I eat comfort food when I am sick. The great thing was that through my eating poorly over several weeks I never got back to eating at the level that I generally do. I was bad, but not to the extreme that I as an addict generally go to. I weighed 234 on the 4th when I last weighed, and this week I weighed 228.4 so I lost 5.6 pounds this week and I am down 19.2 pounds.

I find losing almost 20 pounds amazing. I have switched over to the paleo, or caveman diet. That means that I am eating meat (free range chicken/eggs, wild fish and grass-fed beef), vegetables, fruit and nuts. There are no chemicals or preservatives and every thing is all natural. I love their motto, Just Chew It!

The first week was not so bad, but there was some definite cravings that I had to deal with, especially when you have a break room that looks like this last week. Another day it was 6 dozen donuts sitting in there.

I feel that I have been more successful this time and will continue to be so. I felt that a large part of the reason I was struggling in the beginning of this was depriving myself then having a splurge day that gave into my eating issues. With the paleo I will allow myself 1-2 cheat meals a week, not an entire day of gorging that I found myself doing in the first couple of weeks.

Internally I feel better this time, and although it says I am 6 weeks in I am actually 4 weeks in when you take away the 2 weeks I was sick. Either way, I will be down over 20 pounds by next week and that makes me happy. I am feeling great energy wise and internally, which is also good. Look forward to letting you know where I am at next week.

From Shack to Temple Week 3 - Down 14.8 pounds

Just so you know, this was a very disappointing week for me. It should not be, after all I am down almost 15 pounds after 3 weeks. The problem is that my goal was to lose 3 pounds this week and I only lost 1.8 pounds. This would be troublesome, but I would rather look on the bright side.

I do feel that this is not working, as my immune system is not doing very well. I will be looking to implement a new plan for my diet when I begin eating right again. I cannot stick to this while I am sick, I know that!

That said, since I am sick I do not really feel like writing more. I will continue this when I am feeling better. I am actually publishing this several weeks late. This should have been published on the 22nd of May and it is getting posted on June 11th.

From Shack to Temple - Week 2 (Down 13.3 Pounds)

This week was not nearly as good as last week, which is what I figured. I lost 10 pounds last week, and only 3.3 pounds this week. Did I say only???? Never mind that, I LOST 3.3 POUNDS THIS WEEK!!!!! Come to think of it, that is pretty awesome. That said, it was a very rough weekend, for sure. I keep forgetting that food is an addiction for me, and I need to watch and control it. I swear, it doesn't have to be drugs. One Ruffle's Smokehouse Style BBQ chip is too many, the entire bag is never enough!

For starters, I had a cheat day that lasted several hours longer than it should have. On my cheat day I am supposed to stop eating at 7. All started off well, waffles and turkey sausage with my first cup of coffee in a week. Then lunch after T-Ball practice of a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit. Then we went to Silver Dollar City, and it was Bluegrass and BBQ. I had a rack of ribs, baked beans, apple pie ala mode and a large frozen coke! Yum!!! That was  great day! It should have been over, but it was not.

Then I got to Springfield and it was almost 10. I did a Frisco Thick Burger with Bacon Cheese Fries from Hardees and several scoops of neapolitan ice cream with Reese's Shell on it. It actually started off as a double scoop, but then I had to finish off my son's for him. Next day should have been back to my diet, but I came in from mowing the lawn to my wife, sister, son and niece eating meatloaf and home made mashed potatoes. I did not pass it up, which I should have.

I am feeling very fortunate to have lost 3.3 pounds this week. I have continued the exercise, which is making me feel amazing. I am doing compound exercises that combine several muscles in each set, other than chest and back day. I am also doing cardio. I had someone talk to me about joining a running club, and I need to talk to him at church on Sunday and see what that entails. To be honest, it scares the living day lights out of me.

I continued to be impressed with the customer service at Supplement Superstore. I got a handwritten, page long card from the guy who has helped me, Jake, asking to be kept informed of my progress. I also have a friend, Michael, that is doing the Visalus 90 day challenge. I am keeping an eye on him and the program. I may have to try their products if I hit a sticking point in my routine. If you have never heard of the program, check his website out at http://teamdake.myvi.net/

I am still looking for a work out partner for several mornings a week. If you are at the Meyer Center and don't mind early morning workouts shoot me a message, email or text. I would benefit from somebody to push me at the gym. Next week I will put up the actual workouts that I am engaging in. Thanks for reading the update. Talk to you next Tuesday, when my goal is to lose another 3 pounds!

From Shack to Temple - Week 1

Can you lose 10 pounds in one week like they do on The Biggest Loser? I don't know if you can, but I found out that I could. I seriously doubt that the double digit loss will continue into the second week, but in the first 7 days I lost exactly 10 pounds!

I am pretty excited about the results so far. In my opinion, they have been nothing short of amazing. I know that the first week tends to be a big week for loss, so judge what I am doing not by this first week but by the end results. That said, the first week was an awesome start. Here is how I have gotten off to such a great start:

1. I drink at least 120 ounces of water daily, although it has been more like 160-200 ounces
2. I exercise every morning for an hour. Next week I will talk more about the exercise that I am doing!
3. I eat a healthy breakfast (2 eggs, 98% fat free ham or turkey, two pieces of toast and a banana)
4. I eat a healthy lunch (can of tuna, mustard, two pieces of bread, immense salad with a lot of different colors and balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing)
5. I do not eat solid food after lunch. Once I get to where I want to be weight wise I will add a healthy dinner.
6. I have 2 or 3 protein shakes daily (1 after workout in the morning the others in the evening)
7. I have a 1st Phorm Level-1 shake before bed. I have a sweet tooth that strikes late. Level-1 has chocolate chip cookie dough and ice cream sandwich flavors. They take care of my sweet tooth with only 2 grams of sugar.
8. I stack 1st Phorm's 1-Db Overdrive with Thyro-Drive on a 5 day on, 2 day off cycle. They are a combination thermogenic that so far have not made me jittery like the products I have used in the past.
9. I eat and drink anything and everything that I want one day a week from the time I wake up until 7 PM

That is how I have made the changes I have made so far. I have had to use several methods to work around some of the problems I have with eating. I use the late night shake to curb my sweet tooth, and the promise of eating what ever I want one day a week to help me avoid temptation like you see on the right (this was actually in the break room at work yesterday and I ate none of it).

In order for me to get to where I need to be, I have to watch what I take into my body. If I can say no to cigarettes, drugs and alcohol I should have no problem with food. But I did. I had let food become my new addiction and it was killing me just like my old vices had been. Now, I am not having those same problems because of the changes I am making.

I also have to be fit and active every day. My sedentary life style was killing me. I am doing everything: cardio machines, weight lifting, racquetball and bicycle riding. One night I went to the park and took a walk. It is about being active every day. In my last job I waited tables, and walked probably 5 miles plus every day. Now I sit behind a desk and it has been showing. Between being more sedentary and eating comfort food my waist has been increasing. No longer, will that happen. Thanks for following along with me as I turn my shack back into a temple!

From Shack to Temple - The Journey Has Just Begun

Today was my first day in some time that I went to the gym after hurting my back months ago. I was just starting to get into a regular pattern of exercise when the injury occurred. That said, the exercise I was doing was just enough to keep my weight stable, which was still very over weight. I was holding at around 230 when I got hurt. Now I am up to around 250 pounds. Not a bad weight if you are 6 foot 5. Unfortunately, I am 5 foot 6. It is a very unhealthy weight for me. 

At one time I weighed 160 pounds and wore 27 inch jeans. That was in my addiction to methamphetamine. I have gained 90 pounds since I got off meth and my jean size is now up to 40 and 42. A large part of my initial weight gain was that I was skinny to an unhealthy level when I was using meth. The first 20-30 pounds that I gained was healthy weight. Then I started working out and gained more. Then more and more and more. Eventually I realized that there was a problem and through becoming an alcoholic and not eating I began to lose weight. I got down to around 205 from 220. Then I stopped drinking and the weight came back to me. 


Initially I put down the drugs and started eating. Then I put down the food when I found alcohol. When I stopped drinking and smoking at the same time I put down the alcohol and nicotine and found food. I swapped addictions. I am an addict to escape problems. When I have a stressful day, (which is pretty often because I have a stressful job and I am starting a non-profit while writing a book, blogging and speaking) I eat. I crave meat and sweets. Not lean meat, either! I mean half pound burgers, 24 ounce steaks and full racks of ribs with all of the starchy trimmings. Due to that, I have found myself at 250 pounds.  


Over the weekend while I was attempting to keep up with my 4 year old, God started talking to me. He told me that it was time to get serious and lose weight. The reasons are pretty apparent from a health standpoint. My uncle died from a heart attack at 58 last month due to his weight being more than his heart could take. That alone should be enough, but I already knew how unhealthy my weight is and that has not stopped me yet. Not to worry, God was not done convicting me yet. There was a lot more!


"It is time to lose the 50 pounds of fat," I heard a voice saying over and over again to me during the weekend. It isn't just your health. "You can't even keep up with your son any more," that voice shouted. It was true, I get tired and worn out just from playing with my son. I have another baby on the way. It is getting ready to be twice as active for me. If I have trouble keeping up with him, what will it be like when there are two of them? God was not done with me yet. He reminded me Sunday during service at church of something else.  


I am beginning to get out and speak more. I am talking to people who struggle with life controlling issues. I am wanting to give them hope that they can overcome their struggles. A voice told me Sunday that no one wants to hear someone who is fat telling them how to deal with their struggles and overcome them. A lot of people that I will talk to struggle with weight issues and self image problems. They use meth to lose weight, force themselves to throw up after eating or simply don't eat at all. If they are in the audience that I speak to, my message will fall on deaf ears if I am not in better shape. I need to reach those people and the voice in my ear screamed that I can't do it looking like I do now! I have to take control of my eating problem and no longer let it rule my life. "The time is now," the voice told me. 


God spoke, I listened! I need to hear God's whisper in my ear and feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I may not want to hear what it has to say, but I love it when I hear God's voice so clearly! Immediately after church I sat down and made a list of what I was going to eat and the changes in exercise that were going to occur. Monday I went shopping for what I needed and this morning (Tuesday) I started back at the gym and the eating habit changes have began.


I am going to share a few things with everyone. I am now working out multiple mornings a week as well as the occasional cardio/exercise in the evening. I am eating a full breakfast and a full lunch; full but extremely healthy. I am then having three protein shakes daily and a minimum of 100 ounces of water. The water may increase, but it will not decrease. I am doing this 6 days a week and one day a week will be my junk food day. I can eat what I want from the time I wake up until 7 that evening. Once 7 P.M. comes, the fun stops. 


I will follow this and tweak it as the time progresses and I see what needs to be added. I am excited. My goal is to drop from the 247.6 pounds that I weighed today (see picture above) down to no more than 190. If that is still unhealthy, I will drop more weight. I will not know until I get there. I will be back down to no more than 34 inch jeans from the 42 inch jeans I find myself wearing now. I have taken a couple of before pictures of myself, but they will not be shared until I have a decent after picture to show. 


I tell you this for the accountability piece I need. I will write a weekly series that will bear the title "From Shack to Temple." Each week I will have a picture of the scale after weighing on Tuesday morning. I will also outline the diet that I followed that week as well as the exercise regimen that I followed. I do all of this for a reason. We are told that our bodies are the temple of God, and lately mine has been an amusement park. That will happen no longer. God spoke, I listened and now I comply! Please follow this journey with me and feel free to ask me how it is going when you see me in person. If you do not see me in person, leave comments on my blogs, call me, e-mail me and/or talk to me on Facebook/Twitter. I would ask that everyone of you become an accountability partner for me. 


The journey has just begun, hope you enjoy reading about the ride!


P.S. If you happen to be a member at the Meyer Center and are looking for a work out partner and don't mind early morning workouts, get a hold of me. If you are a bicycle rider or a racquetball/handball player get a hold of me also. Thanks in advance!

Documentary Update - Almost November

So, yesterday I went to my email and saw the most beautiful thing:

Hi David!

Congratulations! Your Pepsi Refresh Project idea Inform YOUTH of addiction's DANGER and recovery's POWER through FILM!! has been randomly selected for review out of all the submissions we received this month.

You’re one step closer to getting your idea out there! But before your idea can be posted for public voting, we need to review it to make sure it meets the Pepsi Refresh Project’s Official Application Guidelines. If it doesn’t meet all requirements, it won’t be posted. On the first day of next month, we’ll let you know if your idea has been approved and will be up for voting. After that, you would begin promoting your idea for a chance to receive a Pepsi Refresh Project Grant!

Thanks for participating in the Pepsi Refresh Project. Keep at it! It’s because of you, your votes and your participation that we’ve made a difference in refreshing the world.

 
Instead it will contain personal stories of those who have waged war with addictions, from drugs to alcohol to food, and came out victorious. It will not glorify or show pictures, but instead contain stories that will show the cost of addiction and how innocently it can start yet how horrific it can become. Since this is what it contains, it should be okayed for one of the projects that get voted on in November. 

I am so ready for the month of November. On November 1st the voting will start and by the end of November we need to be one of the top (I am shooting for top 5) vote getters in the $25,000 category. The top 15 get awarded the $25,000 grant that will enable them to begin their project. I would love to get this grant as it will enable this documentary to get shot and be available for us to begin showing it in schools, colleges, detention centers and other various community venues. 

Here is what I need from you:

1. Come November 1st be prepared to vote daily the entire month for this project 
2. Inform your friends and family so that they can vote also
3. Try to get the word out to your schools and colleges to your fellow students, professors and teachers(if you need flyers they will be posted the first day of November on http://www.betterlifeinrecovery.com/ [which will not be up for several weeks from today] once we are in for sure)
4. Talk to your college departments and see if you can post the flyers on the billboard and don't forget to share it with your professors and fellow students (see flyer information on 3)
5. Get the word out at your job to coworkers (at lunch, breaks, staffings, etc. see flyer information on 3)
6. Get the word out at your church (see flyer information on 3 and if you are in Southern Missouri we will talk to your church ourselves if you would like)
7. Get the word out to your youth group (see flyer information on 3 and if you are in Southern Missouri we will talk to your youth group ourselves if you would like)
8. Share it with your Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Celebrate Recovery, Living Free, Addicts Victorious, Alcoholics Victorious or other Recovery Group (see flyer information on 3 and if you are in Southern Missouri we will talk to your recovery group ourselves if you would like)
9. Get the word out to your small group (see flyer information on 3 and if you are in Southern Missouri we will talk to your church ourselves if you would like)
10. Put a copy of the flyer up in your break room at work
11. Talk about voting to your peers at school, whether you are in junior high, high school or college (this documentary is for you)
12. If you know a DJ, share the information with them to talk about on the radio and you can get them in contact with me if they would like to interview me on the air if in Southwest Missouri
13. Put the information up on your blog or share my blogs about the project on a daily basis
14. Put the information up on your Facebook, MySpace, or other social networks and tweet about it (Shoot, now I have to get a twitter account and I swore I would not do that)
15. Remind everyone you know daily by email, text, social network or tweet to vote daily the entire month of November!!!!
16. Do not forget that there is also a video that will be up on the site and is already under documentaries on this site that is a one minute synopsis of what we are doing and why it is both different and needed

Thank you very much for the buy in and help on this. It is and will be appreciated more than you will ever know. We will have a new site up just for this project in the next couple of weeks at http://www.betterlifeinrecovery.com/ that you will be able to visit. It will have the link to vote and the information on the 1st of November as well as the flyer you can put up and hand out as soon as we find out that we have been approved after the final review process. 

AGAIN, THANK YOU IN ADVANCE. I KNOW THAT WITH YOUR HELP WE CAN AND WILL COME OUT VICTORIOUS AND THROUGH THE SHOWING OF THIS VIDEO SO CAN MANY WHO ARE ALREADY USING AND THOSE WHO HAVE YET TO BEGIN!!!!!! If you have any questions or would be interested in either helping us or sharing your story, let me know!

I could not have been happier! This means that out of all the grant ideas that Pepsi received ours was one of the 1,500 that was randomly selected. It will now go through a final  review to insure that it does not go against any of the policies that they have for their grants. It cannot promote any particular religion, glorify drugs or alcohol, contain images of drugs or alcohol, promote a political party, contain nudity or profanity. There are also some other policies that they have to review also. Our documentary project, entitled "Better Life In Recovery" does none of that. 

Back in the Swing of Things After a Relapse (Food, Drugs, Alcohol or Sin)

Here it is, Wednesday, and I am weighing in again. This Monday was the first week that I have really decided to get back on Weight Watchers since my cruise. I have tried several times and several ways to get back on track, but it has been difficult. I allowed myself to relapse on food during the cruise with a guarantee that I would go back on Weight Watchers when I got back home. I have not yet been able to get back on track. The more I looked at how difficult it was, the more I remembered how hard it was with my other addictions.

The funny thing is, this is only counting points. I am still allowed to eat unheatlhy on occasion, and yet I was still failing until this week. I did really well with it until the cruise, then I allowed myself to slip. Now I am reminded of the mantra repeated in group, "One is too many and a thousand is never enough." Once I opened the door to let bad eating habits in for a week, the door never closed.

Our lives are not only this way with food. Our lives are this way with alcohol, drugs, pornography, lying, cheating (tests or partners), stealing, gossiping, flirting, etc. If we give ourselves permission for a little, a lot can happen. We may justify it, but it does not change what it is. A relapse is a relapse, and it can quickly spiral out of control. No matter what we say about it, that is what it is. A white lie is still that, a lie! Flirting can get out of hand really quick, and innocent words can still destroy a relationship.

I am reminded of a quote from Romeo and Juliet, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." When Shakespeare said that he meant that no matter what you call something, it is still the same thing. Renaming a thing does not change what it really is. To cut down on confusion, I have a rule that changed my life you can apply here. I will share it in depth in the next week, but here is the gist of it. Ask yourself two questions before you do an action. If the answer to both is yes, then do it. If either of the answers is no, you do not do it.

Question 1 is this, "If my child (or significant other) and God were standing next to me, would I still do this?" If you answer yes, than you ask yourself this question, "Is this something that I would want my child (or significant other) to do. If that answer is also yes, then you can proceed. If either question is answered with a no, then you cannot do it. It is that simple, and yet it helped save my life.

So what door have you opened to sin, thinking that a cracked door will not harm you. "I am strong enough to do it only once." If you let yourself wander to one porn site on the computer, that is still cheating. You may not look at it that way, but the Bible does. Matthew 5:28 says, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Tell me that we do not look at porn sites, or flirt with anyone, without some form of lust. Gossip is the same way. 

In fact, any type of sin is that way. A sin is a sin, no matter what I call it. Just because I say it isn't water doesn't mean I won't get wet if I jump into it! Furthermore, it tends to hurt not only us but we also hurt others. We need to remember what was talked about last week in my blog on loving your neighbor as yourself. Treat others better than you would want them to treat your children. Would you want someone on a site ogling your son or daughter? No, then do not ogle someone else's son or daughter.

So, examine how we treat others and how we treat ourselves. Realize that there is no difference between our spiritual time and our secular time. If I would not do it or say it in church, I should not do it or say it outside of church. I'm not judging, I'm just saying. If only God can judge me, I can still judge myself too. I know right from wrong, and I need to examine all that I say and do so that I do not give the Devil a gateway into my life.

Once Satan (sin, alcohol, drugs, porn) gets into my life, he is difficult to get back out. If I give him just a little, he is sure to take a lot. Many of us who have relapsed have found out that it generally picks up worse than when we stopped using. We need to insure that we are doing all that we can to keep the door shut for good. If you look back to my posts entitled Iron Sharpens Iron you can see that even the places that we frequent and the company we keep can be open doors for our defects to take back over.

You always have a choice, but will you make the right one? Only you can answer that. I guarantee you that the Holy Spirit will guide you in the right direction (positive people, positive places, positive choices) if you allow it to!

Iron Sharpens Iron Part 1- Change your Playgrounds

There are multiple things that are talked about that will allow you to make positive lifestyle changes. Some of the most important things that they talk about are your playmates, playgrounds and playthings. These are three of the major obstacles/barriers that exist in our environment and that keep us from making beneficial changes.

When they refer to playgrounds, they are talking about the places that you frequent. As a substance-abuse counselor, I tell people that they should avoid their old playgrounds. As a Christian, I tell people that they may not want to frequent their old hangouts also. I tell everyone that is making changes that they need to not only be aware of where they partake of their hobbies at but also the hobbies they engage in. The hobbies they engage in are referred to as playthings.

When they mention play things, they're talking about triggers. Triggers are the things in our life that make us think of the habits we are trying to rid ourselves of.

1. If you are trying to work on financial issues, credit cards may be a trigger for you. Cutting up your credit cards may be a good idea for you.

2. If you're an alcoholic, fishing may be a trigger for you. In the future, you may want to only go fishing with sober people who were supportive of your sobriety.

3. If you like to fight or have anger issues, heavy metal concerts and bars may be triggers for you. I know that they were for me. I did not stop going to concerts, instead I switched to worship music. I found that it tends to uplift me and fill me with hope instead of causing anger in me.

4. For those who suffer from depression, isolation may be a trigger for you. It was for me. I came up with an action plan for things to do when I began to isolate which included calling a sponsor and accountability partners. We will discuss those when we get to playmates.

5. What if you're addicted to video games? I found that a good thing to add to my life was reading the Bible, attending small groups, and actually spending time with my wife and my son.

We also need to ensure that we are aware of the places that are dangerous to our overcoming the habits we are trying to change, or our living a Christian lifestyle. If you continue to frequent your old haunts you are putting yourself at risk of once again engaging in behaviors you are trying to stop. Do not give relapse, sin or the devil a foothold in your life. When we frequent places of ill repute that is what we do.

Listed below are a couple examples:

1. If you are an overeater, there may be a bakery that you pass by on our way home from work that he would always stop at. Would it not be wiser to change your route going home than it would be to drive by the bakery every day? Remove your object of temptation.

2. If you have a sexual addiction, why would you ever go to a bar or a club? This is the last place I would ever go to. For starters, the temptation to pick somebody up will always exist there. Most bars and clubs are nothing more than meat markets. Secondly, inebriated people are not that much fun to hang out with if you are sober.

3. I was an alcoholic. I also enjoy playing softball a lot. I always played softball at the fields that had bars at them. When I stopped drinking, I found a league that was played in a park that did not serve alcohol. This was a good idea because if alcohol was not available to me I would not drink. Also because there is no alcohol there, there do not tend to be any fights there like at the fields that serve liquor.

4. I enjoy playing pool and bowling. I am not good at either of them, but I do enjoy them. There are multiple bowling alleys in the town I live in. There are also multiple places that I could play pool at. There is a Christian bowling alley in the town I live in that also has a pool table. Therefore I can play pool and bowl in a place that has no liquor served at it. Once again, if there is no temptation than it is less likely that I will stumble.

Do the above examples make sense? Why would you tempt fate? If I have a box of rattlesnakes, I am not going to stick my hand in there on the off chance that they might not bite me. That is what we do when we frequent places we should not. We basically play Russian roulette with our new lives.

The Bible even supports this. In Proverbs 14:11 it says, “The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish." Why would you want to hang out in a house that you know will be destroyed? Would it not be better to hang out in a place that will flourish? I would certainly think so.

The Temple of God......more like a shanty

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, "Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple."

Our body is God's temple. That is said because the Holy Spirit lives in us. But do we live our lives that way? For the most part we do not live our lives as if we have even read the Bible, let alone as if we are a temple for the Holy Spirit to live in. A lot of us treat our bodies more like a garbage disposal or an amusement park. If we cannot control our consumption habits, how can we possibly control other habits such as lusting, lying or being a gossip?

When I say garbage disposal, what I mean is that we will throw any and all trash into our bodies. This ranges from junk food to eating too much food. Just because we have mega-Churches springing up does not mean that we need to have mega-waist sizes so that our personal temple matches the one we worship at. This is called gluttony, or overindulging.

Ever heard of gluttony? I hear that it is a sin! The Bible has a few things to say about gluttony. Proverbs 23:21 says that the glutton will come to poverty. Proverbs 23:2 goes as far as to say "put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony" and Phillipians 3:19 says that those who will come to destruction will treat their belly as their god. Does not sound like gluttony is a good thing. It sounds like gluttony is something to be avoided. Maybe this is something we as Christians should attempt to focus on. After all, sin is sin.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 states, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."

Now we will look at treating our bodies as amusement parks. By that I mean we smoke cigarettes, have premarital sex, overindulge in alcohol and abuse drugs. Is that honoring God with our bodies? I should certainly hope not. That may be honoring the little "g" gods, not the big "G" God that I worship. We tend to take the path of least resistance and focus on what we want to do and what is popular and cool. This is not how we are to live, though. We are to live like the Holy Spirit resides in us, because it does. We should desire what God wants us to do.

Romans 8:5-6 says, "Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace."

Somewhere in the course of our lives we have to ask ourselves if we are living as though our mind is governed by the Spirit. Are we doing as we have been instructed to do. I would argue that we are not. The way we live our lives shows that we have no self-control, which is a very important thing. 2 Peter 1:6 says we are to supplement knowledge with self-control, and Galatians lists self-control as one of the fruits of the Spirit. If we are led by the Spirit, then we will have self-control. If we have the Spirit, you will know it by our fruits.

We may have trouble acting with self-control, but there are ways that we can build it. We need to acknowledge that when Christ died he brought us salvation that allows us to deny our worldly urges (2 Titus 2:11,12). In order to take advantage of this salvation, we must be baptized (Galatians 3:27), cleanse ourselves from the impurities of flesh and spirit (2 Corinthians 7:1) so that we can pursue peace and holiness and through them see God (Hebrews 12:14).

We show that we are truly following Christ by doing several things. In Acts 8:22 the Bible tells us that we should repent and pray so that our hearts can become right with God. Prayer and meditation will open us up to receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Just because it is there does not mean that we use it. As an example, I use public rest rooms all of the time. It has been my experience that almost every one that I have ever been provided both a sink and soap to wash your hands. Yet, I frequently see people walk out of those bathrooms without washing their hands. So it is with the Spirit, accessible to us but left unused.

Another thing that we need to do is surround ourselves with people who are living their lives led by the Spirit. There is a reason to do this. Birds of a feather, flock together. The Holy Scriptures also tells us that not only does bad company corrupt good behavior (1 Corinthians 15:33), but being around positive  Christians who are like-minded allow us to be built up and encouraged (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

When we get rid of the negatives in our lives, we need to replace them with positive things and people. If we do not, then bad things are surely going to seep back into our lives. I would rather be in relationships with healthy people than those who are living in sin, positive Christians as opposed to those who continue to make negative choices and accept no responsibility or hold themselves accountable for their actions.

In my life, I have decided I need to make some changes because there are areas of my life that I could improve in, that I do not have self-control in. The area is gluttony. I overeat all of the time, I do not know moderation when it comes to food and that has began to add up, leaving me with a waist that is almost as big as my chest. I will keep you updated on my progress as I attempt to overcome my last addiction, which is eating pleasure food in abundance, and drop 55 pounds and keep it off.

What I have decided to do is join Weight Watcher's, because it is a lifestyle change as opposed to a diet. I have tried juice fasts for a week, and the Daniel Fast for 40 days, but I have always returned to my addiction to food after it was over. I do not need a phase, but a permanent change. I need a change in lifestyle and a community to support it. I have done that with my other addictions, choosing to attend church for the community it provides, removing myself from those who were engaged in the lifestyle I was trying to leave behind me and actively associating with people who are accomplishing what I am striving for.

That is what Weight Watchers offers me: support, hope and encouragement. I know several people who are active Christians that are also involved in Weight Watchers and have been successful that can offer me support and encouragement in our journey. I will win in the battle with obesity and overeating, because my God is an awesome God. Don't forget what it says in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all this through Him who gives me strength."