The Bridge Church Grand Opening Commentary

I sit down this Monday morning to write a brief commentary on the events of this past weekend and to be honest with you I’m overwhelmed with emotion. This past weekend, May 13-May 15, 2011 marked the birth of something that I believe is going to have a global impact. The Grand Opening service of the Bridge Church in North Olmsted, Ohio was held yesterday May 15, 2011 with 80 in attendance, around 40 of which were first time guests. The other 40 were made up of people that have visited once or twice before and people that got on board with the Bridge during the team building phase. The Bridge Church is now an official force to be reckoned with and we have a huge vision. Our vision does not stop with reaching the western suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, but with reaching the entire metro area and having our local assembly also aid in the global cause of Christ through missions and outreach.

Our team building phase started in September 2010 with our Foundations classes where we graduated the first 16 official members of the Bridge Church. Phase two of team building was from November 2010 to May 8, 2011 where we held “practice” or some would say “preview” services to build our base, start our BridgeKidz ministry, and develop a functioning, quality Worship Band.

Friday night, (Friday the 13th), started our weekend with a bang. We did a “Gas buy down/full service fill up”. With everyone feeling the pain at the pump, we decided to go completely nontraditional with our outreach. Much of what we do at the Bridge definitely doesn’t follow any preprinted play book with the exception of the Bible, so why go the traditional route with outreach? One of our main goals, visions, and missions is to serve our community. We want to be a church of influence in our community. We want people to recognize our name, cause, and vision so that they know where to go when they are looking for a true experience with God. We are on a quest to be an “early church” church. The early church didn’t “play” church, they were the church. They went from house to house and to the marketplace and to where the people were at far more than they met in the temple. So, on May 13th, we partnered with a local gas station to pay $.10 a gallon for everyone, giving them a discount on gas, pump their gas for them, wash their windows, and aid them in any other services that they desired. Pastor and I worked countless hours setting up this event and this entire weekend and it paid off. After sending out 22 press releases to every radio and television station and local newspaper, based on an additional news tip from that night, Fox 8 News Cleveland came and featured our event on the 10 PM Friday night news. In fact, we were one of the teaser/headline stories. We have several other high profile MAD ministries (Making a Difference) events coming up including the Relay for Life where Pastor Jonathan will be sharing a sermon with the crowd that’s there to support stamping out cancer. Only God can get credit for setting the stage for the Bridge Church like he has. We are now poised to really put ourselves out in the community, serve this area, and lead people to a fulfilling relationship with God.

Pastor Jonathan has had a vision for over 10 years to plant churches in a metro area and a bulk of those years Cleveland was the target God put on his heart. The Cleveland Metro Area is very different from other parts of Ohio. It has a rich cultural and ethnic heritage that many mid-western cities do not have. Cleveland is also not at all like the heartland when it comes to religion. A majority of the Cleveland metro area is far from God or has never known God. It is definitely not a Bible belt place. There are over 48 different languages regularly spoken in the Cleveland area and our suburb of Cleveland, North Olmsted, is home to the largest Muslim population in Ohio. All of these factors combined make up the reasons why we absolutely love it here. Cleveland has historically gotten a bad rap, and rightfully so. The politics here are corrupt, the mob ties are huge, the job market is in constant turmoil, and the winters are long and brutal. Even with all of those factors working against it, the Cleveland metro area is home to 2.9 million resilient, culturally diverse, home team loving people that all need to know God. The Bridge Church, for lack of better phrasing, wants to make Jesus famous throughout the region and be a location where people can find life in Christ. The religious traditions that exist here are dying. The old, enormous church edifices that bear the cross and house the steeples are boarded up and lifeless. The Catholic Church is closing locations on an almost weekly basis and the light of religion grows dimmer. The Bridge Church is opening at the perfect time for the light of true relationship with Christ and true life change with Jesus to be made available to those who are spiritually hungry. The Bridge Church is a place for those that want to make a difference in their neighborhoods, communities, suburbs, city, region, state, country, and world. We will not have church, we will be the church.

God gave us a glimpse of what can and will be yesterday. There was an excitement and expectancy in the air. Our connect team was showing the community that we really are the friendly, all inclusive church they are looking for. Our BridgeKidz ministry ministered to a wide range of children in an engaging way. Our worship band was on their “go”. The presence of God was strong and Pastor Jonathan delivered a relevant, engaging sermon. Our service ended with a rendition of “You’ve stolen my heart” by Leeland and you could feel God doing what only He can do in that room.

Our season of team building, our season of fasting and prayer, our season of hard, focused work, and our season of wondering how in the world all of this was going to happen brought us one step closer to our destiny. We look forward to continued, methodical, sustained growth both of the number of people that attend the Bridge Church and of the individual relationships with God that people in our church have. We have a lot of ground left to still cover to see the vision that God has for our church. Please pray that God gives us a semi-permanent (lease) location or a permanent location and that God sends us strong leaders that desire to serve in ministry. We have many ministries that we would like to launch at the Bridge Church that just need the vision, manpower, and passion of a leader. We are still in extreme infancy and that makes us delicate. We need to continually nurture and care for this gift that God has given us and feed it correctly so that one day it can birth more churches from its womb.

Congratulations Bridge Church. You are 1 day old. The best is yet to come.

Mother's Day Commentary 2011

(My mom and my 2 sons)

This past weekend was a big weekend for so many people. May 8, 2011 marked the day that we all celebrated our mothers, celebrated being a mom, and essentially gave lip service to the fact that none of us would be here without the womb of a woman. Not all moms are created equal. There are single moms, married moms, step moms, adoptive moms, young moms, old moms, widowed moms, and divorced moms. There are skinny moms and not so skinny moms. There are attractive moms and not so attractive moms. Regardless of which category that mom falls in, the fact remains, she is perfection to her family. Proverbs 31:28 “Her children rise and call her blessed.” Even if your children are too young to speak and verbalize their appreciation of mom, it’s those little actions that speak louder than words.

The Bridge Church celebrated moms this weekend with a message I gave “Will the real mom please stand up?” In this message we discovered 3 things.

1) There is no such thing as a perfect mom
2) God has answers for a mother’s problems
3) There is nothing like a mother’s love

God has equipped and empowered women in their femininity and characteristics to live out a sincere faith that will have a ripple effect for generations. You, mom, have the ability to influence countless generations and God has an amazing journey outlined for you. If you have an active, visible connection between your beliefs and your everyday living, you will keep the flame of the gift of God stirred in you and nurtured. It is time for women to understand that a spirit of timidity is not what God has called us to. Too often we have misappropriated the scriptural requirement for submission to authority and our husbands and have used it as an excuse to be a wall flower.

2 Timothy 1:7 “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.”

It is not piety before God to let your emotions dictate your life and destiny. It is not piety before God to sit without action and let your role as mother and wife sideline you from the work of the ministry. God has given mothers that spirit of love and sacrifice so that you can use it in his kingdom to fulfill your calling and destiny. Churches need nurturers. Churches need people marked by sacrifice. Churches need servant’s hearts. Churches need teachers. Churches need mothers. All good mothers have these characteristics. The church as the bride of Christ is essentially the mother of the people on this earth. It is time we recognize the power that we have in our femininity and in our role of mother to fill roles in the Kingdom of God.

Your life can be marked by explosive, influential power and by a disciplined mind that is not deceived by the temporal circumstances of life. What God is accomplishing in us, he wants to see passed on through us. The power of your legacy potential is exponential.

At the Bridge Church we embrace all kinds of moms. Single, divorced, widowed, step moms and anything else you can name. We are not a church of June Cleavers, but a church marked by a passion to change our world.

2 Timothy 1:5 “ I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuade, now lives in you also.

Re:Learn Commentary

Recently we (The Bridge Church) just finished up a sermon series called “ReLearn: Lessons from the Early Church”. This series was taken mainly from the book of Acts and was designed to help us refocus on the true characteristics of the church, (the church being God’s church not a flavor of religion or style), and try to start incorporating those characteristics into the vision, DNA, and mission of not only the Bridge Church, but into the life of each and every believer. I learned so much from this series. It is not that any one topic was so revolutionary or fresh or new, it was that we were taking old principles and discovering that the goal of the church isn’t really to be fresh, cool, trendy, or contemporary, but to literally relearn how to organize, function, and operate as Christians. Obviously you need to be fresh, cool, and contemporary because Christ called us to be all things to all men and our focus is to reach those far from God or who have never known God, but being trendy isn’t the main focus.

This past Sunday pastor talked about the “All Inclusive God” and how if Peter would’ve had his way (Peter representing the religious and the elite), the conversion of Cornelius would never have happened and the hunger and passion that burned inside Cornelius would never have been realized. How many times have we disregarded someone who was passionate about God and hungry for God because they didn’t measure up to the standards or beliefs or sacred cows that we hold so dear to? There is nothing unclean if God calls it clean. He is for people, so you better be about your Father’s business, the people business. The Bridge church will be all inclusive. It doesn’t matter what your race, ethnicity, financial status, educational status, religious background, or career choice is, there is a place for you. As we enter into our Grand Opening season, the ReLearn Series was an important compass with which to get direction from. We will not turn the world upside down if we don’t relearn how to be a Christian.

Christianity isn’t about a building. So many people are locked into the thinking that church is a building. This makes me absolutely crazy! I know that I can get a witness from all church planters out there who are nomads meeting in high school gyms, masonic halls, golf courses, country clubs, libraries, homes, and pretty much any place that is the right price and also has indoor plumbing. We do have some standards: toilets (nonnegotiable)  although, we do know the early church wouldn’t have even cared about that. When are we going to get out of our comfort zones? I read a statistic that 33% of the world currently calls itself Christian and that in 1900 33% of the world called itself Christian. Why aren’t those numbers growing? Where is the fervor that says, “I want to be one of those that turns the world upside down”?

We need to learn to not just live on the emotion of passion where we only act on the great commission and we only sacrifice like the early church when we’re pumped and primed and feel like it, but we need to find the passion that fuels us in the down times and in the apathetic times and in the times where we really just don’t care anymore. We need the same passion that Christ had. He didn’t want to drink the bitter cup of death. He fought it. He prayed about it. He sweated drops of blood over it. However, He did it. He took on our sin and endured the cross. We need to cry out for that same passion. We need the passion of Paul, the passion of Timothy, and the spunk of Peter. You need to ReLearn how to do church and how to be a Christian.

I am thankful for a Pastor that is willing to do a 2 month sermon series on the Early Church. The multiplication of the gospel will only happen when we quit being satisfied adding slowly to our church and expecting people to come to us. I want an Early Church church. I want a church that is added to daily, that gives generously, and that loves unconditionally. Do we have a ways to go? Sure we do. We technically haven’t even had our grand opening yet, however, what happens during the gestational period is what determines the health of a birth. If we can grasp the concepts we’ve been taught and the passion and vision that Pastor is unveiling, the birth of the Bridge church and the future growth of the Bridge Church will be supernatural. Let’s be devoted to fellowship, to prayer, to unity, to outreach, and to rejoicing. Acts 2:47 “The Lord added to their numbers daily those who were being saved.”

Don't feed the animals

Over the past couple of years I’ve noticed the growth of a hidden monster that has always lurked in the closets of people’s hearts and minds. This monster, “have to know”, or HTK, has always existed, but his growth has been fueled by the ready availability of social networking. While I actively participate in social networking in all of its various forms (texting, Facebook, Twitter, iPhone apps, etc.), I am finding it increasingly difficult to distance myself from HTK. This monster pops up on my newsfeed in all variety of forms and I’m longing for the day that my friend “Need to Know” or NTK will knock him out. This monster infects both speaker and listener. For whatever reason, lots of people feel you HTK about all details of their existence, and other people are ready and willing to listen because they HTK all about you. Lately a phrase my dad passed down to me and reiterated numerous times in my formative years is “I’d rather be naïve than cynical.” What dad knew all along and that he wanted me to grasp was that while gossip and HTK are attractive in the moment, the end result is cynicism and negativity. It’s so refreshing when you don’t have to carry the burden of everyone else’s failures, shortcomings, speculations, and bad attitudes.

I’ve always said I’m the last to know everything. This used to frustrate me until I realized what a virtue that was. Why would I want to carry someone else’s heavy burden if I wasn’t intended to carry it? My Christian background teaches me to take my burdens, and everyone else’s, to the Lord and leave them there. There are enough issues plaguing society from poverty to hunger to spiritual anorexia and atheism that the last thing I need on my plate is a daily diet of someone “speaking their mind”. I find that the whole topic of self-control is on the bottom of everybody’s list. Just because something is true doesn’t mean that it has to be said. If you look fat in a shirt, I’m not going to tell you that voluntarily without provocation. People that feel the need to speak all things are very contrary.

What causes this stalker to come out in us that we feel that we “have to know” every detail of everyone’s life or share every little opinion that runs through our head? The HTK monster loves this obsession that we have been feeding every hour of every single day. This obsession doesn’t even require the internet. Lots of gossips and HTK monsters have been adequately fed throughout the years in the form of “prayer requests”, conference calls, and cups of coffee shared. My personal favorite is when someone is veiling gossip by calling it a prayer request. Oftentimes you can tell in the spirit of that moment that no request for prayer is actually being made, they just wanted to share juicy information.

At times I have been guilty of oversharing. My personality is such that I’m an open book. I really have no secrets to hide. In a day and age where authenticity is the buzz word, I feel that I was authentic before it was even popular. I’m horrible at putting up fronts. What you see is what you get. I have embraced this part of myself wholeheartedly and in the maturity of adulthood have honed in on the more positive aspects of this personality trait and learned to successfully set aside the more crass and off putting parts of this personality. Another thing my dad always told me was to put a guard on my mouth because it would get me in trouble. I’m the type of person that thinks something and says it before I have even had a chance to process the end result of my commentaries. Thankfully, something called maturity, wisdom, and growth haven’t eluded me and I have grown in this area of my life. I’m still very real, authentic, and transparent, but I’ve allowed my brain and God to aid me in what things need to be broadcast and what things don’t. Trust me, these weren’t the easiest of lessons for me, but I’m so thankful I have learned them. I groan when certain explicit things show up on Facebook and mourn for marital relationships that are publically sabotaged via social networking. My heart aches for children who are the source of their parent’s consistent and vicious complaints and my soul grows weary watching people so proudly and so publically cast off restraint on the internet. At times I feel guilty of feeding the HTK monster because even I get sucked into the reality soap opera show that is people’s very public personal life.

I have adopted the approach in my life that I will only feed information that is NTK or “need to know”. As a pastor’s wife and Family/Marriage Education professional, I all too often know intimate details of people’s lives. I cherish being a confidante, friend, and confidential counselor to people who have invited me into the deep part of their lives. I count it an honor and a blessing to carry their burdens to the Lord with them and for them. It is a sacred task to stand in the gap for people who are too weak to continue to hold their own banner high. I wouldn’t trade my role as a go to person for anything. God has given me a NTK, but with the God given NTK comes an outlet, prayer and fasting. I also have confidential accountability partners in my life. Too many people are letting the voices of negativity and cynicism invade the private parts of their hearts and mind with no outlet for escape. I’m convinced this is why depression, anxiety, sleeping disorders, and many other mental and physical problems weight heavily on the world today.

I encourage you to rid your life of HTK. You really don’t Have To Know everything about everyone else’s life. Social networking, the internet, cell phones, and email are amazing, especially when you have many loved ones and friends that live far distances away and sharing with them what you ate for lunch, that your child’s tooth is loose, and that your kid is potty training is loads of fun and laughter. Posting pictures of dates, exercise logs, and commentary on politics is engaging. I enjoy all of these things as you’ve noticed if you follow me on social networking. I love to post encouraging quotes and scriptures as well, but what I won’t burden you with are the emotional weights of spiritual struggles, marital struggles, or child rearing difficulties. If God has placed you in my life as my NTK, I’m going to call you, email you, or meet you for coffee. It is not good to live alone, but to live in relationship. I will not cease to be transparent or authentic, but I do pledge to not feed HTK. He is the strength of gossipers.

Philippians 4:8 (King James Version) 8Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

From Fat to Fit

I have been inundated with requests to take people through my lifestyle change journey and have decided, after answering countless personal emails and typing the same things over and over again, to try and narrate for you my journey, what helped me, what didn’t help, and some things that I’m still working to improve. We are already almost through January 2011 and I imagine some of you have been successful in your resolutions and are full swing into your weight loss and/or fitness/health journey and there are others of you that caved the second the Valentine’s Day displays went up at the stores and you caught glimpse of the beloved lover “chocolate”.

After overdosing on yummy food goodness for at least a month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, most people heave a disappointed sigh as they try to fit into their pants. Having already started the holidays with a few extra pounds they vowed to get off the year prior, they just give in for “one more month” with a renewed declaration in their spirits to try again next year. Well, next year is here and some of those people are currently beating themselves up because they are already off the wagon again. Oh well, better luck next time in 2012 they say. That person was me in 2009. Every year since I can remember I’ve been vowing to lose weight. This blog is my story of journey and triumph.

If you could add up all the diets I’ve been on, all the books on food and dieting I’ve read, and the number of exercise related paraphernalia I’ve purchased in my life, I’m sure you’d be blown away. In fact, I ought to have my Medical Degree in nutrition by now earned by life credits and personal development. It may surprise you to learn a few things about me that I don’t like to talk about. Believe it or not, there are things I don’t like to discuss. For the sake of helping my friends, acquaintances, and even just random women down the street, I will share with you.
Number one, before my two pregnancies and subsequent weight gain, I actually, at one point in my life, struggled with anorexic behaviors. It was actually humiliating for me to admit this at one point because how could a 5’7” 98 pound girl balloon to where I had gotten. How’s that for recovery? Believe it or not, people with disordered eating can easily swing from anorexia to morbid obesity. It really is the same faulty thought patterns that get people. I personally know several obese people that struggle with bulimia and anorexia. I encourage you to not make judgments on peoples eating and fitness levels when you don’t know their story. Number two fact played into my lifestyle change was the fact that my dad was in his 30’s when his health began to fail. He died at 51. Realizing that I was turning 30 in 2010 really took me to a place mentally that few can understand. It’s not about growing older. It’s not about impending wrinkles or vanity, but it was about the fact that my life could already be half over. I have so many relatives that didn’t live very long or healthy lives. My blood Bentley relatives can attest to you that our genetics are some sort of ticking time bomb and they are definitely not conducive to being thin and healthy. The Bentley relatives that are thin and healthy work overtime to be so. We are not natural hotties, but we’re geniuses, guess you can’t have it all :)

My struggles with weight began at age 14 when I realized I was fat. I know my mom will read this and weep and say “Jessica how could you think that”, but those of you that knew me then and don’t have the maternal emotional ties will attest to the fact that this was true. I really and truly did need to lose weight. I was ending Junior High and beginning high school and wanted to be attractive to the opposite sex. Puberty really has a way of messing with your head. I began a healthy, balanced diet that quickly spiraled into an unhealthy intake of only 500 calories at the most a day coupled with lots of exercise and quick, out of control weight loss. I’m sure this time period in my life destroyed my metabolism. I would not say that I was anorexic in a classic sense because anorexics cannot see what they are doing to themselves and often times still view themselves as fat. I did not view myself as fat; in fact, I viewed myself as superior to everyone else. They had to eat to live and I didn’t. I had power over it. To make an incredibly long story short, my wakeup call came at a Doctor’s appointment when I was 15 and at 5’7” weighed 98 pounds, had a blood sugar of 12 and was told my liver would fail within a year if I didn’t start eating better. Miraculously, this was all I needed to know. I certainly didn’t want to die. I also had such kind friends (you know who you are) that started calling me “skelator”. This actually didn’t’ help me. I knew this was their way to express how scared they felt about my condition but in reality it just made me feel more superior. I was skinnier than anybody and everyone knew it. I was awesome.

After my wake up call, I was told to gain weight. This was amazing to me. I had never needed to gain weight. I was always fat. I didn’t enter this next phase of my journey very well. I started eating like a crazy person. My body was probably malnourished so was prompting me to eat constantly. My weight went up practically overnight. I wish I had stayed at 135 pounds on my way up the scale, but at some point I quit caring about my weight again. I wanted to be attractive, but at the time had boyfriends and male suitors, so I guess I was accomplishing that on some level. In retrospect, all of this insanity I’m sure was tied into the stress of long term illness. My dad’s kidneys failed when I was in 3rd grade and so for years he was on a doctor’s restricted diet. Our whole house revolved around sodium content, sugar content, and the scale. When your kidneys fail, you have to weigh yourself several times a day because you aren’t peeing at all. You have to make sure the water doesn’t build up too much. I guarantee that my weight loss, although necessary and healthy initially, spiraled into something I could control in my life. My dad went on to a kidney transplant when I was 10 but battled everything in the book for the next 14 years after that until he died. I bet people really don’t know the extent of the stress in my family because my dad was an eternal optimist, a genius, and a hard worker. I even had myself convinced he wasn’t as sick as he really was. Perhaps my over control of calories went the opposite way when I was told to gain weight.

Whichever way you swing, if you are on the anorexic end or overeating end, ultimately you have a very unhealthy relationship with food. One thing that changed my journey was to stop looking at food as anything other than fuel. I still enjoy eating. I love the act of eating with my family and friends. I love to cuddle with a bowl of ice cream on the couch with my husband and enjoy the silence of my kids being in bed. I love celebrating the holidays with food. The only difference this time is that I listen to my body. Food is not your friend or your enemy, it is just food. It won’t make you happy or change your life. An apple tastes just as good as apple pie. So, unless it’s a holiday, why sabotage yourself with the unhealthier choice?

If you sat down to read this thinking you were getting a light hearted blog about weight loss, you are surprised by now I’m sure! I don’t feel like I can be truly honest about how I came to this point without sharing all of that with you. For most people, weight loss isn’t just about food or weight, it’s about stuff much deeper and more complex, so unless you deal with all of that, you’ll just keep yo-yo dieting. I overcame my food issues years ago. Once I got married, I settled happily into life and didn’t really think about food much. I just enjoyed eating. I gained about 15 wedding pounds and then got pregnant with my first son. I then gained 25 pounds being pregnant and lost only about 15 of those pounds after he was born. If you’re not good at math, I’ll spell it out. That means I started my second pregnancy 25 pounds bigger than I was on my wedding day. I gained 30 pounds in my second pregnancy and then was thrown into a whirlwind of life 6 months after giving birth. We moved, began traveling full time to cast vision for the church we were to be starting in Cleveland, and living on an insane schedule. I had lost a few of the pregnancy pounds but found myself actually gaining instead of losing. Because of our travel schedule and preaching at churches all over the country, we were eating out constantly, eating out at weird hours of the day, and offered very few healthy choices and options. I was also caring for a toddler and infant who had no structure or schedule due to the insane nature of our life at the time. I nursed both of my children for the first year and didn’t find the weight loss benefit from it that many of my friends find.

Add to this the death of my dad right before my first pregnancy and pretty much, I had a recipe for disaster. I stood on the scale one morning at the end of 2009 and declared, “I will not be this person anymore.” I was going to lose weight healthy and normally, rid my mind of both the anorexic extremist control of my early teenage years and of the “lassiez-faire” attitude of marriage and motherhood, and get my health in order. I was turning 30 and I wanted to do everything in my power to make sure my sons have a mother that lives to be older than 51. None of my dad’s illnesses were weight related and I might still get some long term illness even trying to live healthy, but I need to know I’m doing everything in my power to lose weight.
I have not used supplements or pills. I have done this the old fashioned way. I have taken all the advice, tidbits, and pieces of knowledge I have gathered over the years and with trial and error applied all the things that work for me. First off, I joined Curves. Curves is a gym for women. Cuyahoga County offered free memberships through the Cleveland Clinic’s Go Fit program last year so I didn’t have to pay any startup fee or monthly fee for 6 full months. The program made you get weighed and measured weekly and if you didn’t go a minimum of 3 times, they charged you. I literally despise wasting money so that was a major motivator and the weekly weigh in's kept me accountable. I got up at 6:30 am and hit the gym 3 times a week to start off. The weight began to fall off me. It was amazing. I was following the Curves Weight management plan which is almost identical to weight watchers. You have free fruits and vegetables and an emphasis on protein. It doesn’t eliminate carbs, but carbs are no longer your main fuel source. I even allowed myself every Sunday to eat whatever I wanted and didn’t deprive myself during the week. My main key was exercise and counting calories. I use Live Strong/the Daily Plate. They have a website or you can download their APP for your smartphone. I used Live Strong to determine my calorie count for the day, count my calories, and log my food choices. I still use Live Strong. It provides you with the knowledge you need. I bet you’d be shocked if you actually realized how many calories you truly need to how many you are actually consuming. I’ve been one to make healthier choices even at my most overweight points, but I obviously was very unaware of how much was truly going in.

I’m sorry this isn’t a lose weight quick blog. I have found that losing weight quickly doesn’t work. It doesn’t deal with the issues you have surrounding food and body image and it doesn’t’ deal with the bigger picture of how you can come up with a plan that you can live with. It doesn’t change your lifestyle. The fact of the matter is calories in, calories out. The fact is that you can be thin and skinny without being healthy. If been thin or skinny is your goal, I’m probably not the person to motivate you. Jillian Michael’s calls these people “Fat-Skinny People”. Being thin or skinny doesn’t mean you are physically fit, healthy, or happy. I have learned through all of my dieting, food issues, and loss/grief issues due to my dad’s health problems and subsequent death that you are in charge of your own happiness. As a Christian, my joy comes from God. This world wants to rob you of your joy and your self-worth as a human being, and especially as women. God just wants you to be the best you that you can be. My goal is to be healthy. I can serve God, my family, and my fellow man better when I’m healthy. Don’t get me wrong, I do want to be thin, but my health matters more to me.

The fitness gains I earned at Curves pushed me into pursuing what I once thought was impossible. I’ve never been athletic. Even at my thinnest points, I wasn’t truly physically fit. I’ve always enjoyed moving and never been lazy, but most exercise attempts stopped at just speed walking. Now, with Curves, I was doing circuit training, strength training, and cardio and began to feel the need to step it up. My husband had picked back up his quest to be healthy too and mentioned he wanted to do a marathon. I thought, why not, and told him I wanted to join him in a half marathon. My first few days out I couldn’t even run a mile. With a combination of walk/running, Curves, and marathonrookie.com, I was able to train for and run the 13.1 mile Akron Half-Marathon in 2:34 and that time includes my bathroom breaks so the run was probably more like 2:28.

My story is still ongoing. I’m not to the end of my journey. If weight loss was my ultimate goal, I’m about 10 pounds from my ideal “dream” weight, but it’s not my ultimate goal. I’m currently 26% body fat but would like to be 21%-24% which is optimum fitness for a girl. I’d like to take my health the next level by reducing/eliminating diet drinks, reducing/eliminating artificial sweeteners, and eating foods with very few ingredients. Jillian Michaels says to only eat things that have a mother or that came straight from the ground. I also am trying to not eat foods that have ingredients in them that you need a PhD to pronounce or describe. I’m still working on this. The call of the “hydrogenated” sirens is sometimes too hard to resist. I’d also like to further reduce sodium. I’m a work in progress and God calls me fearfully and wonderfully made. I’ve learned to love the way I look and not compare myself to the Kim Kardashians of the world. Fact of the matter is that normal women don’t look like that because we don’t engage in plastic surgery, have the money for personal trainers, and have personal chefs. I don’t compare myself to my friends that are several inches shorter than me or have a smaller bone structures anymore. I am who I am and God ordained me to be who I am and I’m enjoying every second of my full life in Christ and with my friends and family. Life is a precious gift and I want mine to be as long and healthy as possible.

Helpful hints:
1) Drink lots of water. Not only does it fill you up but it actually increases your metabolism by as much as 30% for 40-45 minutes after drinking it.
2) Eat tons of fiber. This fills you up and helps your body clear out toxins. (Hey, I said it as nice as I could)
3) Eat lots of fruits and vegetables (Sorry. No getting around this)
4) Exercise a minimum of 3 days a week. Having no time is not a good excuse. Make time even if it means setting the alarm an hour early every day.
5) Don’t let money be an excuse. A lack of money is not a good excuse to not eat healthy and exercise. You will either pay in lots of medical bills and health related problems or pay to purchase healthier groceries and for the necessary exercise gear. Either way, eventually you’ll pay. Let health be a priority. Cancel your Cable TV if you have to. Being healthy is more important.
6) Have a good support system. Lots of people have actually tried to discourage me believe it or not. I tune these voices out with the voices of my champions and supporters. Don’t let fat, jealous, miserable, unhealthy people steer your course. Find your true friends and family and let them support you. My husband Jonathan was my #1 cheerleader. He was my workout partner and was happy to help me make healthier choices.
7) Motivate yourself. Ultimately unless you are internally motivated you’ll fail. It is not everyone and their brother’s job to keep you constantly propped up. You have to be your own ally. Set small goals and reward yourself for each one that you meet. Don’t set 75 pounds as your goal. Set 10 pounds, celebrate when you reach that goal, and then set another one.
8) Read and Watch things about health and wellness. I like all the Biggest Loser stuff, all the marathon/weight/wellness documentaries, and books about health. Jillian Michaels “Master your Metabolism” is extreme, but I incorporated some of it and liked it. The book “Spark” is great. Runners World magazine has also been a great addition to my reading. Curves has a weight management book that details their plan that is helpful and there are countless websites and blogs that you can tap into. Educate yourself. I love all of the books in the “Eat this, Not that” series. They are tips that require almost no brain to follow. The books are basically picture books. Hit up your local library. This will save you lots of money in the reading department and you can consume more knowledge that way.
9) Learn to recognize true hunger and not just eat to eat or because you feel like you need to because it’s “meal time”. I’m still working on this.
10) Believe in and value yourself. You are worth it! Don’t let spouses or children or jobs stress you to the point that you stop taking care of yourself. Exercise is an amazing way to clear your mind and make you a better you.