Wow! I think we all know that our little part of the world can change at any given second for the good or the bad, perhaps even the indifferent. Mine has changed for the? Well, it has changed. Last week I had a bad ear ache, which led me to the Dr and then a test for covid. The next day my test is covid negative, but still experiencing a wicked ear ache and within hours that turned into another visit to a Dr as I now I had a strange feeling across half my face, sort of a tense sunburn. Well the Dr sent me to the ER to rule out stroke as she was believing I had Bell’s Palsy. The ER did their tests and confirmed that I have Bell’s Palsy (BP).

A brief overview of BP for those never having experienced it:

Sudden weakness in the muscles on one half of the face.Bell’s palsy may be a reaction to a viral infection. It rarely occurs more than once.Bell’s palsy is characterized by muscle weakness that causes one half of the face to droop.Bell’s palsy usually resolves on its own within six months.

Sounds fun doesn’t it? Noooooooooooooo! I’ve been describing it this way: half of my face is frozen, feels sunburnt and tight. Cannot eat, drink or talk normal now. The more I talk, the more it hurts, left eye wants to be open all of the time and sometimes it will pour out a giant crocodile tear! Overall is stressing, tiring and I feel completely out of sorts!

So my world has changed. How long? Well that seems to be some magical number of weeks to months! Now the crazy thing, is that I was not intending this blog to be about this change, so I will keep you in the loop of the BP thing, but let me dive into the changes I intended to.

Seven months ago I made the decision to take my health back. Take it back from who? Hah! I never really thought about that way, I guess I should say I decided to get serious about my health. 52 years into this life and not promised any particular length of stay, I want to do all that I can to increase my odds of living to 100.

Which means for me: exercise, lose weight, eat right, think right and be right. So seven months ago I started to use our new home gym, a Hoist V4 Elite system. Pretty much all in one lightweight commercial unit -built to last. I also added to my phone the “lose it app” to track food, calories, exercise, etc. So my start of exercise, lose weight and eat right was off to a good start. Thinking right and being right are taking much longer to work on. You see, I believe that of you want to lose weight / get into shape -that you really need to work on the mental processes as well. Everything starts somewhere in that dark abyss – the brain. Images, positive thoughts, negative thoughts, commercials, messages, movies, songs and more have all influenced how we do so much in life. When your mind is cluttered with junk, irrational thoughts and thinking, we tend to have a hard time changing our habits and patterns.

So, for seven months I have been working out, eating “better” or I thought, but as a big guy – okay let’s just cross this bridge now. I am not proud of this number, I am extremely embarrassed by it in fact, but I am not going to be one of those saving it for some “big” reveal day. Ready? I used to weigh in at 385 pounds – a year ago. Let that sink in, please. I know I look like a big guy, I am a big guy, but I would have never dreamed of being “that” size! Now, I will not beat myself up here, I have done enough of that and as part of my mental of being right -its time to focus on going forward and DOING! Today I weigh 360.7 pounds, so in less than a year I am down 25 pounds!! Go me!

BUT, yes BUT. I don’t feel big changes, I know I am gaining some muscle and toning it for sure, but those layers of fat are still there, for now. But I was finding myself frustrated at this and I thought, let’s look hardcore at my diet, the numbers of it all. So I looked at my sodium, carbs and sugar. OH MY @&$%@*$! Closest I’ll swear in print, hee hee hah hah.

Daily recommended intakes of these three: Sodium: 2300 mg a day. Carbs: between 225 and 325 grams a day. Sugar: 36 grams a day. Or putting into a monthly allotment: 69,000 mg a month of salt, 6750 to 9750 grams a month of carbs and 1080 grams of sugar for the month. My numbers (for the month) salt = 93,950 mg! 8,075 grams of carbs! 2,976 grams of sugar (or 744 teaspoons of sugar!) These are monthly totals! My salt intake is over 1 cup of salt for the month, one cup. It is way too much and it surprised me, but the sugar shocked me! Some perspective on that sugar:

Time to get to work, wouldn’t you say? My diet is showing me plenty of weaknesses and I am ready to hit this head on! No wonder why I don’t see the results I want. I am coating all of my awesomeness in sugar and salt – carbs and fat too.

Now, I don’t believe really believe in coincidences, things happen for defined reasons at defined times. In my little sphere, I believe that my God has plans for my life and as I draw closer to Him, certain things begin to unfold for the betterment of my life. Bell’s Palsy – timing -honestly sucks, going into the fall season / holidays around the corner and feeling like uggh. BUT, remember I mentioned eating is not normal now. Well, this gets taken advantage of now as I dive deeper into my diet, food choices, what I eat and how I eat. Now, in the past this would have been a HURDLE, today I am seeing it more like a TURTLE. What do I mean? the hurdle having been those huge #’s would have shut me down and instead of trying to jump over it, I would have just slid under and been depressed. But today it’s all a turtle, come on they rhyme! The #s are significant, but so is my weight loss, I am going step over this turtle and keep pushing forward.

I don’t have any dramatic plans, fitness programs written out, nor diet. I know what needs to be done, I just need to be so much more intentional with all that I do. But isn’t that true of all of us? Ever notice when you step out into doing something with intent first – it usually is much better than just “trying?” In fact I like to think along the lines now of ” no trying – just doing.”

Okay – stopping here for now… will come back soon and fill you in on some more changes in and on my health.

Thanks for stopping by the fire,

Pastor Dennis