He Commenced To Shaving

I was looking through some old pics earlier and found these. 

Wow. These are bad.

On December 19th, 2009 I had a crazy idea to stop shaving. I even blogged about it here and here.

I had never before tried to grow a beard. It didn't take me long to see that this experiment just wasn't going to be a success for me. Some guys can grow awesome thick beards. Some can't. I'm one of the latter.

So one month into this experiment I decided I was done. I was tired of the itching and gross looking growth on my face so I decided to shave it all off on January 17th, 2010.

Unfortunately for her, the lovely Kristi was there to take pics of the shaving process. Enjoy...

Full beard, after 4 weeks of not shaving. side view.

Same full beard, front view. And yes, I'm rocking a glorious v-neck white undershirt.

The Shaving begins, with lambchop sideburns.

Almost a goatee...but not quite. A sad mustache and hair under your chin do not a goatee make.

What I might look like if my neck hair would decide to move on up my chin towards my mouth where it should be.

My Colonel Sanders look.

Soul patch? Not even.

Who has two thumbs and looks like Louie the plumber from Chicago? This guy.

This is my "I've just tied a damsel to the railroad tracks and I dare the hero to come save her" mustache.

And finally, back to my fat baby face, but still rocking that awesome shirt. =)

 

 

 

What do you think? Should I try this experiment again?

Special thanks to the lovely Kristi for the photography work,
and to the Rick & Bubba Show for the inspiration for this entry's title.

Big Brother Is Watching You

Blogging is weird. 

Well, maybe I should say my blog is weird.

A lot of bloggers find a topic and stick to it. But mine is sort of all over the place. So I’m not really sure what topic brought you here today. I’ve been trying to learn more about blogging and one of the things I’ve learned is that it’s a good idea to know where your readers are coming from and what they want to read. Now, I'm not a fan of Big Brother following my every move on the internet. But I've given up on ever having any privacy. And honestly, I'm having a little fun being able to see how you got to this blog.

According to Google Analytics over half of the people who visit my little area of the interwebs come through my connections with them on Facebook. (Side note: Big thanks to all of you who “liked” Tales from Street Road on facebook recently. Thanks to you, I now have my own facebook url.  If you haven’t yet “liked” it yet go to www.facebook.com/talesfromstreetroad and do that now.... What are you waiting for?)

Another chunk of you have found me through my connection with theworshipcommunity.com, specifically the Sunday setlists that I participate in sharing weekly.

But probably the most intriguing group of visitors are those that stumbled here, those that clicked on a link and ended up here by accident. Through the magic that is Google Analytics, I have learned that there are a few folks who were on a google search for something specific and instead they found me.  What phrases do you think they were looking for that led them here?

 - “Worship leading”? ....nope

 - “Stories of family life”?....nope

 - “Interesting blogs”?.....Not even close

The number one phrase that brought people here from google is ... "Wheel of Cheese".

Yep, “Wheel of Cheese” brought more people here from Google than any other phrase.  I assume it was this little entry from 2009 that they found.

Other interesting search terms on that list were... 

- “fat people” 

- “10% fat” 

- “assumptions about fat people”

Based on this list, I’m beginning to think I should diversify my blog topics a little. 

Besides cheese, what do you think I should write about?

Sunday Setlist 03-27-11

I turned things around a little at Westwood today. By that, I mean that I did something a little different. My typical format is to start with upbeat songs of celebration and gradually move towards slower, more mellow worship songs. Today we swapped it around. Starting with slower songs of praise and ending with an upbeat worship time instead. It was received well.  Here's what we did and some notes.

Prelude:  We Fall Down (Tomlin)
Announcements: Shawn
Jesus, We Crown You With Praise (Wolfe - Brooklyn Tab)
We Fall Down (Tomlin)

There Is A Redeemer (Green)
Welcome / Fellowship
Crown Him With Many Crowns (HYMN)
Holy Is The Lord (Tomlin)
Not To Us (Tomlin)
Offertory Prayer: Deacon
Special Music: Deep (Way Down)  (Selah Version)
Kara Kinnaird, Heather Potts, Shawn Stinson & WBC Rhythm Section

Message: “Lamb of God: The Passover” (Exodus 12:21-30)
Theme: Salvation always involves sacrifice
Invitation: Worthy Is The Lamb (Zschech)
Closing Chorus: Not To Us (Tomlin)

The service went well. No musical trainwrecks. As the service started, I shared how I was reminded of the first song in a dream. It was a song I hadn't heard or thought about in years. But I recently had a dream about being in church singing it so we did it today. Everyone seemed to really sing out on this favorite from a decade ago.
Also, there was an unintended theme in the song lyrics today. 4 of the 8 songs we did today referenced crowning Christ as Lord. That was completely accidental. But maybe I should have kept that to myself. People may have thought that was on purpose.
On a personal note, I got to sing harmony today. This doesn't happen very often. I sang in a trio with two of our sopranos and it went great. We didn't quite hit our goal of "peeling white people off the ceiling" but the majority of the church was on their feet clapping and celebrating the Love of God with us. I'm so thankful for the talent we have in our church. The rhythm section really rocked it. And I'm glad Kara and Heather let me intrude and sing with them.

How was your Sunday?

This entry is part of the Sunday Setlists over at TheWorshipCommunity.com. There you can check out what churches are doing all over the world. This entry is about the Sunday morning worship service at Westwood Baptist Church in the Forestdale community of Birmingham, AL (Our services generally include a 30-35 voice choir, 4 person praise team, and full orchestra.)

Weekly Weigh In: Week 12 - Before & During

Everyone loves "before and after pics", right?

I mean, my favorite part of any weight loss or makeover show is the last few minutes when you see the comparison of how the person originally looked to how they look now. Well, I'm not ready to say this is a "before and after" blog post because I'm not even half way to meeting my final goal yet. But when I saw our recent Gatlinburg pics I remembered that I had pics from us taking the same trip back on 2008. So for your shock and awe, along with my stats for this week, I present this comparison....

The lovely Kristi and I in March 2008. I was at my heaviest ever.

The lovely Kristi and I, 3 years later. and me about 37 lbs lighter.

Apparently, all my weight loss so far has come from my chins.

 Here are the stats from Friday 03/25/11
Weight in Spring 2008 = 330.5 lbs (heaviest ever)

Final Goal Weight = 230.0 lbs

Weight 01/01/11 = 310.6 lbs

Last Week's Weight = 295.4

Current Weight = 291.4 lbs

This week's Δ = -4 lbs

This year’s Δ = -19.2 lbs

Total Δ = -39.4 lbs

To go = 61.4 lbs.

8 Things I Now Know About Hiking

While in Gatlinburg last weekend, Kristi and I decided to try something new and go hiking. I googled the words "Gatlinburg" and "hiking" and it led us to Rainbow Falls. I learned a lot that day. So instead of hoarding all this knowledge to myself here are...

8 Things I Now Know About Hiking

1.) If you see someone else on the hiking trail, you must speak. It’s like a law or something.
Every group of people we passed felt compelled to say something, anything. Kind of like being on an elevator. The problem is that both parties are moving in different directions. So talking is like Twitter, limited to 140 characters or less. As people pass they’ll say something very quick like “You’ve only got 1 more hour to the top.” Or “Watch out for the creek ahead.” Or one of the oddest ”When they say don’t feed the bears, they mean it!” (I’m not sure what that was all about. It was more creepy than funny when the guy said it.) I would have been fine with just a smile or friendly nod, but for some reason everyone wanted to chat for 3 seconds as we passed. (Now, when I say passed, I mean we were heading up on the same trail that they were heading down. If you think that we were walking faster than someone and passed them on the way up, then you clearly don’t know me well.) Strangers on the trail might even try to find something you have in common with them and briefly discuss that. Kristi and I accidently both wore shirts that day proudly displaying our support of the University of Alabama. While walking the streets of Gatlinburg and hiking the mtn, we got at least 20 shouts of “Roll Tide!” But the best had to be from a group of Asian students who looked happy when they saw our shirts. They spoke in another language to each other, pointing at us the whole time. Then one of them said to us “We’re from UA.” It took me a minute to realize what he said through his very thick accent. Then he exclaimed. “Row the Tide!!” We gave them a friendly “Roll Tide” in return and walked at least 10 feet away before we started laughing.

 

2.) Accessorize
Walking sticks change from “something to make of” to “something you wish you had” the further up the mountain you go. The first hiker we saw on the trail looked something like this... I almost laughed out loud. It was as if he stepped out of an outdoor catalog. I spent a little while making fun of these people. But the higher we went, the rockier the terrain got, and I started to slip and slide around the trail. I finally admitted at one point. I wish I had a walking stick. It was a sad moment.



3.)One important question to ask.
Why am I doing this? Is the view of an 80’ waterfall worth a 3 mile uphill hike?
In a word... no.
Here’s what we saw.






I’ve just saved you a 4 hour walk in the woods.
You’re welcome.








4.) How many days will a heavy guy in bad shape be sore after a 6 mile hike?
The Answer: 5.
Starting with the feet that first day.
Then the pain makes it way up to his calves and camps there for a few days.

5.) What not to wear.
You should carefully consider what you wear before hiking. I started off with a long sleeve pullover, but lost it when I got sweaty. Then put it back on when we reached snowy areas. I guess that wasn’t so bad. The problem I had was with shoes. I don’t think my New Balance tennis shoes were designed for the Rainbow falls trail. So the real question is “Do you need hiking boots for hiking?” If you like muddy tennis shoes, twisting your ankles, and ending the day walking in wet shoes and socks (AKA: “six flags” style.) then no. You don’t need hiking boots.

6.) Rations
As you can see, we went on this hike without any real planning. We didn’t even bring a single bottle of water. This came to our attention about 1 hour into the uphill journey. By the 90 minute point we started talking a lot about how good water would be right then. We even got so thirsty that suddenly a small stream flowing down a mountain looked like a great source of refreshment. It didn’t take long at all for me to talk my lovely wife into doing this...

It was only afterward that we began to doubt our decision and she mentioned that we might get sick because of the possible amoebas we just ingested. Luckily though, neither of us got sick and we were glad we took that drink.

7.) Know the difficulty of the hike before beginning.
My wonderful Google search, led me to many trails we could have hiked that day.
Some were marked “Easy”. Easy trails had things like, paved paths, stroller & wheelchair accessible. I could just imagine us walking through the woods and having to pass Grandmaw Moses on her scooter, so I kept looking.
“Moderate” trails listed slight inclines, rocky terrains. Not recommended for small children. That sounded pretty good to me.
Then the “Difficult” trails said things like very steep, mountain climbing, and were very long paths. So I knew “moderate” was the way to go.
A 2.7 mile hike to a waterfall sounded like a good idea. It seemed to be a great way to spend 2.5 hours in Gatlinburg. But that was not the case for us. It took us a little longer. As this video will show, our 4 hour moderate hike was a little more difficult that we expected. Good luck understanding the big guy as he tries to talk while winded.

8.) Have a buddy
It’s a good idea to have a buddy when hiking. There were times I would have stopped and said, “That’s it! Forget it, I’m heading back down.” But Kristi encouraged me by saying things like “we’ve come this far, let’s keep going.” And I did the same for her. We walked for a while with a nice young couple and it was obvious the whole time that he wanted to keep going, but she was done about half way up. But at least they were together. But the most interesting group we encountered was Baljeet and his girlfriend. Both of them were of Indian decent or at least it appears that way based on how they looked and talked. (Wait.. is this sounding racist?) We never officially met them, so I began referring to them as “Baljeet and his girlfriend”. (Baljeet is an Indian character on the cartoon Phineas & Ferb. He is hilarious.) So that seemed like a nice nickname for this young man to me. (Yep, this sounds racist for sure.) Anyway, this couple was very nice. We passed each other on the trail a couple of times as they would take breaks and so would we. They seemed nice enough. But they were very annoying. You see, they were both thin and in good shape and just seemed so happy to be moseying up and down the mountain holding hands. I didn’t see any sweat on them. They never appeared to get winded. I began to dislike Baljeet and his girlfriend by the time we both reached the top simply because they remained so giddy as I grew more fatigued and ready to be done.


That about sums up our hike and lessons learned. I’ll probably hike again someday. But I assure you I’ll be more prepared for the terrain. I’ll have better accessories, rations, and clothing. And I’ll try to stay far away from annoying, happy, friendly, fit people like Baljeet and his girlfriend.

Sunday Setlist 03-20-11

How was your worship Service this morning?
Ours was great. We laughed. We cried. I loved it. It was much better than cats. 

But seriously, the service went well this morning.
I planned our service using a little more traditional music than I typically would.
Our students were scheduled to be out of town on retreat, but that got canceled just a week ago.

Rather than changing plans to make the service a little more contemporary, I decided to stick with the original plan. You may wonder why I would even think about such things. That's the way I typically pan our services. I try to consider who will be in attendance. Who will be worshipping that day? What elements of the service or style of music helps them connect with the Father most? I know some might say it is better for your church to have a style and that you should rarely deviate from that. But I think rather than sticking to church's specific worship style, it is better to consider the people attending and what their needs are. What do you think?

Anyway, here's what we did...

Opened with Statewide Day of Prayer 1stPriority Video
Call To Worship: I’ve Been Changed” (Old Southern Hymn) Choir & Orchestra

Announcements: Shawn

Praise To The Lord The Almighty (HYMN))
Oh, How I Love Jesus (HYMN)
Welcome & Fellowship: Bro. Steve

Are You Washed In The Blood (HYMN) (I love watching the white 95% of our church try to clap on the off beat. =)
Jesus Messiah (Tomlin)

Special Music: This Is How We Know (Redman) Shawn , with CD trax
I try not to sing many solos. I know people tire of hearing me. But I decided this would be a good way to introduce this song. Hope to teach it as a congregational song and have us singing it together by Easter Sunday.

Message: ““Lamb of God: The Promise” (Genesis 22:1-18) - Bro. Steve
Great Message from Bro. Steve. comparing the sacrifice that Abraham almost had to make of his son Isaac, with the sacrifice that God did make for us. Our pastor has really been "on " recently. If you're in central Alabama anytime and want to hear a great message from God's word. please stop on by.

Invitation: You Are My King (Amazing Love) (Foote)
Closing Chorus: Take Up Your Cross (Brooklyn Tab)

How was Your Sunday??

This entry is part of the Sunday Setlists over at TheWorshipCommunity.com. There you can check out what churches are doing all over the world. This entry is about the Sunday morning worship service at Westwood Baptist Church in the Forestdale community of Birmingham, AL (Our services generally include a 30-35 voice choir, 4 person praise team, and full orchestra.)

Weekly Weigh In: Week 11

As feared I cannot report today the same weight loss results as I did  last week. Apparently if you lose 5 lbs one week then eat 1500+ calorie meals in Gatlinburg  for 3 days after that, you will put it all back on.
And if breakfast every single one of those days looks just like this...

Then you definitely will put it back on.

But it sure was tasty.

Gatlinburg was fun but now it's back reality, the treadmill, and salads.

Here are the stats from Friday 03/18/11

Weight in Spring 2008 = 330.5 lbs (heaviest ever)

Final Goal Weight = 230.0 lbs

Weight 01/01/11 = 310.6 lbs

Last Week's Weight = 292.8

Current Weight = 295.4 lbs

This week's Δ = +2.6 lbs

This year’s Δ = -15.2 lbs

Total Δ = -35.1 lbs

To go = 65.4 lbs.

An Important Message

I have so many stories to tell you. And I will in the coming blog posts. You see, I have spent the last 48 hours in Gatlinburg with my beautiful wife, Kristi, celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary. We've had a blast. Some of the stories have involved...
 - Abe Lincoln on the strip.
 - Hiking with Baljeet and his girlfriend.
and of course...
 - Billy the "grabby" waiter.
I'll get to those stories in time. I promise. But for right now I have something extremely important to say.

I Love My Wife!
13 years ago today she said "I do" when asked if she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me. I'm so thankful she did. I thought this would be an easy entry to write, but I've been sitting here in this cabin in Gatlinburg for almost an hour writing paragraphs and then deleting them. Somehow my words just can't seem to say enough how much she means to me. Even beyond that, that they can't really express how thankful I am for her.

You may find this hard to believe, but I'm not perfect. I'm definitely not a perfect husband. In these 13 years, I've messed up in almost every way a guy can mess up and somehow, she still loves me. Somehow she still allows me to be the guy that people look at in the mall and wonder.."Why is SHE with HIM?!?

You know what I mean...
She's a pretty little school teacher. I'm a big goofy doofus.
She gets concerned over wrinkled clothes and microscopic stains. I define laundry with words like "clean enough."
She's intelligent and witty. I have to think hard about how to put coherent sentences together, much less funny ones.
She's got a heart for kids and caring for other people. I've proved time and time again that I'm extremely selfish. (something God and I are really working on right now.)

I'll never understand why God brought us together. By that, I mean I really don't deserve to be this happy. But I know He did. For some reason He loved me enough to make Kristi for me and introduce us. Without a doubt He made us for each other. Somehow, we fill each other's gaps. I really don't want to quote cheesy movie lines, but I could totally tell her "you complete me."

Kristi and I after hiking 3 miles up t
 Rainbow Falls in Gatlinburg 03/13/11.

Kristi, I love you more than my lowly vocabulary can express. You are my best friend, my confidant, my encourager, and my wife. As you know, the morning after mine and your first date, I told my Mom "That's the kind of girl I want to marry."  I'm so glad you said "yes" when I asked you years later. I've made a ton of mistakes in our 13 years of marriage and I know I'll make more. But I promise they'll be a whole new list of mistakes. =) Thankfully, I'm learning how to be the husband you deserve with each mistake. God is showing me daily how to love you like Christ loves the Church. Thank You for loving me as much as I know you do.

I am so thankful...
for the open communication we have with each other,
for the support you give me and my ministry,
for the awesome mother you are to our sons,
for the relationship you have with Christ,
for your forgiveness when I fail you,
for your sense of humor,
and of course..
for the fact that you're incredibly hot!

Happy 13th Anniversary, Kristi.
This is only the beginning.
I love you!

Weekly Weigh In: Week 10

What a great week!

Last week I was all down and depressed, but this week I'm pumped.

I lost over 5 lbs this week!!

Some of my theories from last week were right.

I had been eating too much junk.

So this week  I stopped eating 1930 calories like myfitnesspal.com was telling me to do. Instead I went back to what worked for me in 2008 when I lost 45 lbs before. I started eating approx 1300 calories, cut out most carbs, added in way more fruits and salads, and exercised more.

Surprisingly, eating less, eating healthier, and exercising more will help you lose weight.

Who knew!?!

My beautiful wife, Kristi, and I in the spring of '95. (approx 30 lbs ago for me.)
Unknowing at the time that we'd be married 3 years later.

I really hope I can report the same stats to you next week, but I'm afraid the trip I'm about to take is going to keep me from losing 5 again this week. Tonight I'm taking my lovely wife to Gatlinburg to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary on Monday. I can already hear the pancakes, fudge, and other mountain goodies calling my name. I plan to run some while I'm there so that I won't fall too far back, but we'll see if I'm strong willed enough to actually do that.

I'll be blogging about our weekend trip here, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Here are the stats as of 03/11/11

Weight in Spring 2008 = 330.5 lbs (heaviest ever)
Final Goal Weight = 230.0 lbs
Weight 01/01/11 = 310.6 lbs
Last Week's Weight = 298.2
Current Weight = 292.8 lbs
This week's Δ = -5.4 lbs
This year’s Δ = -17.8 lbs
Total Δ = -37.7 lbs
To go = 62.8 lbs.

If you've actually been interested enough to read this far down on the page, do me a little favor.
Go to facebook. Search for "Tales From Street Road". Then "like" it. I'm trying to get at least 20 fans. Once I have 20 fans, I can add some facebook features to my blog. Thanks!!

Sunday Setlist 03-06-11

GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!
Have you ever felt like God is saying that to you? It's not a good feeling.
I know because I felt Him saying that this past Sunday.

I better begin with a story about last week and a confession. I typically plan our worship services two weeks in advance. But recently I've fallen behind and have been planning the services on the Monday prior to the Sunday in question. Last Monday was a really rough long day at my full time job since it was end of the month. That night, I went home and just crashed instead of working on prayerfully planning the service.  So Tuesday, I knew I had to get it done, and quickly, so that music could be copied, bulletins printed, etc.
I knew of one songs that I wanted to do, so I did a quick search of my word documents of past services to find how we'd done it last time. I'll do that sometimes in order to see which verses, how many repeats, etc.
When I found the song in question, I looked at the rest of the service where we'd done it before almost a year ago. Without much thought, or any prayer about it, I decided to just do that exact service again. Every song. I was done and sending the email within 5 minutes.  I knew when I sent it that God expected more of me, He deserved more of me. My church family deserved more.

So Sunday morning, arrives, I'm walking into church, just feeling that it's going to be a bad day. I felt like since I had done so little in planning the service that every song would probably trainwreck. I was completely focused on me and the lack of preparation I'd done for worship. As I walked on stage I felt God yelling at me, as if he was saying, "If you're just going to sulk, GET OUT OF THE WAY!! You didn't plan well and messed up earlier this week, but right now I am worthy of worship. These people have come here to worship."
Thankfully God completely took over. The Holy Spirit really moved in our service Sunday morning.I saw more raised hands than I normally do on Sundays. There were people praying in the altars at the end of the service. The message was inspirational. People after church were all talking about what a great message it was and what a great job our Pastor did delivering it.

I'm so thankful that God is God and I am not.
I'm thankful that He's in charge and I am not.
I'm thankful that He is willing to use me, in spite of me.

Maybe I should "get out of the way" more often.

Here's what we did....



Orchestral Prelude: Wonderful, Merciful Savior

Announcements - Shawn

Wonderful, Merciful Savior (Eric Wyse & Dawn Rogers)As written = V1, V2, C, V2, C, C, “Oh, our hearts always hunger for”.

How Great Is Our God (Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, and Ed Cash)V1, C, V2, C, C

Welcome / Fellowship - Steve

Your Grace Is Enough (Chris Tomlin and Matt Maher)

As written until end @m69 / V1, PC, C, V2, PC, C, C, PC, C2, no tag

Above All (Paul Baloche, Lenny Leblanc)

As Written / V,C,V,C, C, Tag “like a rose…”

Offertory Prayer

Special Music:

Trio, Heather Potts, Christy Mixon, & Leslie Mixon: How Great Thou Art (HYMN- Selah version)

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Hymn)

Chorus only

Message: Bro. Steve

Invitation:I Have Decided To Follow Jesus (HYMN)
Closing Chorus:Your Grace Is Enough

How was your Sunday?


This entry is part of the Sunday Setlists over at TheWorshipCommunity.com. There you can check out what churches are doing all over the country. This entry is about the Sunday morning worship service at Westwood Baptist Church in the Forestdale community of Birmingham, AL (Our services generally include a 30-35 voice choir, 4 person praise team, and full orchestra.)

The Good Stuff Vol. 1

I know some people who might call these "things that make me smile."
Or you might find rabbits that recommend things they like.
For me, I'm just calling this part of the blog "The Good Stuff."

Here are 4 random things that I've found interesting, entertaining, or plain ole' cool this week.
Maybe you will too...

Music: "This Is How We Know" by Matt Redman
This song is not new, but I recently discovered it and have really enjoyed it. I have no doubt Westwood will be learning this one this Easter season. You can hear it for free on the embeded youtube video then download it for yourself here.

Comedy:
I don't watch "Jimmy Kimmel Live" very often, but this video made the rounds on Facebook this week and both Kristi and I cracked up watching it. "Sexy Feet! Sexy Feet!


Television:
When I get home every night I try to spend special time with the boys. Sometimes that means wrestling, or building legos. Sometimes, it's just watching tv together. Right now our favorite show is
"American Pickers". We Love It!


Movies:
I bought Megamind this week on Blue Ray. How could I not? It's got Will Ferrell voicing a blue super villan. Does it get any better than that?


What's the good stuff in your life right now?

Weekly Weigh In: Week 9

I'm down, but not out.

Sadly, I don't mean that I'm down some lbs. I'm just depressed.
I actually gained one lb this week.

I was mad at myself for about 30 seconds this morning for gaining a lb but I got over it pretty quickly.
Here's why: I know I'm not doing all I can to reach my goals.

I'm eating less, but not eating healthy.

I'm counting calories, but not watching fat or carb counts.
I'm exercising on a more regular basis than ever, but I know I can push myself harder on every run.

I honestly thought our new treadmill would put my weight loss into warp speed. I fully expected to lose 4 lbs this week because of the running and somewhat healthy eating I've been doing. But it just wasn't in the cards.

I have a few theories on why I haven't lost any weight.
1.) I'm sleep eating. You know, like sleep walking, only with snacks. We have a few boxes of girl scout cookies in the pantry. I must be eating them in my sleep.
2.) The old "I'm gaining muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat" excuse. This one may actually be true. With the amount I've been jogging (approx 2-3 miles per day) I must have gained a little muscle. Right? I know my pants are getting much more baggy.  I know my legs are sore everyday. I even noticed that my thighs aren't rubbing together as much anymore when I walk. Yeah! now I can go back to wearing all my corduroy pants without starting a fire.
3.) Maybe 2 small cheeseburgers (without fries of course) isn't a good lunch for a guy on a diet. It's fairly low in calories. but I guess I can do better.

Well, it is what it is. Nothing I can do about this past week. I can only look ahead.

There are three things right now that are keeping me going with this journey.
Three quotes that have encouraged me...
to not give up
to run those extra few seconds on the treadmill instead of slowing down to a walk
to say "no mayo" on my grilled chicken sandwich....

1.) "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1

 2.) "I do" - Kristi Allred, said to me on our wedding date in 1998.
I want to be a better man for her, a better husband, a healthier me. I'm doing this for me. But I'm also doing it for her. She's deserves my best. She's loved me through "thick". Now I want to give her the opportunity to love me through "thin" too.

`Me and my lovely bride in 1998. For me that was 28 lbs ago.
I wonder if I'll get my baby face back once I've lost that 28 lbs?

 

3.)"Winning!" - Charlie Sheen

Yeah, Charlie. You're winning. Keep thinking that. I'm sure it will get you a long way. But saying the word does make me chuckle as I'm pushing myself harder on the treadmill. 

Oh well. Looks like I might just have to head back to the "fat smash" diet that worked for me in 2008.
Can I eat fruits and veggies only for 9 days?
Hmmm?

What do you think I should do differently?


Here are the stats as of 03/04/11
Weight in Spring 2008 = 330.5 lbs (heaviest ever)

Final Goal Weight = 230.0 lbs

Weight 01/01/11 = 310.6 lbs

Last Week's Weight = 297.2

Current Weight = 298.2 lbs

This week's Δ = +1 lbs

This year’s Δ = -12.4 lbs

Total Δ = -32.3 lbs

To go = 68.2 lbs.

Sunday Setlist 02-27-11



Worship center as seen from the choir loft.



From time to time I post our setlist from our church's Sunday AM worship service. This entry is part of the Sunday Setlists over at TheWorshipCommunity.com. There you can check out what churches are doing all over the country. Here's what we did Sunday in our morning worship service at Westwood Baptist Church in the Forestdale community of Birmingham, AL  (Our services generally include a 30-35 voice choir, 4 person praise team, and full orchestra.)

Prelude: Lord, Reign In Me (Brenton Brown)
Announcements: Shawn
Lord, Reign In Me (Brenton Brown)
Omit 3rd V. (1V, C, 2V, C, C, Tag= “So won’t you…”)
Who Can Satisfy (Dennis Jernigan)
Begin @ Measure 28, omitting verse.

Welcome / Fellowship: Steve

Open The Eyes Of My Heart (Baloche)
V, C, V, C, B, C, B, Tag “I want to see You"
It Is Well (Hymn)
1st & Last

Choir Special: Let Your Glory Fall (Don Moen)

Here I Am To Worship (Hughes)
V, C, C

Message: Bro. Steve
Invitation: Just As I Am (Hymn)
Closing Chorus: Who Can Satisfy (Jernigan)
Chorus Only

Overall the service flowed well. Every song was very familiar to most of the church body.
It was especially nice to see hands raised in worship in the back of the room where our senior adults normally sit as we sang "It Is Well". Looking at this service now, I see it could have been done exactly like this 8 years ago. Time to teach some new worship songs for sure.

How was your Sunday?

Weekly Weigh In: Week 8

Ok, so this is 5 days late. I said I'd do this every Friday.
I know you were on pins and needles waiting for this update.
Well you can stop worrying now, because here it is...

Last week was an ok week. I dropped a little more than a pound. I know if I would have exercised more I would have seen better results on the scale. Hopefully I'll prove my theory this week because of the recent purchase I made. Kristi and I decided to use part of our tax refund this year to purchase a treadmill. So far, I've used it twice a day and no clothes have been hung on it. I hope I can still say that months from now.

Here were my stats last week (As of Friday 02/25).

Weight in Spring 2008 = 330.5 lbs (heaviest ever)
Final Goal Weight = 230.0 lbs
Weight 01/01/11 = 310.6 lbs
Last Week's Weight = 298.4
Current Weight = 297.2 lbs
This week's Δ = -1.2 lbs
This year’s Δ = -13.4 lbs
Total Δ = -33.3 lbs
To go = 67.2 lbs.