Why am I doing what I’m doing? This is MY personal experience. Take it at face value. Let me start somewhere back in late January of 2013. Calvary Chapel Corvallis was having their annual week of prayer and fasting. I had a big list (of which I won’t get into right now) and one of them was my health. I was fat, overweight, out of shape and exercise had failed me. I was done trying. 2-1/2 years earlier I went to the doctor’s office and found that I had a low thyroid. Low thyroid causes everything in your body to slow down, from metabolism to… well everything. I remember when I started on my thyroid medication I went from 290-300lbs down to around 275-280 fairly quickly. I remember that I lost somewhere around 25lbs within about 3 months. It was after that first three months that the weight started to creep back. I ballooned somewhere before thyroid medication at about 320lbs. At the same height as I was when I graduated back in 2000- 5’10” and 145lbs. My weight had doubled. Back to 2013. When you “Matthew 6:33”, “Matthew 6:34” comes true. Seek for who He is and he will give you the desires of your heart. One of my goals was to get back to a healthy life style. So, here I was. 31 years old, a BMI of 43, would shake if I didn’t eat for a prolonged period of time, running out of clothes that fit me. I was bummed out. Previous exercise routines had failed. I can remember how for about 3 months I had spent time working out every day if not every other day at a minimum. I never lost a pound. Depressed. I met a very dear person who was the kick starter to all of this healthy living that week of prayer & fasting. I’ll explain that in a little more detail later. I had been told by God that if I was to fast, I was going to fast from a few things and the list was given. I wasn’t given all at once, but one Sunday at a time over a month. Kind of like “here is an addendum”, and another one, and another one. I quit asking “what else”, when the list started getting to 4-5 items. I remember two things were preparing me for what was going to be my future 5 months later. No meat. No bread. No really? Seriously? You know, God I can do that for a week. Why not? I remember that at some point around day 5/6 I had this sense of “this isn’t too bad, I could do this for longer”. It’s like when you tell God “I never want to do that again”, you end up doing it again. Lesson learned? Nope. So here I was fasting from breads and meats and thinking how easy this was because it was only for a week. Not a problem said my pride. The week of prayer and fasting ended and I went to Izzy’s and had some chicken. Thank God that was over. Hindsight is 20/20. I met a person during that week whom I’ve gotten the opportunity to know better over the last 7 months. This person (whom I’ll remain anonymous unless he wants his name in here) had cancer. Pancreatic cancer. I remember listening to how juicing saved his life. “Juicing eh? Cool. Whatever works I guess” - I still hadn’t learned. So you are telling me that fruits and vegetables can actually cause cancer to go into remission? If our bodies can take what they need and actually heal it’s self… there has to be something about that. If it was true, then why aren’t doctors and hospitals doing it? I tried to get physically fit with my boys as spring came about. I tried to inline skate, but because I was so overweight I couldn’t take the pressure on my feet. I could spent about 5 minutes on the skates before my feet felt like they were on fire. Bummed out I turned to comfort. Food. Around the same time I was seeing an endocrinologist (person who specializes hormones) because I had low testosterone. We are talking like 180 when normal range is 500-800. YIKES. Low energy: check. Weight gain: check. Other problems associated: check. I bought a bicycle this spring and started riding. The bike broke. Sad. I didn’t have enough $$ to get a quality bike from a bike shop. I had to so something. All the while the doctor was having me get testosterone shots. Wasn’t very much and was making a little difference in my energy. I ended up selling some ammunition and bought a new bike from a bike shop here in town. I was riding my bike quite a bit, and as my testosterone levels increased I was able to ride more and more. I was actually getting into shape. I didn’t lose weight riding my bike. I kept at a constant 295-297lbs. Exercise does not mean weight loss. Slowly over the course from February to July I found myself eating less and less food. I just couldn’t consume like I used to. Odd. On top of that I also found out that I would have a hard time eating red meat. I would get sick if I ate a steak. Double odd. My desire for milk was gone. Triple odd. Remember that statement I made back on the prayer and fasting week? I started having a better relationship with my dad and would visit him. He was telling me how I should look into some diet/lifestyle that they (he and his wife Marcy) were doing. I remember very distinctly saying “There is no way I can do that hippie stuff”. I laughed at him, to his face. Maybe not the best thing to do when coming off of a strained relationship but I was being honest. Remember don’t tell God “I won’t do that”. He already knows if he wants you to do that or not. Omniscient and omnipresent is the God we serve. I still chuckle and laugh even as I write this. Define irony: Tyson King’s life. I had scheduled a time in early June and I met my dad out at my grandparents place in Alpine. I remember pulling up to their place and sitting on the dash of his car was this book: “Eat to Live” by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. “Oh great, he is going to want me to read this” I thought to myself. None the less, on the way out to the cars he and Marcy were walking with us and I got placed in my hand a copy of that book. I remember telling him as well how I understood the benefits of all that hippie mumbo jumbo crap but I couldn’t see myself doing it, not at all. I took the book and promised to give it a read with ALL SKEPTICISIM. That book sat on our counter for probably three weeks and only moved when there was something under it that I wanted to get to. One day I got so bored I decided to watch a TV show on Netflix. “Forks Over Knives”. Wait… what? You mean our health problems are caused by the Standard American Diet (SAD)? You mean cancer is more prone when our diets contain how much animal protein? Wait, this isn’t what I was taught in school. Woah… hold up a second. This was intriguing and I was obsessing over how this could be true. The curious cat in me could not resist any longer. Monday I picked up the book. Thursday it was read through. Saturday my dietary plans had changed. I read about how this Dr. Fuhrman was treating diabetic patients, people with heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol with food. I read how they were losing weight at an average of 100lbs for the first year. How after two/three days they didn’t need to take some medication. Wait a minute, there has to be something about this. Here is the deal. Either this guy is absolutely CRAZY or he is in a sense like Jesus: completely right! I’ll take it that he is right, because the Vulcan inside me told me that everything was absolutely LOGICAL! I started a lifestyle change on 7-6-2013 at 296lbs. Something had to give. I was going to beat my body into submission. I was told by everyone who did not eat the SAD how difficult it would be if the rest of your house was not on board. I could see how that was possible. On 7-13-2013 Amanda joined me. One week after I had started. In the first week I had dropped 11lbs. Writing this 6 weeks later I am 30lbs lighter. I walk by the potatoes in the grocery store and laugh, because with proper nutrition I have lost (3) THREE of those 10lb bags from my body. How I have energy, I don’t have digestive problems. I’m sure my blood pressure is lower. I’m positive my cholesterol is lower. Amanda has lost a good amount of weight in her first month (almost 10%). Combined we are close to a total of 50lbs!!!!! Even Christian with him being a picky child has adopted this style. He no longer uses cow milk with sugar puffed up enriched cereal. He has found that chocolate almond milk over granola (different flavors that he picks out from the bulk section) is awesome as a breakfast. What kid eats a healthy breakfast that has chocolate? He does! Christian has lost 4lbs in the 6 weeks. Where does 4lbs come from on a little kid? Everywhere, that’s where. I can assure you he isn’t starving. Here is how a typical day goes: Breakfast: bowl of oatmeal with fruit (Amanda does this, I don’t eat breakfast because I’m not hungry). Water with every meal! Your body needs this to aide digestion. Lunch: big salad made up from romaine and iceberg lettuce (I do about 75% romaine, Amanda does opposite) with onions, cucumbers, bell peppers, radishes. We will eat them dry, or with some pepper or other topical seasonings. No oil or dressing as they is no nutritional value there. I have found that I like to make a tomato based “dressing”. A little spicy but really livens up the salad. Add to the lunch a large helping of fruit, veggies, maybe a peanut butter & homemade blackberry jelly sandwich. Trust me; a typical lunch of how we eat now is more filling than a calorie counted lunch by weight watchers. Dinners consist of a salad, followed by some veggies, fruit and such. There is a lot that I’m leaving out, as far as beans, legumes and some smaller details… I’m just hitting the high points here.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 19:28:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015