I am not the man I used to be

Okay, so now we are back to last July. I weighed about 250 pounds (give or take a couple). An enlistee who stands six feet even can at the most weigh 200 pounds to make it into the Army. If you measure six feet one inch, you get up to 205. Any way you slice it, I had about 50 pounds to lose. I started walking. Then little by little I started running. When my family went to a children's camp in northern Illinois where I was asked to be camp pastor for the week, I even went running down dirt roads between corn fields and put up with the dogs of the camp caretaker "running" with me and almost tripping me several times. I also started doing push-ups and sit-ups.

Well, my date to go to MEPS (the place where I had to pass the physical to get into the Army...MEPS stands for Military Entrance Processing Station) was getting closer and closer. My paranoia about my weight increased at a rate directly proportional to my approaching that date. The problem was, I did not know exactly at what weight I had to arrive. Standing as straight as I could, I measured six feet and one-half inch. Will they round up or will they round down? Hey man...five pounds is a lot to someone who before all this started was considering going pro as a late night snacker! I am not kidding...for two weeks before I had to go to my physical I practiced walking around with my posture as erect as I could make it. I was GOING to get that number rounded up!! I put so much gusto into standing straight for those two weeks, I gave myself a charley horse in my upper back that took the next two months to get rid of (I am so pathetic...I know).

At MEPS...I weighed in at 197 pounds. In three months I lost over 50 pounds. God gave me the strength to do it. There was one person who was a constant source of encouragement to me during that time of getting into shape. This person never failed to ask me daily what my time on the run was, or how much I weighed, was that weight up or down from last time, how many push-ups are you doing now, and this person continued to ask these things even when I am sure it got very tiring hearing me go on and on about it. That encouragement meant so much to me. It often pulled me up from the brink of discouragement, and I really depended on it.

That person who gave me that encouragement was my wife. What a helpmate! What a blessing from God!!