Writing is a strange thing to do.
Especially when you want to say a multitude of things and can’t figure out what
is most important. I had a lifelong friend whose favorite saying was, “Shoot
the bear closest to the cave.” His meaning was that whatever offered the
greatest threat to you should be taken care of first. Sometimes figuring that
out can be harder than one might think. In this case I guess it might be to
just pick up where I left off in part one.
This may not be exactly picking up but it
is continuing in the same direction. The attached picture is not that good but
it is to make a point. I am one bag down and two more to go. I do not really
see any loss in the picture but I know I have when step on the scale, or put on
my jeans instead of my usual sweats. I actually have to tighten up my belt a
couple of notches. Finally after just ten months I am down fifty pounds. That
is the significance of the bag of chicken feed. It represents what I have lost
so far. When and if I get to where my
goal is I will have lost three of those bags.
When I try to tell people how to tell how
much overweight they are I tell them to go to the store and pick up something
that weighs as much as the difference between what they weight and what they
should weight. For me that would be three bags. I can already tell the
difference in several ways. We have five
steps up to the porch in front of our house. That is not much but I would always
be wheezing and short of breath when I walked up them. Now I can carry in five
gallons of water or a forty pound bag of water conditioner salt in one trip.
Before I started my diet I had to stop three times on each trip and take a ten
minute break between bottles or bags. At seventy-two it is a bit of challenge,
but I can do it again. I won’t be doing
any marathons any time soon, but I am certainly making headway which keeps me
motivated.
One of the big reasons for starting the
diet was that I have type2 diabetes. My doctor told me at my last visit that if
I lose another twenty pounds I may be able to get off of insulin. That is
definitely a motivator. Since then I have hit a plateau which means I am still
eating the same but the weight is no longer coming off. So I am getting ready to make some changes to
my diet.
Up till now I had been on a keto type
diet. It is a high fat, high protein and
low carbohydrate diet. I had been avoiding veggies almost entirely and found
from reading that veggies maintain balance in your system. Another thing I learned years ago but had
been ignoring was paying attention to the glycemic
index. If you follow the link it will tell you how much a food affects your
blood sugar. I try to eat foods under 30 points. It does not take much figuring to realize a
normal diet can easily overload your system, especially if you have an insulin
problem. The last few months I have been spending much time on YouTube. They
have dozens if not thousands of videos on how to manage a diet and insulin. The main thing it takes is the willpower to
change because you need it.
Another reason for dieting for me is simply
I may be running
out of time. On January 22nd 2004 I had the big one. The link tells that story and gives a testimony
on my part. A week from tomorrow will be
the fifteenth anniversary of that event. To me it has significance because of a
Biblical character named Hezekiah. The Bible tells the story how he served God
and at one point the Prophet Isaiah came to him and told him God sent him to
tell Hezekiah he was going to die. He turned to the wall and started crying out
to God about all he had done. Well
Isaiah left, but then God told him to go back and give tell him he had fifteen more
years to live. My fifteen years are about up, not that I think I am about to
die. I believe and hope I will be here at the second coming. If you read the
testimony in the link you will understand why I think that.
In the course of writing my blog I have
shared a lot of dates that to me say we are definitely in the last days. There are many prophecies left to be filled
and the rapture is one. As I write this my wife is in a hospital in St. Louis
with her 57 year old brother Gus and he is in need of a lung transplant and at
this time we are not sure where that is going to go. Your prayers for him are
more welcome and wanted. None of us really know what life holds for us in the
future, but I do know that God will get us through whatever it is and guide our
paths.
Some people think my blog is all about me.
It is not, it is about how God has opened doors for me all my life and guided
my path. When I think of the rapture one thing bothers me about it. I am ready
to go and thought I had years ago, but the Lord has given me these years to
share and show and tell how awesome and real he really is.
The last four years I have been taking
care of my twin six year old grand-daughters, which is why my writing has
really slacked off, The only thing that
bothers me about dying is what will happen to them and who will step up to the
plate and take care of them. I take care of them about fifty hours per week.
When reading thru the Bible one time I came across the word infidel in 1st
Timothy 5:8 and had to look up the word in the dictionary. It means someone who does not know God. It
struck my heart and I realized many people turn their back on their own and do
not know what the Bible says about such a person. So I stepped up to the plate
and started helping and recently realized if something happens to me Michelle,
their mom may have to quit her job and I know she is trying hard. She has two
sets of twins, the six year olds and a pair of one year olds. The Bible also says you have not because you
ask not. So I asked God how do I take care of them if something happens to me.
Well I stumbled into an opportunity to start a custom tee shirt business which
is something she can do on her computer from home and take care of her kids.
Lord willing I have enough time left to get it set up.
I shouldn’t worry but several things are
coming up that I would like to be around for. My youngest and only
grand-daughter Mackenzie graduates from high school in May. My Dad lived long enough
to go to all my children’s graduations. The 18th of September I will
be the same age my Dad was when he passed away.
My Mom lived to be 84 and I take more after
her. Would love to make it that far and see my great-grand-daughters graduate
also, but I don’t really think this old world has that much time left on
it. I have been wrong on a lot of things
in life and would love to be wrong on this one, but that is God’s business, not
mine. Mine is to treasure everyday he
gives me.
Proved one point to myself today. I had been eating normal the last week and snacking occasionally, my blood sugar had been creeping up from the 90 to 100 range and I figured that was the problem. Also I had been eating more carbs. Today i forced myself to not snack after breakfast and get back on my regular eating schedule. My blood sugar this morning was 133 and last night it was 137. Tonight it was 86. Halleluyah.
