Counting Calories

About every diet plan I have ever attempted begins with the suggestion to keep a food diary.  Writing down everything that enters my mouth has never been on my top 10 fun things to do list!  In fact, I believe in most cases, I stuck with writing a food diary for about a week at the most!

So, two weeks ago my doctor suggested that I look at using www.myfitnesspal.com This is a website that I knew about and had used several years ago. It is a calorie counting tool.  Yes, this was one of the ways that I had kept a food diary that had lasted about a week. When I first used the website, it was just that -- only a website.  That was in a time when I owned a flip phone.

Now, the website has entered the age of the smart phone and apps!  Since my doctor showed me the app, I haven't missed a day logging my food and it is actually making a difference in how I am eating.

Maybe the app just appeals to my geeky side, but for whatever reason, I find it fun to keep track of the foods I am eating. A couple of  features keep me interesting in doing this!

First, it's  easy!  Entering foods into the app is simple.  You can search for items in their database which includes an amazing number of items already.  But, what I think is the coolest feature is  the barcode scanner where you can simply scan the package to enter an item.  

Now, I'm not a real cook, but there are a few things I like to make on a regular basis, like egg salad or a tuna dish.  Neither of these would be something easily found in their database, but there is a section where you can enter recipes and it will calculate the calories per serving.  Recently, when I made a few baked goods, I decided to enter the recipe to see what the calorie content worked out for a little pecan tart.  It did take me a few minutes to figure out how to get the recipe correctly entered, but in the end realizing that one little tart was over 100 calories and nearly 1/12 of what I should eat for the day, kept me from eating the whole batch!

But, the coolest part for me of this handy little app is that you can link it to Runkeeper!  Runkeeper is the app that I use to keep track of my walking and running.  When you use this as part of your exercise routine, and link it to my fitness pal, the calories that you burn with your exercise count as "negative calories" for my fitness pal.  This means when I take a walk and burn 200-300 calories, my total calorie intake for the day is increased in My Fitness Pal by that amount! 

I have always understood that keeping a food diary helps keep you intentional about what you are eating.  For me, the drudgery of carrying a little notebook and pen around was always a stumbling block--in addition to having to figure out the calories, etc, by looking them up.  My Fitness Pal eliminates all that!  The highly visual app helps combine the food diary with helpful nutritional information and feed back. 

It has only been two weeks, but that's twice as long as the last food diary I kept!

Motivation to Be More Healthy

According to an article entitled "Hating on Fat People Makes Them Fatter," shaming overweight people is not the way to motivate them to loose weight.  

The article refers to another story that I missed that happened back in the fall. An anti-obesity campaign in Minnesota created controversy because of its shaming/blaming nature.  The creators of the ads defend them saying "Our intent in creating these ads was really just to show good parents having moments of realization that they needed to change their own behavior in order to send the right message to their kid." 

That "moment of realization" thing is what jumped out at me from the article.

How many times have you had one of those moments related to weight and health?

I call them "decision points."  The point at which we decide that we do have a choice.  That we can make conscious choices about how we live: what we eat and how much we exercise. Sometimes they are big things. For a pastor friend of mine, his decision point was when he had a heart attack.  He said, "it got my attention. It was a wake-up call." He changed his eating and exercise habits.

But, for some of us, there can be smaller moments. Not too terribly long ago, I was on the campus at Birmingham-Southern College. For those that don't know the campus, it is built on a hill. I was walking across campus with someone much younger and fitter than I am. We were late for a meeting and cutting across the hill. As I struggle with my bookbag and purse to climb a few steps, I thought of nightmares that I had had across the years.  Those ones where you are trying to run away from some terrible thing and your legs are not working. Your legs feel like they are filled with lead and you can hardly lift them. Right then, I thought to myself, "This is it. I'm not feeling this way again."

Motivation comes in many forms, but rarely does it come from shaming.

"I Choose to Be Fat"

That is the title of an article that I came across this morning.

I found it fascinating after reading Henry's sermon yesterday!  

In this article Laura Bogart discusses her choice to remain overweight.  

I think that Bogart is yet another illustration of how we do make conscious choices about our weight and health. 

Sometimes there are reasons below the surface that we might not really recognize unless we are willing to dive into our "stuff."

There are lots of reasons we all choose to be fat... 

A Passage to Live By

This is the title of Henry Prater's sermon that you can read here.

Henry is a minister in the North Alabama Conference and in this sermon, he shares his personal story of becoming healthier. I can't say enough about how I admire Henry for being painfully honest.  This is not the kind of thing that we all

The pictures here are from Henry's blog post. The one to the left  is from 2010 and the one below is from the end of Spring 2013. You can see his transformation. The sermon tells more about how this happened. What I wanted to share and highlight are a couple of things about Henry's story.

First, in a very honest fashion, Henry shares the pain of being told by others that he needed to become healthier. Part of his story is about the Board of Ministry coming along side and encouraging Henry to engage a healthier lifestyle. Although, it most certainly must have been painful, I appreciate that the Board was encouraging someone in the beginning of their ministry to "start out right."  Ministry is not easy work; and the stress of it can often encourage unhealthy habits. As we get older and more set in our ways, it is so much harder to change those habits.

But, the decision to do something was all Henry's.  Henry made a decision to change.  He decided that he wanted to do something different in his life with his health. For so many of us, we float along in life and wish that maybe things could be different.... maybe we could exercise a little more, or maybe if we would just eat a little less or more healthy, than our lives would be different. Wishing that things would be different, does not make it so. We all make choices each day about what we will eat or whether we will take a walk or go to the gym. The choices are ours to make. We can blame our churches for too many meetings at night or too many potlucks, but in the end, we are making a decision about participating in those things.
Henry made a choice to live healthier!

One last thing that I would highlight about Henry's story is that it was and is one of faith. Because of Henry's desire to serve God, he decided to take better care of himself.  Near the end of his sermon, Henry says, "We should honor God’s gift, His presence, His sacrifice by loving ourselves enough to take care of ourselves." 

Henry's example of faithfulness is inspiring. Henry's story inspired me as I struggle with my own choices and I hope that he inspires you as well!

Sanctification of Work

NOTE: I originally posted this on my personal blog, but decided to repost here as well. 

"'If minsters perceive that they must choose between their own health and the health of their congregations, they will nearly always choose the latter,' observed Proeschold-Bell. In part this is because of a phenomenon she calls (citing the research of Kenneth Pargament and Annette Mahoney) the 'sanctification of work.' Clergy see their work not only as important but as divinely ordained. Whenever they act on behalf of their congregations, they are living in faithfulness to their vocations. When they leave work to go to the gym, they may see themselves as departing not just from a building but from doing God’s work. This is not an easy problem to overcome. Health behaviors don’t always have a ready-made theological justification. And the sanctification of work means that work will nearly always take priority."


The quote above comes from an article in a recent edition of The Christian Century. Amy Frykholm writes about clergy health and the Duke Clergy Health Initiative in Fit for Ministry.


"Health behaviors don't always have a ready-made theological justification." That one sentence jumped out at me. Why is there not a theological justification? Why does there need to be?


Why is it that we as clergy even need to "justify" taking care of ourselves physically?


What will it take for clergy to understand that part of our response to our calling as leaders in

congregations is to model healthy living?

Isn't this about more than a healthy spiritual life, but a balanced life that includes all of our lives-- our physical selves as well as our spiritual selves?


But, what about this need for a theology to underpin the goal of physical health. Is this an internal need for us? How do we develop a way for clergy to think "it's ok for me to leave the office at 3 p.m. so I can get to the gym before that Bible Study that I have to teach at 6:30 p.m."


For me, I think it has to do with the fact that the work is never 'finished.' There is ALWAYS one more thing that I could do: another sermon to start working on, a parishioner who could use a phone call or visit, a bible study that needs planned.


What I had never thought about was the idea that somehow doing my job was "sanctification": making me holier or more Christ-like.


What if I begin to think about my exercise and nutrition choices as "sanctification"?

When I chose to exercise I am making myself holier.

When I eat mindfully and make healthier food choices, I am sanctifying myself.


If sanctification is the process of growing in grace and becoming more like Christ, than certainly taking care of my physical self is a part of that process.


But, the biggest "justification" for taking care of my physical health in terms of my vocation has to do with knowing that I CAN do my job better when I am exercising and eating better. Here is a classic example: One Wednesday night, our church had a dinner which included a rather "heavy" pasta and immediately after that, I was teaching a study group. After that meal, I had that typical "brain fog" that comes with a carb heavy meal. Therefore, my mental agility in guiding a discussion was less than stellar. Much harder to keep a group on track when your own mind is feeling sluggish!


If my deepest desire is to be more Christ-like, then shouldn't that sanctification include all of my life?