Feel free to nag in love

Yesterday I wrote about dealing with transition, and in that post, I shared that immediate change in my life is a real energy boosting experience while slow change causes me great anxiety. I can’t really explain why I have such a polarized response to change, but over the past few years, I’ve become aware of how powerfully the speed of change effects me.

Today, as a way of inviting the people in my life to help me implement a slow change, I thought I’d share the one change I’d most like to implement in my life. As I wrote yesterday, “It’s the first change that I would wish for if only wishing for something could make it come true.”

5-6 years ago, over the course of 3-4 months, I went from weighing 220 all the way down to 187. I committed to a diet, went to the gym at least 3 times a week, and slowly the pounds seem to melt away. But like most people who experience that type of change, I reached my goal, fell out of the habit and over the course of 5-6 years, I’m now back in the 210 range. I know my wife can vouch for the fact that nothing would be a more positive change in my life than shedding those pounds again and returning to a healthy range in terms of my weight.

In the beginning of this year, I had tried to challenge myself to reach that goal in advance of my 30th birthday, but it didn’t happen. I wasn’t faithful to the diet, and I didn’t stay committed to working out as consistently as I should. But with school coming to a close, one of my biggest excuses is going away. I’m hopeful that taking that additional worry and commitment out of my life will allow me to focus my energy on this endeavor.

So friends and family, I invite you… to nag me with the grace and love of Jesus… I invite you to scold me like a third grader if you see me eating something I shouldn’t. I invite you to use any nearby projectile to knock the bad food out of my hand. I invite you to ask me how I’m doing in my commitment to working out and if you hear a negative response, feel free to give me a bad look and tell me that you won’t be my friend anymore if I don’t stay committed. [Obviously, a little sarcasm]

I’ll post a weekly weight update here if anyone is interested, and if anyone out there wants to join me in this commitment, I’d love the company.

For today, I’ll end with this. This morning I weighed 207.

22 pounds to go.