There have been many many unexpected joys I’ve found in walking in my neighborhood. I want to write about them all eventually. But I was reminded today about one in particular: meeting the people in my neighborhood.

It’s a bit sad – well, VERY sad – that it’s taken 12+ years for me to meet so many folks around here. But I’m finally getting to it. These are the people you wave at when you pull in your driveway, when you get your mail, when you bring in your trash cans. They’re also the same people you avoid most of the time.  You stare straight ahead, pretend to read that mail, maybe even make a phone call that you didn’t need to make, just so you didn’t need to interact with That Neighbor.

Today I was joined for a walk by my lovely wife on an absolutely gorgeous Fall day, and we tooled off around the block – and then some. Well, she loves yard sales, and we happened to catch a late season yard sale just around the corner. I typically like to make fun of yard sales, but at some point I concluded that it was fun for both of us – she got to make a useful purchase and we both got to meet neighbors we’ve never met before.

Another point on this: I am a talkative guy and I do like to meet folks. But I when I walk, I’m on a mission: I want to get those 3-4-5-6-7 miles in. So I don’t naturally want to stop and chat when I’m walking. I’ve had to remind myself to slow down and just talk to folks when there is opportunity.

My grandfather knew how to do this. He and Grandma used to drive around on Sundays and just visit friends – and stop and talk with complete strangers as well. Grandpa would talk to anyone about anything.  I’ve always felt that I learned that from him to some extent. Now I’m relearning it and remembering to slow down and just talk. So stop me for a minute if you see me and Yankee out there 🙂

It’s good to know your neighbors. They may need your help – someone to talk to, a couch to be moved, or help in a real emergency.  And how can you love your neighbor as you love yourself if you don’t even know them?  Thank you Lord for my neighbors.

Let me just say that I have the best walking companion in the world: Yankee.

Yankee is an 11-ish year old pound hound that we adopted almost 11 years ago.  She’s blond-ish, about 50 pounds (a little less now), and looks like she may have some greyhound in her.

For about 10 years, she got some good walks, but not nearly enough.  In the past 8 months, she has been on MANY walks.  She has probably logged more miles with me since February 2013 than we did in the entire time we’ve had her prior to that.

She is my walking buddy.  Yes, she gets distracted by the occasional squirrel (much more than occasional this time of year), she wants to meet most of her canine people (and gets a little too aggressive sometimes) – but she loves to walk and still gets excited every time she thinks I’m getting ready to go.  Every time.

Where to begin.  Hmmm.

I was active in sports in high school.  I stayed active in college and grad school.  I was at my lowest adult weight of about 207 in my second year of grad school, thanks in large part to playing LOTS of basketball with other grad students and faculty.  I’m 6’5″, so I was pretty lean at this weight.

Then, life got busy.  Desk jobs, started a family, getting involved in church and other institutions, the usual stuff – and I let physical activity slide off the priority list.  Eating as much as I wanted and anything I wanted whenever I wanted definitely stayed ON the priority list.

Fast forward into my 40’s.  I kept needing bigger clothes.  The thought of being overweight nagged at me, but I did my best to ignore it.  My wife lovingly brought it up on many occasions and did her best to help move me in the right direction.  I know it was frustrating and scary for her – she told me so, and I’m glad she did.  She was very worried about my health and I just did my best to ignore the situation.

There were a couple of key moments that made me realize I finally needed to do something.  My wife’s input was always there and helped me to maintain basic awareness that there was a problem.  One moment of clarity was hearing a political leader talking about how he lost weight and knew that “he wasn’t glorifying God in his body.”  To translate that out of Christian jargon, I think he was saying that he knew he was not using the gifts he had been given (here, his body and food) in the ways they’re meant to be used.  That cut me to the heart – I knew the same thing was true of me.  That was a huge kick in the pants for me – I knew right then (in about 2008, AFAIR) that I needed to do something.  It would be at least a few more years before I actually took action.

In the Summer of 2011 (I think), there was a dear friend who had the care and courage to say something to me directly.  You know who you are, Brother.  It was clear, but it was kind and gentle.  And it helped light a fire that finally got me moving (quite literally).

Then in 2012, there was a Sunday School class I co-teach with a wise man and dear friend on the topic of Gluttony.  It was applied more broadly than just food (as it does apply more broadly than just food), but I knew he was talking TO and ABOUT me for the whole class (not really – but that’s what it felt like).  I just wanted to melt and slither out of the class underneath the door.  No, that did not happen, regardless of what you may be imagining from X-Men at this point.

So all this puts me at about a year ago (Fall 2012).  I knew I needed to essentially reboot my eating habits.  I wasn’t focused on exercise and activity at this point, but I knew I needed some serious self-control around food.  I had tried a popular on-line program that I’m sure helped other people, but it hadn’t worked with me.  I had also tried some other low-commitment approaches to changing my diet and lifestyle (thanks to my sister), but those attempts had not been successful.

I knew I needed something with pretty high guard rails – something that spelled out exactly what to eat for some period of time.  Eventually, I found this local program that seemed to fit the bill:

http://www.inova.org/healthcare-services/inova-medical-weight-loss/overview

Long story short: it was perfect for me.  In September/October of 2012, I went to an informational session about the program, and it seemed like the right next step.  It took me until the following February to actually commit and pay, and then I started the program in February 2013.

So this is the short version of what got me ready to lose weight.  One important thing to point out: external motivators can be helpful (as noted above), but they work in a way that gets you ready to take the plunge, so to speak.  I’m pretty convinced that having your own internal motivation is key to being successful with weight loss – and probably lots of other areas in life.

Up next: what the program was like, and results I had not expected.

 

I’ve lost 150 lbs by mainly walking and watching what I eat.

Well, not just watching what I eat – watching it AND eating alot less.

And, not just walking – walking ALOT.

I wanted to find a way to share the experience and hopefully help others who are struggling with weight loss.  I feel so much better and it has been SO worth it.

Every journey starts with the first step.  Here goes…