As most of you know, this last Spring I was in the hospital a bit and diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. While this sounds like lots of fun, I assure you that it in fact is not. Almost as much fun as colitis is the initial treatment for it which is a strong dose of prednisone. Besides the rash of pimples, fits of rage and lack of sleep, prednisone also has the fun side effects of bloating and weight gain. All of this to say that at my appointment at the end of August I weighed in at a whopping 229 pounds, which puts me conservatively at between 60-80 pounds overweight. To be fair to fine makers of prednisone, I was well on my way to this problem anyway, as I had managed to put on about 50 pounds of non-muscle since I was married 8 1/2 years ago, but the rapid wieght gain (30 pounds) over the summer has been enough to spur me to action.If you know me at all, you will also know that losing weight just for the sake of losing weight makes sick to my stomach (and not in the helpful losing weight way). I am convinced that our host culture has made an idol out of body appearance and "health" to a point where "health" is now almost undefinable apart from the icon of the six-pack abs and worshiping at the gym. Here's some really interesting (and already outdated) data on consumerism and weight loss:Taken from the Margo Maine book, Body Wars: Making Peace with Women's Bodies,"The dieting Body Wars are great for the economy, as the majority of discontented dieters repeatedly invest their resources in shedding pounds. Figures from the late 1990’s showed that Americans spent $50 billion annually on diet products. This exceeds the projections for the entire federal Education, Training, Employment and Social Services budgets by five to ten billion dollars. In fact, this figure is the equivalent of the gross national product of Ireland. The price per pound lost is enormous, with one study of Optifast dieters reporting the cost to be $180 per pound."Here then is the rub, the call of Christ on my life will not allow me (I believe) to be one of those people who is so obsessed with food, exercise, etc... that they can not help be overly self centered. This sounds a bit harsh, I know, but there it is. The flip side, of course, is that the call of Christ on my life means I must not be so lazy and ignorant of health that I become equally selfish in my poor eating choices (insert fair trade arguments against fast food here, more on this piece in a later blog).So then, how can I put these pieces together, recognizing a base level call to take better care of the gifts Gd has given me, without becoming so myopic that I believe my body to be not the temple of God (in conjunction with the rest of the Church by the way) but simply my temple. The answer for me is two-fold: 1. Stop making excuses for being unhealthy. Done. 2. Make health less individualistic. This is where all of you, and hopefully more, come in. As an attempt to connect my own health, to my family, to my own Christian community and to the Church in the world, I have created "Weight Off for Jaurez".This is essentially a fund raising program for the next six months, with the goal of raising money for our mission trip this spring to build a house (or perhaps 2) in Jaurrez, Mexico for a some needy families.
There are several ways you can participate in WOJ: 1. Pray. Covenant to pray for me as I attempt to strike this balance and try to lose this weight. Pray for my family as they have to live with me while I attempt to lose the weight, and pray for my church as they participate with me. Also pray for Jaurez, Gateway Mission Training Center, and the families who need these houses.2. Pledge. Pray about donating money for every pound I lose. My goal is to lose between 30-50 pounds before March 1, and every little bit helps. This works like a walk-a-thon, and I will keep you posted throughout the next six months.3. Participate. This is an option some members of our church are picking up. If you have extra weight you wanted to get rid of anyway, use this as a chance for accountability and to do something bigger than just lose weight. Also, I know that many of you do not need to lose weight, or already participate in healthy practices, and for those of you in this boat I commend you, and ask that you think about ways of participating. Ask for donations for the number of miles you walk, or bike, or run between now and March 1. One interesting number is that it is 560 miles from our church to Jaurez, so some of you may be able to "Walk to Jaurez" before March. Either way, keep up the good work.
