Here I go again.
First i'd like to thank my brother John for giving me the opportunity to share this forum with him in an attempt to encourage one another to make the necessary changes to lose weight. A little bit about me, i'm Johns younger brother and have always enjoyed a fun bit of competitive spirit between the two of us.
I was at my heaviest back in October 2006 and at the time was hospitalized due to an infection known as MSRA or mersa as the media refers to it in my right calf. The doctor said it was due to an infection in my leg that had gotten out of control because of my lack of activity and weight. She said my lack of activity caused the lymphatic system to not circulate the infection for my immune system to be able to successfully battle it and I only had one choice to lose weight or die. The thought of widowing my wife and leaving a six, four, and three year old without a father made it a very real motivator.
I went on to lose close to a hundred pounds, quit my job of six years and start a non-profit dedicated to educate parents of overweight children make the necessary changes to lose weight and lead healthier lives. What I learned from this is that I did not have the necessary skill set to run a non-profit and was trying to accomplish five years work in six months. Ultimately due to poor planning and not having a clear road map after five months I had exhausted our financial resources and realized I didn't have the educational background necessary to be a credible expert in the field of weight loss for children. This set back caused me to stop working out and eventually put all but two pounds back on. Anyway enough about that I won't bore you with anymore details right now, more to come....
The word "Hope" and a new Benchmark
Have you ever had your hopes set for a certain level of something. You say to yourself, I can weigh X but please don't let me weigh Y when I get on this new scale. Well it wasn't a full on Z but it was over the Y I had held out hope for. So I am going to say to get to what I would consider a milestone for me is to lose 15 lbs, That would get me back under the magic Y major number. Believe me my Y number would be most peoples Z number or more for sure, but everyone needs to start somewhere. Now I am not starting this weight right sizing effort at a particularly easy point as I am about to go on vacation, but I hope to be very active on my vacation and come back not to far above where I am now.
Hope is a funny word, too frequently we use it even when we are pretty sure something is not going to happen. I hear us say frequently my hope is based on Jesus, or rests in Jesus, surely this isn't the same hope we mean when we talk about our weight like I just did or about our favorite team winning. Is there a better word I should be using? Because I am sure my hope does rest in my relationship to Jesus, and through him to the forgiveness of my sins, but i need another word for trying not to go overboard on vacation. 
Duck Photography
Shot this first one after the one below and enjoyed seeing the way the sunset shows on their wings.
I really liked the way this duck looks so smooth and still while he is on the pond. But by the way he was moving right before I shot the picture he must really be at it under the surface. I read that somewhere once and thought this was a good visual of it. Plus I enjoyed the color and crispness of the image.
A new start requires a benchmark
I ordered a new scale to help in the benchmarking of knowing where I am. I have a scale, it only goes up to 400 lbs, and sadly I am beyond that. How much beyond is anyone's guess, but as of Wednesday it won't be as my "My Weigh XL550" is set to arrive at my office. So soon I'll know how far I have fallen, as at some time last year I had lost back down to 365 at one point. But you have to start somewhere, and I think that means figuring out where you are beyond simply my hometown.
It's early in the year, nows a good time to start a reading plan…
I just began using the reading plan link on the site and I have to say I really like the fact it brings up what I need to read today when I click on the date and when I come back it is crossed out as completed. I like the chronological order as it presents the Bible in an order that is different than I am used to, and one that intuitively makes sense to me.
So here's the link in case you can't click on the button above or want to bookmark it.
First photos posted
I really have taken to the idea of a hobby that I can share with my wife. Suzanne has a really good eye for framing and later cropping photos on our Mac and really seems to share my enjoyment of taking photos. We are going on our vacation later in the month and I expect we will have plenty to play with after that as well. So without further adieu here is the first batch...
[Gallery not found]Whew… 2.7 upgrade broke my site…
If you upgrade your site from 2.6.x and you get a white screen on every page you attempt to go to on your site including the admin page, you are where I was recently. The fix ended up being to simply logout, the instructions I used from the Wordpress forums is below.
1. logout or logout with http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-login.php?action=logout
2. login with http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-login.phpIf WordPress is installed in something other than the root folder please take that into account for the above url examples
I have again decided to try and move to a single blog, so I settled on this one. I have been enjoying some photography recently and I will being placing shots I find interesting here as well as sites or thoughts relating to my hobbies. I think all these things add together to improve your walk and hopefully make my blog a better blog by sharing my journey to improving my self and draw closer to God.
