Think Small

Do you make new year’s resolutions?  I don’t always, but this year I did.  I made a few of them, actually.  I’m not going to share all of them with you, but one of the resolutions I made was to get back on a low-carb diet and lose some weight.

About five years ago, the winter before I came to this parish, I weighed about 195 pounds.  I went on a low-carb diet and, by the time I came here, I was at 168.  Recently, however, I weighed myself and discovered I now weigh 188 pounds.  In other words, I’ve gained back about two-thirds of the weight I lost.

This is not a decision I made just because of who much I weighed on a given day, though.  I’ve known for some time, obviously, that I was gaining weight.  I simply chose, for a while, not to do anything about it.  About a six weeks ago, I knew I was going to have to get serious about losing weight again.  I also knew, though, that trying to do that over the holidays was not going to work very well. So, I decided that January 3, the day after we came back from visiting my parents, would be the day I would start getting serious about losing weight again.

Why I am I telling you this?  Because I want your help.  If I come to visit you, please don’t offer me cookies or cake or pie or any of your other wonderful deserts.  They are wonderful, and I’m sure I would enjoy them, and I really want them.  But right now, I can’t eat them.  The same goes for when we have a church luncheon or a funeral or something.  Please don’t encourage me to eat more.  Again, the stuff at these kinds of events is wonderful, and I enjoy it, and I really want to eat it.  But right now, I can’t.

The same thing goes for potatoes or pasta or bread or similar things.  It’s not that I don’t like them.  It’s not that I don’t want to eat them.  But right now, I can’t.  I’m not saying I’ll never eat stuff like that ever again.  But right now, I’m not going to.

There’s something else you can do, too.  You can encourage me.  If you notice that I’ve lost a little weight, say something to me.  I’m not telling you to lie—if you can’t see it, don’t say it.  I don’t want to fool myself into thinking I’ve lost weight when I haven’t.  But if you do notice that I’m looking a little thinner, say something.  If you have some suggestions for low-carb foods that I might like, let me know about that, too.  I’ll take all the help I can get.

This is not going to be easy for me, because I really like eating a lot of high-carb foods.  But I know the low-carb diet works for me, because it worked before.  And I know I can do it, because I’ve done it before.  So if you’ll help me, I know I can lose this weight.  And when I do, I’ll be in better shape, have more energy, have more stamina, and be able to serve God better.  And in the final analysis, that’s what we all want to do, isn’t it?

So thanks in advance for your help.  And may you see “less of me” in 2016!