5 Lessons I Learned While Getting Healthy

The last time I posted a blog was at the end of January. That is sad, but is pretty indicative of how much has been going on in my life since then. When I posted that blog, AudacityChurch.tv (the church that I love, am on staff at, and have been honored to help launch) was averaging about 50 people a week at our Worship Services. Last week we saw 113 people walk through the doors! Holy Crap. God is good.

Since that last post I have lost almost 30 pounds, renewed my focus on being a healthy person, and experienced tremendous joy in my marriage because of it. At the start of the year my wife (you can follow her on twitter @tricia_erickson) and I decided that we were getting fat, lazy, unhealthy, and stressed and we did NOT like it. We began a journey that has resulted in an overhaul of our eating habits, workout planning, and general outlook on life. Together we have lost nearly 50 pounds and are VERY pumped up about it. This is not a weight loss blog. This is not a post about why you should stop being fat. This is me telling you that your health is pretty much indicative or you priorities. If you value your health, you will make time to be healthy. If you put other things in front of being healthy, you will more often than not be unhealthy. The following is a list of things I have learned in the past 6 months:

1. Eating right is as simple as PLANNING to eat right! - If you have crappy food in your home, you will eat crappy food. Plan good meals that are balanced and then eat what you plan to eat. You can't stuff your face with cookies everyday if you never have access to cookies. When guest come over and bring desert, we will often have a very small portion and then INSIST that they take it home with them. DON"T LEAVE CRAPPY FOOD IN YO HOUSE!
2. Body composition is a measure of nutrition NOT a measure of fitness. - This one sounds complicated but is not. If you are fat, it is more often than not, because your diet sucks and not because you don't work out. We do not get fat because we don't go to the gym. We get fat because we eat poorly. Does going to the gym help? Yes (provided that you actually work out when you are there!) However, your love handles will be removed in the kitchen and not in the gym. Something to think about.
3. Couples that fight together, have fun together! - My wife and I have had SO MUCH FUN learning about fitness together. When we spend time encouraging one another in the gym and practicing a healthy eating habit together and cheer one another on when we hit weight loss goals, we grow together as friends! So, if your spouse is trying to get fit, JOIN THEM! Don't JUST cheer them on, support them by doing it with them. It is an amazing way to strengthen  (pun intended) your relationship.
4. Find something that can work for you! - If you want to get healthy and fit and loss weight, you had BETTER be doing it for the long haul. Short term diets are dumb. You need to be healthy ALL the time, not just for a few months at a time. Stop trying to use diets that are not sustainable. Pick a way of eating that is sustainable for life. Figure out how to make it work for you and then DO IT. My wife and I chose to use Crossfit.com for our workouts and we LOVE it! We use the ZonePerfect.com nutritional eating system which balances our diet nicely and is pretty easy to do on a busy schedule. Bottom line is this: Figure out what works for you, that you can enjoy doing, and get after it.
5. Make health a priority. - As a general rule, you will be as busy as you allow yourself to be. Never get so busy that you stop taking care of yourself. If you are not able to stay healthy and you get fat, get obesity related health issues, and lose the ability to do fun things with your kids, you have thrown away a gift that God gave you. Some of us have health issues TOTALLY unrelated to fitness or diet. I myself have blown out both of my knees and no amount of dieting could have prevented early onset arthritis. However, if you are unhealthy as a result of poor dieting and not taking care of your body, then shame on you. Get it right. Stop being a glutton, put down the fork, pick up some weights or something and GET AFTER IT. Make time for being healthy because it is important. At one point I would push my fitness time to the side to make room for meetings and such and I think that was wrong. If I do not stay fit physically, mentally, and spiritually, how can I ask others to do it?

Thanks so much for reading my blog. I am learning a lot these days and I would like to keep posting the things life is teaching me. However, I learn a lot from all of you as well. I would like to know:

1. What is your favorite way to stay active?
2. Do you agree or disagree that health should be a priority over most other things? Why or why not?

Please answer in the comments below! Follow me on Twitter at @JericksonD

Year One (Guest Post:Tricia Erickson)

At this point in the history of this blog, we have had 3 guest posts. Today, we get our 4th and boy oh boy is the author a sexy beast! Tricia Erickson is my longtime friend, my wife, my best buddy, and the coolest person I have ever met. She studied journalism at Southwest Baptist University, is the Communication Coordinator for an amazing Non Profit called Clinic In A Can, and does lots of work with Audacity Church. I'm honored to have her on my blog finally! 

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One year. One year ago today, I started an amazing adventure with my best friend.  It’s so crazy. In some ways I feel like Josh and I have been married for ever, but then at the same time I can hardly believe it’s been a whole year.  

I’ve been reflecting a lot this week over our first year of marriage. This entire year has been a complete change and transition for me. We got married, moved to a new city, made a new home, made new friends, got new jobs, started a new church (Audacity Church in Wichita, KS), began new traditions…and that’s only a few things! 

More times than not, all these new things were quite overwhelming. But in spite of all the craziness of a new life, I always had one constant with me – my best friend, my husband. 

Just getting to be with my best friend has been the most amazing part of year one of marriage.  I know it seems like a pretty obvious part of a first year of marriage, getting to be together, but it’s something that I learned to never ever EVER take for granted.  You see, this year was incredibly special for us because we were finally together. The year before our marriage was the hardest year of my life because we spent it living in different parts of the world.  Josh was deployed with the army and I was finishing up my last year of college. That year is still sometimes hard to think about because of the emotional damaged I experienced.

But what I didn’t realize was that while I was going through the hardest year of my life, God was setting me up for the best year of my life.  For every tear that I cried in loneliness last year, I had a laugh with my best friend this year.  For every day I said “I miss you” last year, I got to say “good morning love” this year. For every date we didn’t get to go on last year, we got to go on an awesome adventure together this year. 

I’ve learned a lot this year…A LOT. But what I’ve learned the most is God is faithful and truly does have my best interest at heart. I think of it kind of like the story of Job. Now I’m not saying that I suffered nearly to the extent that he did – but I often found myself asking God “why?!” and unfortunately while I was going through it I didn’t have the faith like Job. But at the end of Job’s story, God gave him everything he lost and so much more. God overwhelmed Job with his blessing.  That’s what I feel like this year. For the year of terrible heart ache and separation, God blessed us over and over with an amazing first year of marriage together. I never thought I could ever get to the point where I thanked God for the seemingly awful year of deployment. Yet here I am on my 1 year anniversary realizing how gracious God is because without that year – I would be taking a simple thing like getting to be with my husband for granted. God has truly overwhelmed me with his blessing.  

I am so thankful for the amazing first year of marriage God gave us. It hasn’t been a perfect year – we’ve had our hard times, our selfish times, our hurt times – but despite all the imperfections God has begun weaving our lives together into an intricate tapestry of beauty.  I will always cherish this first year, but I am excited for what challenges God brings us this next year!

Tj Houshmandzadeh Just Lost the Game. Sad.

Hello my awesome blogging buddies. As I sit here and watch the Baltimore Ravens in a dead sprint with the Steelers, I realized a few things. One, Hines Ward has a lot of fun playing football. Two, The Ravens defense is scary good. Third, this month has been ridiculous (on a side note, the next time you think about getting married and having a wedding, don't. Elope. You will love yourself for it.) Fourth, I have not blogged for a very long time and it makes me sad. I have at least 17 things I need to tell you and I just have been very slow at getting my AWESOME thoughts out there.

Given the fact that my wedding is next week and my Honeymoon is the week after that. My guess is that it will  be about 2 solid weeks before I really put much substance out there for you to devour in a feast of intellectual gluttony (Oddly, this is the only type of gluttony that the Bible really endorses. True Story).

A few of the post you can prepare to consume include topics such as: Worship, Church, Relationships, The Superbowl, Car Buying, I Hate Cats, Why Did I Just Do That, Troy Palamolo's Hair, and the 2 Laws of Classic Remakes.

If you have topics you would like me to consider for future blog posts, please feel free to comment and let me know what you want to hear about. I won't use your suggestions, but I want you to feel free to make them. Because I care about your feelings.