DEAD MAN WALKING...ALIVE MAN WALKING

 Greetings O Ye Healthy People????

Have you ever been living and breathing...but NOT healthy?  Back in 2000...I was working at Southern Hills Medical Center...in the medical field as a Speech Language Pathologist...and I considered myself to be alive...but not feeling well.  NOTE:  Someone who is as skinny as a rail...able to eat anything they want...run five miles a day...can ALSO NOT be healthy...because healthy is not fat, thin, or muscular...but being functionally fit. NOTE TO DA NOTE:  You can look fit on the outside...and have clogged arteries, cancer, diabetes on the inside without any signs or symptoms until you drop dead.  When a man is on death row in prison...as he is going towards his execution...walking under his own power...it is called DEAD MAN WALKING.  That's how I felt.

 Hmmmmm....I wonder why?  Could it be that at the time of this photo...I weighed in excess of 320+ pounds (I quit weighing after 320+.  When I saw this photo of myself at an open house at the hospital...it was like a slap in the face.  I reminded myself of one of those balloons at the Macy Day Thanksgiving Parade.  The only thing missing were the guidelines to keep me from floating away.  The crazy thing is...as I travelled around in this bloated body...I had become so accustomed to being this way...that the way I felt...had become the normal feeling.  Not only did I "think" I was feeling pretty good...I was actually pretty jolly (maybe hiding behind jokes)...and not realizing that I had no face hidden within the mask of blubber (no defined jaw line).

I did not get this way overnight.  One bite here...one candy bar there...one sugar laden soda here....and sometime if I really wanted to be healthy I would wash down the candy bar with a diet soda or add extra lettuce and tomato on my fast food burger. 

At this point I became motivated (through a series of events including this photo) to "lose weight"... started Weight Watchers At Work...at the Hill...with on motivation needing to lose down to a certain weight to go to Africa.  I also started karate in 2001 (still taking and teaching in 2012)...but over the years...I have been on a roller coaster of weight loss. I eventually left the hospital system and started home health...and got back into the habit of bad choices.  Eating on the road...fast foods...stopping at gas stations with their conveinence stores (making it convenient to pig out on cokes, cookies, junk food, etc), and ballooned back up to over 300 pounds.  Health concerns...feelings of guilt...physical cause and effect began taking the toll on me...so I had to do something...something that was not a fad but a lifestyle.

I rejoined Weight Watchers...ran into some friends (Rena and Kathy Montgomery) had great support by Brenda (always there on the journey)...lost more weight...but again reached a plateau.  The next part of my journey started with a dinner at Fulin's (invited by Claudia Peterson)...to hear Dr. Peter Camilio of Revolution Chiropractic) speak on living the Maximized Life...via the Five Essentials of (1) The Mind (change my way of thinking about health) (2) The Nerve Supply (The Brain, The Spine, and the Nerves going from subluxation to healthy alignment) (3) Nutrition (What we put in bodies) (4) Exercise (getting oxygen to the muscles via burst training) (5) Toxins (Detoxifying our bodies).

I started the journey and began the process of getting functionally healthy.  No...there are not any magic and immediate cures...but there is progressive, noticeable changes in the way I feel, look, and live.NO...I am not a fanatic...I still blow it...but I get back on track and do not just go back to old patters of giving up and return back to my old ways like a "dog to his vomit."

Last night I watched a video of me preaching at Springhouse Worship and Arts Center where on April 15th 2012...I had just started my new lifestyle.  At that point still overweight...limping around the stage with a bad left knee (in pain)...body leaned forward...shoulders hunched over...shoulders leaning to one side.  Thank God for the reminder of how I DON'T want to be.  Thank God for the encouragement and motivation to continue on the journey Brenda and I have started.  Is it easy?  NO...it is hard, overwhelming, frustrating, BUT worth it.  It is easy to lose a little weight...start wearing some clothes that fit better...have people compliment you on how good you look...and then...slip back into the old patterns...let your guard down...treat your self to a little celebration for doing good...and BAM...you are back to where you were before your started or worse.

As with anything in life...whether it is going on a vacation...a marriage...a job...our spiritual life...and a healthy lifestyle...you have to remember..."it's about the journey."  You have to keep your eye on the destination...but realize to get from point A----------------------->to point B...enjoy (take joy) in the journey...enjoy the people, places, experiences along the way.  Don't be ruled by the scales (with the weight)...let the scales be the mile markers along the away to the final destination...functional health.

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

"All things are lawful for me...but not all things are PROFITABLE.  All things are lawful for me...BUT, I WILL NOT BE MASTERED BY ANYTHING." (I Corinthians 6:12 NASB)

"Everything is permissible for me--allowable and lawful, BUT not all things are helpful--good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things.  Everything is lawful for me...BUT...I WILL NOT BECOME THE SLAVE OF ANYTHING...or BE BROUGHT UNDER ITS POWER." (I Corinthians 6:12)

Love and Healthy Kisses
Rodney "Alive Man Walking" Boyd