Lose the Weight, Because Healthy Men Make Fewer Widows and Single Moms

Sharing is caring!

At first blush, men’s health and ministry to widows and single moms seem to be two disparate fields.

But they aren’t at all. In fact, they’re intimately intertwined. Consider these truisms: healthy men by definition make fewer widows and single moms and they serve those who are longer and better.

So I’m dedicating today’s post to men’s health with the ultimate goal of achieving better ministry to fewer potential care receivers.

I’m no doctor. I don’t even play one on TV. But I do have 64 years of experience with my own health. I’ve also been married to a women’s health care provider for 37 years. And while her focus is the opposite sex, I’ve learned a lot from Patti about healthy living in general.

As with many men, my primary issue is weight. Many years ago I ate my way through a crisis and ballooned to 250 pounds. And I’m only 5’11”. I was shocked into doing something about it when I saw my profile in a video. Eventually, I was able to get down to 180. Over the past several years, I’ve maintained my weight at between 180 and 200.

Here are my unofficial, unscientific and un-testable suggestions for dealing with weight issues.

• Think about thinking about losing weight. Then think about losing weight. Then formulate a plan. Then start the plan. Then do the plan. Then finish the plan. In that order.
• Eat spaghetti with meat sauce at Fazoli’s for lunch every day. I did this before the days of The South Beach Diet. It was a high carb, low fat, low protien diet, but it worked. I lost my first 50 pounds on it. (I also got a free soda for life gift card from Fazoli’s in the process. My son has asked me to will it to him when I die.)
• Don’t eat spaghetti with meat sauce at Fazoli’s for lunch every day. With the advent of the South Beach Diet, I switched to a high protein, low carb regimen and lost another 20 pounds on that one. The point is, find a diet that works and stick to it until it doesn’t.
• You’re a sinner if you diet. Then there’s the “you’re-crazy-or-something-worse-if-you’re-dieting-learn-to-eat-a-healthy-balance-of-food” people. I do eat a healthy, balanced diet-most of the time. But every now and then I don’t. I won’t eat a healthy, balanced diet all the time until I get to heaven. Here on earth, those “every now and thens” gradually add up. So every few years I need to do a maintenance diet. Dieting off and on all the time is unhealthy. But never dieting can be unhealthy too.
  
• Buy a treadmill and watch cartoons on it with your kids. You’ll get in shape and lose some weight. But your brain will turn to mush.
• Get a medium to large size dog and walk it. Daily. Small dogs don’t work. Coco was a cockapoo and he walked at a snail’s pace. Walking Coco was like walking a cat. Dixie, on the other hand, is a german shepherd/husky mix. When I walk her, she thinks she’s pulling a dog sled and herding sheep-at the same time. Much better.
• Download the LoseIt app and count calories. This is a great way to lose weight. But it will probably aggravate your OC neurosis.
• Weigh yourself before you get into the shower. Weighing daily (hopefully you shower daily) keeps you honest.

I’m calling this the “Tall Pike No Room, Cold Bownie” diet plan, because that’s what I was eating and drinking at Starbucks while I wrote this post.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

_______________________________________________________________

Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom

and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.

_______________________________________________________________