3 days in, 2 lbs down! :-)

Three days in, two pounds down!

Beginning Weight: 358 lbs on 12/01/12
Today's Weight: 356 lbs.

81 lbs to go! Now if I'd just start eating right!!! ;-)

12 months to 275 lbs!

Most folks who know me have heard me referred to as "The Heavy Revy". A friend coined that nickname a long time ago, I always thought it was funny and it kind of stuck. To say I'm a big guy would be an understatement. Not just big as in fat (though yes I'm that too) but I'm a bit of a giant, even without the weight. I am 6'7" tall, I have a 60" chest, and nearly a 7 foot wing span! When I got married at 19, I was 6'6" tall and weighed in about 250 lbs. I had a much smaller frame, in fact I was about 6 to 8 " smaller, shoulder to shoulder. My frame is much much larger than it was back then.

Why is that important? Well I often hear people talking about getting back to what they weighed back when. Though I'd love to get back to 250 lbs, I'd likely have to lose both legs and all my weight to get there! I don't think if I survived a famine I'd ever make it back to that, I'm just too big even without the fat I've put on these last 22 years. So I have set out to find a more realistic goal for getting healthy. I am going to shoot for 275 lbs. I am not even sure I could lose enough weight for that but it will be my goal. IF I ever get back to 275 lbs, I will be SKINNY, believe me!

Now for a bit of background. As I said earlier, I was about 250 and much smaller in frame when I got married. I grew an inch in height but grew much more in frame. I averaged putting on about 4 to 6 lbs a year for the first 15 years or so. At 34, I weighed in around 320 lbs. No excuses, just laziness, love of food, and a sedentary lifestyle. It was gradual but steady and it sure didn't make me feel any better that is for sure. I got sick back in 2002, when I was 31. My weight didn't change all that much at first, just kept inching up. Somewhere around 2005, one of my doctors got the bright idea to start pumping me full of steroids. They didn't really know what was wrong with me but they thought it was auto-immune and figured steroids would help. Long story short, that was the WORST thing they could have done for me health-wise and for my weight.

In 2007, I started seeing a new doctor in Ft. Worth. That is when they REALLY started pumping me full of steroids! My health plummeted, my weight soared! By 2008, I weighed in at 408 lbs! I was deathly sick and far heavier than I'd ever been. By August of 2008 I was literally near death. I spent 6 days in Baylor hospital only to be told they didn't know what was wrong with me and I should probably get ready to spend the rest of my life in a wheel chair. Things were bad to say the least.

Without retelling my whole illness story, in September of 2008, I was finally properly diagnosed with Lyme Disease. All treatment with steroids stopped but by then the damage had been done, I was horribly over weight, so weak I couldn't even stand, and my health was shattered.

For the last four years I have fought the disease and kind of / sort of worked on my weight. It has been a constant journey of three steps forward, two steps back. By 2010, I was some what improved and decided to start seeing if I could get some weight off. I am blessed, despite all I've been through, to have a killer metabolism. My wife calls my "diet", if you can call it that, the "Pop Tart and Cereal" diet! :-) Since 2010, I managed to lose about 55 lbs, despite eating pop tarts and cereal every night (to satisfy my sweet tooth). I make my wife sick! :-)

So here I am, roughly two years later and I weigh 358 lbs. I'm doing better physically, I feel somewhat better but know I have much to lose. I need to get my strength back, having lost a ton of muscle over the years of being so sick. I have kind of plateaued the last few months but had kind of fallen off the wagon a bit as well. I've been border line diabetic for a while, and I've felt pretty bad lately. I don't know for certain but I'd wager my blood sugar has been elevated. I guess that adds a bit more urgency to the need to get the last of the weight off but it isn't the only reason. I'm 41 now, not getting any younger. Years of broken bones and blown out joints have begun to take their toll. Chronic pain has become a much bigger part of my life, even more than with the Lyme Disease. The two combined issues have really gotten bad. Getting the weight off can't help but make me feel better and cut out some of the pain. If you have to walk around on bad joints, weighing less can't hurt! It is time to get serious and I'm going to use this blog and Facebook to keep me more accountable.

SSSOOO if you are reading this, please say a prayer for me every now and again. I have a LOT of bad habits to break, from soft drinks, sweet tea, cereal, and that sweet tooth that flares way too often. I need to get back into regularly exercising as well. With my metabolism, it won't take a lot to get my act together. I don't need to eat like a bird, just keep it sensible and steady. Getting under 300 lbs won't be all that hard I don't imagine. Those last 25 lbs I think will be harder, because I really don't know what the lowest weight I could get too with my frame. Truth be known, if I can get under 300 I'll be thrilled. Well, I know I can get under 300, just need to do it! So this is what I'm going to post daily. As "daily" as I can keep it anyway.

WEIGHT CHECK IN

High Weight: 408 lbs.

Dec 1, 2012 Weight: 358 lbs.

Dec 1, 2013 Goal Weight: 275 lbs.

Amount Still to lose: 83 lbs.

Yesterday's Weight: 358 lbs.

Today's Weight: 358 lbs.

One Day Weight Lost: 0 lbs.

Total Weight Still to Lose: 83 lbs.

Days Left: 365 days

So thanks for taking a minute to read this. Feel free to tell me "PUT DOWN THE DONUT FAT BOY!" if you see me getting out of line or slacking. Insults accepted, prayers appreciated! Thanks!

The Heavy....soon to be less Heavy....Revy!

 

The Oven from Hades!!!!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post to allow me to completely, utterly, and totally lose my religion!!!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have spent the last two hours with my oversized head, my oversized arms, and my oversized behind stuck inside of, underneath, and in front of my oven. I merely needed to replace the oven ignitor. Its a breeze Youtube says. Anyone can do it Youtube says. Its a five minute job Youtube says. Youtube is a big fat liar!!!

NOTHING about my oven is like the supposed "same model #" in the how to video. NOTHING lines up. NOTHING is accessible. NOTHING looks the same. NOTHING about the video was in the least bit helpful except for the fact that at each and every step I was reminded that there was NOTHING about my oven that even remotely resembled the one IN THE VIDEO!

Not one to be easily deterred, I trudged on. I bent, twisted, tweaked, and torqued each and every component off and out and spent twice as much time merely trying to get those same parts back where they came from when I was done. Simple? Not a chance! Why you ask? Because the ignitor I took out of my oven looks absolutely NOTHING like the ignitor I just put IN my oven! BUT I am assured that this is indeed the right ignitor for my oven! It not only looks different, it installs at a different angle. Why is this important? Because it threw each and every component I took out off by JUST enough to make putting said components back in slightly more difficult than sending man to the moon, slightly.

Being the intrepid do it yourselfer I trudged on. Two hours into my simple five minute job, I was done. Was my heart filled with satisfaction and happy thoughts about puppies and butterflies? Do I hear the theme song to Rocky echoing in my brain? Not a chance. Why you ask again? Because Murphy's Law is the bane of my existence. If I could in fact find Mr. Murphy, I'd shoot him dead and bury his body in my back yard. Why would anyone make up such a terrible thing! Sadly I cannot locate Mr. Murphy. Its his lucky day. But I digress.

My two hour ordeal is complete. My oven restored to working order I pray. I hit the button. The ignitor ignites!!! I can see its warm and hopeful glow. I hear the valve on the gas open. I remember that I read the gas would not come on if the ignitor did not reach a sufficient temperature. My hopes perk up ever so slightly but it is not to be. Murphy has quashed my hopes yet again. The ignitor ignites. The gas gasses. The oven does not oven. For some reason (I have my thoughts on this) the RED HOT ignitor is not actually igniting said gas that is gassing.

I strive with every fiber of my being not to curse my oven into the bowels of Hades and am forced to restrain myself from finding the nearest explosive material and exploding my oven into eternity. The oven is safe for now but I make no promises.

I want to thank my dear sweet wife for her words of uplift and encouragement when she says "remember dear, you really are a Murphy, not a Mauldin". AAARRRGGGHHH!!! 

Have I mentioned that Youtube LIES? If any of you happen to hear a loud explosion just south of 24th Street, have no fear. Its just me completely losing my cool and sending this cursed oven back to the bowels of Hades where it belongs.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post now in session. Carry on!


:-)

The Neglected Blog

 My Two Mini Me's

I've had the urge of late to fire up the old blog again. Outside of a few book reviews, I have not blogged in over a year! Bad blogger, bad blogger!


I'm sitting here trying to think of the things that have happened since my last real blog post. The first thing that comes to mind is that since my last post about my 20th wedding anniversary, I've had my 21st wedding anniversary! :-)






Zachary finished his regular schooling last summer and started at TAMUT last fall. He's currently a sophomore (17 years old) and doing great! He has one full year of college under his belt and is well on his way to getting this third semester out of the way. He has a lovely girlfriend and is now working at Chicken Express. Life is good for the Z miester! He plans to go to Law School after college. That is the plan of the moment anyway!







Samuel is 4 years old now, beautiful, bad, amazing, aggravating, smart as can be, and a teenager in waiting! He's growing up so fast.








My now 10 year battle with Lyme disease continues. I'm actually doing pretty well all things considered. Seizures have been my biggest hurdle this last year but they have quieted a great deal this past month. I'm sitting at seven days seizure free and very thankful for that.

I've moved my computer shop back home and the business continues to do fairly well. It has never been a huge enterprise but it is used of God to meet many of our needs and I'm thankful for it.

New Beginnings Baptist Church is doing very very well! God has blessed us with a number of new families, couples, couples with kids, and several more. Our youth and children's program on Wednesday nights is doing very well. The fellowship is sweet, the unity is beautiful, and the love abounds. I am richly blessed to serve in such a place.

I'm 15 days shy of my 41st birthday. As I reflect on the passage of 41 years, I see so many things I could have and should have done differently but see how God has used all of my life, good decisions, bad decisions, failures, successes, the mountain tops, and the valleys. God wastes nothing in our lives. I don't know what the future holds but I know who holds the future. God is good all the time. All the time God is good.

I'll try to be more consistent with the blogging. My wife has started a blog. I'll put a link below this line. I can't let her out blog me! ;-)

carrieleighs.blogspot.com

Thanking God daily for all He does in my life. He is my Rock and my Fortress. In Him and Him alone I place my trust.

In His Service,


Micah

Tried Something a Bit Different.....

Chazown 

I LOVE books. I own somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,200 or so. I'd own a lot more than that if they weren't so expensive and SO hard to move!  I LOVE theology, commentaries, the Biblical languages and on and on. I LOVE a book with substance. Unfortunately that leaves out much of what is in the "Christian" market place. Most of the books out there today are anything but substantive. So much of the material pushed on the public today in the name of "Christ" is simply mindless, empty, drivel. I have shelves full of such books. Books I bought many years ago when I had a bit less discernment, wisdom, and just plain sense. Most of their authors meant well but in their attempt to be "relevant", they wind up being powerless and without merit.

Despite my aversion to books that are not clearly substantive, I decided to try something a bit different a while back. I picked out the book "Chazown" by Craig Groeschel. The unusual title and knowing a bit about the author, by reputation more than anything, I thought I'd give it a go. I get free books to review from time to time and thought I'd try something a bit out there for me. Sadly I should have stuck to my traditional fare.

First things first. The book is not in and of itself a bad book. The author writes well and his style lends itself to a pretty easy read. He comes across as genuine and with a strong pastoral style. That said, I was struggling out of the gate with a couple of key things. First is the incessant use of the word "Chazown" in the body of the work. Rather than introduce its readers to the word, its concept and meaning, and then moving on, the author uses the word endlessly! I found myself groaning, almost out loud every time the author threw the word at me. Can't we simply define the word and only use it when it is really necessary? It was tedious and needless in my opinion and really hurt the book.

My second and most significant issue with the book is the author's handling of the scripture from which the books title and thesis is taken. Groeschel fell into the all too common error we see today of taking a single scripture and trying to build a theology around it. I'm not saying the author intended this but unfortunately he's guilty of it. The verse as it is used in the author's thesis is taken completely out of context! What should have been seen as a simple verse about the consequences of not having God's vision for our lives, in the context of discipline, (ie the results of not having God's vision) is instead mutated into some grand calling to become a visionary! What??? This is in no way an accurate interpretation of the scripture! If I had a dollar for every time a new book comes out like this, I could retire and retire well!

Without belaboring the issue, Chazown is simply a book I could have and should have done without. It will sit on my shelf and collect dust like many books before it. Its not all bad but its not that good either. I'll chalk up this book selection to a momentary lapse of discernment.

At best this book gets 2 out of 5 stars. That just might be a stretch.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through a book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Lyme Disease Medical Update

I have been bombarded with questions about how the doctor's appt in MO went, what did he say, etc. I don't want folks to think I'm dodging them, I simply am still trying to process it all!

In short summary let me say that it went amazingly well. God blessed the travel which I was dreading. We certainly had traveling graces! The appointment lasted a little over THREE HOURS! We covered things I'd never heard of (and I considered myself a fair student of Lyme Disease), things I would never have dreamed were connected, and some things I had no idea were going on in my body! The experience was mind blowing but so very encouraging at the same time!

The information came at me so fast, I barely had time to catch a tiny fraction of it. I was sent home with nearly an inch of instructions, explanations, prescriptions, etc. Its like earning a degree trying understand and process it all.

Yesterday, I finally got to pick up all of my new prescriptions (all but one). The cost came to over $1,100.00!!! This is about one month of medications in most cases! We haven't even gotten to the big question of if and or when he decides to put the port in and use those medicines. That will be $3,000.00 a month just for the meds! Fortunately a very small % have to have the port and those meds. We'll have to wait and see. One of the unusual things I had to get was an "EpiPen". It looks like one of those big oversized writing pens people use sometimes. I have two of them ($200.00!). Should I go into anaphelactic shock or my heart stop, Carrie gets to grab one of those and stab me in the outer thigh as hard as she can. Or she gets to not stab me. Guess that is her call! ;-) Its actually kind of cool but kind of scary at the same time. It is what it is I suppose.

The meds are crazy complicated, all over the map on when, how much, when not to. and on and on. It is going to be a real challenge to manage it all. Funny thing is, none of my test results have even come back on other issues. This batch of meds is only the beginning. I decided to get a head start last night and take just ONE PILL of the 11 new scrips I got last night. Wanted to judge what it was going to do to me. I woke up this morning unable to move feeling like my body was on fire! This dear friends is called a Herxheimer reaction. It is one of those things that happens when you attack the bacteria, they start dying off, and the effect on you body is murderous! This was with just one pill of one med! This is going to be fun! :-)

This morning I started the full initial regimen. Horse pills and lots of pills. Had to choke them down. Get to do this at least four times a day! I will introduce a new med every three to four days until I am on them all.

The good side of them all is the strong likelihood of a complete and total recovery! It is going to be a long, painful, sickening, and difficult trip but it is a trip I have to take to get my life back. There is so much more I have to tell, other health issues, other treatment avenues, diet changes (extreme!), and on and on. Just not enough time today.

Prayer Needs:

1. Ability to withstand the treatments. These treatments will almost kill me before they make me better. The side effects and suffering they cause is extreme. Please pray for endurance.

2. Financial. The medication costs are going to be astronomical. So many generous people both in our church, my Dad's church, and a few individuals have been so generous already, we just know God's provision can handle the rest. It is going to be expensive.

3. Healing. That is our ultimate hope. This treatment course has a strong likelihood to both treat the lyme, cure the lyme, cure the seizures and so much more. Ultimately this rests in the hands of the great physician and we all know He is able.

4. The Church. Please continue to pray for our church. They have demonstrated an amazing love and support for me and my family. They have stood by us through some terrible physical trials. Pray God rewards them for their faithfulness, blesses our church during some hard days ahead, and for His favor on our labors as we seek to make a difference in His kingdom.

5. My family. Please pray for my family as they endure yet another long round of treatment, illness, and difficult times. There aren't words to express how they have helped me, stood by me, and been there for me but I would be remiss if I did not ask God's strengthening hand be upon them.

6. For me. Patience, strength, endurance, faith, pain tolerance, and healing. Think that about sums it up.

Special thanks to all of you for your love, encouragement, prayers, and support. We could not have made it these last eight years without it. For the first time I can say, I can almost see the finish line. May the Lord grant us the grace to see it through to the end! Thank you, we love you, and may the Lord of all Lords richly bless you.

In His Service,

Micah

Jeremiah 29:11-13

"11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

Urgent Prayer Request

Good Morning to all my Friends and Prayer Partners,

I will be traveling with a friend to Columbia, Missouri this morning. Tomorrow morning I will see a new doctor, Dr. Charles Crist. He is the specialist for Lyme Disease treatment in this part of the country. If all goes as we believe it will, he will send me home with a new avenue of treatment than what I have been on the last three years. I have been on oral antibiotics for almost three years but have seemed to reach the end of what these medications can achieve. Dr. Crist uses a more aggressive method than my previous physician.

When I get back home, I will be setup with a local physician who will coordinate my local care. I will have a port put in my chest above my heart that will allow the meds to be put in direct. The medications will carry severe side effects and will be extremely difficult to endure. The cost of the monthly meds alone will be $3,000.00 a month. This does not include my doctors fees, my local doctor, home health, etc. This could take several months to a year to eliminate the Lyme bacteria. There is the hope of a cure but it will be an expensive and difficult journey.

My beloved church family, my father's church, and Christian friends have been stepping up and helping us raise the money to offset these costs but it will be difficult to meet all the expenses as the treatment is ongoing. We are looking at tens of thousands of dollars. Without this treatment, I am left with no "earthly" cure for my disease. I have to admit that is a fearful prospect for me. My suffering and struggles with this disease are simply more than I can bare. My prayer to God is that I get my life back, so that I can be the pastor, husband, father, and man that God wants me to be.

Please pray with us:

1. Pray for safe travels for me and my friend Robert Haley who is taking me to Missouri.
2. Pray for my family who has had to endure so much during my nine year fight with this disease.
3. Pray for the doctors and their treatment plan that I will be able to endure the treatment's side effects.
4. Pray for the treatment that it will be able to fully eradicate the Lyme bacteria from my body.
5. Pray for the Great Physician to have His hands at work during this time, without His hands I know no treatment will ultimately be successful.
6. Pray that will will be able to meet the extreme financial burden this treatment will entail.
7. Pray for my church family that God will strengthen them and hold the church together while I endure what is coming. We are blessed with the sweetest sense of unity and love and I don't want a trial to change that.
8. Lastly, please pray for me. I must confess that it is difficult for me at times to stay upbeat, project faith, and be the spiritual leader God wants me to be. As always, my heart's desire is to simply hear my Lord say "Well done my good and faithful servant". I will need your prayers to live that out.

Thank you in advance for those prayers. We have a long and difficult journey ahead of us. Without your prayers, we will never be able to endure everything we have to face. We love and appreciate each of you. May the Lord richly bless each of you. Thanks!

***NOTE*** THERE WILL BE NO WEDNESDAY SERVICES TONIGHT, JUNE 1ST, 2011, WITH BOTH ROBERT AND I OUT OF TOWN.

In His Service,


Micah
--
Pastor Micah J. Mauldin
New Beginnings Baptist Church
Texarkana, USA

www.nbbctexarkana.blogspot.com