Yum!
Every year, the guys from DC Metro Chi Alpha end the fall semester with a retreat. It’s a pretty simple affair. We get a place to stay from a Sunday to Tuesday morning. Sunday is eating and hanging out, Monday is private time with God in the morning, do some exercise in the afternoon and then share what God’s been doing in our lives over dinner. On Tuesday we pray for each other and wrap things up. For a number of reasons, this men’s retreat was not only simple, it was small–just Randy, the director of Georgetown Chi Alpha and me. Because it was just the two of us, we decided to do our dinners @ local restaurants. After bad food choices on Sunday and Monday, I was sitting down to dinner on Tuesday @ Five Guys. For those of you who are familiar with Five Guys, you know I wasn’t trending toward health.
Biting into my Bacon Cheeseburger I said, “Randy, I need your help.” I confessed to my bad eating habits and asked for his accountability. As I threw my burger wrapper in the trash, I felt like I was turning the page on my junk food fixation (but was this a multiple pager?).
Randy dropped me back off @ our retreat spot, a time-share east of Harrisonburg (thanks for the bonus week Mark and Sue) and headed home. I was staying by myself until Jen and the kids joined me on Thursday. I turned on CNN, opened up my laptop, and got into a chat with my brother on Skype. We caught up a little bith and then he announced he had lost 10 lbs using Spark People. He had mentioned it before, but it kind of went in one ear and out the other, but in light of my recent pledge I was interested. While we were talking I registered. I think I found an answer to prayer.
I’m totally a goal oriented person. Over and over again, I tell myself, I’ll exercise for fun; I’ll run simply to stay healthy. Under that philosophy, my running shoes remain snug in their little closet cubby. When I register for a race, no matter how busy my schedule, I find time to train. For me Spark People is like being in a race every day (yeah, that’s a good thing). It runs on points. Drink 8 glasses of water, you get five points. Got out for a run, you get 1 point for every 5 minutes. Track your food, you get 1 point for every item you enter. When you enter enough points and you get a trophy (I really like trophies–even if it’s only a virtual one). I’ve been on Spark People for 5 days and I’ve already won 2 trophies! But even more importantly, it’s helping me stay accountable to my healthy eating commitment. I find that when I’m tracking what I eat, I don’t want to grab a bag of chips to end the night. Jen and I took the kids to Chili’s (the home of the Big Mouth Burger) on Thursday night and I ordered THE FISH! I don’t think I’ve ever done that before! I’ve been pretty faithful in the exercise department too.
Yeah, I know, 5 days–it’s still pretty early, but I think Spark People is going to help this pledge stick. Considering this is the time of year when most Americans put on a few pounds, this tool might be something worth looking into. And now that you’ve read my story, you can hold me accountable.
Those of you who have spent any time with me over the past year or so know that I listen to This American Life a weekly NPR program. I usually listen when I’m out on a run. This fall semester has been pretty crazy so I’m catching up on old broadcasts as I get back into my fitness routine. Today on my 4 miler, I listened to the episode entitled “Ground Game”. It was broadcast the week before the election and it followed campaign workers from both parties as they canvased the political battle-ground (and my home state) of Pennsylvania. 
