Life changes

Two weeks later and we are settled into our new home on Johns Island. We relocated from the busy metropolis of Duck Ditch to the sticks on Johns Island. Having lived in the fourth largest city in the US I have to chuckle when I compare Goose Creek to a busy city. In the last two weeks I have noticed that Goose Creek certainly has many more stores, gas stations and access to almost anything you would want. The only thing I did not like about Goose Creek is that if you want to go out and eat a good steak you were forced to go to North Charleston or Summerville.

Just yesterday my son Justin and I spent some quality time in the dining room putting together a lawn mower. Out of the box I figured it was going to be easier to sit at the table in front of a fan in the AC vs bending over in the hot garage. Once I dug into the parts and instructions I realized too late that one of the nuts was missing for one of the wheels. I hoped in the SUV and headed down Maybank Hwy around 6:45 pm and realized that the TruValue hardware store had long since closed for the night. I wound up driving 18 miles over to James Island to get a 2.36 part.

By the time we got back from James Island and put the final touches to the lawn mower assembly the sun had gone down and it was not quite so hot. I fired up the lawn mower and took it into the back yard and made its first official round of the fence and then turned it over to my son. Having lived in a double wide trailer with very little yard and a townhome with no yard this is something different for all of us. I did the fatherly thing and warned my son to keep all body parts out from underneath the mower unless he wanted to spend the rest of his life handicapped.

Once I figured that Justin was in control of the mower and hopefully would not kill himself I went to the drive way and began washing the Durango. I love being able to wash my own vehicle without being forced to take it to a car wash. I have always found car washing as therapeutic. As a child I remember having to wash my parents cars as a chore and I guess to this day I still make a point to wash my own vehicles by hand. There is nothing like standing back and admiring a nice shiny paint job when it is done.

Moving out of Duck Ditch to the sticks means that there are lots of nice quiet places to go for a walk. I have started walking more in the hopes of implementing a new life change that will be beneficial to my health. In the last several years I have grown increasingly aware of my need to shed some weight. Some folks might look at me and think “gosh that guy is huge , he probably sits around all day and just eats”. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have been struggling with the weight issue for quite some time now. In the last couple of weeks I have lost some weight and while it is no where near where I need to be I am going to use that loss as a positive thing and try to make better life choices.

The first thing I have had to do is to get to the point where I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of being fat. Someone chided me the other day about having man boobs and I think that was the straw that broke the proverbial camels ( baby seal in my case) back. Was the person that said that being a jerk and insensitive to how I feel? The answer to that question is yes. Then again truth can hurt but it can also be a motivator for change. Instead of getting depressed and despondent about it I am going to kick myself in the behind and find things that I can do personally to make my situation change.

The second thing I had to do was to realize that I need to make myself accountable for WHAT I am eating and HOW MUCH I am eating. In an effort to do that I am using the online calorie-count.com website to journal my daily calorie intake and exercise habits. Every time I eat something I find a moment to go to that website and enter it into my food log. I also keep track of my exercise and have a journal where I can write down my thoughts for the day.

The third thing I had to realize is that I need to burn more calories than I eat in order to lose weight. I am taking this one moment at a time, one day at a time. I did not gain this weight over night and I wont lose it over night either. My goal is to lose one lb per week. I think that is a reasonable goal and that it is obtainable. I am mentally forcing myself to be less sedentary when I am at home. During the day it is pretty easy for me to limit my calories because I can take my breakfast and lunch with me to work. When I am busy at work I do not have time to sit around and snack or eat food when I am not hungry. The danger zone is when I am home at night sitting in front of the TV and laptop. It is the time after supper and before bed time when I get the munchies and I think I must put something in my mouth to chew on. Night time is when I over eat and run into trouble. Now that we are in a nice neighborhood that is safe to walk in I am going to make a purposeful decision to get some exercise. My goal is every other day but lately I have been able to do more than that which is good.

Now that we are settled in somewhat and most of the boxes are unpacked we now need to find a church home closer to where we live. I have not been looking forward to this but I know it is inevitable. In the next three or four weeks we are going to visit area churches and see if we can find one that has a good youth program for our teenagers. We worshipped and served at Grace Fellowship church in Goose Creek for 8 + years and those folks are like an extended family. It is going to feel totally weird not being there and going to different churches. I HATE looking for a new church home. Who knows, we may find out that GFC in Goose Creek IS still our church home and we may wind up driving to Goose Creek once or twice a week to continue our service there. Only time will tell though.

Now that my food has settled and I have cranked out three pages of drivel I need to wrap this up and go for that walk I was telling you about.




James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
chiefpropellerhead@comcast.net