ABOUT THOM
Who I am
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First and foremost - I'm a Christ-follower and try my best to love God and others every day - leaving a wake of improvement wherever I go. I've been married to my college sweetheart for 29 years. We have six children from 12-25. Two are married to awesome spouses who I also love dearly. My wife, Jody, and I will enter the realm of being "Lolli and Pops" in June when our first human grand baby is due. (We have 9 grand dogs now.)
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I have battled weight issues since I was 10 years old ... losing and regaining more and more over the years. Until I was in my mid-thirties, I was able to hold the firewall to being overweight ... in our modern society a fairly normal "dad bod" look. THEN, an incident occurred that I let get in my head - making me feel like nothing I did mattered, that I was a prisoner of genetics and that no matter how thin I'd get, I still wouldn't be happy with how I looked. At that point, I continued to yo yo - adding another 5-10 pounds per year till I reached my largest at 51 years old. I actually don't know exactly how heavy I was because at one point I gave up weighing myself till I was beginning to shed fat through my new lifestyle choices. My heaviest recorded weight was 318 lbs.
Why I am I sharing all this
In the last year, I've shed over 100 pounds so far and feel more energy than I have since I was in high school. In addition to the fat loss, I'm stronger than ever, my waist is down 15 inches, my rheumatoid arthritis is asymptomatic, my snoring and sleep apnea are gone and my blood pressure has gone from 169/110 to 96/68 without medications of any kind. (The medical conditions all improved only 3 weeks into my new lifestyle - before losing a significant amount of weight).
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Ironically, none of that happened as the result of me focusing on weight loss. For the first time in my life, my focus really was simply on health and longevity. Frankly, I wasn't scared of dying. I was scared of not living - far too long. I wanted to have the health, energy and vitality to be able to do ALL God has for me. So, I went about researching - not the best way to lose weight - but the best things to do to live with great longevity and an abundance of energy and physical capacity - well into my 90s and beyond. This new lifestyle resulted in my awesome, God-designed body healing itself and shedding pound after pound - without calorie or carb counting, without pills, potions or powders, and without hitting a plateau like I had always done in the past.
My hope for this blog
Through this journey, God has given me real freedom - from genetic predispositions, from debilitating mindsets, from addictions to certain foods ... even from fear. He has taught me so much about how to holistically engage our minds, bodies and spirits together in order to become who He designed us to be. As I continue on my journey ... continuing to shed pounds till I reach the point that my body is designed for ... I hope that in living out loud, others will benefit. I pray that you will find hope, inspiration, encouragement and some practical help in your journey. I hope you will find the same freedom, energy and vitality that I have and that you are able to use that to fully pursue all that God has for you!
