Thursday, June 29, 2017

OH my, here we go!!!

WHAT. IN. THE. WORLD. AM. I. DOING????


Oh yeah, what I've been needing to do for a very long time.

Please remind me that this is only temporary. And the rewards will be immense and numerous.  If you're reading this, I need YOU. 


It's not often I feel this insecure.  Now, I know I'll be fine.  But this..... THIS is radical. 

I need radical right now.  I don't know what the next 5 days, or next 30 days holds, but I do know at the end it will be exceedingly good. 

But now, I am just feeling a bit overwhelmed. I've got the jitters.  I'm over the moon about the positive messages from all of you, and I NEED your encouragement like you can't believe.  I am so excited  to see how I feel and how I look on July 29th!

But for now, I just stand before the door.  And it's about to open. 

As I pray and I head to bed, I will wake up to that open door....

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Pressing the Reset Button

Wow, so much to talk about. But tonight I'm going to try to keep it short.

I've been very sick the last 8-9 months.  I don't think I have anything terrible, I just FEEL terrible...

Last Fall I finally got a reliable car, a 1999 Honda Accord!  It's given me a renewed wanderlust, and in September and October of last year that I enjoyed immensely traveling all over the Northwest!  In the first 5 weeks, I put over 3,500 (6,000 km) miles on the car, going as far east as Helena, Montana (over 600 miles/1,000 km from Seattle!), back and forth to Spokane a time or two, visiting family in Eastern Washington State, and ending with a trip to Portland, Oregon the first weekend of October.

I was so excited to have a car that I think I may have physically worn myself out!  In all seriousness, on October 7, I was supposed to drive to Portland for a conference with the church, but began to feel under the weather the day before.  From that time until the beginning of March, just shy of 5 months later, I was sick the ENTIRE time!  It was very challenging just getting up in the morning and making it to work, church and other events.  I was constantly coughing, feeling terrible and feeling very discouraged because I just didn't have the energy to do much of anything.

Though I am feeling much better than I was, I still don't feel well. AT ALL!  I've been thinking about how I've not been eating the way I should, not getting as much exercise as I should, even though I am typically getting in about 8,000 - 9,000 steps every day.  About two months ago, I weighed myself at the gym and it was a very shocking 366 pounds (166 kg)!! I was in total disbelief!  How in the world did this happen???  Couldn't have been the gummi bears or peanut clusters!  Okay, maybe it was...

The good news was that I was just re-re-re-re-starting a workout regimen that I was hoping that would bear some good fruit in my physical life as well as have positive side effects in my spiritual and emotional life as well.  That was until I tweaked my back really bad after my last trip to Spokane a month ago.  I'm just now starting to feel more or less back to normal.  But I'm not anywhere near where I want to be....

Back at the beginning of the year, our church leader Joel encouraged me to watch a movie called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead."  My initial thought was, "Okay, whatever.  Another feel good story... blah blah blah...."  But I couldn't stop thinking about it, so a few weeks after I asked him about the name of the movie again and I decided to watch it.

I was pleasantly surprised about how inspiring this man's journey was from his suffering from a serious autoimmune disease, to total health!  It sounded almost too good to be true.  I really wanted to give it a try, but life just got in the way, money was an issue, and it would just be difficult to do.  But because it dealt with juicing, more specifically a total juice fast, I had confidence that it was healthy, similar to the fast in Daniel 1:11-15 in the Bible.  I encourage you to read it, it's very interesting!

Briefly, "Joe" went to a doctor before he started, and every 10 days during his fast, to track his blood numbers to make sure he was experiencing a steady and healthy change.

I also have consulted my doctor and have gotten the green light to start this journey as well.

But this is very scary.

This is a very radical lifestyle....it's such a drastic change! One of the things that "Joe" mentioned in other videos he has made was that the first 5 days are extremely challenging.  I've fasted before but never more than about 3 days.  He emphasized that if you can make it past the first 5 days, your body is no longer hungry.  It adapts and gets used to the nutrients in the juice it's being fed.

So, I have decided to start my journey back to health this coming Friday, June 30th, just 2 1/2 days from now!  And I am asking you if you would like to be part of this journey with me. Here are some things I would be incredibly grateful for:

  1.  Prayer, good thoughts and vibes! - I'm going to need all of this I can get!!!
  2.  Encouragement!  - Calls, Facebook messages,text messages, responses to my blog posts, etc.
  3. Join Me! - Now or later, let me know if you'd like to do this with me!
  4. Accountability! - Ask me how I'm doing, it only takes a few seconds.  Or as much time as you want to give.

I plan on blogging my way through this process.  I expect the first few days I will write every day, but I may continue to blog a little every day to just document the process and my experience.  I'll decide that after the first five days...

But this is such a huge step for me.  I expect this to be a total reboot for me physically, spiritually, emotionally and even for my relationships.  Even though I have tried to remain positive for the last few years, I find myself failing more often than I like.  Seeing that I'm becoming more negative.  Experiencing physical pain in my body, and having a hard time doing the most basic tasks.  Yes, I'm fat.  But I've had so many challenges in the past few years, I'm just tired.  I need a total reset.

Now, I just need to get through the first five days!!

So, the reason I've decided to start this weekend is that I don't want to be around a bunch of people this weekend if I'm going through caffeine withdrawals, sugar withdrawals, food withdrawals, headaches, hunger, etc.  I'm trying to minimize my affect at work where I'm expected to be nice to people on the phone!  Hahaha!  Just trying to be real...

So the first day (Friday) shouldn't be horrible.  Tough, yes, but hopefully not horrible.  Days 2 and 3 are Saturday and Sunday where I can put myself to bed if I'm getting too cranky!  Ha!  Day 4 is Monday, where I will have to be nice to people at work.  Pray for me!  But Day 5 will be July 4th and I will  have the day off.  Again, I can put myself away for a little while so I don't make any enemies.  😀

I'm also open to your thoughts... Do you think I should be more active and busy during the tough days to be distracted so time goes by more quickly?  Or do you think I'm better off removing myself from society for the benefit of peace in the land?  I'm not sure which is possible or better. Feel free to respond here or on Facebook.

According to "Joe", after day 5 he experienced a tremendous increase in energy.  And this has been supported by many of his followers that have tried this method. 

So my personal goal is 30 days.  THIRTY.  No food for a whole month!  If I can just get through those pesky first 5 days!

So finally here's where it gets very uncomfortable for me. God has blessed me with some great things over the past year especially.  I have a great job that covers my bills, but not much right now for a lot of extra expense.  My doctor gave me one caveat for starting this juicing diet.  He felt very strongly that I should join the group's support network, which would give me access to others that are doing the fast, as well as nutritionists, doctors, and other resources.  Here's the link for the group if you're interested in learning more.

https://shop.rebootwithjoe.com/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwhMjKBRDjxb31j-aesI4BEiQA7ivN-D0vPGGV0zcvqtyjFN9WalVeEHUDttg2rk9a_bKAavgaAqjq8P8HAQ

I agreed that I would join, but then learned that the 30-day program was financially not in the realm of possibility for me at $289.00.  On top of that, I recently bought a good used juicer that I paid cash for and the cost of the vegetables and fruits for the juice is about $15-$20 per day.  My current food budget is is about half of the upper end of that estimate.  So, I'm asking for loans.  That's right.  Loans.

Now, to be clear, if you want to *give* me money out of the kindness of your heart, I would gladly accept that.  However, I have a plan in mind that I should be able to pay back all loans by the end of the year.  I'm looking for a total of about $500 to cover *some* of the cost of the food and most of the cost of the support network.  If you feel generous enough to give, please send me an email at timmorse@outlook.com if you would like to be paid back.  Even $5 or $10 would help me immensely!!  Anything will help!

Thanks so much if you've read this entire post.  I'm very excited for this opportunity to essentially start all over again in many areas of my life.  I'm a very vibrant, lively man and I miss my old energy.  I don't for a minute expect this will be a fix for all my problems, but I'm hoping that it will give me the strength to once again live the life I want to live and tackle what life throws at me! Love you all, thanks for checking in on me! 

Here is the link to donate:

paypal.me/TimMorse111