Lose 12 Pounds off of Your Body and Soul
In mid May I noticed a problem: my body felt heavy, and so did my soul.
I stepped on my scale and realized I’d gradually, almost unconsciously accumulated a body weight of 217 pounds. I played college football at 235 pounds, but have lived the last 20 years of my life in a range of 195-210 pounds—depending on whether my physical focus has been running marathons or doing CrossFit and gaining more muscle mass.
Simultaneously, my soul felt heavy. I couldn’t see or weigh my soul, but it felt like it was carrying an extra 12 pounds of stress, barnacles, and trauma from the last several years of living life and pastoring a church. I wasn’t okay with this. I desired to be different.
This “weigh-in” was on day 1 of a 3 month sabbatical my church gave me. Then and there I set a goal: to lose 12 pounds off of my body and soul in 3 months. I aimed for the loss of 12 pounds because 205 pounds seems to be my sweet spot. At 45 years old, 6’2.5”, and 205lbs—this is the weight where I feel very at home in my body and enjoy diverse physical fitness ability: I can run a fairly fast 5 mile trail run with significant elevation gain, I can still lift heavy weight, I can do a lot of pull ups, and I can sprint and keep up with my very active sons.
So, from mid May to mid August I focused on losing 12 physical pounds and 12 “soul” pounds (and let’s remember what our souls are carrying is very connected to what our bodies are carrying). And, drum roll, I achieved my goal! By mid August, my 1st day back at work, I had trimmed down to 205 pounds. And though I can’t put my soul on a scale, I celebrated that my soul felt 12 pounds lighter—I’d used my sabbatical to process and shed the heavy barnacles, fat, grief, disorientation, and residue that had accumulated on my heart.
How did I do it? Desire. Setting a specific goal. Focus. Accepting that in my mid 40s I don’t need to eat as much food as I did in my football/younger days, and therefore adapting my eating habits to eat less than I used to. Adding in a bit more intensity 2x a week to my workouts—having 2 days where for at least 10 minutes I send my heart rate through the roof (somewhere during Covid, without realizing it, I’d lost this intensity part of my workouts). Understanding that Trader Joes Vanilla Ice Cream is my weakness, having much less of it. I still enjoy all the foods, wine, and bourbon I usually enjoyed…I simply eat a bit less of those foods and a lot less ice cream (again, it comes down to desire, to what I desire more: ice cream, or living at a weight and shape where I most enjoy and feel at home in my body). And, for my soul: I enjoyed the transformation that comes from a change of place and pace. I processed the heaviness of my soul with God and loved ones and trusted counselors, I relaxed a lot, I cried, I prayed a lot, I started in on new dreams.
I don’t know how much you weigh or your soul weighs. You might want to weigh in and see if you desire to lose some pounds off of your body and soul. It feels good.
PS. If interested, here are a few books I recommend to my friends and people that I coach that relate to this article:
• Younger Next Year. I have 2 close friends reading this right now.
• The Relational Soul. This book was transformative for me on my first sabbatical, 8 years ago.
• The Body Keeps the Score. If you don’t understand how your body is the first tell that gives away to others what might be going on in your heart, soul, story, and relationship with God.