I have shared a bit of my journey to healthier living and weight loss here on the blog, so the story of Todd Starnes' transformation and his new book naturally grabs my attention. And I imagine many of my readers would benefit to hear from his as well. Todd Starnes is a best-selling author and network news reporter for Fox News Radio, based in New York City. He is also an evangelical Christian and a member of the Journey Church in Manhattan. Todd is an award-winning journalist, earning one of his profession's highest honors, the Edward R. Murrow Award and the Associated Press Mark Twain Award for Storytelling. His work is heard on more than 750 radio stations around the nation. He also hosts a religion podcast called, "FOX on Faith."

[Please see Moving to Health Pt 1 before you read this-- it explains why I am a bad source of advice on weight loss.]

As I mentioned in my last post on the subject, I get a lot of questions about weight loss. Since I speak at conferences, people can often see you once a year and they notice a change. (Here is a pic of me speaking at a conference in North Carolina last year just before I started my plan to get healthy.) And, my last post received elicited many emails, comments, and Facebook messages. So, I am writing a bit more about weight loss. But, let me remind you that I am still moving toward health-- I have not achieved it.

One of the more interesting things about losing weight are the comments you receive. They revolve around several themes that I think might be helpful to consider. And, many of them are myths.

Here are three common comments that I believe are myths:

First, fat people are lazy and slothful. Of course, some fat people are lazy and slothful, but so are some skinny people. But, I was not (and am not) overweight because I was lazy. I don't feel it helpful to layout the "I work hard" evidence, but it is there. I was fat because I worked too much and used food as energy that I lacked because I did not get enough rest. And it's pretty simple. If you consume more calories than your body burns = you gain weight.

Second, overweight people can just stop being overweight. I have tried to lose weight one hundred times. I have started fad diets. They did not work. Most overweight people want to lose weight but find they can't. Part of it is genetic (My mother's side of the family are big people - and I take after them). I do not know a single fat person who is excited about being so.

Third, making comments about someone's weight will motivate people to lose weight. You cannot shame people into change. It does not work.

The most common question I am asked is how I lost the weight. Well, here is my strategy. I have lost 110 thus far and would like to lost about 50 more (though I am just planning to eat healthy until I get to a healthy weight... and then continue to eat healthy).

1) I saw a doctor. Before I did anything else, I saw my doctor, did a bunch of tests, and followed his advice.

2) I stopped dieting. That's right; I am not on a diet. I changed my lifestyle. If I was on a diet, I would go off it one day. Now, I just eat differently.

3) I started exercising. That is probably the most significant change. I exercise 5 days a week for an hour each time. Now, it took me a while to get to that point, but I am in the habit now. I will explain my exercise plan in the next post.

4) I created accountability systems. For me, those were public. I announced it at church (9000 members), on Twitter (about 4000 followers at the time), and on Facebook (about 3000 friends at the time). For me, having thousands cheer you on encouraged me-- and at times, fed my ego as I lost the weight and people noticed. But, I am O.K. with that-- I need the encouragement.

5) We worked as a family. When one person starts eating differently, it can be a real pain. So, we talked about it and all made some changes for the better.

6) We encouraged each other. Far too often, Donna and I were like two drunks-- when one was sober, the other would offer a drink. Instead, we decided to encourage one another. Now, Donna has lost over 70lbs and I have lost over 100, so we exhorting each other to health, rather than pulling one another down.

Now, both of us are not done. We have a ways to go, but we are doing it together.

I will write one more post in the coming days...

Feel free to comment below by sharing your ideas, suggestions, or thoughts... and I promise I won't make this into a fitness blog. ;-)

The most common question I get these days is not about culture, church, or mission. It is actually about weight loss. I am asked several times each week about how I have lost weight. So, while I am not an expert, I have decided to share a bit of the details of my thoughts and experience.

Let me say one thing first: taking weight loss advice from me is like taking parenting advice from Bill Gothard. It can be good, it might be right, but it is also theoretical. It boils down to this related to me-- you should not take advice from a person who has lost a bunch of weight but has not kept if off for any significant length of time. I've lost 110 lbs so far, and still have a way to go -- but, to answer everyone's questions, here is how I got started.

Donna (my beautiful wife) started us off about a year ago. She was continually tired and not feeling well so she decided to try a homeopathic physician. (I affectionately refer to her doctor as the "witch doctor.")

Well, the doctor (who is a believer and attends our church) put her through a bunch of tests and then recommended she avoid all wheat and processed sugar. There was much more to it than that, but she lost over 70lbs. That was inspirational. And inspiration and motivation continued to come.

Motivation came from several sources. First, over dinner with Junior Hill, he told me how he had lost so much weight through a physician-assisted plan. I decided I wanted to try that. In other words, I needed to hook up with a physician. I did that a couple of months later.

My friend Dino Senesi was also an inspiration. He had lost a bunch of weight leading me to say he looked like a crack addict (but only in a good & manly way). He offered to coach me and hold me accountable and explained how that helped him. Although I did not take him up on his offer becuase of my pride, I knew I needed accountability.

Additional motivation came from trouble sleeping. When I went to my doctor, he prescribed a sleep study (which I blogged about here for other reasons). I had sleep apnea and I had to sleep on this horrible device called a C-Pap machine. And, I could not handle some Alien-like face-hugger on me while I tried to sleep. My doctor said that losing weight might be a solution and I knew I needed sleep.

My final inspiration came at an amusement park on a trip with my daughter. We were getting on a ride after waiting in a long line and I could not fit-- the bar would not go down. Now, if you are big, you know that fitting into airline seats, booths at restaurants, and other tight places is a pain. For years, I sat at tables (not booths) and requested seat belt extensions on airplanes. (The world is not designed for big people.) But, it became more important when it involved my family and I know I needed to not limit activities with them.

In the end I knew I needed to lose weight for my own health. But, honestly, that was probably not the most important reason. I actually have consistently good physicals--healthy heart, good cholesterol and blood pressure, etc. But, I know that can't last so I decided to make a change. I knew I could not enter my 40's this overweight.

All of this worked together as motivation. It compelled me to do something. But, most importantly, I knew that God had a better plan for me and my physical health. And, I believed that making a change would be in line with His leadership in my life.

Soon, I will share some myths about fat people and weight loss. Then, I will share some about what I have done thus far. Finally, I will share a bit about future plans. Now, this is not the Richard SImmons blog, so I will only write on this occasionally becuase people ask and I know that many pastors struggle as I did and do.

Some of you may not find this very interesting, but I receive Twitter messages all the time from people thanking me and saying my journey was an encouragement. So, maybe this will help. But, it also is a help for me-- by writing this out, I am creating another venue to hold myself accountable.

More soon...