Working on my Writing, Weight Loss, and Witness. Part Ten.
Writing
Thank you so much for taking the time to read these blog posts! Seeing the number of views I have received has encouraged me and held me accountable in wonderful ways, and I sincerely appreciate it. However, I have to let you know that I will be putting this writing on hold for a while. I had a project change at work a few months ago which is why I haven’t been writing these since then. With my new time commitment, I cannot fit writing into my schedule. The limited free time I have outside of work I have dedicated to my health by working out six days a week. I am determined to get physically healthy above everything else, so until my work schedule changes, or I hit my goal weight, I won’t be able to work on writing the book. I will continue to write blogs once a month, but they will be just focused on the two bottom sections of this blog, the weight loss and witness. I will be calling the new blog “Health and Heart” so please be on the lookout!
Writing my story in such an honest way has been extremely helpful to me. When I first told one of my best friends my plans to write this book, she told me that it would literally be like free therapy for me, and she was completely right! Writing this book forced me to face some of my biggest regrets and failures head on, and I had to cope with them in a way I never had before. It also really helped some of my closest friends and family fill in the gaps on what caused me to fall so hard in the first place. I look forward to having the time to finish this book in the future, and my goal is to have it completed by the end of next year.
I have learned so much about the writing process, and the research I’ve done is all saved and ready to help me when I can start again. I’ve become a much better writer through this, and I learned how incredibly difficult it is to write a book! There are so many challenges that authors face just to write a book, let alone trying to get it published. I was surprised by how difficult it was to express my feelings or thoughts in the way I wanted them to be received; many of my editors were taking the things I was saying in completely different ways than how I intended. This forced me to learn how to view things from the readers’ perspective, and it showed me just how unaware I was of how the things I wrote could make people feel. The greatest challenge for an author is to ensure that the purpose of the message is clear to the reader for the entire story. I have learned many things through this endeavor, and I can’t wait to share more with you when I get it finished!
Weight Loss
The greatest struggle in my life is consistency. All throughout this weight loss journey of the past three years, I’ve had times where I ate healthy and worked out for a few days in a row, and other times where I completely fell of the wagon for weeks at a time. One of my character traits is that I’m an extremist, so if I’m doing good, I can do really good, but if I’m doing bad, it can be really, really bad. I finally got tired of having a few days of progress followed by a few days of regression, so I decided to get a personal trainer.
I know I need the accountability in my life, and knowing that I’m paying for it really motivates me to stay on track. I meet with him once a week, and I have to talk about what I ate, what/if I worked out, and then we go over it together. Since I started with this personal trainer a month ago, I have not missed a single day of working out. My healthy eating has improved tremendously too, and I’m finally losing weight consistently at the rate I want to. If you have never tried a personal trainer before, I highly recommend it. I know it can be kind of expensive, but as my brother says, there’s no better investment you can make than investing in your health.
I really enjoy working out with the personal trainer as well because I’m learning so many things that I’ve never learned before. I grew up working out with football, but we just did the basic lifts. Learning new lifts, using different machines, and learning how to use proper form on so many workouts that I thought I was doing correctly but wasn’t, are just a few of the major benefits I’ve received. I have also learned a lot just by picking his brain about different topics like food, weight gain, and exercise. I also like having someone I can talk to about my health that’s a professional and is personally invested in my success.
They say it takes twenty-one days to form a habit, and I feel like I’m starting to see the truth of that statement now that I’m over a month in. It’s becoming much easier to make time to meal prep, and avoiding the junk food opportunities at work is easier as well. Seeing progress is a great motivator, and I’m consistently challenging myself in the gym. I’m determined to get my health under control. I have decided that regardless of the setbacks like injuries or gym closures or anything else, I will not stop pushing forward until I achieve my goal.
Witness
“Give thanks to the Lord; for He is good, for His grace continues forever. Now let Israel say, “His grace continues forever.” Now let the house of Aaron say, “His grace continues forever.” Now let those who fear the Lord say, “His grace continues forever.”
- Psalms 118:1–4
I read this passage last night, and it completely stopped me in my tracks. Earlier in the day, I was talking with one of my friends about how angry I was with myself for the poor life choices I made when I was younger. My friend tried telling me how proud they were of me for overcoming that, but all I kept saying was I never should have been in that situation in the first place. I have accepted full responsibility for the failures in my life, but every once in a while I reflect back on the choices that led me there in pure bitterness. I’m so angry that the horrible decisions I made were entirely my own fault. There were so many things I could have done differently that I didn’t do, and sometimes the weight of that regret really stings.
However, when I got home that day and read this verse, I was reminded that my perspective on the whole thing was completely wrong. I was so focused on the poor choices I made, that I ignored the miracle of amazing grace that God showered me with through all of it. His eternal, limitless, and fantastic grace is the star of my story, not anything I did. He never gave up on me, and because of His persistence in loving me and guiding me back to Him, I now have one of the best success stories to share with people of someone who fell so low. God revealed his grace to me in such an incredible way that it almost goes beyond all comprehension. I don’t know how I could ever think about my poor decisions when they pale so much in comparison to the wonderful grace I experienced every step of the way back to God.
If you’re struggling with regret at the things you’ve done in your life, I’m here to say that you don’t have to let the weight of the guilt, hurt, or sadness bring you down. The focus of your life story isn’t your failures; it’s the success of God’s awesome redemption in your life! Think about all the ways He has loved you and helped you through everything. Think about the good things you have going in your life and how you wouldn’t appreciate them nearly as much if you hadn’t been through the things you experienced. None of us are perfect, and the good news is we don’t have to be. We serve a God who perfectly loves us, and He can use any situation or circumstance for His glory. He can redeem any and every part of your story, you just have to let Him!
Thank you so much for all your support and encouragement through these posts, and be on the lookout for my new blog once a month called “Health and Heart”. I really appreciate any comments, questions, or concerns you may have, and look forward to responding to any messages when I have time. I hope this blesses you and encourages you, and thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Matt Casperite
Photo credit: https://www.perimeter.org/pages/twenties/add-l-ministries/twenties-1/pages/relentless-grace-series/
