#jesus however needs to either have the intensity dialed to 11

[karinyosa]

if i ever played jesus he would be the slimiest most decrepit doesn’t shower or sleep neurotic unwell emotional roller coaster dissociated from the human form motherfucker ever and if i ever played judas he would be a smarmy twink.

[ibuproffie]

wtf WAS this season of got

i just finished watching and like...? i have so many questions? cut for spoilers i guess 

ding dong you are WRONG i’m just going to incoherently ramble because i was like ??? for the whole thing. fyi i’ve read the asoiaf books multiple times so that’s kind of informed a lot of this rant because i just don’t see grrm ending the series like the show ended. 

so since s7, we’ve really seen this whole rush of stuff and the process of dany taking back westeros has been really dialed up to 11 for no goddamn reason. i mean the leaders of dorne were murdered, edmure tully was irrelevant, the tyrells were just all killed off, stannis gang killed off, no mention of varys’s fake targ plan (which personally i was cool with; i don’t love that tbh). which is...part of the thing that makes got...good was the intrigue; the mass of characters and subplots and ambitions etc. and i didn’t rlly say anything because i thought ok, it’s not great but at least we’ll get a really satisfying s8. 

the white walkers? sis WHERE? were they?? WHO were they?? the whole show they’ve been hyped up as the big bad, the catalyst for bringing ice and fire together, so to speak, and then they kill all of them off in one episode? isn’t this the greater evil that the people of westeros must unite behind that they’ve been foreshadowing all FUCKING show?? don’t they put things in perspective?? show the futility of life and the importance of humanity?? like what the hell? (side note: arya killing the night king was cool af but...narrative, but also...WOMEN so i’m torn) and then, i thought, “well maybe they were killed to have more time for intrigue but like...anyone who hasn’t firmly chosen a side is fucking dead” so lol to that my dudes

the dothraki? weren’t they all killed in the fight with the night king? how did they all show up to besiege kings’ landing at just the right moment? how many dothraki are there? i could ask roughly the same question about the unsullied but the dothraki were more egregious so imma just call them out 

danaerys?? ma’am what?? fyi Evil Targ Dany isn’t a dany i would totally hate; the books have foreshadowed that dany has some potential for being a bad guy or at least a worse guy than she was at the beginning. anyone who says there’s no way dany could be a hot steaming yikes hasn’t been paying attention and that’s just the tea...she’s been told her entire life that she’s special because of who her parents were, she’s been extremely popular and successful just by using brute force and not listening, really, to her advisors. it’s always been there; she’s always been a little bit of a gamble. however, what i do have some problems with was that evil dany was just dropped out of fucking nowhere. like, they killed missandei and she just inexplicably torched the city, killed people who were surrendering (which if you remember, the only reason she killed the tarlys was because they WOULDN’T surrender so wtf dany) and started seeing traitors everywhere. if you’re gonna have a character start doing an about-face like that, you’re going to need to foreshadow it a little bit. because it just seemed rlly out of character. this season, all of danaerys’s decisions, which have usually been framed as “brutal but necessary” by the story suddenly became “extremely irrational and a threat to everyone”. for chrissakes, she should be fucking worried about jon eclipsing her in popularity because he has a better claim to the throne and is a man even though she’s done all the work!! it makes sense for her to kill varys because he was trying to murder her (like so many other characters tried!!) legitimizing gendry makes sense-hell, stannis tried to do the same for jon!! these were not totally out-there calls for dany and didn’t really count as evidence of her growing insanity or whatever. in addition, her goal shifted from “i want to reclaim my birthright” to “i want to create a utopia over which i rule indefinitely” which is not a desire that i have ever read from either show!dany or book!dany. she’s simply not naive enough to think she could do something like that. also (and this is kind of a pattern w s8) dany’s arc seemed to suggest that she was trying to be better than her family. the whole crux of her claim is that she’s better than aerys was, that she was learning that the family members she idealized her whole life could be terrible and cruel and that she didn’t want to be like viserys or aerys or even, really, like rhaegar. how many times have we heard this?? to just drop the whole “you-can’t-escape-your-nature” shit on us now is not only really fucking bleak, but bad writing. also jonerys just kept on getting worse and worse; the romanticization of incest on this show was too fucking much and i just couldn’t. why would danaerys, who was trying to escape her nature, desperately want to hook up with her nephew?isn’t there enough of this on got for god’s sake? what happened to her being a new targaryen? what fucking happened? 

jon? i don’t love r + l =j but whatever, fine. may i ask what the point was, ma’am?? may i fucking ask, why bring back jon snow from the dead? wasn’t he the “prince that was promised”? then why in god’s name did he not take a more active role in the fight against the white walkers? if he’s azor azhai reborn, was danaerys his nissa nissa? and what did that sacrifice accomplish in his arc? or is melisandre full of shit all along and it’s just all up to chance? and then what was the point of setting all of that up? you can’t just abandon subplots like this guys; you just can’t. 

bran? had no point, the worst character objectively... WHAT tomfoolery gave tyrion the bright idea to make him the king? isn’t he supposed to be smart good god

braime? excuse me what? FUCKING FORESHADOWED ALL THE GODDAMN WAY THROUGH, WE GET A TENDER A** FUCKING SEX SCENE THAT ISN’T GODDAMN GROSS AND THEN they’re like “nope sike!! see!! jaime can never change!! you thot that was a redemption arc sweaty!! twincest for the win!!” like this isn’t happening in the books and you can’t fucking change my mind, grrm did not set up this arc to disrespect jaime or brienne like this. part of brienne’s arc is going to be realizing that she is desirable and deserving of love. mark my fucking words. this was part ii of this weird “we can’t escape our nature” shit that kept cropping up this season for no reason. and look, i’m not just going off on this because i’m a hardcore braime shipper (sorry not sorry). i’m going off because it literally doesn’t make sense. if you foreshadow a huge character arc that will redeem the character, tease it, and then go in the complete opposite direction, that motivation for the character goes all over the place. at this point in the narrative he had cut his ties w cersei; he realized as tyrion pointed out that they had a toxic relationship and that while he still cared about her to an extent, he had come to the realization of what an intensely horrendous person she was, and it didn’t fucking matter if she was pregnant with his kid because she (unlike him) wasn’t making any sort of strides to be a better person. and then there’s brienne who is possibly the only soul in westeros who believes there’s more “good jaime” than “killing kings and crippling little boys jaime” who is his physical equal as well as his legit friend (like how many friends does jaime really have right) who he’s beginning to have feelings for because of their shared traumatic experiences and similar goals and the writers just...fucking ignored all of that previous buildup. and braime never had to necessarily end happily (see the cersei paragraph); i personally think that one or both of them are going to die in the books, but it really was a gigantic slap in the face as well as to book canon “throw this in the fire” anyone?? 

and cersei? don’t get me wrong; i’ve wanted her dead for so long but come the fuck on and remember the goddamn valonqar prophecy. that’s ignoring a huge part of her motivation for being so “evil”. because she knows her doom is coming and is doing her best to prevent it. jesus fucking christ. jaime was supposed to kill her (and maybe die in the process but ya know) because i personally think tyrion’s done enough kinslaying. to have her die in that way was both anti-climactic and ignoring the narrative again. they just shouldn’t have included the prophecy if they were going to butcher it like this jajkjfalk

[ohioguru03]

It may not be easy, but it will be worth it...

I’ve written several times on here about working out, diet, and my own personal struggle with body image, so it won’t be a surprise to the throngs of people who read my C- blog that the topic is resurfacing. This is something I’m passionate about, and I truly believe many people struggle with these same issues, which is why I write so much about it. 

Working out has never really been an issue for me, rather, the diet and body image side of things is another story. Of course, if you read my blog, you already know this. 

A little over a year ago, I penned an article referencing my increase in body weight and vowed that it would be taken care of immediately. I forgot one, small aspect to that, which is cleaning up my eating. I increased my workouts but failed to work on my diet. Guess what? If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always gotten. Pretty basic, but how often do we live as if this isn’t true? We somehow believe that we will be the exception to the rule for the first time in human history. I guess that sums up how selfish we can be, but that’s another topic for another day. 

I don’t know if it was the moron side of me or what, but I couldn’t understand why my waistline continued to grow despite working out at what I felt was an intense level. The more I worked out, the more and more I ate...anything and everything. 

The picture shown below on the left is from January 6, 2018 at 208 pounds compared to the one on the right taken on July 25, 2018 at 179.8 pounds. 

After summer ended, and I didn’t have to wear tank tops or swim trunks any longer, I found it cool to become a little thicker like I was some sort of powerhouse or something. However, it wasn’t long before I noticed my skin becoming nasty, my face ballooning, and my belly popping out in my sweaters at school. 

One of our secretaries at school made reference to me being happy after I returned from our Honeymoon. Of course, that was true, but I know she was also noting my plump, jelly-belly. See, I returned from my honeymoon at 208 pounds, which is the most I have ever weighed. Mentally, I was beating myself up day-after-day but just couldn’t seem to get things turned around. It was like a hamster on a wheel. 

The wife and I quickly hopped on the 80-Day Advocare Challenge after we returned from our Honeymoon, but I don’t think either of our mindsets were completely dialed in on the mission. Needless to say, we didn’t last anywhere close to 80 days. Maybe 80 hours? Despite the setback, I still managed to drop a couple lbs. 

Over the next couple of months, I struggled mentally to turn on my discipline. In my mind, I woke up every morning wanting and hoping to make a change in my eating. I was somewhat becoming depressed with it. I just couldn’t seem to get it turned around. 

Meanwhile, from January to the end of April I continued to eat very poorly...all day long! I continued to work out, but my workouts were so sluggish due to the increase in body fat. My sleep was being disrupted by the late night eating and all the crap I was putting into my body. When I say I was eating all day long, well, that is not an exaggeration. Pizza, cookies, donuts, cupcakes, candy bars, crackers, pretzels, chips, french fries, etc...Sweets during the day and pizza and french fries at night. This was all on top of everything else I was eating whether it was good or bad. 

Over the past year, we got married and bought a new house during the school year, so there was some added stress, but no reason to turn to things that promise things they can’t deliver on. You know the momentary comfort (maybe 10 to 15 seconds at best) followed by the hours of guilt and beating yourself up for how you are eating and feeling. In other words, sin (gluttony) over promises and under delivers.

Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. -Philippians 3:19

I even started a weight loss challenge at school to get me kick-started, but even the first three weeks of the challenge weren’t enough to knock down the mental bind that clamped me down and was squeezing the energy out of me. You are likely asking yourself, is there a turn in the story? Thankfully, the answer is yes!

In the latter half of April, my wife’s sister got married in Nashville, and like most weddings and receptions a lot of pictures are taken. It wasn’t until those pictures surfaced a week later that reality hit me with a Mike Tyson haymaker. 

When I saw myself in those pictures, to be quite honest, I was disgusted in every sense of the word. I looked like I had aged quite a bit, my skin was nasty, and it appeared someone pumped me up with an air pump of hot garbage. Harsh enough? This is me on the left. My belt is begging for mercy. The last notch life. 

I know I’m a child of God and made in God’s image, but He never meant for me to indulge in food and gluttony the way I had for nearly two years. Once I recovered from seeing those pictures, I knew there were no more excuses, it was time to get serious. 

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. -1 Corinthians 6:19-20

On April 30th, I began my journey and I love the word journey because anything worth doing is a journey or a marathon if you will. I started the beautiful journey at 202 pounds. 

But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. -1 Corinthians 9:27

I really didn’t have a plan of what I was going to eat, but more so when I was going to eat. To start, I used my Advocare eating plan to time my meals and know what I needed in each. I used Advocare’s Spark, Meal Replacement, and Muscle Gain to support my change in eating. This wasn’t simply a change in eating, but a complete lifestyle change. 

I kept telling myself, if I can make it through the first day, I can turn the corner and get this done. It started with a pound the first week and then another pound the second week. I refused to get discouraged despite only two pounds being dropped after two weeks. I was laser-focused on staying the course. 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. -Jeremiah 29:11

Finally, in week three, I dropped a total of three pounds. It’s hard to tell when you see yourself daily because in case you weren’t sure, you are always with yourself, but I’m sure inches were coming off if pounds weren’t. I knew that if I ate that poorly for two years, things weren’t going to change overnight. 

It’s a slow cook that’s food worth eating is what I like to say. No pun intended.

My goal when I started was to get down to 185 pounds, and if I was able to attain that, my ultimate goal was 180. After 90 days, I can humbly say, I’m still eating clean. I have to be honest, I’m proud of myself, but also know it’s God’s strength that allowed me to accomplish something I wasn’t sure was ever going to happen again. Praise Him for the ability to persevere! 

I’m not absurd about my eating, but there are things that I’ve totally steered away from including pizza, chips, pretzels, sweets of any kind, and fried/fast food. Oh, I did have an order of French Fries from Bob Evans after running the Savage Race back in early June, but after that race, I would’ve eaten the southbound end of a northbound skunk. 

My energy levels have increased, I’m sleeping better, my overall performance at the gym and on my runs has increased significantly, my internal confidence has grown in many areas, and my wife tells me how good and young I look daily (that tops all of the other things). I honestly feel like I’m in my mid-20′s again. She has been my biggest supporter and encourager, and for that, I can’t thank her enough for her unwavering love! 

The coolest thing happened, on day 50, I hit the 185-pound mark and finally on day 84 (12 weeks) I went under 180 pounds (179.8) for the first time in over two years. 

My fitness journey is a perfect parallel to our spiritual journey. We go through seasons of peaks and valleys, but despite the valleys, our faith remains steadfast. 

With my eating habits going out of control, it felt like I couldn’t see 5 feet in front of me as my windshield was smeared with heavy mud. However, through it all, God continued to teach me things and work on me even if I couldn’t see. This is precisely how our walk with Jesus can be sometimes. We can’t see the next step, but we know the One that holds it. It takes faith to move forward even if we aren’t sure where we are headed.

And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. -Hebrews 11:6

Whether you are struggling with weight, diet, mental strongholds, relationship issues, trouble with your kids or parents, addictions etc...I encourage you to just keep pressing forward. Your situation may not change today, tomorrow, next month, next year, or the next decade, but if you entrust it to God, I can assure you it’s in much better hands then striving to do it on our own.

Please, please don’t do life alone! We were never created to do life alone. I’m speaking to myself here as well because my default is to retreat and seclude myself especially when I’m going through the trials of this life. See, our enemy wants us to do this very thing because when he can get us alone that is when he will torment our minds and fill us with lies. 

So, again, I encourage you to surround yourself with people that love you, will support you, encourage you, and tell you the Truth in love when needed. 

I hope you find these scriptures helpful and bring peace to your soul no matter what you are going through. 

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. -Romans 12:12

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. -Galatians 6:9

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. -James 1:12