God's Diamonds In The Ruff Podcast
Welcome to our uplifting podcast, where we aim to guide you on a journey to see yourself through the eyes of God and empower you to navigate life with this perspective. We wholeheartedly believe that you are as precious as a diamond, and it is our mission to constantly reinforce this truth.
God's Diamonds In The Ruff Podcast
#157 S5 EP 31: Stewarding Our Bodies: Confronting Health, Faith, and Inner Strength with Alan and Angie Thomas
What does it truly mean to steward our bodies as part of our spiritual and personal responsibility? This episode gets to the heart of that question as we welcome special guests Alan and Angie Thomas. Alan shares his wake-up call at 304 pounds, realizing his health threatened his future with his family. Listen as we confront how shame and obesity can weaken our message as believers and hear Alan’s unique perspective from his experience in the life insurance business. This chapter powerfully underscores the urgent need to manage our health to fulfill our life roles and responsibilities.
The journey to weight loss is as much a mental and emotional battle as it is physical. We explore the profound shifts in mindset required for sustainable weight loss, encouraging everyone to become experts on their own needs rather than follow prescriptive diets or exercises. Through personal anecdotes, including one individual's progress from 317 to 284 pounds, we highlight the significance of support systems and self-discovery. We challenge you to reframe weight loss struggles as a gift, one that reveals a reservoir of inner strength and power you may not have known existed.
Obesity is often a silent struggle within church leadership and the broader community, a stark contrast to more visibly condemned issues like alcohol use. This episode tackles these double standards head-on, urging leaders to confront health issues openly and without shame. We share moving stories, including a 70-year-old man’s inspiring 135-pound weight loss journey, to exemplify the power of faith and positive affirmations. Ending with a personal narrative about the ongoing challenge of managing obesity, we liken it to the lifelong struggle of addiction, emphasizing that daily effort and faith can lead to enduring freedom and health.
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Hello, hello, and welcome back, god's Diamonds in the Rough. We are so glad to be with you one more time. We hope all is well with you, honey. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm very, very, very good.
Speaker 1:All right, he said that kind of slow, didn't he y'all? I know it he did yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, but we hope that all is well with you today. We hope that you know this week has been a good week for you. We are here and always excited to be before you and get into the topic of conversation that the Lord has given us Amen. Today we have some guests with us. We have Alan Thomas and his wife, and after we pray I know we got to pray we're going to bring them to the table and they're going to say hello, ok, so let's go ahead and pray.
Speaker 2:Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, our Lord and our Savior, jesus Christ, we just come to you right now saying thank you. We thank you for your grace and your mercy. We thank you for your love, your kindness and and mercies. We thank you for just forgiving us for the things we do say and think that's not pleasing to your sight. We pray in an image for the ones who've said pray for me. We stand in a scene for the ones who knows who you are but has slid away. We also stand in a scene for the ones that have no desire to know who they are and know who you are. We pray in the name of Jesus. You will just have your way. We put any tactic, any tricks, any schemes of the enemy that will be sent back into the pits of hell where it came from. We ask these things and all things, all in your name, jesus Christ. We say thank you and we say amen, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:And amen, amen, amen and amen. So we are going to bring this dynamic duo into the room.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:Amen and Mr Allen, would you say hello to our diamonds and introduce your wife.
Speaker 4:Hey there, I am glad to be here. Thank you so much. This is my wife, Angie, and my better half. As y'all can see visibly For those that are listening and can't see it, she's the better half and I'm Allen Thomas. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:And tell us who y'all are. Tell us a little bit about yourself before we begin to talk about oh, oh yeah, let me, let me. We're talking about weight today. My bad, we're talking about. We're talking about weight today and we are impacting this world and we definitely have to stew it over our bodies, to steward over our bodies, and so, uh, this segment on tonight, or yeah, tonight, uh, whenever you're listening to this is all about, uh, our weight and how, um, we have a responsibility to steward over our body. Um, and so now, mr Allen and Angie, would you all tell us a little bit about yourself and how your journey has been in regard to weight?
Speaker 4:Absolutely yeah. And you know one thing you said at the very beginning in your prayer that the enemies work in schemes all the time. And it really is true. And you know we, as believers, you know we are called to steward over our bodies, but at the end of the day, the enemy is having his way with us as believers. He's having a way with the people around us and with this thing called obesity, because he locks us up in shame and really just puts us in a position where our message is ineffective. We are preaching a silent sermon every single day with who we are. You know Jesus said they're going to know me by how y'all behave, guys. They're going to know. And we forget about this thing called weight. And it really started with us.
Speaker 4:You know, after struggling with my weight for 35 years, I reached at age 55,. I reached the tipping point at 304 pounds back in 2017. And for some people listening to this, that may not sound like a lot. For other people, it might sound like flabbergasted amount. Oh my gosh, how could you do that? And what was interesting was that if the scale had said 299.999, it wouldn't have impacted me. But when I stood on that scale and I saw that three at the beginning of the scale. I mean, I realized number one, my wife Angie, who's sitting beside me that she would very likely be calling me her first husband, not because that she was shopping around for another man, not because of any of that, but because I couldn't put down the fork. I've been in the life insurance business for over a decade and dealing mainly with what's called the senior market, that's, people predominantly over age 65. And after sitting literally thousands of houses, I could not ever remember meeting a man that was more than a hundred pounds overweight, that was 65. Now I was 55. I was 55 at the time, and so it was like God opened up the heavens to me and just said buddy, it was my Hezekiah moment Ten years early. He was saying that if you don't straighten this out, you're going to be like one of those pictures on the wall. There's going to be another man walking your daughter down the wall. There's going to be another man walking your daughter down the aisle. There are going to be other men. We've been blessed with four children. They're all grown, but they would be calling on another man to step in and roll his dad because I couldn't put the fork down and it was interesting, as I stood there on that scale.
Speaker 4:Like most people, we travel everywhere we go, just like right now. I've got a cell phone right here by me. I reached for my cell phone and I did what anybody does in the middle of a disaster. You know, if you see, if your family, if you see a family that's in the middle of disaster, we call 911. We check and make sure they're OK. But the next thing we always do in the middle of disasters take a picture. And so I took a picture of that scale, not having any idea what was ahead of me, just knowing that I would never see that number again on there. And 260 days later it read 175.
Speaker 4:And I don't say anything to impress you. I say it really to impress upon you. It was always within my ability. There was always that diamond in the rough inside of me and you barring y'all's podcast name it was always available. I didn't need a new diet, I didn't need a new magical formula. I didn't need anything. I just had to do what we're called to as believers every day. I had to completely surrender and it led to Angie, who didn't struggle with obesity at the level I did. She dropped 63 pounds in 190 days. Oh go figure. Now God calls men to lead every day and then we don't lead. But I stepped out faith and and took care of what I needed to take care of with with Wade, and then my wife got healthier too. So so when I say all that, I don't say any. I don't say any of that to to shame anybody who's struggling with obesity.
Speaker 4:But if I can just throw out these three questions that we ask a lot of people, because that journey has led to the most unlikely journey in the world of us rescuing people out of obesity, that's what we do and it's so interesting. You know, I ask people all the time. I said if the king of kings showed up at your doorstep, if he showed up and he had the man or woman that you were created to be at your present age, the one you were created to be, the one that he created, you knew, you before the beginning of time. What does that person weigh? And it's always interesting. Nobody ever has to look at a chart at the doctor's office. They automatically know. They know who they're recruiting to be. It just shocks me, angie, and I have asked that question hundreds, probably thousands of times, and you get to the truth every time.
Speaker 4:And then the next question I ask is and I've done this over and over where people tell me they don't know what to eat, they don't know what exercise to do, and that's one of the things that they don't know what to eat. They don't know what exercise to do, and that's one of the things that we never tell people what to eat, by the way, because it's because it's a lie. They're always looking for an easy way out. Now, do you have to change what you eat? But I asked. But I asked them.
Speaker 4:I said if your family and the loved one, that your loved ones were taken hostage and the only way to get them back alive was to was to release or lose. We call release because we tend to look for things that we lose, but we like to release pounds. But when would they release? One pound a week until you reach that weight you were created to be, and you can't ask anybody for a diet. You can't do anything. That's crazy. Your doctor would have to be thrilled with it, but you can't ask him. You have to do those things that you already know in your heart could be done, can you save your family's life. Everybody says yes, okay, because because we'll always do more for others than we'll do for ourselves. But the question that really troubles me the most is why we don't save ourselves. That's powerful.
Speaker 4:I didn't mean to go on a rant.
Speaker 1:Oh no, but that's powerful because I myself, um, I started my weight loss journey at three 17. That was last year. Um, no, it wasn't last year, it was this year. January of this year, I started at three 17. I'm now at 284.
Speaker 3:That's fantastic.
Speaker 1:I feel like it's been the struggle of my life. But when I got to the number of 317, I said something has to change. And it started with my mind. For me it started with my mind and you know my husband? He nothing but a hundred. And what? How much is you?
Speaker 2:About 165, 170.
Speaker 1:Yeah, soaking wet, just a little real, you know. But the reality is that I have a champion on my side. He just constantly champions me on and you know, again it came back to a mind, a mind to want what God wanted for me, because I've always struggled with my weight. I'm 45 now, always struggled, since a child, up and down, up and down, up and down. But I just decided, I said I'm not doing this, no more, it's going to come down, and so I can definitely relate to what you're saying. Yes, sir, you got any thoughts honey?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely relate to what you're saying yes, sir, you got any thoughts honey? Yeah, I would definitely say you know, with her struggles as she began to start losing. It's very funny how your better half can see the weight loss and the change way before you do. I mean because I would. You know we would get to this point that we were doing the measurements and everything and I see the numbers drop. And I guess when she said I was the encouragement, is you know? Because I would always say, and I'll say this to anybody that's losing weight, is you know? Could I always say, and I'll say this to anybody that's losing weight, you know, just because the weight might not be dropping when you do the measurements and the measurements dropping. That's the way God designed to put things in perspective order. In the way, and you can relate this to anything, he puts things in perspective order because if you drop too much weight and too many inches, you look sickly. So you got to let the process take place.
Speaker 1:What's your thought process? I was like boom type of word process and weight. What's y'all's thoughts?
Speaker 4:Well, here's the thing. Number one I I agree with what you're saying. The first of all, we already know what we should weigh. It's like you know what your ideal weight. You may be at it now, I don't know. I we've never told people. We've never told people once what they should weigh. Because, as I said, if, if, if, if Jesus showed up at your door with the version of yourself that you were created to be at age 45, you know what that woman weighs. You know what she weighs, guarantee you. And so at the end of the day, you don't have to do crazy to lose weight.
Speaker 4:You know, I've had, we've worked with people I know I think about, I think about Sean. You know one of our clients who came to us a few years ago, that that was 452 pounds and in a wheelchair if he had to walk more than 10 feet. Okay, now I tell people out of the gate we're never going to tell you what to eat or what exercises to do, because that's that's not the problem. If that were the problem, the whole world would be thin. Right, problem, the whole world will be thin. But at the end of the day, he said it was so interesting to watch his process, because I gave him that question about if his family was held hostage and I said what would you do if your family was held hostage to get the weight off? And he really thought for like 30 seconds. It was so interesting. He said I guess I could eat less. I said that's where you start, because what works for one person might not work for another. You have to become the expert on yourself and we already know what to do.
Speaker 4:But I would encourage everybody that struggles with weight not to see it as a struggle, to see it as a gift. Okay, to see it as a gift because you use used word struggle and I would argue that point. It's not your struggle, it's your gift. I promise you. It's your gift because this power is within you that you're discovering right now. When you went to 317 and now and now dropped about it says like about 40 pounds. I mean you're finding out that you have this power. You have this muscle that other people aren't challenged with. You know, michael's not challenged with this. He would love you 500 pounds, just like Jesus was, and he's going to love you at whatever your ideal weight is. I want you to hear what I said he's going to love you at your ideal weight too. Okay, he's going to love you regardless, like I would. You know, when Angie had the extra 63 pounds on her, I loved her. She was just gorgeous either way. Yeah, the point being is the point being is it's not about shame, it's not about any of that, but it's about building that mental muscle. That's why our whole process is it's called rethink. That it's all my mindset based because you're exactly right, it has.
Speaker 4:Do you have to change what you eat? Well, that's common sense, I mean, of course. Of course can you. Can you eat 5,000 calories or 10,000 calories a day, or 7,000 calories, whatever the number? No, it ain't gonna work unless you're, unless you're running marathons. But but at the end of the day, it's about what do you want most?
Speaker 4:Is somebody sick and tired of living halfway? Because when you were in 317, you were probably beating yourself up a lot of the time you were. If you were like I was and like every person that we talked to, literally every person you were living in shame and you were saying well, what does that say about me? I don't want to get in front of those people, I don't want to step up for God. Now there's a clue. Think about this. If the enemy was going to take out the effectiveness of believers, what better way to take the believers out as far as their effectiveness is to put them in shame about something that they have control over. Think about that. I mean, put them in, put them in something that morally it it's morally accepted in our society. Obesity is becoming more and more accepted as oh, it's okay, it's not okay, guys, it's not. I'm not saying that and what I'm saying is not to shame people. I'm saying it to wake them up.
Speaker 4:You know I wrote some posts recently online to, you know, to Christians. You know, don't be embarrassed, but your gluttony is showing. You know, you can't. God is really clear about it, but he's. But he comes to us in a way that is forgiving. So I would invite people forgive yourself.
Speaker 4:You know we've seen this with. We have men and women that have gone through a process and it's so neat when they realize that there's no condemnation for them where they are Now. It's not. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean that it's an excuse to stay where you're at. Does that make sense? Where you are? But the whole idea behind this whole process is freedom, because when your weight comes down, I'll guarantee you've seen things happen in your life that had nothing to do with you, but you've seen momentum. I'll bet you I don't know, we just met Right and I will bet you you've seen Right and I will bet you you've seen. I bet you say whether, because you have this confidence now that you're stepping into the version of yourself you're created to be. Tell me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, absolutely Right, Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 4:And so. So when I see, when I see people that want to stay where they're at, it breaks my heart. I don't condemn them, I really don't. I mean it's because I know what it's like sitting between the elbows of a 300 plus pound person. I've sat there. It's not fun. And so, at the end of the day, what is believers I mean here's the greatest opportunity we have that's ever existed in the church, I believe, since Jesus came in the flesh is that we have. What would it look like Now?
Speaker 4:Today, there's 916 million people worldwide that struggle with obesity, 916 million going up every second. The obesity rate in the church is as high or higher than it is in the secular world. What would it be like if we turned it around within the church first? Do you think it would be attractive? I mean, think about it, because think about this, it's the only, it's the only thing out there. It's like in the South where we live now we're in in deep south. You're in Virginia, which is considered south. I believe so, but but in the south, the churches, it's like church. We were at yesterday Many churches.
Speaker 4:If you, if you step into the church, and you as a leader, and you have alcohol in your breath, and I'm not condoning alcohol unless somebody, but but I can tell you I'm having a wine with Jesus, just so you'll know when I get there, because he promised it. But. But but I don't struggle, that's not my personal struggle, but but if you go into a church and you have alcohol on your breath, in most churches where we live they will ask you out of leadership position. They'll do an intervention, they'll, they'll, they will take you out of leadership. But now, if you're a church leader with a hundred plus pounds of excess weight and you struggle with obesity and you, after your sermon, they have a, they have a and I'm not talking about yours personally, I'm saying in general, the leader, after they're, they're in there, they, they have a church dinner and they have three plates of fried chicken plus biscuits, fixings and gravy. The only thing that that leader, that's what, hey? That's how we roll down in the South. The only thing that leader is going to be asked is what would you like for dessert? That's a great democracy going on in the church right now.
Speaker 4:Step in for that young woman, step in, don't shame them. But if we would face it, if we would face it with open arms, if we would face the struggle boldly, without shame, and call it out what it is, and the church wouldn't change. Because see, here's the thing we could be standing in a room of a thousand people if, if me at 300 pounds back then, if I was in the room of a thousand people who all look like james bond models you know, the perfect ones that have no body fat whatsoever yeah, I mean, they're just gorgeous, you know, but but every and I was the only one that weighed 130 pounds too much.
Speaker 4:They could all see my struggle. There's no way they couldn't see it. You can't hide it unless the ring is on. However, those other thousand men and women, they all have struggles. They're struggling within relationships, they're struggling in finances, they're struggling with their children. They're struggling in all these different areas're struggling in finances, they're struggling with their children. They're struggling in all these different areas. But you can't see their struggle and this is what I don't want you to miss either, catherine.
Speaker 4:When we release the weight and Michael, when we release the weight, that group of thousand people can't miss this release in the weight either. They see it too. And it's so interesting, those men and women, their struggle that they're worrying about at 3 am that you can't see. You gave them hope. You gave them hope that something else is possible, because they see if they can overcome 100 pounds of weight or 300 pounds of weight, or 300 pounds, they can. They can. There's maybe a chance to me, my gambling addiction, my pornography addiction, my lust addiction, my drinking addiction, my whatever addiction, whatever challenges. You give them hope and it's the and so that's where the opportunity is within the church, so again, I, didn't mean to rant.
Speaker 4:My wife's one of the best listeners that you've ever met.
Speaker 1:And do you have anything you want to say, anything you want to add to it?
Speaker 3:He says it just so eloquently. I will just say, having been on the journey myself but also being the spouse of someone that struggled for years and years because it's difficult to go to sleep at night wondering if the one you love is going to wake up the next day. So I'll just put that out there. For those that are struggling that think, oh, my family will be okay if something happens to me because we've got life insurance or that's okay, they'll find someone else. Well, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3:I didn't. I didn't make, we didn't make promises to one another, in our case in 1986, to to, to let, like Alan said, one more bite of food getting away and I could have it, could have joined me in the middle of the night, but I didn't think. I just knew that he was obese. I mean, I was certainly overweight. But I've learned since, because we've we've spoke to people one day, that um, two months later, that way back early and and are um doing this to help people that he wanted to think about it and about our program. And then, a couple months later, when one of our uh associates called to just check in on them, his wife said I wish I could talk to them, but they died of a heart attack. They were only 30 pounds overweight. They weren't even like the 200 pound overweight that we do help and work with, as Alan mentioned.
Speaker 3:It's something to think about when, no matter if you're 30 pounds or 300 pounds and, like alan said, we we we work with a wide, you know, help a lot, a wide range of people with their weight loss, but it's don't take it lightly because, yes, you don't, you're going to a better place yes, we all you know, agree and look forward to that day, but don't cut yourself short for your family, that you don't know the damage that you can do to your children, your spouse, and not just the financial situation that you may put them in a life that you're missing with them and and all that you could have given the world.
Speaker 3:You know and you know what, what, what are you, what's your gift that you're cutting short and not sharing with those that that might be looking to you for wisdom. You know financial support, wisdom and and so forth. So that's what I. I just remember going last kiss at night and how I felt. I'd often lay there for an hour. So it makes me actually clear up still when I think about that. We were fortunate, because the statistics are not good for our heart attack stroke victims. I believe it's about half that die at the first event.
Speaker 4:One person dying every 6.8 seconds worldwide from an obesity-related illness.
Speaker 3:That is a statistic. There's actually a clock ticker, just like the population ticker on it Going up. It also shows there's a ticker we're aware of that shows death due to obesity.
Speaker 1:Wow, diamond. So we can't see you on the other side of this camera and microphone, but you know who exactly you are. That is obese. I myself, as I said, I struggle with it, just the same as others do, and possibly you is. There is hope and all you have to do is change your mind. So, um, alan and Angie, you all have a free online tool, uh, to helping people.
Speaker 4:Can you talk about that a little bit? Well, actually it actually we created a training for, for your audience, a specific training that we, that we did, and it's the five step strategy that Angie and I used to lose 192 pounds together in 260 days, but 129 for me and 63 for Angie. And and if your, if your audience will go to transformmyfuturecom forward, slash in the rough. I-n-t-h-e-r-u-f-f. We create it for your audience. They can go there and they can watch that training. We've had people that watch this about a 43-minute training. We've had people that have watched similar training that is pretty much the same training that have come to us and lost 18 pounds, 20 pounds, 30 pounds, just by following what we say in that training. So there's nothing to buy in it. But it's totally free training that we created and it is how we lost the weight. And I can tell you, if they're looking for a magical diet, don't bother watching, right, if they're looking for a magical diet, but at the end of the day, because it's so interesting. But there is hope.
Speaker 4:One thing I want to leave your audience with this can be kind of a, you know, an Angie and Alan downer moment. I don't want to. I don't want to make it a downer for him, because there is hope, and I think about people that we've worked with that come out of wheelchairs. I think about a 70 year old man that that had struggled with weight for 52 years. 52 years he hadn't been at his ideal weight since Jimmy Carter was in office. 52 years he hadn't been at his ideal weight since Jimmy Carter was in office and that's a president from the South in the 1970s and he walked with a walker, has two fused vertebrae, he's a heart attack, survivor all of this and he's dropped over 135 or 140 pounds now just following the process. It's the first time. So I want your audience to hear that there is no reason they can't lose weight Zero.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 4:So can you? Can you repeat that link again?
Speaker 1:That link one more time.
Speaker 4:Transform T-R-A-N-S-F-O-R-M. My M-Y future F-U-T-U-R-E. Forward slash N-I-N V-T-H-E rough R-U-F-F. It's so cool that you did that for us.
Speaker 1:For our audience.
Speaker 4:For your audience so they can listen to it, because our prayer is that they will not. We want people to get into their skinny jeans. If they want to, that's fine, but what we really want is because God's people were not created to be in bondage.
Speaker 1:That's right. Come on, they're created.
Speaker 4:We want them to get free, and this is about freedom. It's not about whether you're eating your broccoli Nothing wrong with broccoli. It not about whether you're eating your broccoli. That's another one broccoli. It's about are you, are you free?
Speaker 1:y'all, that's our language, y'all. I I know I'm pretty sure y'all probably have listened to a couple of episodes um on the podcast. This is absolutely our language. We want to see people just as free as we are in jesus. Oh my gosh, honey, what's your? You got got some thoughts yeah, I, I do.
Speaker 2:I do got some thoughts on. You know, just listen to the statistics on obesity. We have to realize that obesity is real and with the, with the rate that you, the statistic that you gave it seems like it's, it's even higher than the outcome of opiate addiction and overdose and it's highest of anything. It's outrageous. And we got to realize this. And there's a scripture I like and I got to say it and an aha moment I had on yesterday and those who might be listening, it was a couple months or whenever you're hearing this. The scripture is in Proverbs, the power of the tongue. If you say that you can drop that weight and you believe it and you keep saying it to yourself, you can do it. And I like that other scripture in Philippians 4.13 that says I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. If you take those two verses and apply it to that weight loss, I guarantee you that you will lose it. Now the aha moment is this Now, listen to it very carefully. Do not settle for temporary relief.
Speaker 1:Come on.
Speaker 2:Do not settle for temporary relief. And I say it like this If you settle for things that only takes it off for a few moments and you go back to what you were doing at first, it's not going to work. You have to continue and commit to continue to do it, even after the weight drops. It's okay to splurge Every once in a while, but Get back to the routine To keep it off, because you just splurge and splurge, and splurge. What was the work for? Do not settle for temporary relief, continue to do it.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:Amen, I was going to say your thoughts?
Speaker 1:No, no.
Speaker 4:He just brought something out that was, you know, when I reached my ideal weight in 2017, you know it's been six years ago One of my closest friends, a guy who never has never struggled with his weight in his life. He's always been very thin, but he became a drug addict and an alcoholic in the late 1980s and he got sober in 1991. And after he got sober, god blessed his family, blessed his businesses. He's one of the most successful business people I've ever met. But he got really worried about my weight problem. He was calling me all the time because he knew I was going to leave Angie a widow at some point if I didn't change.
Speaker 4:And when I reached my deal weight, he called me up. He said Alan, I'm really proud of you. I knew you could do it. He said but you've got. I want you to hear what I'm saying. He said you've got. You've got a challenge harder than you, than me, ahead of you.
Speaker 4:So what do you mean you're? You're a drunk and an alcohol. I mean a drunk and a drug addict. I mean that's what he called himself. And he said and and I said he says to me.
Speaker 4:And I remember I was driving, I was in my car on the island where we live, and he said to me he said, alan, that's true, but I never have to walk in a bar or or take another drug or sip of alcohol as long as I live. He said, but you got to eat and I can tell you I about wrecked my car, and what he was saying is his beast, alcoholism and drug addiction. He's able to lock up and walk back and forth by every day and by the grace of God, he's able to maintain that sobriety that he did again. But Angie and I, and anybody that struggles with our beast, we have to take out of the cage, we have to take it on a walk every day, every single day. You got it without being devoured by that beast, and so it's so. I want people to see it's a gift though. It's a gift because where there's challenges, there's opportunity for muscle, there's an opportunity to grow. But amen to what you're saying. There too, michael. I mean I totally agree with the verses you listen.
Speaker 1:That was powerful. That's powerful because it's just a reality that the struggle is real, but through Jesus, you can overcome it. You can overcome it. I'm going to say that one more time the struggle is real, but you can overcome it. He says that we are more than conquerors, and that's not just in one specific area, but that's in everything. So, as long as you walk like a victim and think like a victim, this is what you'll be, and so, because you're in Jesus, you have victory. You have victory, and I have to tell myself that I have victory in Jesus. Yes, process is definitely a part of it, but at the end of the day, he says I'm victorious. At the end of the day, you are victorious. And I have a story.
Speaker 1:Alan has a story, angie has a story. Michael, his story is sugar. He likes to eat sugar and but still he has victory over that too, as long as he knows that. You know, just because I'm thin, I can't continue to eat sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar. This is how. What's the other thing? Obesity and diabetes, all of these things is about stewardship, and it's like god gives us the opportunity to steward over everything that he's given us. Nothing wrong with sugar, nothing wrong with food, but when we overdo it, yeah, we're gonna see it. You know what I mean. So, uh, what is you all's final word for our listeners, for our diamonds, and we're gonna close out in prayer.
Speaker 4:Just again to have hope but also not ignore the obvious. I mean, we all become the what I term you know. We know that fable of the emperor with no clothes, where everybody told him that he, they, loved his outfit but he was walking around with no clothes. On that fable from, you know, kind of a nursery rhyme kind of fable. And if you, if you, struggle with weight, it's okay, but it's no excuse to stay there, it's okay. I mean, there's grace for it. There is, like Michael said quit, quit calling yourself a victim, Don't settle because you don't have to. But at the end of the day, we have to take steps, real steps, to get out of it. And the first step is your mind. You were 100% right. And, by the way, that's the last step and the step in between two, the food and the exercises.
Speaker 4:I mean, did Angie and I just get off of a 10, I don't know 10, 15 mile bike ride, I don't know how long? 10, I don't know. 10, 15 mile bike ride, I don't know how long? Yes, we did. It was by choice, but it began with our mind. It began with our mind. Are we going to? I say all the time, if you're waiting on a diet to save you? It never will. But if you're ready to make a decision, the decision will be the thing that moves you forward.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Amen. So, father, we thank you so much for your grace and your mercy. Thank you so much for allowing this conversation to come to pass. I just pray right now, not only for our listeners, but we pray for Alan and Angie and their and many things that you are bringing them into and bringing them through.
Speaker 1:I pray that everyone that comes in the midst of them with a struggle with their weight, god, that you would just give them that favor to be able to speak life to them, that favor to be able to speak life to them. We pray, in the name of Jesus, that you'll continue to touch everyone that is here, god, that is in particularly struggling with their weight, and it might not be weight, but it might be diabetes, and it might not be diabetes, but it might be something. God, and we just pray, lord, that each and every one of us will walk in the victory that you gave us on the cross. God, we bless your name and we bless your people. We thank you, we praise you and we do all of this in your precious name, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:And amen, amen. So we thank you so much for being here. We thank you so much for creating this link for those who are here and listening. We appreciate it. That's an awesome thing, and so, one more time, can you give them the link after you say what it is that you need to say.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. It's transformmyfuturecom forward slash in the rough I-N-T-H-E-R-U-F-F, and it's our five-step strategy that we work with our clients, whether they've got at least 25, 50, 100 or more pounds, and exactly how we lost our 192 pounds together in 260 days back in 2016. And it doesn't matter if you travel, if you've got medical challenges, if you've got different things, you can do it Now. Does it mean it's easy? No, but the last thing I'll say is you know, because this is the gift that's waiting on the other side. It's like the creator of the universe. This weight loss thing is simple. It's very simple. Wouldn't you agree with that, catherine? It's simple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, simple, it's simple, it's very simple. Wouldn't you agree with that?
Speaker 4:Catherine, it's simple, yeah, simple, it's simple, it's not easy. It's not easy, and I get that totally, but it's like the creator of the universe is saying I've given you this gift. I've given you this gift, the greatest gift he gave you the breath that you have in your lungs right now. I've given you this gift. If you will just handle this weight thing, I'm going to open up the floodgates for you and I'm telling you that God loves you. At a hundred pounds or a thousand pounds, this doesn't matter. He loves you regardless. But at the end of the day, he wants us to be stewards of what he's given us first, before he gives us more.
Speaker 1:That's right, amen, honey. That's right, amen, amen honey. That's awesome. Thank y'all so much again for being here. We appreciate your presence, amen.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having us. Amen All right, y'all, y'all know what time it is. Come a little closer, come a little closer.
Speaker 1:Remember until next time you are a diamond in the rough. Amen, amen. Y'all have a blessed and highly favored week. Amen and amen.
