Run fatboy, run

Marriage is great for all kinds of reasons but it also has a downside.  This downside is an upside too but with a sting in the tail, it's kind of an upside downside.

Buns.  Not just buns but shortbread and banana loaf and the pies de resistance - white chocolate cheesecake.

Yes my wife is a fantastic cook and baker and I am a fantastic eater.  I love cake, bread, deserts anything that's bad for me really, not to mention KFC, Chinese food and our own national dish -fish and chips.

A few years ago I went to America with my then girlfriend's (now wife's) family.   It was great but I came back fat.  I had been warned before that I had the potential to put on weight but I didn't heed that warning.  I looked at myself in those holiday snaps and knew something had to be done.

So I started to run, I ran every week day for months.  Each day I ran a little longer until I was putting in around 5 miles a day.  I was joined by my now brother-in-law and we decided to run a half-marathon.  We trained hard and against all odds we completed that run on Easter Saturday 2007 in the city of Larne.  Job done.

I thought that might have been the start of something big.  I had lost the weight I wanted and I had got fit to boot.  What was next we wondered, a marathon, a triathlon, an Iron Man competition?  Such good intentions, such great expectations, such a letdown.  I've barely put my trainers on since.  And now, now I'm fat again.

So it's time to sort this out.  I've got to cut down on the buns and increase the runs.  We are to be good stewards of our bodies.  They are a gift to us and we should take care of then.  For some that's easier than others but we've got to try.  I've got to try.  Today is the first day of the new regime.  I wonder will it last, I wonder if my knees can take it, I wonder if I can withstand the allure of Kentucky Fried Chicken and my wife's white chocolate cheesecake.   Time will tell.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Genesis 1:26

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

1 Corinthians 6:19