Luke’s Notebook

This morning, Mark and I — well, let me back up.

I haven’t done a lot of updating the past few days, mainly because we’ve had so much going on lately. On Thursday evening, we attended the visitation for my great-grandma. On Friday morning, the entire family went to the funeral home and then to St. Mary’s in Belleville for the funeral.

After that, we caravanned to the cemetery for the final ceremony. Finally, the family met up at Fischer’s for a luncheon. It was nice to get to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa as well as our aunts, uncles and cousins.

Last night, we were visited by our (well, technically, Dad’s) second-cousins, Sean and Ryan Barbeau, along with Sean’s wife, Carline. The three of them live in Florida, and we would usually see Sean and Ryan every year or so up until the past few years, where we haven’t really gotten together at all.

We gave them a tour of the house, and then we had a mini party in our basement, playing pool, ping-pong, DDR and other stuff. I’m glad they were able to stop by while they were in the area! It was really good to see them again.

This morning, Mark and I got up at 5:30. We got ready, then drove on over to the Greyhound bus station in St. Louis in order to pick up a friend of ours, Emily. She took a 19-hour trip from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, to visit this area.

It’s always so neat to get to meet new folks! So we met her at the bus station, chatted a bit, and then headed towards Cracker Barrel to get some breakfast.

In a little bit, a few of us will be leaving to go back to St. Louis — this time to Lambert St. Louis International Airport. We have three friends flying in from Detroit — sisters Becky and Deborah, and our friend Ashley, whom we met in August when she flew down for the Softball Classic. We’re looking forward to seeing Ashley for a second time and meeting Becky and Deborah for the first time!

We’ll ring in the new year in a little over 12 hours. Here comes 2006!

Well, terms have been reached!

The loser (see Ashley) of the best-of-three series will:

Have to step in front of the video camera to concede and congratulate the winner. (Said video may* find its way onto the website one way or another.)

The winner (see Luke) of the best-of-three series will:

Have the opportunity to completely craft — within reason — an entry on the loser’s blog.

*depending upon the outcome of the competition

I’m actually a bit nervous about this. I have no idea what I’m getting myself into! Oh well… we’ll find out in a little bit, won’t we? If you see an un-Luke-like entry in my blog over the next few days, you might be able to guess what happened…

I removed 102 desktop icons.

Now I have a (relatively) neat desktop, though it’s still very cluttered compared to a lot of other people’s desktop. Ah well… I’ll take it.

How many icons do you have on your computer desktop? Five? 10? 20? 50?

Try 172. And that’s without really trying. Needless to say, I need to go through and tidy it up — that, or buy a bigger monitor. Oh, but I’ll take care of it soon. I’ll report back once I clean up my desktop. I will guess that I’ll end up with… 70. We’ll see.

First off, I want to thank everybody for their prayers and words of support given to my family. We very much appreciate it. God is an amazing comforter.

Today, work consisted mostly of scoping a couple of depositions. Late in the afternoon, Paul, Jude and I went up to the YMCA to meet up with some friends for the weekly basketball games. We played about three full-court games and then three or four half-court games. Afterwards, we had a good workout with weights.

This YMCA building in downtown Belleville is very old, and the brand-new facility will be opening on Monday, January 2nd, 2006. There are so many memories associated with that old building! I learned to swim there some 10 or 12 years ago. I had my first real workouts there, and it was there when I took my first-ever body fat percentage test (the results weren’t pretty :-().

I got to know so many people at that YMCA! A lot of the workers became good friends of ours, and we got to know other people there while working out or playing basketball.

Portions of the first Cliff Craig commercial (see http://www.famteam.com/videos/) were filmed there. In fact, today I used one of the very machines that Mr. Craig was using — the same bench press.

And there are many other sentimental moments from that old place. For instance, for a little while, we held weekly prayer meeting services in one of their halls. Also, the little guys — and yours truly, I must admit — spent many hours in the Kids’ Gym area, playing around on their soft mats.

So there are a lot of memories surrounding the downtown Belleville YMCA. I spent time there at all different stages of life — from being a wee lad, to being a preteen, a teenager, and then to the strapping young man I am today.

The new building looks awesome, and I’m anxious to try it out.

Our beloved great-grandma and Dad’s grandma, Dolores Arndt, passed away this evening. My Aunt Berni was staying with her at the nursing home as her breathing slowed down and eventually stopped.

Shortly after learning this, several of us — Mom, Dad, Paul, John, Jude and I — left the house in order to meet up with Aunt Berni and Uncle Dave, along with Grandpa. We hugged and talked a little while, sharing different memories we have of Great-Grandma.

It’s bittersweet to realize that Great-Grandma has passed away. The “bitter” part is simply because we loved her so much, and she meant a great deal to us. We’ll miss getting to take the chubs to visit her, bringing her strawberry milkshakes, and playing Go Fish with her and the chubs, namely, Wizzy, Caleb and Peter.

The “sweet” part is she lived an extremely full life. She was blessed to live 91 years, and up until 14 months ago she had been living in her own home. I’m thankful that we were able to get really close to her these past few years, as we would often visit her — both at home and the nursing home.

For her sake, I’m just so happy that she is no longer inside her frail body that was plagued with so many different health problems as the years went on. Over the past few weeks, as it became more evident that she was slowly slipping away, my parents prayed with her a few times, and it was evident that she was ready for Jesus.

The past few hours — ever since learning of her death — I’m constantly being reminded of Psalm 84:10:

“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere…”

I just love that verse so much. It is so amazingly clear that temporary life on earth cannot compare to eternal life in heaven. There is absolutely no comparison. There will still be pain from missing Great-Grandma, but we can take great comfort in knowing that she is now experiencing no suffering, no health problems, no pain, no oxygen machine.

Philippians 1:21-23:

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far…

We’ve been having some Internet troubles lately. The connection has been kind of sketchy over the last couple of days. Ah well… hopefully I can get this blog post through.

Today was a pretty slow day, as it’s the first work day after Christmas. And even though it’s a Monday and not a holiday, many offices and businesses were closed, including the post office, banks, et cetera.

My mom and dad spent a good amount of time at the nursing home, after they received news that our great-grandma’s health was declining more. Basically, it seems like she is just gradually slowing down. We’re thankful that up to this point she hasn’t really been in a tremendous amount of pain or discomfort.

Paul, Jude, Philip and I went to the YMCA this evening. There weren’t many people there, which is understandable considering it’s the day after Christmas. Anyway, we had a good workout, and after working with machines and free weights, I spent 35 minutes on the elliptical machine. According to that, I burned nearly 700 calories. I’m not exactly sure how accurate those numbers are, but I know I burned off a bunch.

Right before we left, we decided to use the YMCA’s body fat analyzer. It’s a handheld device that lets you punch in your height, weight, age and such, and then you hold it by these metal sensors, and it will calculate your body fat percentage. I like to use it every now and then just to see what kind of progress I am making. Stepping on the scale is useful, but it doesn’t tell the whole story, since weight can fluctuate so much, and you might not even lose much when you’re gaining muscle at the same time. So occasionally testing the body fat percentage seems to be a good idea.

I also worked on SmorgasWord some more today. I’ve been in the mode of debugging it the past few days. These bugs can really be baffling, I tell ya! Thankfully, there’s always some some solution… even though I’ve often wondered if there was an exception to that rule.

The game is coming along nicely, though. Pretty soon, I may find myself looking for some volunteers to help me test it out online. Any guinea pigs out there? If so, feel free to e-mail me, and I’ll let you know if I need your assistance. Thanks!

I love Christmas Day. We had such a wonderful day today, from our Father’s House church service in the morning, to hosting the Arndt side of the family in the afternoon, to visiting with my mom’s side of the family in the evening.

With the two parties combined, there was such a selection of great foods and delicious desserts. Starting with the get-together at our house — we had barbecue pork, chips, cookies, cake and ice cream. As if that weren’t enough — and, really, it was — at the second party, there was much more to choose from. Everything from more cake, to many more desserts, to delicious turkey and ham, to fruit salad, to… well, there was a lot to eat.

I shudder to imagine how many calories I must have consumed today, but I am just thankful that these feasting days only surface every now and again. If they were frequent, I would be in big trouble. Late this evening, Jude and I played a good 45 minutes or so on DDR, so we already started to atone for today’s eating. I figure we probably each burned off enough calories in the workout to make up for a few cookies eaten. Not bad!

I also paid a visit to Great-Grandma Arndt this evening. She was sleeping the entire time I was at the nursing home While I was there, Aunt Berni and Uncle Dave arrived to spend some time with her. I was able to chat with them for a while before heading out, so that was really nice.

Well, here we are — the final week of the year 2005! I’m looking forward to this upcoming weekend, as we’re going to host two parties — New Year’s Eve and Day. If all goes as expected, we ought to have a handful of out-of-state (and even out-of-country!) visitors this weekend.

Merry Christmas, everybody! We celebrate the birth of Jesus, who, through His death, has provided a way out. Were it not for Him, I would be hopeless, dead in my sins, destined for and deserving hell.

2 Corinthians 9:12-15:

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” That pretty much sums it up. Every single one of us has been offered a gift — the gift of forgiveness and salvation. It’s completely up to us whether we accept that gift and choose to follow God, or whether we reject it and willfully live a life that’s rebellious towards God. But the gift is there.

Luke 9:23:

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Jesus made it clear that we can’t live a “wordly” lifestyle and still follow him; that we must be willing to constantly deny ourselves and choose to follow and obey Him. It’s obvious that that means we have to say “No” to a lot of things the world has to offer. I’m here to testify that it’s well worth it. Whatever the cost to gain eternal life, it is worth it.

Psalm 63:3

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.

Have a wonderful Christmas, friends!

Another thing that happened today is I had two lunches!

Right after I finished eating lunch here at home, Paul received a call from our Grandpa Arndt, asking if we would like to meet him at Ryan’s Steakhouse to do lunch. Though I really wanted to go, my initial response was, “No. Christmas is right around the corner. One lunch is enough.”

So I had pretty much declined going, because buffets — even on their own — can be real diet-killers. And the fact that I had just eaten didn’t help things, either.

Paul, Mark and Jude tried to convince me to come, and they finally did. Paul had a good argument. He pointed out that I would have to eat something like 2,000 calories more than I usually do to even gain half of a pound! And Jude chimed in, reminding me that even if that were the case, a half-pound is such a minor detail. By the way, we had a great YMCA workout this evening, so that helped my damage control efforts (I even ran a mile — 24 laps:-)).

So I agreed to go and eat Lunch Number Two. I really didn’t want to pass up a chance on spending time with my brothers, Dad and Grandpa. It turned out that I didn’t really eat all that much at Ryan’s. And even if I did, I would have been fine. I could have pigged out like nobody’s business and still have been okay, I’m sure.

Right about now you’re wondering, “Luke… why did you waste a whole post on this nice little lunch story?” Well, that’s an excellent question, my friend, and I have an answer: I’m not finished.

The past few days, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about fitness, about diets, exercising and so forth. Just the other day, our good friend Julia — Miss Julia Marie from the FamTeam Message Boards or Xanga — had a very good blog entry (see http://www.xanga.com/missjuliamarie/411439995/item.html), reminding us that our bodies are God’s temples, and we ought to keep them in shape. She also stated that dieting and exercising is a way we “die to ourselves” and we practice self-discipline.

I absolutely agree with what she wrote. I think there are so many reasons to stay/get in shape. Unfortunately, as we all know, that is not always an easy task.

Some people are blessed with a super-fast metabolism and can pretty much eat anything in sight without gaining a pound (see John). Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people.

Most of the people who read this — or a good portion, anyway — haven’t known me for more than a couple of years. I recently did the math, and I figured that I’m 75% of the person that I was approximately five years ago. Back when I was 16, I weighed around 250 pounds (248 is the highest reading I remember), and today I weigh 186 pounds.

Looking back, I cannot believe that I’m 60-plus pounds lighter today than I was some five years ago. What changed? Did my love for food lessen? Did I discover a miracle pill? Did I start running 20 miles a day?

I didn’t really do anything too radical. I did get more serious with exercising, and I would visit the YMCA a few times a week. But I think the biggest thing that has changed was my lifestyle. My weight loss really was so gradual — maybe a pound or two a month. I didn’t really even think that much about it until I looked back and realized, “Whoa! I’m 30 pounds lighter than I was a couple of years ago.”

I think the reason it “worked” was because I wasn’t on a fad diet, a pill or anything like that. I modified my overall approach to food, and that resulted in me losing weight and getting in better shape. Basically, I became a lot more smart about how I eat and what I eat. Prior to this, I never really cared to find out how many calories were in any given meal, and a lot of times I would simply be eating way too many calories for my body, and the result is the excess would be turned into fat.

And I strongly believe the main reason I haven’t really gained weight back — aside from a few pounds here or there — is that I didn’t diet. To me, a diet suggests a temporary solution. If you go on a diet and you lose all the weight you want, that’s awesome! But when most people diet, they plan to one day get off of the diet.

See, there was a reason I gained 60 pounds: I was eating too much food, and I wasn’t exercising nearly enought to compensate for that. Let’s say I would have dieted, taken a pill or have had a surgery and managed to erase those 60 pounds. Great! Right?

But what do you think would have happened over the next few years? Chances are, I would have slowly gained weight back. That would be, in my opinion, a temporary fix, never addressing the root of the issue. Even if I could lose the weight at the press of a button, I would probably keep on gaining and gaining until I finally got rid of the source of the problem — me simply eating too much and not exercising enough.

I had tried dieting before then, with very limited success. The only thing that worked for me was to simply change my every-day habits. I didn’t notice a big difference in one day, in one week or even in one month. But since I had kind of adapted a lifestyle of eating less and exercising more, the weight loss was gradual but inevitable.

One thing I’ve learned — and Julia mentioned it — is how much self-discipline is required to fight to stay in shape. It’s not easy! As Christians, we are supposed to be constantly dying to ourselves, to our desires.

Just like anything, self-discipline takes practice. The more you practice it, the better you’ll get with putting it to work. And the awesome thing is, self-discipline carries over into other areas of your life. When we train our bodies to obey us instead of our own flesh, eventually they give in. Our flesh can be extremely stubborn, though, so it takes lots of patience and persistence.

It’s definitely still a struggle to stay in shape. For me, though, it’s all about instant gratification versus delayed gratification. It’s so easy to give in and satisfy your hunger right now, or to skip out on exercising because you don’t want the discomfort right now. I know full well the discomfort of working out, of lifting heavy weights and running around in circles many times. I also know the discomfort of being hungry or really craving a certain food.

All I can say is, we reap what we sow. I know that if I want the benefits of being in shape, it’s going to cost me. It will require me to deny myself, to turn down food, to force myself to exercise even when I’m feeling lousy. In my opinion, though, it’s worth it. The instant gratification I might receive from eating a lot is nice, but the results of delayed gratification “taste” much, much better.

I hope this made sense. I wish I had a neatly-prepared statement to summarize this entier entry. I also hope that I didn’t come off as a Cliff Craig (http://www.famteam.com/videos/ for those unfamiliar). I understand that it is easy to gain weight and hard to lose it. My main purpose here was to share my own personal experiences and what I have learned throughout the past five years.

And if I could encourage anybody out there, I would just say: It’s worth it. Don’t delay. Just get going in the right direction. It doesn’t really matter how much you weigh. If you tweak your lifestyle so that you’re losing weight, then just go live your life and have fun! Days, weeks, months and years pass so quickly. If you have momentum in the right direction, you’ll lose weight before you know it. If you’re losing as little as half-a-pound a week, that’s 26 pounds a year. In four short years, that’s over 100 pounds. Time flies, so make sure you’re heading in the right direction!