Yesterday I fell off the wagon a little bit. No, I didn’t go out and do anything stupid or anything that was wrong. I just didn’t do the things I’ve been trying to do.

One of my stated goals for 2011 is to get under 300 pounds. To help with that goal, I’ve done a few things:

1) Joined the Y.
2) Cut down on my soft drinks.
3) Limited my fast food.
4) Drank more water.
5) Gotten healthier food to eat at home.

Well, yesterday, I did none of those.

Not a single one.

We’ve gotten some snow here in East Tennessee the last couple of days. On Monday, everything was pretty much shut down and the Y was closed so I couldn’t go. I did pretty decent on numbers 2-5 though, eating at home all day and drinking mainly water (I had the caffeine free Dr. Pepper with dinner though). Tuesday, however, is a different story.

Thinking we’d have another snow day, and that the church office wouldn’t open until at least 10, I started watching the Mighty Ducks at 1:15 in the morning on Monday night (well, Tuesday morning). I ended up not going to bed until three.

There’s no way you wake up to go to the gym at 7:30 if you stay up until three watching Mighty Ducks.

We decided to shoot a video for FUEL on Tuesday morning so on the way to it, I ran by Hardee’s to grab breakfast for me and our worship guy. It was just one biscuit and not my normal two, and I drank water with it instead of Dr. Pepper, so I thought that would be okay. And it probably would’ve been had we not gone to Chick Fil A afterward. Then, to make matters worse, I didn’t thaw anything out for dinner so I ended up eating at McDonald’s.

I didn’t do a single thing in my “plan” to lose weight.

I know, you’re wondering why I’m writing a blog post about eating bad. I actually have a point though.

I’ve told a ton of people that I joined the gym and that I have this goal of losing weight this year. I did that not to brag or make myself look like this uber healthy person but rather for accountability. If I didn’t tell anyone about it, there’s no way I’d actually go through with it.

When people routinely ask me, “Hey, did you go to the Y today?” or “So how much water have you been drinking?” I know that I have to answer them.

The accountability I’m seeking for losing weight is the same type of accountability we have to have for anything we do as Christians. It’s impossible to go through life living the right way if we don’t have people constantly asking us, “Hey, did you have your quiet time today?” or “How’s the battle against that one thing going?” At the same time, it’s just as important to hear, “Hey, good job on keeping up your work out routine” or “I’m proud of you for overcoming that sin issue.”

We need accountability.

We need positive reinforcement.

We need other people.

It’s so easy to get into a rut of doing things ourselves. It’s easier to lie to ourselves or make excuses to ourselves for not doing something than it is to lie or make excuses when it’s someone we care about asking us.

I’ve made excuses and lied to myself my entire life and I’m tired of it. I want to be better. I want to do the right thing.

I want accountability.

And I think that’s a sure sign of growing up.