So that was my goal with this past weekend. I was talking with my buddy, Mike, a couple of weeks ago trying to find a place that was fairly close that I could stay for a couple of days and reprioritize things in my life and refocus and renew myself. He asked, “Have you considered a monastery?” To which I replied, “Um…no.” I mean, why in the world would I consider hanging out at a monastery? Do I look like a monk to you?

To clarify, Mike pointed me to a blog post written by Brian Jones that I had missed not too long before this discussion (interesting timing). Take a couple of minutes and read his post if you can. It’s well worth it. Basically, for the last 12 years, he’s taken one day each month at a monastery and followed a certain schedule that he’s come up with. 7:00am until 5:00pm. Perfect for rest and refocus.

After I read his post, my first thought was, “This is exactly what I had in mind!” His schedule outlined everything I wanted to do in detail. From that moment, I tried to find a place close by that I could go do this. I planned to spend the night my first time so that I could take an entire day/night to do this.

I did some internet searches, and I found a monastery not 20 miles from me in Northern Kentucky that seemed like it would be a good fit. I sent some e-mails to the director of their “Spiritual Life Center” and figured out the details. For a low price, I was going to go early on Saturday, eat lunch and dinner there, spend the night and have breakfast before I left late in the morning on Sunday. I would get a simple room with a small bed, desk and chair. No distractions. They have the perfect setup for personal retreats like this.

So, armed with a couple of books, my Bible, a pen and paper, and a few basic essentials, I headed to the monastery Saturday morning to spend the weekend with the nuns (and yes, “monastery” is the correct term for where nuns live). Here’s a summary of what I did, using Brian Jones’ schedule as a loose guide.

8:00am
Arrived at monastery. Found my contact for the weekend who showed my to my room and a few basic things, including their labyrinth. Not being Catholic, and not understanding it, I pretty much dismissed the labyrinth discussion.

8:30-9:00am
Brain dump. I wrote down every single thing in my mind. To-do lists, struggles, worries, general thoughts, and anything else that would distract me for the day. I tend to do a fairly good job of capturing tasks, etc. on a regular basis since I’m a task list freak, but this is always a good exercise. I had our Creative Team do this before we started on our 2010 Creative Summit, and it was really beneficial then as well.

9:00-9:45am
Being too cold to take a walk outside, I (trying to keep an open mind) decided to give the labyrinth a whirl. I went in the room, read some of the info laying there about it, and tried to do what Brian suggested when he goes on his walk outside: not to talk to God, but just to listen. I have to admit that at first I felt a little weird walking around a giant room on a piece of sail canvas in my socks by myself at a monastery, but once I got past that, it was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. I can honestly say that God spoke to me more clearly while walking out of that labyrinth than he has in my entire life. He really convicted me about some things and gave me some insight into some things that I’m going through right now that were pretty big revelations to me. I made sure to write it all down, as I was carrying my list from earlier with me to capture all my thoughts.

9:45am-12:30pm
Since one of the main things I have been thinking about and struggling with lately is my personal time with God and how to make that work better in my life specific to me personally, Mike had loaned me the book, Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels. He told me this book literally changed his life, and he doesn’t just say that, so I thought it would be a good place to start. I had read a couple of chapters prior to this past weekend, so I decided to pick up where I left off. I completely finished the book before lunch, taking copious notes.

Mike was right. Not that anything in this book was completely revolutionary or new, but it has literally changed how I spend time with God every day since I finished it. It has given me a much more practical, concrete way to spend time with God each day, and I’m extremely grateful that God led Hybels to write that book. I felt like he wrote it just for me. I won’t go into the details here (read the book!), but a couple practical things that I pulled from the book and have implemented are journaling and writing out my prayers. They work for me. And the “ACTS” model for prayer (which I had heard before, but not in this amount of detail) really struck a chord with me. I’m organized and ordered, and this seems to work perfectly for me. Also, it has shown me the importance of just sitting and listening so that God actually has a chance to speak to me.

Bottom line: great book. Read it as soon as you can, especially if you’re busy and have a hard time slowing down, like me.

12:30-1:30pm
Ate lunch, and then one of the nuns showed me around the place a bit more. Brian was right when he described their food as “plain but plentiful.” That’s exactly what it was! After I ate, I was shown around the monastery. We saw the chapel, she showed me some of the other personal retreat rooms, a couple of rooms that show all their history through the years, their meeting rooms, and some of the paths outside. And then she laid the big one on me. She said, “Did you ever see the movie, Rain Man?” “Of course. Not in several years, but yes.” “Well, this is where they filmed part of it.” It turns out I was staying at the “Wallbrook Institute” where Dustin Hoffman’s character resided at the beginning of the movie. The scene where they’re walking down the long drive lined by big trees, that was there. Unfortunately, the trees (over 100 years old I’m told) became diseased a couple of years ago and had to all be cut down. They do have a table made completely from those trees in their lobby though. She showed me the front of the building where Charlie drove the car, the meeting room where Charlie was questioned, and all the other interesting places in the movie. Who knew.

1:30-2:30pm
Took a nap. Man, Brian was right about this one. Just what I needed.

2:30-3:30pm
Went through the list of “refocusing questions” that Brian posted. These were extremely helpful to me. Here’s the list.

10 QUESTIONS TO REFOCUS YOUR LIFE by Bob Biehl

1. What is my single greatest strength? (What do I “do” the best?)
2. What three decisions are causing me the greatest stress?
3. What is overwhelming me?
4. What impassable roadblock has me stuck?
5. If I could only do three things before I die, what would I want to do?
6. What should I resign from or drop out of? (Peter Drucker said, “Efficiency is doing things right, effectiveness is doing the right things.”)
7. What can I postpone?
8. What things on my “to do” list can someone else do at least 80% as well?
9. What are the “elephants” in my schedule? (Pareto said, “If you’re Noah, and your ark is about to sink, look for the elephants first.”)
10. What are the three things I could do in the next 90 days to make a 50% difference?

3:30-4:00pm
Went for a walk. That list made my head hurt.

4:00-5:00pm
Put what I read in Hybels’ book into practice. I journaled about “yesterday” (see the book for more info), wrote out my prayer using the “ACTS” model, got on my knees and prayed it out loud, and then sat in silence listening to God. Most beneficial hour of my entire weekend. This was the beginning. I have now done this every morning since starting.

5:00-5:40pm
Caught up on my New Thru 30 reading. Spent my time in the gospel of John.

5:40-6:00pm
Had dinner.

6:00-8:00pm
Finished the entire book of John.

7:30-8:30pm
By this point, the silence was pretty deafening. Not only was I in a very quiet place, but there were only three people staying on the floor I was on in the East Wing, and they were part of a Korean Catholic group that took a vow of silence for the weekend. Needless to say, it was very quiet. I knew I would need some noise at some point in the weekend, so I had loaded up my iPod with a few sermons and brought it along. I spent this time listening to Steven Furtick’s message from a couple of years ago in his “Confessions of a Pastor” series called “I Struggle With the Same Sins Over and Over Again.” Super message. Seemed to be just what God wanted to tell me that night.

I had literally witnessed an entire day of God speaking to me like he had never spoken to me before. It was utterly amazing. There is a lot of wisdom in the practice modeled by Jesus in Mark 1:35 where it says, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” Jesus knew the value of being in a quiet place with his Father to pray and to listen. He did it often. And for most of us, we don’t. Ever. One of the best things we can do is get back to that.

The rest of the night, I listened to a little music and read some more, and then dozed off for the night. The next morning, I woke up refreshed and renewed. I spent some quiet time that morning journaling, praying and listening like the day before (seriously, read this book…this stuff doesn’t take that much time and it will change your life), and ended up leaving early enough to actually go sit in a seat at ACC to worship (instead of being on stage for a change).

Overall, it was the most beneficial weekend I can ever remember. I’m making plans to set aside a day every month or two do go do this. I can already see how valuable it has been to me, and I know if I keep it up (like Brian has), it will absolutely change my attitude, my marriage, my ministry, and every aspect of my life.

This weekend, like the labyrinth I walked, showed me that sometimes the most helpful tools in our lives can be the ones that we least expect or initially dismiss because they’re “different” than what we’re used to. Sometimes that’s exactly what we need.

We were the only ones there who were not in a league. It was a bit scary.

Couldn’t stop thinking of Jim Gaffigan the entire time. Almost every joke of his came to life.

“You can do it. We’re praying for you.”

I thought about it for a little bit, and I couldn’t think of a reason not to, so I officially started this morning. 12 chapters of Matthew. Such good stuff. For some reason, I’m seeing things in a completely new light than when I’d last read these verses. Life is different every time I read it, I guess. There were a couple of things I was really convicted about. Overall, it was just what I needed.

Aron and I have also talked a bit about fitness and just generally taking care of ourselves for a while, and he said that he also set the goal to work out more days than he doesn’t and asked if I wanted to join him on that too. Of course, I did. I need to get back in the groove of things and not let myself slip since finishing P90X last year. A couple of extra pounds have already managed to slip themselves in over the last couple of months. It’s great to have accountability when you’re going through something like this.

I’m looking forward to making it through the whole New Testament over the month of February and getting back in the habit of taking care of myself physically as well as spiritually. The goal of this month for me is to refocus things and make sure I’m on track to go through 2010 with my priorities in order. I am even planning an interesting weekend in a few days that I’ll fill you all in on later.

If you’re interested in joining Aron and I in going through the New Testament, you can read more about it on the New Thru 30 website.

It’s easy to get beat down with life happening. It’s easy to say that I’ll start tomorrow. It’s easy to just push it to the side. But the right thing to do is to start right now. The right thing to do is to write it down. The right thing to do is to make sure I have accountability with it. The right thing is to just do it. No excuses.

Anybody else struggling with this mess?

Any suggestions?

• Thanksgiving
• Week long trip to the Mayan Riviera
• Christmas
• New Year’s
• Everything that goes with all of that

A few days into 2010, things seem to be somewhat returning to “normal.” I’m actually looking forward to that.

Been listening to a lot of new music lately on lala.com. I have become a huge fan of this site.

One album that I hadn’t really listened to lately that I was really impressed with is Seabird’s Rocks Into Rivers. They have been on tour with David Crowder Band, and we saw them a few months ago. They are actually from Northern Kentucky as well, so that made me even more interested in their music. Even if that hadn’t been the case though, this album would still be pretty great.

Take a listen for yourself. You can go sign up for lala.com if you want and add their album (or anything else) to your playlist. You can read more about lala.com on their website.

Here are the videos so you can see for yourself.

Week 1

Week 2

He makes some good points. If Elijah can do it, why can’t so many adults?

Let’s help fix this problem that keeps so many people from living within their means and giving their first fruits to God.

Trust me. It can be done. It doesn’t matter what situation you’re in. You can work through it with a plan.

Dave Ramsey helped Marie and I see God’s plan for our money, and it has done absolute wonders in our life. It changed everything about us – for the better.

If you have questions and don’t know what to do, talk to someone who is winning with money. Not your broke uncle who is 60 and still has a 30 year mortgage and two car payments. If you can’t find anyone like that, e-mail me and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

You are not weird. You are normal. Most people are fighting the same problems. We just have to get over ourselves and move beyond them. Then you can be weird. Being weird is awesome.

Let’s stop making excuses for not doing this God’s way.

Start now. Make a change today.

1. Plyometrics is Latin for “I want to jump around so much that my heart explodes and I break myself into a million pieces in the process.” I don’t like it much at all.
2. Your body needs plenty of water when you release 19 gallons of sweat per day during your workout.
3. Nutrition is as important (if not more) than exercise when you’re trying to get in shape.
4. You have to eat a LOT when you’re doing P90X. Sometimes it’s hard to finish it all.
5. Vacation can really mess you up if you’re not careful. You have to learn to be realistic.
6. Anything is doable if you just make a decision and commit to it.
7. No one cares what your excuses are. Neither does your body.
8. A good doctor is priceless.
9. You need people around you that will support you while you’re changing your life.
10. If you want to change something, you have to get off your butt and do something about it now! And no, you will not start tomorrow. That’s a lie, and you know it. Stop kidding yourself. Get off your butt and start today.

This is how things have changed over the last 6 months of my life.

Before I get into this, I want to give an absolutely huge amount of thanks to my hot wife. Without her helping me eat right and supporting me, I would not have followed through on this. She even changed her own eating habits to support me in this. She is a huge blessing in my life, and I thank God that he put her here with me.

Brace yourself. This could be is a lengthy post.

March 23, 2009 @ 3:00 PM

I switched doctors to go to someone closer than I had been driving (30+ miles), and he required a full physical for all new patients. I’m expecting all the standard stuff: “You could probably drop a couple of pounds,” “Oh, you’re on blood pressure medicine because it runs in your family,” “Turn your head and cough,” etc. Simple enough, right?

WRONG.

First off, he is the best doctor I have ever been to in my life. I was at his office for no less than an hour and a half. He asked me every question imaginable. He probably knows me better than I know myself now. Then he asked me to take off my shirt and hop up on the table. That’s where it all officially changed (and no, this isn’t turning into some sexual harassment story).

Now, I know I was a few pounds overweight, and I also know that I thought I was pretty good at hiding it with my clothes on. However, when your doctor says, “Dude, when did you get those?” “Those what?” “Those moobies?” you know something is wrong. When he later asks his med student intern if he should write down “S.M.B.” under chest exam and then explains that it stands for “Small Man Boobs,” and you then realize that he’s only half joking (and wonder if it’s now part of your permanent medical record), you really know something is wrong.

Needless to say, I left that day completely and totally pissed off. As I should have. That is the nicest thing a doctor has ever done for me. It was in this moment that he changed my life, just by “poking” some fun at my lard laden body. It was just what I needed to hear, whether he knew it or not at the time.

I made a follow-up appointment for 3 months later, and I went about the business of changing my life.

March 23, 2009 @ 5:00 PM

As any good nerd would do, I began my research. I wasn’t interested in some fad diet or meaningless workout program. I wanted something that worked. I wanted something practical. I wanted something concrete. I wanted something that would give me great results for the right reasons.

I didn’t want to go to the gym and work with a personal trainer, and I didn’t want just general guidelines. I wanted a complete plan that I could do at home within my schedule and that showed me what to do, what to eat and how to change my life. I had never exercised in my life (at least not regularly), and it was time to change that. And I had to figure out a way to do it that wouldn’t cause me to burn out and quit 2 weeks later.

After some discussions with a friend and some online research, I eventually stumbled across P90X. I thought to myself, “wow, that sounds pretty good.” Then I watched the videos on their website, and I thought to myself, “maybe I should start a little slower.” P90X is ridiculous. So I did some research on it’s little brother and predecessor, Power 90. This seemed like a good fit, and the results were seemingly undeniable. It was all common sense: eat right and exercise. Duh, Einstein! “Oh, and here’s a book on how to eat and some DVDs to workout with.” Exactly what I was looking for.

March 26, 2009

I officially committed and ordered Power 90. No turning back now. It was starting to get real.

Brace yourself. Here’s what I looked like on this day (click thumbnail for larger view – if you dare):

I weighed in at 177.0 lb. I had started at about 185 a couple of weeks before this since I knew I had a doctor’s appointment coming up. I had started to eat a little better and lost about 8 lbs by this point already.

March 30, 2009

I wrote my first official Josh is a Big Loser post. Continuing to change how I eat and what I do.

April 6, 2009

This is the day I officially started Power 90. Day 1 pictures were taken and measurements were recorded. It was time to spend almost every day with Tony Horton and the Kids.

These were my first official Day 1 pictures (I didn’t look too happy, did I?):

My starting weight for Power 90 was 173.5 lb. I had dropped 3.5 lbs getting ready to start by eating less and running a little bit.

May 5, 2009

Day 30 came pretty quickly. I was super excited because I saw major results during this past month. My weight dropped to 168.0 lb, and I was noticing some major changes in the mirror.

At this point, I started thinking about what was coming next. I didn’t think I wanted to stop after Power 90.

Surely I couldn’t do P90X…or could I?

June 4, 2009

I ordered P90X on this day.

Day 60 was upon me, and changes were still coming. My doctor had switched my blood pressure medicine on my first visit, and it was becoming apparent that it was making me very tired. Since starting Power 90, my BP had dropped to extremely good levels, so I called in and he told me to scale back my dosage and then eventually took me off of it completely (I had been on it for years)! That made a HUGE difference in my energy, and my BP was still holding great. Score! Also, I was down to 164.5 lb. Things were going exactly according to plan. Sticking to the nutrition plan made a big difference.

For some reason, I decided to look at the ceiling during these pictures…

June 23, 2009

My 3 month follow-up appointment with “Dr. Blunt” had arrived. I was more than a little nervous going back for some reason. I really wanted to make sure he wouldn’t need to put me back on any kind of BP medication. Thankfully, all was well with that.

When he first walked in, I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised when he looked up and grinned from ear to ear. He shook my hand and told me congratulations. He was more than thrilled with how far I’d come in 3 months. He was even more thrilled when I told him I wasn’t done yet. This was only Day 79 of 90.

“All right. Moment of truth. Take off your shirt.”

I proceeded to remove my shirt, and he proceeded to literally applaud my progress. Can’t say a doctor has ever clapped for me before.

I left the office that day flying high as a kite. I knew what I was doing was working, and it pushed me to keep going.

July 4, 2009

Our country’s Independence Day was also my own personal independence day. Day 90 fell right on the Fourth of July. I had stuck with it for 90 days, and now I felt like a new man. Heck, I was a new man.

My weight was down to 162.0 lb. I had met every goal I had set out to accomplish so far. I was thrilled. My doctor was thrilled. My wife was thrilled. Everyone was thrilled.

Where, oh where did my moobie go? They had disappeared (mostly), and I had replaced them with a nice sunburn on my arms (thanks to Sports Camp).

July 6, 2009

Now that I had lost the weight, it was time to get in the best shape of my life. Throwing caution to the wind, I started P90X the day after I finished Power 90.

The insanity of P90X began. New journey. New pictures. New shorts.

July 7, 2009

Severe pain from working out like I’ve never worked out before. This never officially went away during the 90 days.

August 2, 2009

Day 28 of the X. Four weeks in and time to change the workouts up. Bring the pain again.

Am I starting to see some abs? Where have those been hiding all this time?

August 6, 2009

I celebrated my 29th birthday feeling better and in better shape than I ever have been.

August 30, 2009

Day 56 brought me 8 weeks into the P90X journey. Still feeling good and getting much stronger. Time to really change up the workouts and push through to Day 90.

October 3, 2009

Day 90 has arrived. I have completed 180 days with Tony Horton. He has brought me from the weak, fat, sloth that I was to the much leaner, stronger me.

I’m still not where I want to be, but I’m putting a bookmark on this page of my life. I obsessed for 6 months about getting my act together, and it has changed my life.

It’s still hard to believe that I went through this transformation in just 6 months.

Here’s what Power 90 did for me:

And here’s what P90X did for me (not quite as dramatic from looking at the pictures, but look at the numbers below to see more):

Here are my before and after fit test results showing how much stronger I became during just P90X:

Here are my before and after measurements showing how much I lost during Power 90 and P90X (180 consecutive days):

I’m down to about 160 lbs, which is 25 lbs lighter than my heaviest weight. My goal from this point on is to lose some more of the body fat and continue to get in better shape and to be able to do more pull-ups (my big weakness through this whole thing, having never done them before this). I think I may do the Lean version of P90X to accomplish that, but I know that a huge part of it will be my diet. I have to keep it clean to shed this fat. It’s going to be tough.

But for this week, I’m going to take a well deserved break (for the most part). I’m exhausted!

In the next few days/weeks, I’ll post some more of my thoughts about going through this, such as things I’ve learned, things I liked and disliked, etc.

If you want to view my progress pictures through my Picasa account, you can do so by going here:

• Josh Young Public Photos