Author: scottvoorhees2018rbl

WEll what can I say 12 weeks has come and gone. We finish RBL this week with a 5k run. I have come along way as I am sure many others have also.  I have lost weight and have made major changes in my life. I eat healthier. You know whats interesting? I have not had french fries or a burger in a year (well in this year.lol). My wife is about to have weight surgery in June so what I learned about healthy eating will be passed among my family.  My biggest thing I now do is eat breakfast.  As many will tell you this was a hard thing for me. See I thought if I starved I would lose weight. Little did I know that food is energy and you need it to go. Well, I know 1st hand this is true now. As I get ready for this 5k  I know my family will not be able to be there to support me on the run due to health issues or living far away. But that’s fine because I know my father will be in heaven cheering me on. I never got to run with my dad but this Saturday I will. Throughout this entire thing, I was my toughest critic. The voices in my head told me I would not be able to do it. Workouts where rough. I did not think it would work for me. But wow I have done a lot in my 12 weeks. I may not win the award for coming in 1st place or for even losing the most weight. I will win my own personal award for making a life change and sticking with it for 12 weeks and plans to continue it.  My body is a gift from God and the best way to show my appreciation to him is to respect it and treat it right. I will truly miss my Saturdays with Leslie and Erika and the rest of the group. I hope we will continue to stay in contact, after all, I need the encouragement as I am sure others do also.

I want to give a special thank you to Rob Demsey from HIS RADIO 89.3fm. To hear his story on opening night was a big part of me sticking to it. Little did he know that the opening night I wanted to leave the auditorium and almost did but his story changed my mind. So, Rob, I am not sure if you will ever read this but Thank you, sir. Please do not stop RBL it saves lives. Leslie and Erika thank you and the YMCA for opening your doors to us like you did I learned so much about nutrition and working out, lessons that I will carry with me. This has truly been a life-changing experience.

To the glory goes GOD and I thank him for this.

Dad Sunday I run for us. The run we never got to do together. I miss you.

I felt the need to post this so here it goes. First off let me say what a pleasure it has been to be a part of Robs Biggest Losers. I have learned so much about my self and have started making changes. I look back on my life and I am just in awe of what GOD has done for me. 20 years ago I was homeless and literally living on the streets. I mean literally. If you ever have been to downtown Greenville you might remember an old abandoned train that was all alone on an old track under a bridge at the end of Reedy Park. Or you may remember the old hotel off Main street just up from the Bilo? Well, I literally lived in both places. I remember the cold nights. The looking in the trash for food. And I remember hating GOD. See I felt GOD never did anything for me in my life. I suffered and still do from PTSD. AS a child I was sexually abused at home for years and at school, the kids use to pick on me and where very mean. In fact, I even tried suicide a few times. Man, I hated GOD. But I got out of that situation. I got married to a wonderful wife and had an awesome child. I went to church with my wife and my daughter because they wanted to go. Truth be told looking back I didn’t like going. I eventually moved to Central, SC. God was still nowhere in my life to be seen. I started Attending ALIVE Wesleyan church and little did I know what a change in my life that church would have. My daughter in the meantime was attending R.C. Edwards in Central. I found out after some time there were kids who were really mean and picking on her, She came home from school many times crying and saying she never wanted to go back. So let me add this, isn’t it funny how you can look back at things later in life and say, “GOD, was there putting his plan in motion”? Well I entered a little contest put on by what has become what I call my Christian support group..lol Tiffany Finley Moon. We won the contest and they did so much to help Abbys self-esteem. She was even on the tv and His radio where she was interviewed by Rob Dempsey and Alison Storm Lowry. It made such a change in my daughter’s life, and in mine. Still to this day I talk to Tiffany Finley Moon when I have questions and she is always there to lend an ear. So fast forward to 2 years ago. I was driving down the road and heard a song on the radio Come to the altar by Elevation Worship. I know this will sound crazy to some people but for some reason when that song came on (and yes I remember exact spot this happened), I got the biggest chills over my body and just started smiling and crying. I felt an indescribable feeling I knew what had to be done. The next day I contacted my pastor Tom Harding and asked about baptism. I told him I didn’t want to rush anything and I wanted to take the time so I could make sure this was not just one of those temporary things. I waited a year, yes a year. During that year I learned so much about GOD and his love. I even forgave the people who had done me wrong and that was hard to do especially since I was sexually abused by a family member. I had a lot of hate. But I learned to give it to GOD. At the end of that year, I got baptized. Since then I have not looked back. God plays a key role in my life. I am not perfect by far. But I am a work in progress. All my friends and family have seen the transformation of my soul. And thanks recently to Rob Dempsey and Robs Biggest Losers and people at the YMCA like Leslie Treece Knox and Erika Taylor O’Brien who have taken the time to show me how to grow on the outside or in my case shrink down. I have been making healthy lifestyle changes. I mean now I look forward to exercising. So thank you all. And thanks to the great support of others in the RBL group also.a

So I guess my point is that no matter how bad your life is or has been that if you take the time and give your heart to GOD miracles can happen. We God might not answer your prayers on your schedule but he is always listening and cares. I thank GOD for all the trials and tribulations he has put in my life because it has made me who I am. A child of GOD.

So this Journey I started about 5 weeks ago has been one of ups and downs. There have been times I wanted to quit and times I was just so excited (like today.lol) There are just so many misconceptions about living a healthy lifestyle. Many of these are put into our heads by the media and even the Devil himself I believe. For example, “It costs more to eat healthy”, while the prices of healthy food are more the amount you eat when trying to be healthy decreases. A $7.00 Chick-fila  meal might not seem bad but you can make your own lunch for less than half that if you are trying to eat healthy mainly because of the portion size.
There are many things involved in a healthy lifestyle its not jus tfood and its not just exercise, it is many factors. And unless you put all them into action you are climbing a hill that has to top. For me the hardest thing for eating healthy is my family. They are not on the “Healthy Eating” band wagon yet but I hope in time they will see the results in me and come to the “healthy side”. It’s a commitment for sure. It is a life long commitment. Our bodys are a temple. God gave each of us these bodies and we should respect the gift he gave us. That means treating it healthy. Everytime befor eI workout I take a minute and thank God for this body and ask him to continue to help me to make this body better to glorify him. For those who do not believe in God or are unsure all I can say is that you only have 1 body so treat it right so it will do the same to you.

I Give GOD the Glory for all things in my life good and bad. I have had to overcome obsticles in my life that would make most people scream. God helped me quit smoking. God helped me overcome my PTSD and he will help me with this.

It is amazing what a new day will do. And the glory goes to GOD. I have struggled with my runs since this journey began. I could do most of the run but then would quit or…well I would quit.lol  Well this morning I went to the local Rec center in Clemson and decided to use the tredmill, Mind you I have been running on the street around where I live. Something told me to go use the treadmill today. I hate using the treadmill because of all the college kids and Ihate jogging around them and its really okward. But a voice told me to do it. Well I went and I did the entire set, and YES , I jogged also..WOOHOO. Sad thing is I blew out my shoe (It has air cushions).  So I had to get some new shoes. This afternoon I wanted my kid to go to the track near me but she would not so I went by myself. And I turned on my Jog play list and guess what? I did another full jog workout. I was so jacked. It was a major rush. GOD was with me. All the GLory goes to him for sure. This is a journey that I am loving more and more.

#VeronicaIamcomingforyou

(veronica is another RBL in my group who always tends to be the top step maker in our FITBIT group. So I am gunning for her spot.lol

GOD IS GOOD><

So here we are week 2/3 of the Rob’s Biggest Losers. I am not sure about the other people but for me it has not always been easy. I hadoneyears of unhealthy living so it will take time to get on track. This week I had some hard struggles. We started off with the group running at the YMCA. I will say I did ok on that run. The next few days though my legs where in some major pain. I could hardly sit or walk. But someone in my group gave me a exercise to try and it really seemed to help. I had some eating issues also. I will be honest I had a Whopper the other day and it was sooo good, but I felt bad after eating it. I have made strides in changing my eating habits. Today for example after I did my cardio work out at the YMCA I had lunch. I wanted a Big Mac but instead I had A fruit cup and a kids cup of Poweraid. That was around 1pm or so and I am still not hungry. I am making strides to do better. I no longer care if I win at RBL or not. This is a lifestyle change I am working on. I have surrounded myself with people in my HOME group that I hope will be a life long support group for each other long past RBL. Thats the thing, a support group makes things alot easier knowing you are there for each other, and GOD knows I have needed mine this week.HA!HA!  IT is a hard road for sure but I am doing it 1 step at a time.

So we are 2 weeks into RBL. I am not sure about others but it has not been that easy. I mean come on this week Girl Scout Cookies went on sale. I do not know about you but these things are pure evil to me. I use to order 20 plus boxes of them. This year the woman asked me how many I wanted to order and I think I made her cry when I saod 0. Now to some people this may not seem like much but for me it was a big step. Oh and lets not forget ordering from Subway this week I would normally get the Sup and have them add extra meat. Not this time. I ordered a healthy sub with extra…..Vegies, again this was a large step for me. I look at RBL and I see people at all steps in there journey. There is a woman who runs for a hour on a tredmill and then ther is another who eats very healthy. But then there are others who maybe having a haard time doing just 1 workout. So while we all are at different levels on what we can all do we are not necissarily at different levels of acomplishments. The person who only did 1 workout can be proud like 1 guy said this week in our RBL group that that 1 time may be more then they did last week so it is a acomplishment. Take all this one day at a time. Remember YOU DID NOT GET THIS WAY OVER NIGHT. Its going to take time. Slow and steady wins the race. Do not try to over do your workouts to the point you wont want to do them the next day, I do not know if it will help you but what has helped from me from time to time is before you workout to pray to God for help. I did today and was able to run on that tredmill for 10 minutes longer then I usually do and do some more chest work then normal.  Do not give up and keep trying. No matter where you are in this journey I am honored to be doing this along side of you. And remember your goal for doing this or your reason.  My goal is to run this 5k at the end with my daughter and to change my way of living and eating so I can be here to run many more.

I have been a HisRadio listener since my daughter Abby who is now 15 was born. Nothing beats inspirational music. a few years ago my daughter was dealing with kids bullying her at school. She was lucky enough to be a part of a program called I AM BEAUTIFUL. Through that campaign she learned that she is beautiful on the inside and the outside. She even got to be a part of HisRadio and was interviewed on the air by Rob and Alison. To see her overcome a situation like this  in her life was awesome. I use to be a smoker and my daughter got me to stop smoking 3 packs a day, she also got me to stop biting my fingernails. She has inspired me more then she will ever know. She is one of the main  inspirations for me to do RBL. I look at myself and see a man who is no longer in great health and a self proclaimed Carnivore.  I eat one meal a day and that is usually a big supper and a  late night snack.  I have had several surgeries on my shoulders. I was cleared by therapy but I needed to work on my strength. To top everything off  few years ago my father passed away from brain cancer. He use to run in alot races right up to his death in his 70s. He always wanted to run with my daughter but since he lived in NY it was impossible. My dream out of this program is to be able to finish the 5k with my daughter. I do not care if I walk or run or if I am dragged across the finish line I want to be able to do this and continue to do this through healthy eating and exercise. Abby is my inspiration to do this. It will not be easy but I will do it. God tells us

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

So while this may be a hard journey, after all I did not get this way over night, I must remember my goal. And God gives me strength to do all things.

To everyone who has the privilege to join me on this journey I wish you luck and remember when it gets hard take it 1 day at a time. For those at home who are not on this journey but are reading this I ask you to pray for all of us and I encourage you to examine your health and if its a walk you need to take consider doing so.

Good luck Everyone and God Bless.