This is my second post on my tagline Living, Loving, Losing, Laughing! The focus today is the word Loving. Loving is defined as: 1. to have love or affection for 2. to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for. 3. to have a strong liking for; take great pleasure in.

In February 2009 I did not feel like a Loving person. At 360 pounds I felt many negative feelings, few positive feelings, and few loving feelings. All of this started with ME. I did not love ME. Well, maybe I should restate that, I did love ME, but did not love what I had become. I was obese, unhealthy, tired, and not a happy person. I did not want to be the 360 pound 53 year old guy with way to many health issues. I did not know how to love ME or help ME. Because of this I do not feel I was doing a good job loving others. I could not help myself, so how could I help others, how could I love others?   I was not in a good place in February 2009.

On March 2, 2009 I got what I needed to start Loving ME again! I got a healthy dose of ‘tough love’ for ME from ME. The ‘tough love’ came in the form of being brutally honest with ME. I looked in the mirror that morning bundling all of problems and issues under one heading> TheFatGuy. TheFatGuy in the mirror had a lot of baggage to deal with but he was going to start dealing with it that day and it would be the first day of a journey he would take for the rest of his life. I started liking and loving ME a whole lot more that day and every day since. I feel I have become better at loving others since that day, because I now know I love ME and continue to build on the person I want to be and I love to be. I have become a better tool for helping others, loving others, and Loving God. The big constant in all of my ups and downs was prayer to God for guidance and wisdom. I do not know that I was always prepared for the answers or guidance God offered, but I do know I was prepared for it on March 2, 2009 thanks to God!

To put things in a nutshell, Loving was a passive state for ME in 2009, while it is an active state for ME now. I am in a constant state of looking for ways to better improve and serve ME to love ME, and in turn to better serve and love God and others.

Note to ME and YOU: Are you Loving the way you want to Love? Are you Loving the way you can Love?

TheFatGuy