This is for three friends who have told me you are interested in joining a local Health Stewards group, should we start one around here. There are two ways to join. You can attend a "real group" or you can be an online member. I'm posting a weekly update from a guy named Jim to give you an idea of what it's like.

No, you aren't reading someone else's blog. It's still my blog, just Jim's update. You can read many more weekly updates, including mine, at healthsteward.com.

Here's Jim's latest post. It's just one of probably 100.

As of today, Week #3 of the LLL or L3 (Legion of Liquid Losers) is under my belt. Or more accurately, down the drain. As a three-week member of a mini-accountability group within the larger Steward family (the above-mentioned “Legion”), I can truthfully say that our little group’s name is appropriate in a couple of ways. After all, we are using mostly shakes, more shakes, followed a few more shakes after that to drop the lbs., (theoretically, at least). So we’re “losers” that way.

But also, because we’re – or at least I – am drinking this many protein shakes PLUS a swimming pools-worth of water every day, well, you just can’t help but lose a lot of … hold on a second, be right back … [flush] Ahhhh. That’s better. Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, ya just can’t help but make a lot trips to the ol’ porcelain pal to make frequent offerings to the patron saint of healthy kidneys. Weeeeeeeeeeee! So, multiple losers we are. Proudly standing (or sitting depending on gender) for healthier living. And it appears to be working, too. At least, this week’s weigh in made me smile. A lot better than last week, to be sure.

So I’ll be glad to put up with the not-so-occasional interruption of whatever I’m doing to make a hasty retreat to the bathroom to eliminate. Or if you prefer -- to pee, piddle, make water, take a leak, take a whiz, water the lawn, shake the dew from my lily, take the pause that refreshes, answer the call of nature, see a man about a horse (where did THAT one come from?), hose down the porcelain, do #1, pay the water bill, make a pit stop, tinkle, put out a fire, pee like a racehorse, tap a kidney, and (drum roll, please), siphon the python.

Wow, that was a relief. I deeply apologize if the above litany of latrine language. Blame my lapse in good taste and decorum on suffering from water on the brain. The pressure must be getting to me. I DID have the good sense to leave out a few of the more colorful expressions I’ve heard over the years. But even so, I apologize again if anyone is PO’d (oops) at the above paragraph.

Moving on -- I started back into regular exercising this past week. My youngest son has introduced me to the painful world of free weights and I have the empty Excedrin bottle to prove it. My fear in getting too seriously into weight lifting is that I don’t need to bulk up. Certainly. If I can tone and shape and chisel (Ha!!! A guy can dream can’t he!??!) that’s great. Plus, I’ve always heard that muscle actually weighs more than fat. But, it sure looks better under a dress shirt than flab. So, I’ll have to take my chances.

As far as exercise goes, the thing about being on a mostly-liquid diet is trying to balance the need for exercise with the need to stay in close proximity to indoor plumbing. Long walks or bike rides can leave me looking like a deer in headlights if I go too far away from facilities. But, I’ve already done this subject to death, so ‘nuf said. Suffice it to say that the more liquid I sweat out of my pores, the less I have to get rid of in other ways. Spitting. I’m talking about spitting!! Of course.

One thing I’m anxious to work out is a new biking routine. Veteran Stewards will remember that my wife and I were/are avid road bikers and have even ridden some 50-mile or “half century” rides the couple of years. Nothing spectacular if you’re a true roady, but it’s an accomplishment for us. Can you say “saddle sore?” Diana (my lovely wife) and I had a fairly consistent routine where we’d mostly ride in the mornings – I work from a home office and can set my own hours – as in, 24/7 and until January, she was a stay-at-home domestic vixen and teenager wrangler. So getting out for a couple of hours after the kids were in school was easy to do many mornings in any given week.

Well, my dearly beloved has re-entered the working world and now has to be at work by 8 a.m. at least three mornings a week. Just ride in the afternoon, you say? Well, living as we do in hotter-than-Don-Imus’-email-box Southern California, riding in the afternoon is sometimes just physically not smart. I wind up sweating so much people riding behind me think there must be a street sweeper up ahead. So … we’re currently trying to work out how we get in at least three rides a week along with our nightly walks up and down the numerous steep streets of our foothills community. It’ll happen eventually.

A couple of quick observations from the journey so far: Something that has been made crystal clear to me is how blessed and honored I am to have stumbled (waddled?) into a key element of this process – that is – accountability to others. Specifically, accountability to a small number of others who not only understand intimately what your daily battles are, but who are fighting the same fight. I dearly love my friends, church brothers and bio-brother (hey, Bob!) and take great encouragement from their emails and posts, but knowing that someone is walking alongside you who struggles with the same temptations and food programming, feels the same frustrations and fights the same daily battles, well that is, as they say in all those MasterCard spots on TV, priceless. It certainly isn’t “So easy a caveman could do it.”

But I digress. Next, I need to apologize profusely to everyone who posted here last week. I can’t tell you how many times I started to post to your pages … even getting to read your own updates … when I got a client call, or realized a deadline was looming, or … well, suffice it to say that this past week has seen me sitting at my computer anywhere from 10 to 12 or more hours each day already. Please forgive me for not being able to eek out more time at the keyboard to post on your pages. My bad. And my carpel tunnel syndrome. And aching lower back. Hopefully this coming week will see more posts to you all.

Finally, I have a request: Quite a few weeks ago, one of you Stewards either posted or emailed me a bit of family wisdom, something their mom or pastor or somebody had told them that really got my attention. It was so profound, I meant to print it out and hotglue it to my forehead. So what did I do? Lost it. The gist of the aphorism was: “Success is choosing only the right path that’s in front of us right now over the wrong one. If we keep making those right choices, we will get where we want to go.” That sounds so lame the way I’ve written it, but you get the idea. When I first read it I thought … yeah, how simple is that? We just gotta keep making the right choice, especially the little ones, minute by minute. Not next week, or next year or “someday.” The decisions, the choices we make right now are all that matters. Does anybody remember telling me anything like that?? If so, could you please tell me again?!? I promise not to lose it this time. I’ve got my glue gun all warmed up.

Okay, that’s all for this week. Sorry for rambling. Water on the brain and all that. Not to bring up the whole potty talk thing all over again, but, I gotta go. Seriously … I really gotta go!!

Until next week, I’ll be on my knees, outta the fridge and in His grip. Jim