Dear future me,

A couple weeks ago I was forced to see a doctor, a sinus infection was wrecking my life, but I realized the 292 lb elephant in the room. I was obese and on a path toward dying in my sleep or having a heart attack. When the doctor took my weight and my blood pressure it was a warning sign of what was to come if I didn't correct the course. My blood pressure was high-- not abnormally high but high enough to shock me back into reality. I've been dealing with obesity for a while and I never gave it the attention it really needed because I ended up here. Tonight, that all changes, right now its 7:45 p.m. on January 15th of 2017-- I know this is gonna sound cliche but this is my year. This year I have set myself a goal to lose fifty pounds and I know when I work hard in the gym I can build muscle and lose weight-- I've done it before albeit with lots of pushing and friends around me. The thing about obesity is that you can't always fight it with company, this is a personal fight between you and it. Tonight I will no longer let obesity command my life, tonight I'm changing course to have a long and happy life! I don't want to die of a heart attack, I want to die an old man-- and with a little hard work I can and will do it! I've come to accept there's nothing I can do about the past but there is something I can do about the present and the future. The real me is stuck in the not real me body and now is the time to find the real me.

Tonight I openly choose to devote my life to bettering myself, health-wise, spiritually with God, and thoughtfully. Tonight I make a change because right now it really is life or death. I choose life. 1 Corinthians tell us in Chapter 6 verse 19 that "..your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God..." I have treated my body like a sewer, I put the wrong things in and that stops because I AM worth more and I believe God has more for me. I will faithfully serve the Lord and I will faithfully change my body so I can better serve him!

To my future self-- read this in times of struggle, read this when you don't feel like fighting, read this when you are tempted to do the wrong thing! We both know this is gonna be worth so much more in the end.

Sincerely,

292 lb. Brian Chilcoat