T.C. of an O.J.

What a slow news day! I saw the new Will Farrell/John C. Reilly movie “Step Brothers” over the weekend and thought it was hilarious. I can’t remember when I laughed harder in a movie theater. The movie has been getting so-so reviews, which matter bubkiss because fact is, I was entertained.

• Bob Dylan – Did you realize Bob Dylan recorded 3 Christian albums from 1979 through 1981? Slow Train Coming was his first and was introduced to me by none other than Keith. It begins with the song “Gotta Serve Somebody”, to which I say, true that, Bob Dylan.

Unsurprisingly, Dylan’s Christian recordings alienated his secular fan base to the point a casual music fan like myself never even knew they existed until I unearthed a dusty copy of Slow Train Coming a few years ago from a neglected music collection.

You have the voice of an angel. I mean, it’s like Fergie meets Jesus.

While I’m not the biggest Bob Dylan or Christian music fan, Dylan is a masterful musician who made a few meaningful and spiritual albums before dropping Christianity. I do like the gospel/blues feel of Slow Train Coming. I also like the song “Saved” off the 1980 album bearing the same name. I think I could get into Christian music every now and then, after all, I did love singing along to “I Wanna go to HEAVENNNN!” in Buffalo.

• Where Are They Now? – A few of my former schoolmates have been in the news this year, however, they have been making headlines for shocking, disappointing, and frightening circumstances. As the events and naive optimism of my youth become vintage memories, more and more I’m convinced that depravity and tragedy are inevitable outcomes in this fallen world apart from God. I hope to write more in the future, but 2008 has not been a good year for Bearcat alumni.

• 2 Year Anniversary – Yesterday marked my 2 year wedding anniversary. It’s cliché to say, but it’s hard to believe I’ve already been married for two years. The most shocking thing is, as time goes on I get to know my wife more and more. To think, we thought we were really close when we said “I do”, but today we laugh about how little we really did know about each other.

It is exciting to build a deeper relationship together, although at times it can be challenging. For me, I know the hardest part is fighting the temptation to just vegg out on the couch instead of taking full advantage of the time we have together.

Some random bits of information:

• GIRL TALK: The whole name-your-own-price for an album thing has caught on, no one is complaining, and let’s hope its here to stay. Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails did it recently, however, according to Gregg “Girl Talk” Gillis, he thought of releasing 2006’s “Night Ripper” for free but decided against it fearing the perception that would surround a complimentary album by a little-know artist would likely be negative.

Instead, the mash-up style featured on “Night Ripper” was a success and Gillis was able to release “Feed the Animals” for the low, low price of whatever you want to pay for it. Although I’ve been verbally recommending Girl Talk’s “Feed the Animals” to everyone lately, it is my favorite album of 2008 thus far.

Whereas “Night Ripper” was great, “Feed the Animals” is a tremendous, non-stop adrenaline rush that makes me feel like I’m in a club every time I listen to it (not that I really have much of a clue to what being in a club is like). Gillis successfully mixes old eighties favorites, pop hits and explicit rap with wonderful results. “Shut the Club Down” is the stand out, if picking one is really necessary when we’re talking about an album filled with hits.

Said Philo T. Farnsworth, founder of Girl Talk’s record label, Illegal Art: “Even if everyone who downloads it doesn’t pay, even if they get it all for free, it creates fan loyalty and exposes the artist to a lot of people who may not have been exposed to him otherwise. Priority No. 1 is getting the music out there.”

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. - TS Eliot

• FANNY-PACKS: This may sound strange, but I’m in the market for a fanny-pack. For years I’ve mocked them on vacations and trips to amusement parks, once in high-school even making a game out of counting as many as I could (then taking pictures with the 100th, 200th, and 300th fanny-pack I spotted).

I’m here to express remorse and a change of heart, however, because I realize a fanny-pack really seems like the most convenient way to carry your valuables at a place like Cedar Point. Sure, I will get teased, but it will be by the very same people who will later ask me to carry their cell phones, keys, and wallets.

If you know where I can find a good fanny-pack, drop me a line.

• CEDAR POINT: Speaking of Cedar Point, I’ll be there on Sunday, along with the entire Word high-school ministry. I’m really looking forward to the annual trip, although successfully organizing a bunch of kids can be a challenge.

This trip will be the last hurrah before moving onto college for some, while for others it’ll be one of the first introductions to the high-school ministry.

Either way, it’s going to be an exciting summer, as many changes are happening in Word. I’m praying that myself and the other leaders involved can rely on God to make this upcoming school year the most successful and fruitful year of Word ever.

In the meantime, I’m anticipating catching a mean case of “zoo-legs” this Sunday in Sandusky, Ohio.

• FEEDBACK: Recently, I received some great feedback regarding my blogging. It was mostly positive and encouraging, so it definitely helps to know people actually read and enjoy what I write. But, most are glad that I’ve moved on from talking about sports and could also do without all the updates on my diet and exercise.

I’ll agree for the most part, which is why you don’t see me talking too much about sports here anymore. Occasionally, I still have to fight the itch to rant and rave about LeBron and the Browns, but I’ll give the people what they want.

• STRATCH THAT ITCH: Speaking of feeling itchy, this article, “The Itch” from the New Yorker by Atul Gawande, which I found via kottke, is the most interesting thing I’ve read in awhile. It talks of itching and phantom limbs, but be forewarned - it’ll have you itching for days.

• GITTIN’ FIT UPDATE: All that being said, I just think everyone’s jealous about my whole diet and exercise thing. I had my 3rd health assessment today and received positive results. I was a little nervous going into it because I had a more than a few hot dogs, hamburgers, and beers over the holiday weekend, but still I lost 3 more pounds of body fat. So, I successfully reached my goal of going under 15% body fat.

While most high-school students look towards the summer as a time to relax, earn money, and get a tan, a small group of students from Stow, Ohio started their summer very differently: They paid money and sacrificed part of their own vacations to go to Buffalo (of all places) and serve others.

Through an old friend, Jim Swearingen, who is currently the acting Executive Director at the Buffalo Christian Center (BCC), the students learned of the missions trip opportunity at the summer camp currently being held at the center. The BCC is an impressive facility, complete with a huge theater, roller skating rink, swimming pool, Christian bookstore, putt-putt course, and basketball court. The impact the facility could potentially have on the city of Buffalo for Christ is enough to keep the Christians who want to use the center up at night thinking about it.

This week, the students had the opportunity to work as camp counselors at the BCC. They stayed at “The Mans” while they prepared bible teachings for the children, who ranged from kindergarten through sixth grade, and heard Jim teach on poverty and God’s call to help those less fortunate. During the camp, they helped out in the kitchen, with recreation and swimming, arts and crafts, and drama.

For some, the real spiritual experience was the pilgrimage to the birthplace of the buffalo wing

Hanging out with the kids attending the BCC’s summer camp was a blast! Although I was only able to stay in Buffalo for two days, I met many kids, like Sterling, Ahmad, and Karmella, that I’ll remember for a long time. I’ll even remember Morgan, but only because she rolled her eyes at me more times than I could count. While the kids in kindergarten through second grade were eager to play games and learn, the fourth graders had already developed “too cool for school” syndrome. I can’t help but wonder what all of these kids will grow up to be like and more importantly, will they know Christ?

The trip did start out with a bang (or a pop), as yours truly changed a tire on the side of the road in New York, but it was well worth it. As a reluctantly drove home Tuesday night leaving the group to stay until the camp’s conclusion on Thursday, I wished I could stay longer. On the trip home, my stomach was full of buffalo wings from the Anchor Bar, better known as the birthplace of buffalo wings (yes, they’re called buffalo wings because they were invented in Buffalo).

Although director Julian Schnabel took some liberties adapting Jean-Dominique Bauby’s tale to the screen, the result is still impressive and thought-provoking.

Despite maybe being a little too artisy-fartsy for some, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a must-see French language film. It tells the story of Bauby, known as “Jean-Do” to friends, the Editor of Elle magazine that wakes up from a coma with “locked-in” syndrome. Due to a major stroke, at 43 years old, Bauby is left paralyzed and unable to speak.

All Jean-Do can do is see and think. As observers, we’re able to hear his thoughts and see almost exclusively what he sees for the first portion of the film. After the shock and horror of his situation sets in, Jean-Do pities himself. His only communication with the outside world is his ability to blink his left eye.

With the help of his determined nurse Henriette, he develops a method of communication and rediscovers his imagination. Henriette works her way through an alphabet ordered by frequency of usage and Bauby blinks when she arrives at the letter in the word he wants to spell.

Let's write a book.

To the shock of his publisher, Bauby decides to make good on a book deal arranged before his sickness. Claude, yet another beautiful woman in Bauby’s life, is sent to take the dictation.

Bauby is trapped inside his body, a prison of flesh and paralysis. This suit is an inescapable “diving bell” for Bauby. But, with his blinking eye and his mind unaffected, he is still able to imagine vivid fantasies and dreams. As Jean-Do struggles to keep from drooling out of a disfigured mouth, as viewers we also see his “butterfly” or escape - an endless stream of imagination and memories including a wild dinner at an expensive restaurant with Claude, sex on the beach with an old flame, and life as the editor of fashion magazine.

However, the film’s conclusion is abrupt and the movie is devoid of spirituality. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was by no stretch trying to invoke comparisons to Christianity, but some parallels to Christ did exist. Jean-Do’s paralyzed state must have been something like Christ felt when he was stripped of his divine attributes in order to come to earth and die for our sins.

In order to die on the cross for our sins, Jesus left the comfort of the Trinity and came to earth.

…although [Jesus] existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

What it must have been like for Christ on earth? Talk about leaving your comfort zone - Christ went from being all-powerful and omnipresent to confinement in a fleshly prison. While on earth, Jesus had no divine attributes and instead was doing his ministry through God’s power. Although obviously not God, Bauby also faced the limiting reality of “locked-in syndrome”, reduced to a prisoner in his own body.

Bauby’s prison, his “diving bell”, symbolized his extremely limited state and approaching death. On the other hand, his butterfly, or his imagination allowed him to be reborn in a sense and live in a fulfilling way he never experienced before his illness.

In goes almost without saying that Jesus’ death and rebirth are central to our life as Christians. As we undergo spiritual growth, our natural man dies while Christ starts to shimmer through. The older we grow in Christ, the more we realize that we’re depraved sinners only capable of doing good things through Christ. Is it too much of a stretch that Bauby’s figurative death and rebirth bring to mind this passage?

So death works in us, but life in you.

The theme I liked most from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was that the mind and the ability to choose are the most powerful things a human being “owns”. Reduced to vegetable state, Bauby could still choose to accomplish something amazing. Instead of wishing for death or making excuses based on his circumstances, he wrote his memoir – the bestselling The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

God also places extraordinary value on choice. The one thing we have sole control over, our heart, is the one thing God uses to establish a relationship with us. No one can force us to choose anything we don’t want to. We have the free will to enter into a relationship with God at any time. But, even the creator of the universe can’t make the choice for us. We have to make it for ourselves.

The movie also touches on things we take for granted. We live like we deserve things like our right eye and the ability to walk, yet sometimes we don’t appreciate them until they are gone or are sewn shut.

What did you think of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly? Do you make excuses for yourself because of circumstances or what you don’t have? Do you take what you have for granted?

Here’s a little known fact: I got involved in youth ministries with the church because I wanted to do the same thing my wife was doing (who was my girlfriend at the time). As an extremely young Christian, I was blatantly unconcerned with the actual ministry part of my being involved.

Somehow, I stayed on as a leader, though I wasn’t a good one. I stumbled and bumbled through years of junior high ministry failures, most of which were caused by my own selfishness. I didn’t prepare for teachings or spend any substantial amount of time prayerfully considering the kids God had entrusted me with. I wrongly reasoned that the way to win over the kids was to play the part of a cool older brother and this idea crashed and burned in many spectacular ways. Some of these disasters make for good stories, but the end result was tragic: my cell group outgrew the need for a chauffeur and instead turned away from God and turned to everything else the world offered.

Despite all of these horrible offenses, God used me and my half-assed, immature leadership for his glory. He also used the experience to mature me. Although there are things that I should have done differently, the boys that walked away from the Lord made their own choices.

The Bedford cell I once operated is now nothing more than a memory. The group was full of potential and possibility, but was derailed by seductive things - girls, drinking, drugs, and the pursuit of money and career. My heart does hurt for them almost daily.

As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians, these guys were “written in my heart” and will remain there forever. It’s truly heartbreaking, especially when I meet up with them today and see the destructive choices they’re making. Yet, despite all of the miles I racked up driving across town, the countless “thwaps” I took to the nuts (I gave some out too), and years of time invested in; the endeavor was anything but a waste of time.

In spite of the best efforts of the “cooler” kids in my group, one boy did miraculously receive Christ during those old times and remains in the body to this day. That’s right, Bryan got saved!

As I talked with him years later on the McCallum’s screened-in porch, memories came rushing back into my head. I looked out on that old swingset in the backyard and could hardly believe that when I started in youth ministries the kids would actually go out and play on that thing after our teachings!

Bryan has his own cell group now and his success in the body of Christ is very exciting and fills me with tremendous joy. Although I had no clue what I was doing in Bedford all those years, God knew exactly what he was doing: now B has learned to love and care for his group of JHQ kids.

When I visit my mother at the house I grew up in, she will occasionally talk about the things I used to do when I was just a little boy. I know she is happy that I have started a life of my own with my wife, but I also know part of her is sad her kids have grown up.

I can only imagine it must be bittersweet to be a parent. Mom invested so much time and love into us, so we could grow up. The memories are great – times spent at the art museum, reading together, and singing songs. Part of me wishes I could go back too, but it’s painfully obvious that we can’t. Things change and kids don’t stay young forever.

I’m a few years away from children of my own, but I have a feeling that it might be something like this.

So, yes B it is heartbreaking to see these kids grow up and lose their innocence. It is sad because you will just the have memories of JHQ, but it is also sweet because you will make even more of them as you build the kingdom of God in Chill.

Bryan, you are doing a tremendous job loving them! I’m amazed by you and your love, compassion, and care for them. They are written on your heart. It is inevitable, that you will see some go into the world and it will be heartbreaking, but you will also see some kids that had no chance miraculously be rescued out of the world!

I thank God for you- you’re awesome, B!

So, excuse me. I have to go tell my Mom I love her.

I highly recommend Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”. From the first few seconds I began turning its pages, I was memorized by McCarthy’s story. I couldn’t stop thinking about it at work, when it was time to go to bed, and when I woke up in the morning. I’ve finished the novel and I still can’t stop thinking about it.

A story conceived in a post-apocalyptic world has always been my favorite setting for a tale, but few over the years have done the subject matter justice. What, zombies take over the earth again? No really, I would have never guessed.

Instead “The Road”, which was selected to Oprah’s book club and won the Pulitzer in 2007, gives a brutal, detailed account of two people, a man and a boy, who attempt to make dramatic journey to the coast in a barren, scorched and lifeless world. Food is less than scarce- the few humans that remain have turned to cannibalism.

The man desperately tries to protect the boy in this increasingly cold and hopeless world, but struggles with his own past and remaining alive in the present. Meanwhile, the only life the boy knows is one of struggle and starvation.

They were just asked to explain what grace meant and now the room of teenagers was struggling to come up with an explanation. Maybe you could blame it on the impending heat wave or the fact that the adolescent brain effectively shuts down for the summer beginning in June, but the answers given were of the mark.

“What is grace?” seems like an easy enough question, especially for a group of young evangelical-minded Christians. One suggested grace might be “forgiveness”, while another offered the kind of incoherent rambling answer you’d expect to hear if the student had slipped into a daydream during world history class and had just been unexpectedly called upon by the instructor and was now trying to answer without really knowing the question. Most just tried to quietly blend into a wall or a couch, hoping they wouldn’t be asked to answer. After minutes of failing to produce an adequate response to a seemingly simple question, a more knowledgeable older Christian stepped in after the students naively challenged him to come up with a sufficient answer.

“Grace is getting something you don’t deserve from someone who doesn’t have to give it to you”, he responded, quieting his young critics. Of course this older Christian knew the answer to this elementary question. Grace is all over the bible - it is what makes Christianity different from all other religions, gives us eternal life, and makes our Christian life work! In fact there’s a nifty little acronym to remember what grace is: “God’s riches at Christ’s expense”.

Grace is the gospel message, God’s plan to save us from ourselves. As Paul puts it in Romans, “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Grace isn’t about what we’re doing or did, rather it’s about the fact that we can’t do it and need God to do it for us. As the book of Ephesians famously says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

On this level, it is easy to explain grace. But, grace is still hard to understand. As humans, we’re programmed with pride and the feeling like we deserve certain things. Surely, if I was in God’s position, there’s no chance I’d send my son to die for a bunch of ungrateful, obnoxious creeps who are just going to spit on and mock his sacrifice anyway.

When I received a large, flat-screen television from my parents this past Christmas, I struggled with the gift. There was no denying I wanted what was in that huge cardboard box, but there was no way I could have afforded to purchase it myself. Worse, there was no way I could possibly repay my parents back with a few measly “thank you’s” and the much less-expensive gifts I would soon be embarrassed to give them. It was a humbling experience, much like God’s free gift of grace. There’s no way we can afford to purchase ourselves out of death, yet Christ comes along and pays the price for us. When we accept it, it with the knowledge that there’s no chance we’ll ever repay him.

There's always a catch, right? Illustration titled Lucky Find by Graham Roumieu

Some refuse to accept God’s grace because it feels so humiliating to admit inadequacy. Others spend the rest of their lives feeling obligated to try to reimburse God for his free gift, a notion that makes no sense, but happens anyway. After all, if it’s free, there’s no cost, right? Maybe we’re just used to our culture where “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” and there’s always a catch. It’s absolutely puzzling – along comes God and offers eternal life with no strings attached, yet most humans flat out refuse his offer! Why?

Grace is hard to handle for most; even the Christian “saved by grace” faces the seemingly constant temptation to live the Christian walk based on his or her own righteousness, not on God’s grace. In this vein, Paul rebukes the church in Galatians asking, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” We read that spiritual growth is by God’s grace, just like salvation was.

Phillip Yancey wrote a good book called “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” In it, Yancey struggles to explain grace, instead relying on examples of what grace looks like in action. When I read, I felt completely inadequate to practice grace in my life. More often I operate like a bank’s general ledger: keeping track of the wrongs and rights I perceive people doing to me, and then writing out my own actions in payment to the corresponding person accordingly. So, in a lot of ways, I’m in the same “confused about grace” boat as the perplexed teenagers I was sitting in the room with.

Grace is a radical idea straight from God. Based on grace, we are able to walk directly into the throne room of God himself confidentially. As the writer of Hebrews, who I again surmise to be Paul, says:

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water…

Due to Jesus’ sacrifice and his blood we are able to have direct access to God, which happens “through the veil, that is, His flesh”. As Christians, we’re baptized into Christ, and God sees us exactly as he sees Christ. We enter the throne room of God clothed in Jesus, essentially as Jesus. On one level, grace is so simple - without it we can’t have salvation, sanctification, or glorification. All three of these are the result of letting God work in our lives, not our own works. Why does God want to take us to eventual perfection? Why does he save us from death and give us a lasting purpose? The answer is he loves us, but why does he love us so much? It is hard to fathom. One thing is for sure: without grace, we’d never even get close to God’s throne, with it we can approach it with confidence.

Although their wedding day was filled with much drama and more than a few headaches, most in attendance didn’t realize it (that’s the work of an excellent wedding planner and many hard-working friends). More importantly, Eric and Andie were married and their wedding was a fantastic celebration of marriage and the Body of Christ.

I hope I’m not invading the privacy of the happy couple, but I was in the wedding and did want to write about it.

Every time I attend a wedding that takes place in the Body of Christ, I’m struck by it. They’re really fun! As I talked to Chloe, I high-school student attending her first Body wedding, she too was overwhelmed by how much fun these things could be!

People are dancing and celebrating and the guest list is full of people you know really well. It’s a big party for two people, in this case Eric and Andie, who’ve chosen to make a life together with dependence on God. I think this is why ultimately these kinds of weddings are so fun – everyone knows the marriage is going to be a success!

Leading up to the wedding, things were tense. As Melanie called to see were the late-arriving car of groomsmen was in relation to the hall, I played a mean joke at the most inappropriate time. “Where are you guys?” she asked, the weight of pulling off a wedding in the face of a reception hall that had made many errors resting on her shoulders. “We’re just about to leave Eric’s house”, I replied with a fib casually. Melanie and I both knew Eric’s house was almost an hour away from the hall, which we were supposed to have arrived at minutes ago. As soon as I had said it, I could sense Melanie about to have a heart attack despite prolonged silence coming from her end of the phone. It was a horrible trick to play and even though I quickly came clean and admitted we were minutes away, I imagined Melanie wanted to reach through the phone and strangle me, a feeling which later she positively confirmed.

The groom was nervous too. While everyone else could walk unencumbered around the hall and grounds, Eric was confined to a bench at the far end of the hall. If he moved, 20 screaming women would no doubt shriek and claw his eyes in order to preserve the tradition and ensure he would not see his bride before she walked down the aisle towards him.

So, we arrived at 1:30pm and took pictures for 20 minutes. Then Eric sat on a bench in his tuxedo until 5pm, all the while getting more nervous by the minute.

I have to admit, all this nervous waiting was making me nervous too! I would say it later in my best-man toast, but I was more nervous for this wedding than I was for my own. We knew Eric was making the right decision in marrying Andie, but that didn’t stop me from extending my obligatory “There’s still time to get out of here – just say the word and we’ll drive to Mexico” offer I give to all the grooms that select me as best-man. It’s just something a good best-man has to do. To Eric’s credit, he elected to proceed with the wedding, a righteous and godly choice.

Never gonna give you up! Photo (C) Neil Brooks 330-592-0924

The wedding was a blur: Grandmothers and mothers were escorted to their seats, bridesmaids paraded in. Andie made a beautiful bride – she looked like a glamorous 1920’s movie star! Eric tried like a champion to hold in a trickle of snot from a runny nose, but it elicited giggles from Andie and the bridesmaids who witnessed him trying in vain. Dr. Hughes performed the ceremony like an old pro, mixing in the right amount a humor and heartfelt direction for the new couple on top of a clear gospel message of love. The newlywed Mr. and Mrs. Schoofs looked like a photo spread right out of wedding magazine or that ridiculously good looking couple posing for the photo that comes with the photo frame.

Amy and I gave our toasts and although we were both nervous, I have to say those are some of the best toasts I have ever heard (although I’m biased!). Amy’s was hilarious – I mean “Beefcake Schoofs” are you kidding me? Afterwards, we both would have numerous people telling us how great those speeches were, although we didn’t get “rickrolled” which was awesome.

When it came time for the dancing, everyone was ready to boogie down. The DJ played all the hits and everyone was out on the floor moving, grooving, and singing along. I was hoping the party would last all night because everyone was having so much fun. But Eric and Andie needed to get out of there and get on with their lives (and get it on) – together!

On Wednesday, I had my second health assessment. If you remember, I have been trying to stick to a diet full of good foods and exercise regularly in the mornings before work. I would say that I’ve been fairly successful: I have not been super strict about what I have been eating (I still eat at Chipotle every Friday), yet I have stuck to the diet for the majority of my meals. The same can be said for exercise: while I have worked out harder and more consistently at other times in my life, I’m in the gym more often than not on weekdays with an occasional splash of basketball.

So, here are the results of the 2nd assessment:

Pretty good - since the goal is to lose fat and gain muscle. So, I’ve done just that. 2 inches have disappeared from my waist, yet no one except my belt is missing them because my pants fit and feel noticeably better. This is because I’ve lost 5 pounds of fat. Also, my blood pressure has dropped into the excellent range.

Ideally, I’d like to gain a little more muscle. Previously, I stated that I wanted to go under 15% body fat and I should be able to do that by the next assessment, which will be the week of July 7. I will actually need to start consuming more calories by either adding an additional meal during the day or increasing the sizes of a few of my existing meals to keep up the progress. The hardest part about this diet is actually keeping up with the eating – I have never eaten this much food in my life!