JonathanBryant.info

I was looking through the blog earlier and noticed a page called “Weight Loss Journey.” There were only 2 entries… one from December 5th, 2008 & one from March 30th, 2009.

I suck. I know.

But a couple days ago I decided to do a Master Cleanse for a few reasons:
-Need to kick start my weight loss program again (scale says 264 right now)
-Need to prove to myself and my body that I can go without food for a period of time
-Need to focus in these next few weeks… some big decisions to make
-many other reasons…

Here’s the deal:
The only thing I can ingest during the cleanse is the 3 bottles a day of the lemonade mixture (4tbs Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice, 4tbs Grade B Maple Syrup, 1/5tsp Cayenne Pepper, 20oz pure water), water (as much as I want), and an herbal laxative.
And, I can do it for as long as I want up to 30-40 days.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

-NEXT WEEK IS EASTER!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S ALMOST HERE!!!
-Foothills Toccoa went well this morning. A little rough with some technical issues… but all in all a good day.
-We did our first Acoustic Set ever. I think people didn’t really know what to think, but connected well once they figured out that you can worship either way.
-I challenged everyone at the very beginning that worship is a CHOICE… and then prayed over the service. I think that got some butts in gear.
-The set today was: Sing Sing Sing/Tomlin – My Savior My God/Shust – Revelation Song/Job – True Love/Wickham
-A video (WITH AUDIO) started during my solo acoustic rendition of True Love. It broke the mood, hard.
-God still moved in a powerful way during that song. Haha devil, eat that!
-I’m still losing weight. Another Weight Loss Journey post coming soon…
-We dropped Abbi off with Candice’s Dad and Stepmom on Friday… we really don’t know what to do with ourselves without the baby girl. We’ve been watching a lot of movies and napping. I miss her a lot.
-We had some sound issues this morning also. Someone blew our sub yesterday and we’re SCRAMBLING to get that fixed before Easter. It actually worked perfectly because today was Acoustic.
-Duplicity is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. Julia Roberts across from Clive Owen was brilliant! You should see it.
-Next week at Foothills is going to be AMAZING!! In Seneca there are services at 7:55a (Eric Peters), 9:30a (Eric Peters), 11:15a (David Odom – Big Room) and 11:15a (Eric Peters – The Venue)… and in Toccoa we’ll have a 9:15a and a 11a (identical). DON’T. MISS. THIS.
-Greg brought it today. Forgiveness is a message we all need to hear.
-You should check out the new Foothills website.
-My guitar is broken. I need a new one. Please Jesus, I need something reliable.
-I’m bummed about not having a reliable axe. Candice has a Grand Concert-sized Taylor, but too small and no pickup. My Old Martin is just that… old. My Tacoma won’t stay in tune because the HEADSTOCK IS BREAKING OFF AGAIN! This drives me crazy.
-I can’t wait to see what God has in store for FCC next week! We’re all predicting 3,500 between 6 services on 2 campuses and 3 stages. WHOA!
-That’s all for me tonight. Have a great day tomorrow!! Invite someone to church on Easter!

-First off, I didn’t do a blog post for last Sunday. It was an amazing day!
-Today at Foothills Toccoa was A BLAST!
-We had a record number of adults today… wow! Even on a weekend where it rained all day Saturday and parking lot was still pretty much a mess.
-We had a few technical issues today: Mics not being placed before the countdown started, Lights on and off in weird places, etc… HOWEVER… our technical team is amazing and I appreciate everything they do!
-My sound team came in Saturday morning and spent hours tweaking the system so we could still run fairly loud without it being ear-piercing. Wow, they’re awesome!
-From the feedback I got today, whatever they did worked, and people were engaged with the sound but not blown away by the high-end. Success!!
-Set today was: Today is the Day/Brewster – O Praise Him/Crowder – Lord I Give You My Heart/Deyo Version – Give Us Clean Hands
-I felt great about the set today, and the band played awesome.
-Our new drummer Jason plays loud… I’m gonna get him some lighter sticks.
-By the way, Jason is an amazing guy. They started coming to FCC Toccoa just a couple months ago… they’re already plugged into a life group, playing in the band, setting up sound every Saturday morning at 8a, tearing down stuff even when he’s not playing… that’s the kind of volunteers we love! This week our drummer bailed on Friday, and Jason even sat in with only 24 hours notice… SHOULD I GO ON??
-I had a band of Toccoa people, with one supplement person from Seneca. I like that. That is filling a task I was charged with when I was hired at FCC. Thanks to my people for all their help and support.
-Shannon is a great campus pastor.
-We had lunch at Bell’s in Toccoa today. Probably the best hamburger I’ve ever had.
-Be looking for a new Weight Loss Journey post tomorrow afternoon. I finally got going with that! Better late than never. (Spoiler alert: I’ve lost 13lbs in the last two weeks!)
-The baby is about to go to bed and Candice and I are gonna watch Nights in Rodanthe. Hopefully it’s not too stupid and sucky.
-Again, be watching for a WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY POST TOMORROW AFTERNOON AND MORE BLOG POSTS ALL THIS WEEK!

-Great day at Foothills this morning. The set looked like: “Love the Lord” – Brewster, “Freedom Song” – Desperation Band, “You Never Let Go” – Redman, “You Found Me” – The Fray.
-The band NAILED IT today! Great guys with a heart for worship and excellence.
-I need to start blogging more. I should just go ahead and put it on my ToDo list.
-Speaking of, I have been using ZenBe Lists. It’s phenomenal, simple, and has a GREAT iPhone/iPod Touch interface. Check it out!
-I am SO grateful for my computer. In the last week, I have: made and finished ToDo Lists, picked out set lists, practiced using Garageband, made tracks and click using Reason/Ableton/Garageband, emailed, Twittered, Facebooked, set up bands and people, uploaded music and charts for this and next week’s teams… I am SO grateful for my computer.
-The first thing I’m doing when I get paid is getting a gym membership. We had to give ours up when I stopped working last year, and it’ll be good to get back in there. Also, I’ll start updating my Weight Loss Journey again. There hasn’t been much Loss to document, as of yet.
-I’m watching American Chopper on PBS as I’m writing this. Since when is AC on PBS? Haha.
-I’m gonna be connecting with a friend I haven’t really hung with in years this week, hopefully. I’m stoked. He was the guy that really convinced me (by the way he lived) that Jesus is real and has a TON to do with our everyday lives. I hope it all works out.
-Abigail is everywhere. Climbing. Running. Falling. She’s a mess and I love every minute of it!
-I am learning to use Reason and Ableton live this week. I’ve used Reason before, but I’m getting a pro lesson from a guy that’s been using it for YEARS. I’m excited… it’s gonna be like drinking from a fire hydrant, though.
-We just ordered an M Audio Axiom 21 key Midi Controller and an M Audio Firewire 410 interface. They use it in Seneca, and it works great. Basically, it’s a way to trigger tracks I’ve made in Reason and output them to stereo channels, and also output a separate click channel. Yeah! It’s gonna be awesome!
-Just started using PlanningCenterOnline.com. It makes my life a ton easier.
-New things starting make me happy. Old things fading away make me a little sentimental, but not too bad. Things change, we just gotta roll with them.

I’m done, because dinner has to happen. CATCH YOU LATER!!

Here’s what today looked like:

-Got up and planned on going to the late service at Foothills. Drove past UAG and decided to stop in for their Christmas Musical today. It was well worth it. Awesome production, and the kids did amazing. Got to go to lunch with some old friends that I miss terribly. As I write this I’m actually getting a little “watery” thinking about how much I miss them.

-We came home and let the baby take a nap, and then headed back to some friends’ house for a birthday party. Small gathering, but great conversations and great people. I had a blast!

-I’m actually gonna start leading worship for a church in the area starting at the beginning of the year… I’ll keep you posted, promise. In talking with their Worship Pastor, it just seemed like the logical thing for both of us to pursue. I’m stoked.

-My Weight Loss Journey is going well. I’ll post some pics and a couple stories tomorrow night. Don’t miss it.

-I got to talk to a good friend last night about service, Jesus, love, books, life, starting a church… he’s younger, but REALLY stretches me and gets me thinking. I love that. He let me borrow the new Rob Bell book “Jesus Wants to Save Christians.” I am more excited about this book than I have been about a book in a long time. Starting it tomorrow… I’ll let you know how it is.

-(Currently listening to “Your Love Never Fails” by a bunch of different artists. It’s the best “worship atmosphere” CD I’ve found in the last few months.)

-Thinking about a million things at once… trying to put down what’s happening right now, but it’s tough.

-What would it look like if I lived out 1Cor 13 in my life? What would it look like if the Church used 1Cor 13 as a model for minsitry. I did a post on it not too long ago (and continued it here with part 2), and I’d like it if you took some time to look at it if you haven’t seen it already. I revisited that today and was broken again by the Word of God.

-Now I’m going to hit the sack and get ready for another week. Have a great night! Be looking for my new Weight Loss Journey entry tomorrow night, and then some posts this week (including my favorite links lately, new computer, Rob Bell’s book, etc).

So, today was a very good day. The early service at Foothills was great and it was baptism service, so it was a blast. Here’s my day:

-Like I said, the early service at Foothills was rocking. They had both worship leaders, Eric and David, in one service which was cool. They usually split up duties between the 1st and 2nd services and their new Toccoa Campus. It was interesting having them both on stage at once. They’re both great musicians and leaders who I have the priveledge of calling my friends.

-They had some technical difficulties, but all in all they pulled it off.

-Baptism service was a bit different. They had extended worship, a sermonette (still 35min! haha), and then worship while they took the people getting baptized to their youth auditorium. While the last few songs were played, the people getting baptized were on the screens via closed circuit TV. Pretty cool idea.

-We were joined this morning by a couple friends from college. Scott and Catherine are people we’ve always clicked with, and we’ve been hanging with them more and more since they’ve moved back to SC.

-Speaking of Scott & Cat, we’ve been over to their house a couple times to play a game called Settlers of Catan. It’s kind of like Risk, but not as big, I don’t think. I thought I would hate it, but now I think about it in my sleep.

-After church, we came home and decorated the Christmas tree while drinking my famous apple cider. Candice did most of the work, and I let her because she’s so dang good at it. I’m sitting here looking at it and it’s one of the best looking trees I’ve ever seen.

-After the tree happened, we all three took a nice Sunday nap, and now I’m watching the Steelers get waxed by the Cowboys. Boo.

-In other news, I’m pretty surprised about how the NFL has turned out this year. Underdogs pulling it out, teams picked to win just rolling over during the 2nd half. It makes it a bit interesting, I like. It also helps my odds, as I’m an avid gambler and have made a fortune on the NFL and dog races.

-Kidding about the gambling, by the way. It’s ok mom, don’t call.

-I looked up last night and the clock said 4:00am, and that was it. I was up. It wasn’t like one of those, “I could go back to sleep if I tried, ” feelings… I was up. So I came in the living room to check my e-mail, and had an inbox full of notes from a friend on a book he just read. He sends me these notes and we discuss them back and forth using GoogleDocs. Fun times.

-Speaking of that, I’m really excited about the next 18mo of my life. It’s gonna be tough, and maybe a little slower than I’d hope… but it’s all good. Details coming.

I’m gonna go have some dinner before it’s too late. Remember to check out my Weight Loss Journey page and look for updates every week. Just click on the link and then pick the week you’d like to see. I’m including pictures, weight, and how it’s going. It’s just the first week, so I’m still very fat, but I can already see progress. Thanks, also, for those who have commented and e-mailed with your own stories and encouragement… it means the world to me.

Alright… dinner and football, here I come. Have a wonderful evening!

So here’s my biggest issue in life. If you knew me in high school, you probably just went, “Whoa.” If you met me in the last 3 years, this is what you presume I’ve always looked like.
My biggest fear in life is putting myself out there for the world to see… so I’m doing it, and holding onto Jesus. This is tough, but it’ll make me a better person. I’m typing this now with drenched eyes for a number of reasons: I’m ashamed, I’m embarrassed, I can’t believe I’ve let myself go this far, I have hope that Jesus and discipline can get me out of this hole, I really love eating and don’t want to give up the foods I love, I wanna be healthy so I can play with my little girl as she grows older, etc etc etc.

Here I am, issues and all. To Jesus, help me. To my Family and friends, encourage me. To Myself, here we go.
I’ll post again soon.

-Jonathan (262lbs)

-I am freakin’ BEAT! This week was fun, but the word ‘relax’ never came up. Good times, though!
-Another great morning at Foothills. My good friend Eric lead and rocked the house. They did “How Beautiful the Blood” and tore me up.
-Pastor G preached and good word and a few people came up and accepted Jesus for the FIRST TIME! YEAH! That makes almost 90 in this series.
-We went to the 9.30a service, and it was packed. I was tired, but it was good to see Jeff and his family. They had to drive back to Indiana tonight, so 9.30 it had to be!
-We ate brunch at a nice, family restaurant in town and got to have some great conversation about the future, more on that in the coming weeks.
-(As a side note, Abigail has been amazing this past week. In the car, driving around, sleeping a bunch of different houses, cold weather, rain… she’s a trooper, and so cute!)

-This week I’m going to start my long journey back down to 165lbs. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen 165, or even anything under 200lbs, but it’s got to happen. I’ll be chronicling my journey HERE every couple of days including photos (silhouettes only, of course), what I’m doing, and how I’m losing the weight. This is a huge step for me that I’ve “started” a few hundred times now… but it has to be done. Pray for me, send me your thoughts and stories if you have any. Thanks a ton.

-We’re about to start cleaning the house and unpacking from our trip after our nap, should be fun. This is my least favorite part of ANY trip.
-This week will be interesting… a lot of things going on in my life that can’t really be put into words right now, but this week I’m going to start trying. I’ve found it’s not healthy for me to be so abstract with my feelings, so I’m going to try to be very honest with myself this week and see what I’ve been missing.
-Gotta run… make sure to leave some love and check out the Weight Loss Journey page.

-Bryant