Attitude is Everything: 90 Pounds and Counting.

 The past few weeks have been really great. I lost eight more pounds, for a total now of 90 pounds lost so far. I am focusing on intake again and really narrowing it down and making it a part of my lifestyle and not just a diet. When you are on a diet there is always an end, but when it is a lifestyle change it is something that you can sustain for years.

 I want to share something with you that has really been on my heart about focus and dreams. The story of Joseph is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. He got a vision in a dream when he was a child and he never let go of that dream no matter what he went through in life. We can learn a lot about success from Joseph. We can learn a lot about what to do and what not to do as well.

 We are going to start off by what not to do: Joseph was very cocky. He was his father’s favorite son and he had a coat of many colors that his father made him. He would strut around in his coat in front of his brothers and brag about the dream that he had saying you guys are all going to bow down to me. Anybody who is an older brother knows this is not going to happen. So because of his arrogance his brothers sold him into slavery. When God gives us a dream we need to pray and strategize how we are going to make it happen. We need to look to God for wisdom and be prepared for opposition to come. Dream hatters will do everything they can to kill your dream. Like when I started my weight loss journey I had a lot of people try to talk me into getting a surgery. If you are one of those people sorry, but I am going to hate on you a little here. But I still love you. For some people this works and it has been great for them. But for me I want to be able help a lot of people lose weight. In order for me to do this I need to be able to do it myself. The dream I have to help people is all based around my success. Those people were trying to kill my dream and they had no idea. They wanted the best for me but they didn’t know my dream and my will to make it happen. We just need to use Godly wisdom and surround ourselves with people who are going to help us achieve our dreams.

 The second thing we can learn from him and the most important is that he kept a righteous attitude no matter what circumstances came against him or what others said or did to him. It was his attitude that brought him favor in the eyes of God and man, which eventually brought him from the pit to the palace. He kept his attitude right before the Lord, took whatever action was necessary in the face of adversity, and never gave up until he saw the fulfillment of his destiny. When he was a slave he rose to the top, and when he was in jail he did the same thing. Because he knew he was going to be great he focused on where he was going instead of where he was at the moment. My pastor and the man I consider to be my adopted father, Paul Cole, always says, “It is not what you are going through, but what you are going to, that defines who you are.” An example of this is with my weight loss, four months ago I was 460 pounds. I could not keep up at work, I was always tired, I had isolated myself from a lot of my friends because I was ashamed of what I had become. I have known for years that my future was going to revolve around me losing weight and helping others do it. I had prayed about it and I knew it was going to happen. I got to a point where I no longer wanted to be defined as Big Gene. I no longer wanted to be defined as a guy who could not sit in a booth at a restaurant, a plastic lawn chair, in a sports car, or on anything that comes from IKEA. Now that I have a focus on what God has planned for my life and I am keeping an attitude of victory things are going great. I have hit every goal I have set so far.

 The best part is that we are all called to do something great. We all have a destiny and we all have had stuff in our way to try and stop us from reaching our destiny. We can take these principles and apply them to our life and be successful. Philippians 4:13 (Your Name) can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

 A lot of awesome stuff has happened over the past few weeks. I spoke with Pastor Paul and he is going to take my ministry under the church as a covering so now people can give to me through the church and receive a tax write off for it. You can make the checks out to Hope Church and then just send them to me at:

 Gene Milstead                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     8317 Emerald Hills #306                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 NRH, TX 76180

 Of course you can also still donate directly to me online through my website (no tax write off).

 Also, I am also working on getting some shirts made that will have Choose Life, Don’t Just Exist on the front and NOMOREBIGGENE.COM on the back. If anyone would like to order some, just let me know. I am going to sell them at cost just so I can get the word out there, and am looking into costs now.

 It is awesome all that God is doing. The connections He is putting in my life are awesome. Hopefully I will have the weight loss home up and going sometime after the first of the year. Keep in touch and have a blessed day. Keep your head up and let me know if you need anything.

Choose Life, Don't Just Exist!