Dr. Nick Yphantides today

Five years. That's how long it's been since the day I straddled two medical-quality scales and discovered the monumental 467-pound challenge that lay ahead of me. Five years ago I turned my very existence in a completely new direction as I began my journey as a Health Steward.

I'd been living a life of profound hypocrisy. My personal health and public career as a physician didn't jibe. Daily I gave medical advice while constantly having to qualify my own overweight, out-of-shape body with the words "Do as I say, not as I do."

It's not that I didn't recognize that I was severely overweight—there were daily reminders. A 60-inch waist makes for a very limited wardrobe. I couldn't fit into an airplane seat, wear shorts, or climb a flight of stairs without becoming winded. I dreaded going to an unfamiliar restaurant, worrying I might not fit into the booth or chairs. I needed to make a change, but I kept making excuses and rationalizing the error of my ways. Until a bout with testicular cancer forced me to deal with the consequences of my poor health decisions.

Though the cancer was unrelated to my excess weight, it caused me to confront head-on my own mortality for the first time in my life. As a result, I suddenly saw my physical health as a God-given gift over which I was obliged to demonstrate good stewardship. When I recovered from the cancer, I decided I could no longer go on killing myself with an avalanche of calories and a lack of physical activity.

So in 2001 I stepped off the scales, took God's hand, and asked Him to lead the way. After much prayer, I decided to take an unconventional approach—I'd combine doing something good for my health (diet and exercise) with something I loved (baseball). It would be my "radical sabbatical."

Over the course of the next year, I traveled over 38,000 miles in an old RV, visiting every state in the continental U.S.A. and every Major League ballpark. I enjoyed over 110 games, but rather than feasting on junk foods, I stuck to an aggressive, medically supervised meal plan of about 600 calories a day. Through that diet, coupled with daily exercise, I lost 270 pounds.

Today, exercise and healthy eating are a major part of my life. I'm enjoying focusing on my personal fitness and am encouraged by the slow but steady improvement in my body's shape and composition. Whatever pleasure I lost from overeating has been replaced many times over by the blessings and opportunities that result from my transformation. The old saying really is true: "Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels."

In my book, My Big Fat Greek Diet, I chronicle my journey and share some key lessons God taught me. The concept of Health Stewardship is simple, yet profound. As a physician, I believe most of us already know what we should do. What we need is the meaningful support, encouragement, and inspiration to do it. It's my hope and prayer that the following three pillars will start you on the path to doing what you already know is necessary.

3 Pillars of a Health Steward

Pillar 1: Change the way you see before you change the way you look.
Key Verse: "Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside … and then the outside will also be clean" (Matt. 23:26).

God created our bodies and He cares how we treat them. We need to view obesity and health from a new perspective. Obesity is not just a physical problem; it's a spiritual problem that has physical effects. Jesus' warning to the Pharisees in Matthew 23 is helpful here. Jesus was upset that the Pharisees were focusing on an external set of rules and regulations rather than people's hearts. But His teaching also applies to obesity and other matters of physical health.

If you focus on your spirit, it will affect your body. Obesity is just the warning light that something is wrong inside the engine. You don't fix the problem by working on the warning light; you fix it by working on the engine. The main reason diets fail is because they focus on the outside (the effect) and not on the inside (the cause).

	Dr. Nick Yphantides before

Begin your permanent weight loss journey by changing the way you see. Change your looks by changing your outlook. Recognize that your physical health is a spiritual issue.

Pillar 2: Slash your calories by eating for the right reasons.
Key Verse: "Life is more than food" (Luke 12:23).

Why we eat is more important than what we eat. That's a radical idea, a paradigm shift in gaining and maintaining our personal health. Bookstores are full of books about what we should or shouldn't eat. So why do people keep gaining weight and losing their health? Those who lose weight by merely focusing on what they eat usually gain it back. Traditional diets don't work because their focus is the stomach. For most of us who have issues with weight, the more important focus is our mind and heart.

Have you ever noticed that fit people eat the foods all the diet books say you shouldn't? So what's up with that? Perhaps it's because, in most cases, fit people eat for different reasons than fat people do. Fit people focus on why they eat. Fat people focus on what they eat. Fit people eat to fill their stomachs. Fat people eat to fill their souls. Fit people eat to live. Fat people live to eat.

Learning why and when to eat, and how to stop eating at the right time, is the key. God never intended for us to use food to replace the role He longs to have in our life. As Jesus said, "Life is more than food." Food is meant for nutrition, not for companionship or stress reduction. Most of us who struggle with weight do so because we use food in a way God never intended.

Give both your worries and eating habits to God. When you eat, ask: Why am I eating? Is my stomach hungry or is my soul empty? If it's your stomach, eat. If it's your soul, seek support and pray. As 1 Peter 5:7 says, "Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about what happens to you."

Pillar 3: Fill your tank with the right amount of the right foods.
Key Verse: "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body" (1 Cor. 6:12-13).

God has designed food for our physical nourishment. It's to be fuel for our bodies. Even though why and how you eat are more important, what you eat still matters.

When the Babylonians captured Daniel, he asked if he and his friends could eat vegetables rather than the rich food served in the palace. The Bible says, "At the end of ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food" (Dan. 1:15). What Daniel ate made a difference.

You can eat anything, but that doesn't mean you should eat anything. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable." Just because you're allowed to eat anything doesn't mean that it's good for your body to do so.

Ask God to help you to not be mastered by foods that are high in fat and sugar and low in nutritional value. Follow Daniel's example of honoring God by eating the right portions of healthy foods. Be deliberate about your food choices. The kind of behavior that comes naturally to many thin people needs to be learned by those of us who struggle with food issues.

Just getting started
In my book, I share four other Pillars to weight loss and maintenance, but beginning with the above three will pave the way for a successful journey. Believe me, I'm not sharing these principles because I want folks to think I'm an amazing guy who accomplished an amazing thing. My goal is to communicate the amazing things that God can do in the mind, the heart, and even the body, when we're completely dependent on Him.

Now, let's get moving.

Dr. Nick Yphantides's book, My Big Fat Greek Diet (Nelson), is available in bookstores or through his website at www.HealthSteward.com.

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