I’m a Wynn, an Oklahoman, and a Baptist, all three of which seem to predispose me to being, shall we say, stocky. Big boned? Hefty? Or let’s just be honest. I’m fat. I’ve been fat most of my life. In a college nutrition class I learned the scientific term is “morbidly obese,” which, as I recently told our church gathering, means one is so fat he will die from it. Interestingly, this nutrition class also toed the USDA line of teaching the low-fat diet combined with 6-11 servings of carbohydrates a day, which I have come to believe has only made Americans fatter and fatter. But that’s another blog post.

Some of my life I have wanted to deal with my weight. I’ve had periods, like in that college nutrition class, where I have been religious about following a plan, in that case the USDA food guide pyramid, only to work and starve and obsess and lose a few pounds. I’ve also had times when I’ve found something that really works, the Atkins diet for example (on which I lost around 40 pounds when I also was walking nearly two miles a day), only to have it and more come back on when I didn’t maintain it properly.

Other times in my life, I simply didn’t care how big I was. It bothered me none that I’m bigger than most. I’m 6’4″ tall and I can carry a lot—and I do mean a LOT—of weight fairly well. I’m big, as everyone can tell by looking, but most don’t know how heavy I am. When I’ve had serious friends attempt to guess my weight, they routinely under-estimate by 100 pounds. So, as long as I could find clothes, which has become increasingly more difficult and expensive, I was simply unconcerned.

And other times, I have actually enjoyed being a large guy. Fortunately, I’ve not really suffered from a poor self image since grade school, so I’ve never had bouts of depression or shame over my weight–and no one should. But it goes a step too far, I think, when one is actually proud to be felt entering a room because of his mass.

And so, I got to a point where, especially for practical reasons (and some vain), I decided this is the year I lose at least 100 pounds. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. And I knew I wouldn’t particularly like it. I mean, seriously folks, I have no illusions as to why I’m fat. Sure I’m big boned (my mother had me tested). Sure, I do desk work. Sure, I may have a thyroid problem (my mother never had me tested). But the fact of the matter is that I LOVE to eat.

I love food. I like it fried. I like it un-fried. I like cheesy things and gooey things and crunchy things. I like everything. And that’s the problem.

I’m thankful for a mother who didn’t feed me just burgers and fries growing up. She exposed my sister and me to a wide variety of differing cuisines growing up, and that wasn’t always easy in 1980s rural Oklahoma. It was a big deal when we got to go eat somewhere new, and there were new, exciting things like scallops and strange vegetables like bok choy and salads with homemade vinaigrettes with pecans in them. She taught me to be a culinary adventurer, and I am thankful for that.

But in my adventures, I became greedy, and I think that may be called gluttony or something. As I grew up and began to make my own money, I became more adventurous. I love meals with appetizers and large portions and desserts and coffee. And while, like most things, those meals are fine in moderation, they became more the rule than the exception. Nothing pleases me more than long, lingering meals with friends where we start at 6 p.m. and don’t wrap up until 10. There’s something about the combination of food and friendship and conversation that just scratches an itch deep inside me.

On the opposite extreme, I also became gastronomically lazy (I’ve always been fairly inactive physically, which is another challenge). As life and work got busier, and as stress from various situations piled up, I turned to quick, usually carb-laden comfort foods.

I love Coca-Cola with a passion. Ben Franklin considered beer a gift from God and evidence that he loves us. I am that way about Coke. As much as I hate to further the notion that heaven will be some giant all-you-can eat buffet, I do believe there might be a free Coke fountain somewhere in the Promised Land.

I also love horrible, fried convenience store delicacies like crispitos, and pizza pockets, and corn dogs, and (if you can get to the c-store in Chelsea, those little mini tacos!).

Some may also recall that at the last Welch Public School Enrichment Foundation banquet that I emceed, in presenting the Outstanding Alumni Award to Carol Calcagno, Coach Ken Sooter said that Carol could just never get enough sports. I responded that the only thing I’d never gotten enough of was chicken fried steak. And I meant that. I took it upon myself to eat every one I could find. That does not a fit boy make.

And so, as with most of life, the challenge is to find a happy medium, somewhere between the two extremes, in which to live and thrive.

To find this happy medium, one has to deal with reality. For me, there are a few realities that I must accept and work around.

1. I do not like exercise. I don’t mind activity, but I hate the monotony of the treadmill. That is not to say that, as I lose weight, I don’t desire to get in the gym and do some work, but exercise cannot be the primary means through which I lose weight. Those who are active can eat more, but I can’t. In short, I can’t continue to eat like a farm hand unless I get a job as a farm hand–and that would be disastrous for some farm.

2. I cannot be hungry. If I am hungry, I will be doomed. Sometimes it’s hard to discern between hunger and desire, but it is possible.

3. I don’t want to do something unhealthier than being fat. Other than cursed sinuses, I am a fairly healthy person. To the surprise of many, I am not a diabetic and I do not have off-the-charts blood pressure, though I do have a brain, so I know things could head that way if I don’t reduce my weight. Then again, I could also be killed by an errant basketball as I do live audio of a ballgame, too. When it’s our time, it’s our time, but there is something to be said about the quality of our life until it’s our time. And there’s that whole “our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit” thing, too.

4. Surgery is not an option for me. It is a great option for some people. I’ve had family members who have done it, and I know others who have had great success with it. I don’t begrudge anyone taking control of their life any way they choose, and I am glad they’re having great success. But, for me, it’s something that I need to do unaided by surgery. I need the mental victory of learning my body and overcoming this challenge without the knife. (Not to mention, I’ve had MRSA a couple times and the thought of an elective surgery in a MRSA-riddled world scares me to death).And, as far as I understood it when others did it, surgery should be a last resort when a person has failed every other way to manage their weight. I haven’t done that yet.

5. I need to see results rapidly. The fact of the matter is this: I am so large and I have so much ground to cover that I will not be motivated by a loss of a pound a week. I know that may be the “best” way to do it. But I have learned in life that one of the biggest mistakes can be to make the perfect the enemy of the good. I won’t do it the perfect way, so I better do it the good way rather than not at all.

So, taking all those things into consideration, I eventually decided that I would use HCG as a means of helping me reach my goal. Thanks to the gentle tenacity, not to mention unending support and exhaustive knowledge, of friend and client Colleen Coble, I discovered the HCG protocol developed by Italian doctor A.T.W. Simeons, M. D. Colleen has had great success with it and has become a real servant by helping others in their struggle with weight with her posts and replies on the online forums.

I recently did an HCG course and saw loss, but didn’t do it properly and regained the weight. But, when I got serious about losing 100 pounds in my 35th year, I knew HCG would be the means to that end. Why? Because it fits all of my five criteria above.

HCG forbids all exercise other than moderate walking while on a course. I can get behind that. On HCG I am never hungry except at meal times (and sometimes not even then), and I am quickly satisfied, even with the very restricted meals during the HCG course. I eat healthier on the HCG protocol than I have eaten most of my life, and I have yet to find even one unhealthy aspect or side effect. HCG is not invasive surgery, though it has the effect of resetting the metabolism in your hypothalamus, giving you physical benefits often afforded by surgery without the knife (and risk of antibiotic-resistant infection). And HCG weight loss is rapid. One can expect to lose 40 pounds in a 40-day regimen, and that kind of progress is motivating.

So, I started my latest course of HCG right after MLK day, and I have lost right at 45 pounds. It’s now time for me to transition from the very low calorie portion of the plan and add back more protein and fat, while still limiting starches and sugars for a few weeks before gradually adding them back in and seeing how much my body can handle without putting weight back on. We’ll see what the future holds.

As for now, I’m still morbidly obese, just not as much as I was. I feel better, have more energy, and like how my clothes are fitting me. I’m actually looking forward to more physical activity and have promised a preacher buddy who makes me sick with his terribly long jogs auto-posted to Facebook by his Garmin device (I’m looking at you, Dan Lewis) that I will come run with him when I drop 100. Then we’ll have a Butterfinger. Or some celery. Maybe a pizza pocket.

So, if my struggle is your struggle, take heart. I’m coming to believe it’s a struggle that’s worth it.

And, I also want to thank those who nominated both the WynnBlog and the WynnCast for a 2010 Okie Blog Award. It was an honor to be nominated again, even though both of the sites have been fairly neglected of late. I’m fast becoming the Susan Lucci of the Okie Blog Awards, but I do appreciate our readers and listeners. Congrats to the other nominees and winners. And that whole neglect thing will soon be changing. Hang with us.

Go Cats!

About two summers ago, in the hottest part of the season, I called a local air conditioner repair place because our A/C just wan’t keeping up. I thought it might need a charge or something. The repair dude came around and told me it was just too hot for anyone’s A/C to keep up well. I think he thought I was trying to keep the house too cold. He looked at it, put a little refrigerant in it, and hosed down one side of the outside box, noting there was a lot of dog hair. That seemed to do the trick (although it was never really able to cool like I thought it should in our well-insulated house).

At the end of last summer, I began to notice a noise coming from the outside unit. Upon looking, I saw the exhaust fan wasn’t turning. I could use a screwdriver to help it take off and it would work fine. It was really the beginning of autumn, so we just turned it off and did fine without. I knew I’d need to get it looked at this summer.

As it’s beginning to warm up, I figured it was time to test it out. Upon turning it on, I noticed the same symptoms. I’m not terribly handy, but I am able to figure basic things out (and I like to save a buck if I can), so I decided to tackle it today. Online research showed it was likely a “run capacitor,” which helps the fan motor get running. I decided also to remove the motor so I can have it tested just to be sure. I’m hoping it’s the capacitor because they are about $12. The motor could be over $100.

Unfortunately, my unit sits on the north side of the house, which stays wetter then anywhere else on the planet. It’s also the dogs’ favorite hangout because of said dampness. They like to lay there in the moist shade all summer long. I would too if I were a dog. With our recent rain and the dog traffic, that side of the house is a muddy swamp. I gave up trying to wear shoes and just went barefoot, and I finally got smart enough to spread some flakes of straw around to help me get some traction.

After disconnecting the power, I tore into my unit. It was fairly easy work removing the motor and capacitor, but it was crazy trying to keep my footing ankle deep in mud or something like it. Not to mention, there isn’t much work room, as there is only about a foot of clearance between the A/C and the fence.

In the midst of this procedure, having removed a portion of the unit’s cover, I noticed it looked like the innards of the A/C were wrapped in insulation (like a dishwasher is). That didn’t make sense to me, so I looked closer. It wasn’t insulation but dirt, grime, and a significant amount of dog hair (why is it called fun while they wear it and hair when it falls out and gets into trouble?). I also learned that the evaporator coils cover four sides of the unit, and as I looked, I realized that my A/C was wearing a beagle-fur coat. No wonder the capacitor and/or motor went out. There went the rest of my day.

The electric supply store wasn’t open anyway, so I set about removing the cover from the whole unit so I could do a good clean. That in itself was a feat, due to the aforementioned ankle-deep mud and about a 1,000 screws Rheem has apparently determined are necessary to keep the unit in one piece. Finally removing the cover, I was able to give it a good wash with the hose. The drain holes were even clogged, so I used the force of the water to clear them out. Then I bought some coil cleaner and sprayed it down, let it sit the recommended 15 minutes, and rinsed it all out again. All in all, it’s probably the cleanest its been since it was installed. When it was all over, I was a mess, covered head to toe in mud, and I had to hose off before I came in the house to shower.

So, it’s been a busy and productive day, and I am tired. I’ll get the new capacitor this week and get the motor tested. Once I have it all back together, if I remember how, I’m counting on a better-cooling, cheaper-to-operate A/C unit. I am also a bit miffed that the repairman I had come out didn’t recommend doing this then (or offer to do it for me). Online research has shown that it’s recommended to give your A/C a good clean at least once a year, and frankly, the manufacturers should make the coils easier to get to and clean without deconstructing the whole unit, but that might not sell as many units.

I would have tweeted pics, but Jeane threatened me. She somehow thinks it reflects badly on us. I’m just glad I got to the bottom of it. I’ll also be doing away with the dogs’ direct access to the A/C.

So, check your A/C’s evaporator coils—especially if you have dogs. I’d love to hear your stories.

About 500 faculty members — half the voting faculty on the main campus of the state’s largest university — cast votes Wednesday on motions presented by the university’s Committee on Governance. Results were made public Thursday.

Along with Schmidly, a former Oklahoma State University president, the faculty cast no-confidence votes against the president of the university’s regents, Jamie Koch, and the university’s executive vice president, David Harris.

They also called for faculty to be included in UNM’s decision making and asked for an independent external audit of how funds from the state and sponsored research and money trimmed from end-of-year budgets have been spent.

Faculty members believe the administration is not aligned with their vision of excellence in teaching, research and service, said Doug Fields, president-elect of the Faculty Senate.

“Their focus is on a more corporate model of making things bigger and not necessarily better,” Fields said.

I’ll just say that squares with my impression of where Schmidly was going to take OSU. I went to school and worked at OSU mostly under the brilliant, masterful, and effective presidency of James Halligan. When Schmidly came on board, he began making immediate changes that reminded me of the power structure and cronyism I had experienced during my brief stint at Rogers State University. I had been thinking about quitting to join Jeane in our business full time. The Schmidly administration, especially an egghead named Wiggins, who was the VP over my department, made my decision for me—and quickly. And, from my friends who stayed, I can tell you his time as chief was just as unsuccessful as I expected. Glad I got out, sorry they had to live through it, and thrilled when Schmidly left.

It’s nice to see a faculty have the gumption to do something with an administration that’s gone wrong, too.

The resolutions voted upon all received large majority support.

“Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”

–Abraham Lincoln

Drudge's Headline "Era of Big Government is Back"

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

–C. S. Lewis