Fr. Sparling grew his spiritual and physical life through the help of a former theology student
By Jay Sorgi
for the Register
Father Adam Sparling has lost more than half of his physical self. But—in daily choices to become healthier, and losing 200 pounds in the process—he’s giving God glory.
Father Sparling has taken the last two years to lose 200 pounds, through countless miles walked, weights lifted and eating habits changed, with the help of one of his former theology students at Pius X High School in Lincoln, someone who is now a Catholic-centered fitness instructor.
“This was a movement and a cooperation in response to the Holy Spirit, too, in answering to my prayer to become healthier,” said Father Sparling, the pastor of St. Joseph Church in Superior and its mission church, Sacred Heart Church in Nelson, both of which are in Nuckolls County.
“Absolutely, I see it as taking that time [as] a form of worship,” he added. “It’s really moving to a holistic sense of a change of life, and it starts by just doing something.”
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Courtesy photos
Father Sparling said weight has been a lifelong struggle, something with which he has tried “a million” diets to solve. He said his weight grew to 380 pounds in recent years, and loved ones expressed continual concern about his health.
Yet for many years, the self-motivation wasn’t there.
“I came up with all sorts of excuses and the reasons why I couldn’t do things,” he admitted. “I was really (continually) open in the sense of praying, ‘Lord, just make me healthy and skinny tomorrow.’”
That “tomorrow,” the day where he started building the positive domino effect of greater physical, mental and spiritual health, landed June 20, 2024. He was, at the time, pastor of St. Anne Church in Campbell.
“It was a Thursday on my day off. I woke up, came downstairs, sat on the couch, turned on the TV, and I was like, ‘I feel like going for a walk,’” he said. “If you knew who I was then, you’re like, ‘What’s in your coffee?’”
Father Sparling said nothing was in his coffee, but an inner movement was building inside to change things.
He drove to Blue Hill to walk the school’s track and put on four miles. That night, he went back for a couple more miles.
“I was feeling really good. That’s when it started,” he said. “I have not missed a day since June 20, 2024.”
The first months of his new, self-guided routine had him putting five miles of walking on his daily odometer. He would find reasons to unite his calf-burning suffering in prayer. He prayed for a friend’s cancer recovery, or for the cancer journey of one of his parishioners who eventually passed away.
His walking would eventually reach up to 12 miles per day, but after five months of purely walking, he was advised that he was doing too much cardiovascular exercise.
Father Sparling then reached out to his former student, Noah McCashland, a personal trainer who took Father Sparling’s senior theology class and eventually moved to Scottsdale, Ariz.
“I advised him, (saying) ‘We need to get you metabolically healthy,” McCashland said. “We need to make sure that you’re eating enough food and the right foods. Then we need to build a strong foundation of muscle.’ Bringing in strength training is what the foundation is for my entire philosophy of coaching.”
The platform of helping Father Sparling’s metabolism increase through muscle foundation, to partner with reasonable cardiovascular exercise, helped the priest drop 200 pounds in two years.
McCashland said he often helps faith-filled clients whose spiritual alignment helps them extend to their mental and physical health, opening the door for change that becomes a permanent part of their lives.
“I think it makes a world of difference for a lot of my clients,” he said.
“It’s easy to create that purpose and have that North star to follow by being your best self, living as God intends you to,” McCashland continued. “It provides that reason for getting off the couch, doing something that drives you to continue constantly. Having that as a backdrop and something to constantly work towards provides that motivation that I think Father fulfilled.”
Father Sparling’s new lifetime of fitness has also afforded him incredible levels of personal prayer time, the kind that has deeply grown his own spiritual life.
“I talk sometimes in prayer when I’m out walking. I’m just talking to the Lord, sometimes grappling with some heavy things,” he said.
“People driving by probably think I’m crazy sometimes, but I’m just working these out and talking to the Lord.”
He believes self care through fitness truly becomes a worthy investment in the self, a way of better caring for what God has given each of us.
“If you don’t invest in yourself, then how can you care for your children?” Father Sparling said. “I can tell you, it’s okay to invest in yourself.”
