It's My Time To Lose!

It's been a battle for most of my life, but earlier this year, I made some serious inroads toward controlling my weight. The determination came from many areas, including the great movie "Supersize Me", and the "Biggest Loser" reality show. At some point during that show's second season, it came to my attention that my weight had gotten up to 233, a point that was far enough above the already uncomfortable 200 milestone, that I decided I had to do something about it.

So back in Spring (probably around April) I got myself all fired up, and through an amazing fitness plan I like to call "Eat Less, Exercise More", I got myself down to 212 by the time school let out. Cindy and I went to Vegas, and for the first time in a really long time, I didn't feel 100% self-conscious at the pool!! (still a lot more self-conscious than I'd like, but it was a much more liberated experience)

However, after returning from Vegas, it was SO hard to get back on my routine. And with summer vacation, our schedules got busy, mealtimes became less standard, and little by little, I realized I wasn't going to hit the 210 goal that had been so close only a few weeks earlier. That bummed me out, but I still couldn't get motivated. Summer passed into fall, and I noticed that my clothes were getting snuggish again... Okay, time to do something drastic!

With a new job and a new church, I realized that one thing keeping me from really doing it, was the lack of accountability friends. But then when my friend Rob made the bold move to post his fitness progress on his blog, it struck me that THIS can be my accountability forum. Even if nobody reads this far, to me it's accountability. Just writing it down will help keep me on track. So today is the first day of the new push to get BELOW 200 pounds! I haven't been there since Andy was about 2 years old, so that makes it 11 years or so. Unacceptable!! I was at the gym at 5:00 this morning, and will go again during my lunch hour today. I'm hoping my resolve (which Cindy says "isn't even human") will kick in to help me avoid the butter cookies and chocolate pretzels in the break room at work... So far so good! I've even found a great online fitness tracker. For a snapshot of how I'm doing, click here - obviously, the snapshot will be more meaningful as time goes on... but I'm sticking it out there! Making myself accountable via public records! And I'm excited for it!!

-the incredible shrinking mike

p.s. Hey, if anybody's still reading... I'd love to get into a "Biggest Loser" style weight loss competition where we all pay into a winner-takes-all pot... Any takers??