WOW the Holidays!!

They have not been so kind to me.  I have had to much to eat, to much to drink, and have not been working out in 2 weeks.  I am a lazy slob.  I have also had a bad back the last few days in which I have been on muscle relaxers, vicodin, and rest.  I have been cleared to go back to regular duty at work and it will be nice to get back to working out!!

Greg

Happy Holidays

This is a very relaxed day considering it is Christmas Eve. We have the thrill of doing chores at our pace since we don't punch a clock these days. We don't have to be at a job as many of you have to be. Anyway, the meal will all be cooked tomorrow morning so all that has to be done today is the dessert. It is not a calorie-less type but then we will just have to cut down on the size of our pieces or on the number of pieces we each have. We will all be aware of the pitfalls of overeating. So - in logical theory we could use smaller plates or just take a bit less of each item. Since this family loves Lefsa, we have that. We will have Red Cake, too. Cookies and candy are also going to be around. If we all had the energy the littles ones have, we would not have any problems. Or if the sugar high had us in high gear instead of nap time after the meal. Oh, these are flitting thoughts. I must get to the cake now. Then two little visitors need showers so they are ready for their first Christmas Party. Think smaller quantities and enjoy the tastes. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

My deepest gratetude to everyone that has stopped by and checked out this little adventure. Merry Christmas to all!

Good news today. I got on the scale this morning like I do every day. Today officially marks me losing 20 pounds! I'd been stuck at the same weight again. Gawd I hate that. Just sitting there and today...BAM! The scale moved!!!!

I hope everyone out there has a happy holiday season and remember, you can have it all, just don't eat it all :)

Survive vacation in Las Vegas - Check

The Mrs joined me on a little adventure to Las Vegas, NV this past weekend. My goal through this whole smaller jeans challenge has been to change my life and improve my health in a way that was sustainable. Is it possible to go to Las Vegas, have a good time and maintain my weight?

When I got on the scale this morning, it was the same as when I left!

I'll take that as a win.

We walked plenty but made great strides in avoiding the constant snacking and treats that you find in Las Vegas. Does this mean we didn't enjoy ourselves? Absolutely not. We hit the buffet, twice.  We also ate an amazing dinner at the Venetian's Grand Lux Cafe, I'm pretty sure this wasn't in the diet.

All the while, however, I quit long before, as our waitress at the Lux said, "I hurt myself". Even at the buffets, I made every attempt to not over pile everything. I was full, but we didn't eat again until we were hungry. Go us!

Sleep. That wasn't really talked about. Somethings about Vegas will never change.

This is one of those days...

Since starting on this adventure, there seems to be days that are harder then others. Today is one of those hard days. I have to pick up my youngest daughter from morning daycare and drive her to school. This mean I won't start lunch until 2 hours after we normaly go to the cafeteria. OMG! I'm so hungry already...this doesn't bode well. Maybe I'll need an intervention...keep hands, arms, legs, valuables and baked goods out of reach of my teeth...

Hello fat.....it is me.....I hate you.

Well I have not posted recently becaue I have not been running because I hate it. So today I joined the 24/7 gym in Goodhue and I am dang excited about it. I have always been better at lifting weights and throwing in a little cardio than I was at running anyways.

So tomorrow start the working out at an actual gym. I have my alarm set for 3am so I can go before work. I will keep posting to keep track of my progress.

I have also gone almost completely Dt. Pepsi free! I have about 6 more bottles at work to finish up and then I am going to try and stay pop free. I feel like that, combined with my lack of exercise and poor eating habits, have made me the fatty that I currently am.

So here starts the path to a healthier life.

Greg

Changes to the routine

Getting ready for winter and Christmas has left my back in a tender state. It hurts. I needed to make a change to my regular routine for working out.

Welcome to the wonderful world of treadmills.

Riding the bike was fun. Those machines really rock and riding to the moving scenery helped keep me motivated, but sitting like that didn't feel good with back pain.

One of the interesting features of the treadmills at our work facility  is that I can set the target based on time, heart rate or calories. Since my primary goal is to lose weight, I'm setting my target based on calories. and then setting my pace to meet my time constraint. So far, I really like it.

This was yesterdays workout. My target was 350 calories + 30 calories in cool down. I made the 350 in just short of 2 miles in a bout 33 minutes. Perfect! I can then go do a little weight lifting and then it's back to work. As each level becomes easier, I will try and pack more exercise and hard challenges along the way.

Who knows, I may even start running again...

Celebrating the little things today!

I'll be heading out to my regular Monday workout in just a few minutes but thought this deserved a W00T! W00T!

As of this morning, I officially gained no weight over the Thanksgiving weekend! I didn't lose any either, but that wasn't the point.

Thanksgiving is a holiday that I look forward to all year. I'm a big turkey dinner kind of guy, but this year I successfully avoided the traps that surround the day. I enjoyed the traditional dinner TWICE and skipped the snacking the rest of the time.

YEAH ME!

Sorry for the interruption...now back to your regularly scheduled programming....

Lose It - Another reason to own an iPhone

Big news! I survived Thanksgiving Day (1). My went to my wife's Mom's house yesterday for one fantastic meal. Turkey, mashed potatoes, all the fixin's...and I'm still under 250! W00T! W00T!

Today, the first day after eating enough calories to light a small village, I still got my butt out of the house and went to the downtown version of our Healthy Living Center we go to at work. Downtown is amazing. There is even a pretty nice daycare facility there. OhPrincess2 loved it. Unfortunately, OhPrincess1 can't go. The top age limit is 8. D'oh!

But what's up withe this post? Today, my work out buddy and good friend Mark introduced me to a new app for my iPhone. It's called Lose It!. A newish free app in the iTunes App Store.

What is it?

Set goals and establish a daily calorie budget that enables you to meet them. Stay on track each day by recording your food and exercise and staying within your budget.

Enter food and exercise easily using a searchable database. Quickly re-enter foods and meals you've had in the past. Lose It! is the most complete and streamlined weight loss application available for the iPhone.

Lose It! will be available for free during the first six months of its release.
Get it now while it's still hot!

I shameless stole that from their website. I've tried using it and it's fantastic! This is the first diet and workout log that really seems to have it all put together. The database of food items really seems to be up to date but the best part is that the stuff I regularly eat in the cafeteria can be added by hand right from the nutritional guide. SaaaWeeeet!

We should be able to add our workout information just like it is when it comes off the machine. It also includes a lot of listings for common home based activities as well. Very cool.

I think this app should work just fine on the iPod Touch as well. It doesn't seem to have any connections to communications or microphone functions.

Tomorrow is round 2 of Thanksgiving. My parents home. I'm looking forward to it! I'm feeling pretty good about my attitude to the holiday. I'm not denying myself any of the foods I love. That's just crazy...why go on living? But instead, I've been focusing on just doing it smarter. I take a small amount of everything I want, and then find that I'm quite full.  No need to keep shoving, I've had what I wanted.

Stay tuned!

A new morning habit

There aren't many products that I would blog about glowingly without some ad revenue. I'll complain about things, I'm good at that, but if you want me to shmooze...

Cranergy is a little different. This is one addition to my lifestyle change I think is important enough to tell you about.

My wife and I spotted these at the local warehouse club. I love cranberry juice. I always have. This was a little different. They've blended it with green tea to make a morning pick-me-up beverage that tastes fantastic. All the benefits of cranberry juice and green tea with the added morning caffine I'm used to.

I used to drink a can of pop for breakfast, I'm now drinking these instead. Not sure if it's really doing anything positive, but it's kinda nice to eliminate one more can of pop from my day.

It's fun when you get noticed!

My wife has noticed. Some of my friends have noticed. Heck, I can tell the difference in the way my clothes fit, things are starting to get baggy!

Yeah me!

Something completely new happened on Friday. While going to lunch with one of my workout buddies, we approached the cafeteria checkout lines to sneak in and get our food. In line, was one of the regular bodybuilders who works out at the same time we do. This is a big guy. As we approached, he looks and points at as and says "Hey! Where were you guys today?"

We had played hooky from working out on Friday to finish up a fairly urgent coding project.

How cool is that? The regulars at the gym noticed we missed a day. How things are changing.

Feelin' the Burn

I'm still working out 3-4 times a week; some at home but mostly here at work. Like I've said, we use part of our lunch to hit the Healthy Living Center located on the campus of this hospital.

At left is a picture I shot with my phone of my ride today. I've been trying to mix up the rides for two reason. 1) to keep me interested and 2) somedays I have more gusto then others.

Today's route was a flat one. I felt like riding at one consistent level. I try to shoot for rides that are between 20 and 30 minutes. This one was listed as between 20 and 25 minutes. As you can see, I did it in 17:43. *sigh. I made up the difference by riding it a little longer to get over the hump.

The other thing you should notice from the picture is how it records your achievements. You start with a goal of making the equivalent of a marathon, then a double marathon and it would appear now that I'm shooting for the century mark. My guess is that I have logged 67 miles so far on this machine. No wonder my knee hurts.

The diet continues to go pretty well. I might just need to write a book about it. The "Soup for Lunch" diet is the bomb! I stick to soup in the cafeteria almost every day. I think the real key to this is just making better choices. Soup is usually pretty low cal, heck even the fatty ones aren't as bad as some of the entrees. Yesterdays soup was one of my favorites: Bow tie Turkey. A turkey soup with bow tie noodles. When they prepare it here, it tops out at 99 calories a bowel. Sweet! Today's soup was another winner for me...Hamburger Rice. 190 calories/bowel. The great thing about soup is that you get that nice warm feeling in your tummy that stays with you for most of the afternoon. A light snack later and I'm good to supper.

What are things that you have changed to make yourself healthier? Are you on any diet or winging it like me? Is it possible to enjoy Thanksgiving without eating too much or shouldn't I really care? (I'm voting for not really caring)

I'd love to hear stories about positive changes people are making. There is always ways we can improve. Let me hear it!

Where did everyone go?

We had a good start, but it seems the follow ups are slow in coming. Even for me!

Here's where I'm at. Last week, my knee got really sore again on Monday. Rested it until Friday. Stayed fairly close to my diet, but like I've said before, I'm not here to give up on life.

We had friends come to visit us this weekend. This is never good for a diet. When we host, our guests and our family, never go hungry. We even made the most amazing chocolate fondue:

• 6 ounces of dark chocolate
• 6 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate
• 4 ounces of milk chocolate
• 1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
• 3 tbls hazelnut flavoring
• 1/3 cup Carmel topping

That can't possibly be good for you, but we did dunk large quantities of fruit in it :-)

Even during this weekend, I really tried to make sure to limit my decadence. Mixing in water, diet soda with the occasional beer. All in all, the results are in...I still have a net loss of weight week over week!

All in all, I'm down 16 pounds from when this adventure began. I'm a long way from my goal, but I'm still making progress. Whew!

My next big challenge? To make it through Thanksgiving Weekend without gaining it all back. I love the turkey, the dressing, the sweet potatoes, the lefsa...yikes.

In case you are scoring at him. My highest weight at the start was 266.8 pounds. As of this morning, I'm now at 250.0...almost knocked off another tens digit...I'm heading to the gym right now.  Happy health!

What does he do each day?

I figured something I could share is what I've been doing 3-4 days a week to get myself more healthy.

Like I mentioned in my last post, I've been going to the Dan Abrahams Healthy Living Center (DAHLC) 3 to 4 days per week for a bit over a month.

I decided early on to really focus on cardio and losing weight. There is something to be gained by building muscle, but working with a trainer, he said that I'm still developing muscle while I ride the bike.

This is the view of the bike I shared with you a few posts ago. To me, this is really cool. The only thing that would make it better would be to find a way to get the wind blowing through your hair.


Today, I rode a 2 minute warm-up and a 2 minute cool down but this view is of the status of my main ride. Almost 7 miles! I'm beat!

I followed this up with 15 minutes of walking on the track and then a small amount of upper body weights.

As I get closer to my goals, I'll start mixing this up more, but until then, I'm really excited about my progress. 

The machines report to a central server to record your progress. Late last week it informed me that since starting, I had ridden the equivalent of a marathon! 26.2 miles! W00T! W00T!

Peer Pressure

Let's not quibble about why I want to be a part of this blog. It's peer pressure.

Growing up a competitive swimmer left me with the skills needed to over eat. Michael Phelps eats 15,000 calories a day when he's training. 15,000. That's 13,000 calories about the average recommended diet of an adult. And you know what, swimmer can eat like that because those 13,000 extra calories are burned off swimming 5 hours a day.

Well, I don't need to eat like that any more.

Peer pressure is defined by Wikipedia as:

... to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to the group.

I'm trying to surround myself with peers that I know have the same or similar goals as mine. This blog is just one of the ways I've been doing it. I know, that I have opened to the world a desire to lose weight and get healthy. 6.5 billion people have the opportunity to see this and know. I hear you breathing down my neck and you know what...it really helps!

Another peer pressure system I am using is at work. I work with two of my greatest friends, let's call them Bodie25 and Mumblingsages. We've agreed to go work out 3-4 days per week in the one of the two health clubs at our workplace. We do this together. If one of doesn't go, we have to explain it to the others. Granted, we can use the "work" card, but two of us work together on the same team...we'll know if it's a ruse.

Trust me, forgetting your work out clothes is not met with much less than ridicule and I've done it twice.

For the most part, I really do enjoy going to the gym in the middle of the day. It has surprisingly made me more productive in the afternoon. My head is clear and it does a fair bit of burning off stress.

I haven't been hitting this blog up as often as I'd hoped. This is blog number 4 for me and frankly, the other blogs are being neglected too. The last few weekends have been packed to the rafters with either the last few fun outdoor things left or getting the outside and inside of the house ready for winter.

My weight has been mostly stable as of late and I have started upping the work outs at lunch to try and kick start them again. The last two session were all bike. The knee is doing better but I think I might add some cross trainer machine time in now as well. I can definitely say I'm starting to feel more fit.

The good news is I have been joined by several family members. This has gotten me really excited. Be sure to drop them a line of encouragement!

Dieting is a struggle for me. I have never been able to lose weight without a struggle. The last diet I was on - under 800 calories per day and a minimum of 2 hours of exercise per day did help me to lose weight, but I had no life. You don't eat much - and while on that diet I was under the watchful eye of my dr. Also if "hubby" is on a diet that I know about, I gain weight with that knowledge even though I am watching my diet carefully. That has happened for years. Now with my body aging, I am really struggling. I know how to take smaller portions, avoid starches, and eat more fruits and vegetables. I have cut back on the meat portions for quite a while. I know the food chart quantities - they are too much for me in many categories. However, if I want to see my grandchildren grow up, I know I need to be healthier so I will keep trying to get a grip on my body.

My first post

This is my first post. Since having 2 babies I have noticed a trend in my weight. An incline that is not pleasing to me. My goal to lose weight started last year. I joined Weight Watchers with 4 friends. 1 is still going...and it is not me! I went to the meetings for a while and watched all that I ate. It did help me make some better food choices. I used the book they use for food points for about 6 months and did well. I lost 8 pounds! I thought that was acceptable...after all it was losing the weight as I should be and not by any crazy fad diets or just not eating. I tried to walk at least a few times a week.

Have you ever noticed that the weight that goes on in one area is not the weight that comes off!!! It seems to gather in one area and leave in another not so good area (as a woman that is!!)

Over the last 10 weeks I have increased my activity at work and home. Trying to go the extra miles to walk a little further and take the stairs. Nothing drastic, but noticeable changes. I am back to trying to make a better effort on my food choices as well. I am happy to say that I have lost 6 more pounds. That may not seem like a lot...but it was enough for me to fit into my old jeans and find that my other pants are actually loose around the waist!

I really need to start exercising but just cannot find the time (I know I know...lame excuse!) For now I will continue to walk to and from work to my car (usually about 4-8 blocks away). On the days that I work I am committing to briskly walking up 3 flights of stairs during both of my breaks at work. Its a start right?

On my days off I try to do some type of cleaning and blare the music and rock out while I clean.

OhCaptain and I have also been trying to increase activity as a family and get A and E involved in more active things.

I will continue to take many baby steps toward my goal. Since starting weight watchers last year up until now with the increase in activity and continuing to watch my eating ... I have lost 17 pounds!!! I am very grateful for this and have worked hard to lose this weight. I would like to lose an additional 13 pounds if that is realistic. I can't really say that I am focused only on weight. I really want to increase my muscle tone and not be or feel so "flabby".

Good luck to everyone!!! Remember to watch out for that Halloween candy!!!! It is so very tempting!

I Hate Running

Hi all!! This is my first post on the ol weight loss blog and I have decided that I hate running.

What sucks even worse is that it is one of the best ways to drop the lbs. So I started running again today and it went ok. Well, not ok, but it went at any rate. I ran a mile today and I am going to share my time. Don't laugh, although you probably should. My time was 15 1/2 minutes to run a mile. Utterly disgraceful. but hey, at least I got out there and did it!!

My goal is to be down to a 12 minute mile by the end of November.

I was asked by Tim to contribute to this blog and I totally plan on at least a post a week. My starting weight is 253lbs. I have never been this heavy in my entire life, and I am committed to a healthier life. My grandfather on my moms side died when he was 55 after 4 heart attacks, a triple and quadruple bypass surgery, and a very short life. This scares the crap out of me, and so I have made the choice to loose weight and get healthy.

Thanks Tim for inviting me to contribute to this blog and I look forward to tagging along on this journey with you!!

Greg

Ouch...staying healthy can hurt

Things are moving right along. I actually feel lighter although the scale has recently leveled off. I've been reading that this is normal. Each change you make will help you lose weight but your body will slowly adjust to the change and it will become the status quo. I've been looking for ways to upset that balance. It's time to mix homebrewed iced tea sweetened with cranberry juice and more fruit into the diet.

Through my employer, I have joined a few programs that really encourage you to get out of the office and move things. All of these programs started just this week. There is a lot of really good information I will try and share over the next week or so.

One little set back in the exercise front. My right knee is KILLING me when I walk stairs now. I'm not really sure why, but it seems the more time I spend on the exercise bike, the worse it gets. In honor of my knee, todays work out will be brought to by the letter 'U' for upper body.

I'm going to try to stick to walking and lifting weights for a couple of days and see where that takes me. I might even try seeing a doctor. This isn't the first time I've had trouble with my knees in fact they have been a problem since high school.

I've invited a couple more relatives to the party, hopefully, they start posting as well.

I'm Still Here! And my wife made an observation today

Yes...I'm still here and I'm on mission!

Sorry I haven't been posting much, our family life has been very busy. We recently attending a family wedding. That has to be one of the hardest things to do and stay on diet. 

Well, one of my goals with this diet is to not make myself miss food. I've been on diets before where I forced myself away from everything bad and then eventually just gave in and binged. I'm at a wedding, I think cake will be OK.

My choices for lunch have been significantly better. Would you believe that the soup selection at the cafeteria is fantastic? It is. This has even gotten me to try new ones. I'm thinking about naming my diet "The Soup for Lunch®" diet.

The biggest change I've made and stuck to was going to the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center (DAHLC). This is an exercise and wellness facility run by my employer. 2 of my very good friends also work at the Clinic and we've gone at least 3 days a week for 5 weeks. I think there was 1 week in there we only went twice, but I'm not sure. We are using the buddy system in that you have to explain to the others why you aren't going. Peer pressure can be a very good thing.

At the DAHLC are the exercise bikes you see above. I'm really enjoying riding these things. They are made by Expresso Fitness and they work like this. There is an LCD display in front of you that shows a computer simulated bike course. There are also riders on the road/track/trail, one of these riders is your pacer. After you signed in a ridden a few days, you get a ghost rider. This is your best effort on the course. Your goal is to chase and beat your ghost. This is a so handy for a competition junkie like myself.

All of this effort seems to be paying off. Some really cool things have been happening. First, I just feel smaller. Second, my clothes are fitting better. This is awesome. Last, but definitely not the least cool thing is people have started making comments. That just feels awesome! I'll hopefully getting more Wii Fit content on here soon. I'm still using it and really enjoy it.

I still have the goal of adding more family members to this site. I think we are getting closer to have them join me soon. 

Here's to feeling lighter!

Attitude

I'm cross posting this today. To me, it was that good.

I'm sticking to the plan. I feel smaller. My general trend is weight loss and that is good. I'm really tired today and generally, I feel pretty tired, but that's OK. I'm working on a goal and sticking to it! In a moment, I'll be heading to the gym, but wanted to share this before I forgot again.

Yesterday, in our team meeting here at work, our team lead read this to us. Every year, he reads it to the girls swim team he coaches. I found it quite motivating. The source is unknown.

ATTITUDE

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.  Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood." Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Michael said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood.  You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."

I reflected on what Michael said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. 

Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.  After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter," Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Michael continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if I was allergic to anything.’Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'."

Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34.

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Today, I choose to have a good day. Today, I choose to keep working towards my goals. What do you choose to for today?

Time for an update

Guess what? I haven't quit! I'm still working on this challenge and something is working. I'm down almost 10 since starting this. My wife tells me that the weight starts coming off fast at first. Well, OK, just getting smaller to me is a huge step.

Today, at 11 am, I did something I haven't done in years. I went to the gym here at the campus I work at. Two of my good friends work here at the hospital with me. We are forming a posse that will be pushing each other just to show and work out. I think this will really help me stay on track since guys as a group tend to not want to let down the group. And besides, the teasing would be unbearable from these two if I give up.

We worked out for an hour. I have no illusions that I'm going to be Michael Phelps just yet, but I rode a really cool excersize bike for 15 minutes and then took a rigorous walk on the track for 40 minutes.

While there, I scheduled time with a trainer to get me a routine. Routines are good!.

I'm looking forward to reading about the rest of my families stories. Hopefully they will be joining me soon here. 

See ya in the smaller pants department soon!

My starting point

Let's kick things off with what my plan is and what's happened so far.

My plan is to change my lifestyle gradually. From what I've read, drastic changes to my lifestyle will only end with me giving up. It's unrealistic to think I can become a fitness freak and eat super healthy over night and stick to it. So...here's the items that I'm changing...

• Drinking less soda. I was drinking diet pop already, but it was pretty much the sum of consumption. I brought a glass to work to for water. It's free and pretty low cal.
• Think about what I eat in the cafeteria. I used to just order everything that looked good. No more. I don't need to be full in the afternoons so a light lunch will do.
• Take the stairs more. I know MumblingSages doesn't see it everyday, but I actually do hit the stairs quite frequently now. The elevator still looks appealing in the morning. That may never change.
• Use the power of the Wii for good not evil. Well...more good and less evil. I'm not giving up on video games, I'm just shifting my diet to a bit more of the Wii Fit variety. So far this game is really fun and best of all it's tracking my progress for me. In a weird way this is working. I like challenges and this one is documented so each night I hope to show a decline.
  

I figure just starting like this will be gradual enough to keep me interested. The Wii thing has had an effect on me that isn't just from the exercise it provides. It's the feedback that things are working that really helps. I started using it 2 weeks ago and already I've lost 3.2 pounds. I know, I need to lose a lot more, but I like to celebrate progress. It reinforces to me that things are changing for the better.

My goal is to lose about 3 pounds every two weeks. I realize that I'll have weeks where I don't quite make goal but then there will be times when I exceed goal. If my math skills are correct, I'll reach my target in 40 weeks. With 2 weeks down, I only have 38 weeks to go!

We can do this family!!!!

Welcome to our journey

My name is OhCaptain (Tim) and I'm a memeber of a family interested in losing years of neglect from my waistline.

A little about me (I'm hoping to get the rest of the family on here shortly), I'm a middle aged husband and father of 2 little princesses.

My goal is to lose about 60 pounds. I have no illusions that this will be done quickly but I do believe that I can change my life enough to get there. I've started by eating better and thinking about the food I eat. I've also paid much more attention to my choices every day when it comes to moving. I've been taking the stairs more often and walking when there are other routes that don't require so much.

This is the start of the journey. My wife, mother, father, brother and sister-in-law are all invited to do this. It was my sister-in-law whose idea it was to work on this together.

Wish us luck! More later!