Ok, so I've lost eight pounds in the last couple weeks. Weighed in at 247 this morning. So I'm no longer at an all-time high. But can I sustain the momentum long-term? Here's my new improved plan: get the kids involved.
While my wife and I have taken one cruise, and several trips to Maui, the kids have never done either. And they are green with envy. So while brainstorming a way to get them actively involved in keeping us motivated to get fit this year, it occurred to me that a Hawaiian vacation for the whole family would get them really excited. So my wife and I made a deal with the kids (ages 8-15 now) that if they help us lose a lot of fat this year (75 pounds each) we will take them on an "epic" vacation. That means either Hawaii or a cruise.
We have made a pyramid chart to put on the fridge that the kids will use to track our progress. As I expected, they got really excited about it. And they are pushing us every day to get up and exercise, reminding us to eat healthy foods, etc. They each make dinner one night a week and, hopefully, this will help them choose more healthy dinners.
But wait, there's more! They don't have to wait a full year or more to get any benefit from the deal. We also promised them that after every ten pounds lost we will take them out for a family activity of their choice. They've already planned some of them out. After the first ten, it will be an evening of roller skating. After the second ten, it will be a night at the movies. After the third ten, we get to go bowling. The fourth is still undecided, but for the fifth (50 pounds lost), we take them to a water park. The sixth and seventh are undecided and then, as mentioned above, the grand prize is Hawaii or the cruise.
They've already given us some ideas and made some other plans for us as well. For example, we've been having pizza/movie nights (at home) most Fridays for quite a few months now. They suggested that we take the pizza money and have Friday swim nights at the local indoor pool instead. We agreed that we would cut pizza night down to maybe once per month, and go to the pool at least once per month.
Also, for our weekly family night, they plan to have us doing active things rather than vegging in front of the TV. It helps that we bought the Kinect for the X-box this Christmas. They love playing Kinect games -- and we've been having a lot of fun with it too.
In addition to getting the kids involved, I think I am going to make my efforts public this time. Sure I've had this blog for the the past five years, but it's anonymous and nobody reads it. And I don't think I've ever sent it to anybody. This time I think I will announce my weight loss goals on facebook and post my workouts there as well. That way, all my thousands of facebook friends can hold me accountable (ok, all ten or twelve of them).
I am restarting the Couch to 5k program and use an iphone app that will post my workouts to facebook if I want. I think I will. After the C25k program, I will be using the imapmyrun app, which is a really cool app that uses gps to track my runs. I can have that app post my runs to facebook as well. I may even post a link to this blog. Maybe nobody wants to read my "battle of the bulge" ramblings, but knowing that they have access to it may help keep me motivated.
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