Our goal setting post!

DARRYL

Be ready for MORE of this!

Today we start!! Not much to say here except…. I will be winning this thing! I start the challenge at 193 pounds with a nice little over the belt belly hang. I can’t sit in my car with a belt on comfortably. It is time to change! My goal through this journey is not to become “ripped” or over the top in shape. I just want to start living a healthy lifestyle again.

My goals are to do some sort of exercise 6 days a week. The exercise can come in the form of a workout (P90X, Insanity or XFactor), a run, or a hockey game. I also want to get back to eating better. I am SICK of the nasty feeling of not eating well. I am not going to become a “food Nazi” but I  am going to work on avoiding the easy out when it comes to food. It’s time to start cooking again! I also want to become accountable for all that I do in order to become a better version of me! This blog, along with DAILY logging into My Fitness Pal will help me do that. With all of that, I would like to lose 20 pounds getting down to 173 pounds.

I am happy to have my wife along side with me as we change our lives for the better. It’s a shame that she doesn't have a chance! I wish her all of the luck in the world, as I want her to be successful in this journey as well. But, at the end of the challenge, we will be going on an ALLIGATOR adventure when we go to Florida this summer!!

Yes, the adventure of my choice for our summer trip is a day at GATORLAND! 

JESS
People who know me well know that I am an introvert.  I like to figure things out on my own and often get lost in my own thoughts and come across as being aloof or, as in high school, a loner. So when Darryl said that we would be documenting our weight loss journey from this point on in a blog and that it would be a competition between the two of us, I must admit that I had a serious internal panic attack. I am still unsure of how I am going to embrace this process.  But what I am sure of is that what I have been doing as of late has not been helping me reach my goals.

I have to say that I am closer to my goal than I was a year and a half ago when I was 30 pounds heavier.  But a few slip ups along the way have taken their toll and have given me that same feeling of hopelessness I felt when I began changing my life 18 months ago.  I considered Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig but dreaded the idea of having to answer to someone or be held accountable by someone.  But perhaps that is precisely what I need to get the scale moving in the opposite direction again… to be held accountable by someone other than myself.  So I am at least willing to try putting my journey out there. But I am not quite ready yet to share what most women keep as very closely guarded secrets.  So I won’t be documenting my weight, but will gladly share my goals, my frustrations (there are usually many), and my successes.

To begin with my goals, my first priority has to be to get my cholesterol levels in the normal healthy range. High cholesterol runs in my family and so getting that under control is definitely a priority (eating a paleo diet is definitely out). My second priority is to get my BMI in the healthy range. For my height, losing 22 pounds will get me in the healthy range.  Losing 33 to 35 pounds will get me right in the center of that range.  So for the purposes of this challenge, and for smearing my husband’s face in the mud, my aim is to lose 30 pounds over the next 33 weeks.  My exercise and diet goals fall within the points system we have laid out for ourselves.  Now to only create the spreadsheet that will keep track of it all!

Does Darryl have a chance of reaching his goal weight by the time we go on our trip? Of course. He'll probably lose it in the first month.  Does he have a chance of winning this challenge, however? Not a chance! Especially if I tempt him with McDonald's Egg Not milkshakes and French Fries.  Not that I would ever even think about doing such a thing.... ;-p  But you can all be assured that our non-kid oriented excursion for the summer will be a trip to the Bok Tower Gardens (however, I do reserve the right to change my mind when the official visitor's guide arrives... I had to pick this in a bit of a rush since we officially start this challenge tomorrow).