A Challenge?

About a month ago, my wife proposed that we re-join the local gym and once again try to get back into shape. I don't know how many times we made attempts to do that. If anything, we'd start off strong, visiting the gym 3 to 4 times a week (for about an hour or so workouts), to then losing focus and finding little time for workouts, to finally dropping the gym membership because it didn't make any sense to pay the monthly due and not go.

For some reason, this time was different. My wife not only suggested that we hit the gym again, but challenged me to lose weight. Naturally, I asked what the prize would be, as if I needed something to get me focused on. We told ourselves that we'd think about it and come up with something 'good' to win. So, we went ahead and reinstated our gym membership and started visiting the gym... for me, it was about a few times a week, during the first two weeks. Like past times, I started out strong and was on the path to the same story of probably losing interest after a month or so.

It was during an episode of 'The Biggest Loser' when things changed for me. As my wife and I were watching the program, I became inspired to push myself, much like those contestants on TV. It was then, when I grabbed my calendar and asked my wife that we schedule weigh-ins and mark a deadline to our challege. By actually writing that info down, it became a responsibility of mine, rather than a thought or wish. It was more of a promise to myself and if I did not work on it enough to actually acheive the goal, I would disappoint myself.

To be honest, I can't remember the first couple of weeks of the challenge. I did go to the gym and tried to eat the right foods... although it took me the first two weeks to hear something that would change everything for me. My wife and I began talking more about the foods we eat and the number of calories they consisted of. We pulled out our iPod Touches and began logging our meals (calorie intake) into the "Lose It!" application. We found this to be a great tool to log our calorie in-take and excerises (I strongly suggest using the free app). It was during that conversation when my wife simply said, "In order to lose weight, one has to burn more calories than one consumes." I sat there and thought about that. Averaging roughly 1,000 consumed calories per day, I wondered if I would be able to burn that amount, every day. In my eyes, that in itself became a challenge, which I knew I could do.

So, that is when it all began for me. For the past two weeks, I've been running... and running... and running. I've ran more than I ever have before. Since coming up with my latest goal to burn more than what I consume (close to two weeks ago), between the treadmill and the elliptical machines, I've burnt over 15,000 calories. ...and to date, I've lost 8.6 pounds.

I must say that I'm proud of myself and my wife, who has also lost weight these past weeks. I have to admit that my focus has started making want to change my lifestyle for the better. In the short amount of time that I've been truly focused, I've started to feel better mentally and physically. The longer I stay focused, I expect that feeling to only increase.