weight and see

Last week my sister's boyfriend agreed to a weight loss challenge I had proposed a few months ago. We had compared our ID photos, both taken five years ago when we were in much better shape and knew it was time to get back on track. I was already working toward that end but having the added incentive of competition has set it off.

He should win. He is younger, more muscular, and doesn't really have too much fat on him. He's grown a tummy over the last two years while dating my sister, but that's the only weight I can see he should lose. I really do not think he should drop more than 15 lbs or he would look weird.

Even though he should win, I do not believe he will. His eating habits are horrible. He mostly eats fast food, and because it is so cheap, he eats a lot of it. Thursday he ate fast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We try to help him eat healthier and he eats almost everything I cook for us, but when he is on his own it's a different story. As far as I know, he does not exercise and he just got a new xbox, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out. Maybe he will do exercise games/DVDs on it. The main reason I do not think he will beat me is that he loses motivation and focus easily. I'm not totally counting him out though. We both are competitive people so we'll just have to see who wants it more.

I eat healthy and am always trying to eat healthier. I have started taking a better look at my portions and am listening to my body more. I am keeping a half ass food diary too. I'm not going super crazy and counting calories, but I think just writing down what I eat will make me more accountable. I'm not going to want to write down that I ate two handfuls of chips and then cross it out and change it to five. So far my journal looks good, and I will look better too.

As for exercising, I get a decent amount of cardio every day from walking Penny. Last night I started taking the other two dogs for short walks. They're smaller and do not need as much exercise but they are both a lot rounder than they should be. I think their combined weight but equal Penny's which is sad since they are small breed dogs. The three of us can lose weight together. But if I really want to do this, cardio is not going to cut it. I added some strengthening and toning exercises this week. I hadn't done them in a long time so I got my butt kicked. It felt great.

In the spirit of fun, I started trash talking this week. I want to win so badly, and even though I joke about wanting to smoke everyone, I do want it to be a close competition. I need to do this for myself, but we all need to get healthier and it is easier to do when you have support. After hearing enough of my talk, my mom decided she wanted in on the action. She and I had a bet years ago and neither of us won because neither of us tried. We upped the stakes to $50 each and added a week to the time frame. She and I talked trash all through dinner. Later that night she informed me that my dad also wanted in on the bet. Now we really have something going, everyone thinks s/he is going to win.

I secretly think I am going to take this, but maybe one of them will surprise me. As long as we each lose a bit of weight we are all winners. One winner is going to have $200 for some new clothes.