A Little Healthy Competition

Daniel and I have gained more weight than wanted over the last few years. My weight gain was due to working full time and having 3 kids. I did ok when I just had Erik and Lily, but my discipline, diet and exercise routines went downhill when I got pregnant with Drew at the end of 2007. I was just too exhausted after teaching all day and taking care of the kids to get up at 5 am in order to go lift weights or go to a spinning class. I couldn't go at night after the kids were in bed because Daniel was working nights. I just kind of gave up. The one good thing I found out today is that I didn't gain as much weight as I thought. In fact, I only weigh about 6 or 7 more pounds now than I did when Lily was 6 months old. The bad news is I wasn't happy with my weight at that time either. I'm just glad I don't have even MORE weight to lose!
Daniel gained weight during his years at BYU because of high stress levels while he was going to school full time, working nights part time and taking care of the kids during the day. He just didn't have ANY time to do any sort of exercise. His life was so busy that he didn't always eat right and he drank a lot of soda and energy drinks to help him complete everything he needed to.
We've talked for awhile about getting in shape, trying to exercise more and eating healthy. Last night we decided to get serious about it. The best motivation for me is competition. I proposed a contest between the two of us to see who could lose the most weight, or the greatest percentage of weight, by the end of June. So today we began our "weight loss challenge" or whatever you want to call it. I'm going to do everything I can to win, mostly because I hate to lose and I'll be able to have bragging rights! However, Daniel always loses weight easily so this will be a difficult challenge to win. I also want this to be difficult to win because that will mean that Daniel is losing weight too, which is ultimately what I really want. So, good luck to me and to my wonderful husband! I'll keep you posted on our progress.

This is my before picture, taken on Lily's birthday. (2-21-09)


Here is the most recent picture I found of Daniel, taken Halloween 2008.