And now for something completely different...

Yes, I'm a huge Monty Python fan.

That probably says something about my character.

Kindly keep it to yourself.

No, the something different is a challenge I've taken on in my life. A challenge to seriously work at losing weight.

I've been above what my doctor considers a healthy weight for about 20 years. I've never liked being this heavy but like many of us I just couldn't really buckle down and do something about it.

And I was stubborn in that resistance.

High blood pressure couldn't make me change.

The threat of diabetes kind of got my attention.

Add to that my 50th birthday (which is mere days away) and I was finally coming around.

In the spring my lady wife and I are planning a little bit of a second honeymoon. That really started me thinking about making a change. But I was just missing that last little push.

Then Marko from Youth Specialties announced that he was going to lose weight and opened up a challenge for other youth workers to compete with him. He put up some nice prizes and sat back expecting a couple dozen folks to take him on.

Other than me there are only about 271 others who are in. Probably a few more than that actually.

So now I have a little competition thing to add to the list.

Did I just feel a little push?

I know myself well enough to know I need to be accountable. So this is it. I promise to keep my progress updated here.

My goal is to lose 40 pounds. How much of that I can reasonably do in 12 weeks is the question. I see no reason why half of that isn't a perfectly achievable goal. That would be just shy of 20% of my current body weight. As they say on the show "Biggest Loser", those are big numbers.

My plan is simple. Eat smart, eat less, exercise.

Repeat for 12 weeks.

Keep me in your prayers.

Peace