60 Days, 30lbs - Day 1 307lbs

I recently started watching Kirstie Alley's Big Life on A&E and she has inspired me. The show is about her efforts to lose weight along with her chubby buddy Jim and, I have a feeling, hawk her new weight loss supplement program. Still, I have been enjoying the show and there have been many times when I sighed while looking at myself in the mirror or groaned while bending over to tie my shoes or huffing and puffing up a hill or staircase. The other day I dropped my keys on the way home from work and I seriously began wondering if there was a window open I could climb through.

I weighed myself today and I'm at 307 pounds. Scary, isn't it?! Not nearly as scary as the "before" pictures I just took that I'll be posting to this blog.

I have decided that enough is enough! I am hoping to sing in the next Seattle Men's Chorus concert, the first of which is June 25th - two months from today, roughly 60 days. So I have set a goal for myself: I am going to lose at least 30 pounds in 60 days. That puts my goal weight (for this project) at 247 pounds.

I know I can do it because back in 2006 I lost 50 pounds. My brother Matt told me about the weight watchers point system and I applied it to my life. I worked out every day(ish) on the elliptical machine at the YMCA and occasionally threw in this Richard Simmon's workout video called Blast and Tone that is done with weights.

So I'm going to do it again. It's funny, but I almost typed in "try" but I had a Yoda moment: Do or do not. There is no try. *cough* GEEK! *cough*

So that's my goal and my plan. The reason I am going to blog this (and post hideous before pics) is because unlike Kirstie Alley, I do not have a chubby buddy. Nor do I have a personal trainer or millions of dollars to invest in a weight loss supplement. But I figure that if anyone reads this blog, they can help keep me in check and hold me accountable.

I checked Kirstie Alley's website and I can't even afford to purchase her diet supplement. I don't need it, though. I just need to eat less and exercise more. Thankfully I have 24 hour access to the workout room at my apartment complex which has my favorite workout tool, the elliptical machine. That machine is a serious treasure. If there was a fire, I would run over to the workout room and pull that thing to safety.

I'm also going to do that Richard Simmon's workout DVD I have, Blast and Tone. It is great because by using the weights, it helps you build some muscle and it also has a great (although brutal) abs section.

So that's my plan. Hopefully I can blog daily about my progress, though I think I'm going to limit weigh ins to once a week. I'll go crazy if I weigh myself daily. So if you are reading this, send me some encouragement, because I'll need it!

Oh, I just finished a workout on the elliptical machine for 40 minutes. That's why I look so terrible in the "before" pictures. Well, that and the flab hanging over the waist of my shorts. UGH! I look forward to that being gone!