Celebrating 60 today!!

Have you ever been to a 60th birthday party? The celebration of another birthday takes on a whole new dynamic when the transition of a new decade occurs. It is an awesome thing to be able to celebrate with someone the achievement of them being able to stay upright and breathing for that many consecutive years.

What about an even more rare event - like a 60th wedding anniversary? Have you ever been to one of those? In the list identifying a specific item or gift with an anniversary date, the 60th anniversary is said to be the Diamond Anniversary and this is the appropriate gift of choice for the happy couple. However what two old fogies are going to do with a bunch of diamonds escapes me - so if you are going for this gift then pick something that you might like back and pray that it gets in the will :)

 What do you get the guy who has achieved his own personal 60th anniversary? Maybe a soft chair and a good cup of coffee (hint, hint!). Today we are 1 week from my 'Jump Start' beginning of the next phase of my 210 in 2010 Challenge and today was a good gym day. Hopped on the treadmill, 30 minutes of 'fat burn' workout on Level 10 (it doesnt go any higher!!) and the sweat was on good, then off to lift heavy things until my arms went numb, then back on to the bike to play the dragon chasing game I found on one of the exercise bikes.

So was this the 60 day of my adventure? Nope, was this the 60th time I stepped out and tried something new? Nope - so what was the 60th anniversary all about?

I jumped on the scale, looked down and read the number 254lbs - having started this adventure at 314lbs, today is my 60lbs down, 44 to go day! Every drop of 10lbs deserves some celebrating. Every time I dip into a new 10lbs increment I want to scream out loud and fist pump my hands (if they werent so sore that I can barely lift them over my head). Every time I step on the scale and wait for the number to change I am in anticipation at the next achievement.

Life is all about small achievements. Small achievements grow and accumulate to form huge successes. We do not celebrate the small achievements enough. We do not celebrate the tiny steps and the increments that we use as we inch ourselves towards our goals - and we miss out on the encouragement, on the sense of achievement, on the satisfaction of a job well done. We need to celebrate our successes a lot more.

So here is my cupcake - all for me. In honor of me achieving a loss of 60lbs. Sadly this image of a cupcake is as close as I can allow myself to get to a cupcake, but here we are. Celebrating. (Waves flag in air, wearing a party hat and blowing a little blue plastic horn - sitting alone in my office).

Well, I am celebrating - even if you wont.

My goal for this time next week - to be out of the 250's and to step into the twilight zone - the 40's - the 240's.

See you there - bring cake.

Time For a Jump Start

The past few months have been pretty chaotic at our house. The girls were away for 2 weeks, then a week later, Julie was away for 10 days at her grandfather's funeral and then a couple of weeks after she returned our dog passed away. It has just felt like one thing after another. In the midst of it all I have been trying to maintain my diet, but to be honest, my exercise schedule has suffered. My gym time has been less and less and I need to correct that.

This is a decision of the head and the heart. It is time to jump start this body once more and drive towards my goal.

Are you with me?

Where is your big belly?

I twittered this recently but thought it was worthy of a full post on my blog. There is something so innocent and wonderful about kids and this past week I experienced that with my oldest daughter. Cara came into my bedroom the other day as I was putting on my t-shirt and she stopped right in front of me, reached both hands out and placed them on either side of my stomach. With a surprised exclamation she shouted out, "Daddy, where has your big belly gone?"

This was the cutest thing I had heard in a long time, however I had a moment where I realized that I needed to make sure my answer was something that would not frighten her, but something that she could handle. You see, about two weeks ago we had to say goodbye to our faithful family dog who, from just before Christmas, had lost a lot of weight due to liver disease. I didnt want to say anything that in Cara's little mind would somehow connect Daddy's loss of his belly, with Ollie's loss of weight. In a moment of inspiration I told her that "my big belly had been mean to me and he wasn't my friend anymore." This satisfied her and she left me in piece to continue getting dressed.

Later that morning, as we were sitting on the sofa downstairs, Cara pointed out her discovery of my loss of belly to her mom. "Look mommy, Daddy's belly is gone.." which would have been perfect had she just stopped there. But, 5 year olds have the amazing ability to say it like it is and, as she leaned down on my now reduced stomach, she realized that there seemed to be more to lose. She grabbed my remaining belly fat in between her two hands and said, "I guess you need to keep going until you lose this part too!"

Great, one moment she is my biggest encouragement, the next she is my biggest critic. I wasn't put off by this latest comment, but struck by the simple honesty and truth of her words. When I set myself this challenge, I didnt set it to get half way and feel so good about myself that I just stop and do complete the task. No, I set myself a goal, and I need to keep my eyes on that goal. I set myself the target of 210lbs. I went to the gym today and weighed in - 256lbs. That is 58 pounds in almost 5 months - a little ahead of my target of 10lbs a month.

The goal is still 210lbs, and with the simple words of my daughter in my ears I will be setting off on the second half of my journey with renewed enthusiasm and rekindled desire for success. 210 in 2010 here we come.

As I have continued to say, the weight loss is only the inspiration to encourage people to sponsor a child through Compassion - I need a lot more people to do that. If you are interested in becoming a child sponsor please follow the links on this site to Compassion and begin to change the life of a child today.