I guess it’s been a while. I posted that Eric and I started our own Biggest Looser but since then I’ve not posted how were doing. I’ve had a few people ask how we’re doing on it. Honestly, that surprised me. I didn’t think anyone REALLY read this blog. Maybe it helps that it’s posted on Facebook too. I don’t know.

I have to say that I am enjoying getting fit. I’m enjoying working out a bit and really liking all the cool, new recipes Eric has been trying. My goal this week is to exercise for five out of the seven days this week. It’s really the exercise part for me that’s the most difficult. OK, I LOVE sweets and that’s REALLY my weakness but exercise is too. I just find it so easy to just come home and park it on the couch and watch TV or reading.

In any case here’s the update on the weight.

I’ve lost, two weeks in a row! Weight? Yeah, a little bit. Seriously though, I’ve lost to Eric two weeks in a row.

• Week 1: Eric wins by .2%
• Week 2: Eric wins by .18%

I suppose to most that may sound bad and a bummer, not to me. Since starting this journey I’ve lost four pounds. Not bad considering one of the weeks was my birthday and I was up in Othello for my mom’s birthday for part of it to. Did I eat well! FYI.. I make a MEAN carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (mom’s birthday request). I’ve also been exercising more, OK… I’m exercising. I’m not sure it can be more when you stopped doing it entirely.

And so it begins….. Today Eric and I started our own version of “The Biggest Looser” with our first weigh in. Let me just say, I can’t believe what my weight is.. and that I’ve got about 43 pounds to loose to get to a reasonable goal weight. Eric has a similar amount of weight to loose, OK… less than me, but I won’t share his since it’s his number.

Last year at this time I was working out, loosing weight and doing Weight Watchers with a couple of friends from work. I was so proud of myself and the weight I’d lost, almost 18 pounds, that I got to a point that I thought I could really do it on my own. HA! Right! Fast forward to now and with the help of a great cook (Eric is an amazing cook!), a couple of seriously stressful events in my life, and well, winter in western Oregon, I’m back up to what I was before Weight Watchers and a little more. Can you say mad at myself. Yup! I say that.. and yet I know EXACTLY why it happened. Lack of portion control and EXERCISE. Dang, I hate EXERCISE. I almost think it should be a four letter word.. if only it had four letters. In any case, I really, really want to loose the weight this time. Not just to be a “little miss thing”, I think my time has past for that. Really I want to loose the weight to feel better and to be healthier. I come from a long line of people on my fraternal side that have had heart attacks and by-pass surgery. I don’t want to be one of those. So, it’s time to remove the weight for it never to come back again.. and thus our version of “The Biggest Looser”.

So what are we doing? Today was our weigh in day and the day we set our goal weight. Now each week we’ll weigh in and whichever has the highest percentage of weigh-loss gets $5.00 in their virtual bank account. The first to hit 10% weight-loss gets $5.00 in their virtual bank account… and so on.. until they hit their goal. Here’s the kicker though.. you cannot spend the money you have accrued until BOTH have hit their goal weight. So there’s incentive to win, but also to help the other person. I’m pretty excited and hopeful that all will go well and we’ll do really good at it. It’s going to feel great to move more and weigh less.

So here goes nothing……

“Has it really been almost a month since I’ve posted anything of value to the world? I know I’ve been living life and enjoying friends and the weekend, but really.. a WHOLE month. Not good.” That’s what I thought logging on tonight to my blog and considering writing a blog post. Blogging is an interesting thing. There are so many out there; some people share their life, some proliferate information, others share their thoughts about a specific topic. My blog, well this is a place for everything in my life.

When I started blogging I did so to capture what was happening in my life so I had my journaling all done when it came time to scrapbook an event. It have moved to all sorts of locations. It has been broken apart and brought back together I don’t know how many times. I’ve often felt that I “need” to write more on my blog, like I “owe” it to the few people I know that actually read it. I mean if I want more readers and more people commenting I need to post more, right? I was thinking about this the other day and realized this. I’m a lurker. I mean, when I’m on Facebook, Twitter, etc. I lurk and read more than I comment. I know, some of you reading this find that hard to believe because I do comment in Facebook and tweet in Twitter. In thinking about being a lurker, I realized this, “I like lurking. I prefer talking to someone in person than writing to a nebulous person(s) over the web.” That said, I have to wonder how many people are lurking on my blog. Since this discovery I have accepted the fact that this blog is well.. for me. If others want to know what I’m doing, etc. then they can see it here.. but I don’t need comments or readers to feel the value of the blog. The value comes, for me, when I’m talking with someone about say.. a recipe.. and I can tell them, “Go to my blog and select recipes, you’ll find a great recipe for gnocchi.” If they go great, if not that’s OK too.

So what does this all mean? Well, I honestly don’t know. What I DO know is that I don’t feel pressure to post to my blog. I don’t feel bad when no one comments. I feel good that I can share with others and they can read it when they see fit.. or maybe not at all. It’s liberating I have to say.

Just a quick post to let you know I’m still alive. This last weekend Eric and I were up in Port Angeles for a family thing. I’ll write more about it this week. I just wanted to drop a line and let you know I’m still here.

Here’s a little vlog about me, Eric, and the joy of changing a tire.