Sounds so simple doesn’t it?  Just lose 1 tiny pound per week for the next 5 weeks.  No more goals of 20, 30, or 50 pounds.  Just a simple goal to lose 5 pounds over the next 5 weeks… one pound at a time.

I started thinking about trying this a few weeks ago when I realized that I has lost any desire to try and lose some more weight because it was “too hard”.  I need to lose about 35 pounds to be at my desired weight.  That is a big number, and big enough to discourage me from even trying to lose it.  But, what if I set simple, short-term goals that I should be able to easily attain?  It had worked in other areas, such as running, for me.  Seems like it should work here too.

There is only one way to find out.  Today I am beginning a 5 week period where I will attempt to lose 5 pounds… 1 pound per week.  I have created a few simple rules for myself to help me achieve this goal:

1. Pick something “bad” that I am not willing to give up.  All of the other “bad” things that I eat or drink need to be removed from the menu.  For me this is sweet tea.  I will continue to allow myself a maximum of 2 glasses of sweet tea at one meal per day.
   
2. Pick something to reward myself with if I have a good eating day.  A day where I made good choices at each meal, did not snack between meals, and at the end of the day I know that I did all I could today to reach my 1 pound goal for the week.  For me this is a snack time. I will eat a small snack on the days where I stay on plan.
3. Continue on my current exercise routine in this first 5 week segment.  I may change things up, but I am not going to add anything additional at this point.  For me this is running and weight training.  I will continue to run about 15-20 miles a week and weight train 3 days.
4. Make wise choices at meals.  This includes picking the healthier option over the chicken wings and fries as well as listening to my body and stop eating when it says it is satisfied. For me this means stopping.  I will stop eating when I feel full even if my plate is not empty.
   
5. Stay off the scale.  I will only weigh myself a maximum of 2 times per week.  Once on Thursday and once on Monday.

So there they are.  My 5 rules for losing 5 pounds in 5 weeks.  I am not sure if they will work or not, but I am going to try and find out.

Do you want to try this as well?  If so, shoot me a message and I will add you to the Facebook group I have created.  This way there will be a bit of accountability and some other fatties to encourage you along the way

November was a whirlwind this year and it will take an unbelievable month to come even close to catching up with November 2010:

Nov 2: Witnessed one of the biggest changes in the makeup of the US House of representative in history.

Nov 6: Chad’s football team beat the only team they had not beaten all year by 1 point to advance to the Superbowl Championship game.

Nov 7: I ran my first marathon in New York City. I did not hit my target time, but I did finish it, and now that I have done it I realize how big of deal that was.

Nov 9: Signed agreements with McAfee to acquire InternetSafety.com, the business my brother and I had started just over 11 years prior.

Nov 13: Chad’s football team upset the #1 seed to win the Superbowl for their age group. It was a true underdog story and made the long weeks of practice worth every minute.

Nov 25: Ran a half marathon with my sister-in-law and paced her through 10 miles enroute to the 2:30 time she was hoping for. I finished in 2:20 and 2 seconds behind my running nemesis David!

Dec 1: I know this is technically December but it was so close I am counting it. We closed on our deal with McAfee to buy InternetSafety.com. For the first time in 10 years I am now an employee again.

Yes, I am still alive, I am still running, and I am still on track to run the NYC Marathon on Nov 7th. Life has been a little on then hectic side for the last month or two though so writing blog posts has taken even more of a “back burner” than it normally does. Here is a quick update:

Football: Chad wanted to play tackle football this fall. After a good talk about commitment, not being allowed to quit, the loss of some of his free time, and that it will hurt he was still determined. He started off a bit slow the first week of practice but has quickly improved and is playing very well for his first year. He has a great set of coaches that expect a lot from the boys but also understand that this is the first year for most of them. Looks like Chad will be playing defense mostly and was very excited to get his first sack last Saturday. I am enjoying this with him although the 10+ hours per week of practice and games is a huge commitment.

Work: As always things have been very busy at work. Seems like just when it looks like we might get a breather some new opportunity presents itself. We have a lot of exciting things in the works that I can’t talk about yet… But will as soon as I can.

Church: still enjoying Freedom Church very much. It is exciting to be part of something that is growing and wants to reach the community around it. After spending so many years at places that were so inwardly focused the change has been welcomed. I’m still working in the Video Production area and helping out in any other ways that I can.

My flight back to Atlanta from ??? is about to land so I need to shut the iPad down. More later!

I can summarize this post for you very simply… This airline should simply rename themselves No-Spirit Airlines! I should have seen this coming when the week before my trip the pilots went on strike. Fortunately, they worked out their labor dispute (read: the pilots wanted more money) 3 days before my flight.

My wife and I arrived at the airport about 1.5 hours before our flight. Usually enough time to check our bag, clear security, get some breakfast, and get on the flight. Not today. I am convinced that the check-in agents were pissed that they did not get pay raise and were taking it out on the customers in line. I am not exaggerating when I say it took these 3 agents over 45 minutes to work through the 20 people in front of me in line. It was obvious from their body language that they just did not care and would get the people through the line when they were good and ready. When were finally done checking in we had about 40 minutes to get to the gate and the agent said, “Go directly to the plane and you might make it!”

After clearing security and getting to the gate we sat down on the plane about 10 minutes before they closed the doors. However, this did not stop the gate agent from telling us how late we were and that “I was about to close the door.” Glad that we made it and we took our seats and settled into the hour flight to Fort Lauderdale.

A quick side note about the actual planes. We took a total of 4 flights on our trip. Every single plane had squeaky armrests. Every time someone raised or lowered an armrest it would wake up everyone on the plane that had dozed off. To top it off, I hadn’t realized that it was possible to put the seats closer together than most airlines already had… It is. I felt Like a giant in their seats. I am barely 5 foot 10 and my knees actually touched the seat in front of me.

The pre-flight safety demonstration was almost comical to watch. One flight attendant read the instructions over the loud speaker while the other flight attendants followed along trying as hard as they could to not have any facial expressions or emotion during the process. This carried over to the service as well. I nicknamed one of the attendants “ROZ” (from Monsters Inc) because of her monotone reading of the safety instructions and overall treatment of the guests on the flight. The others around me were just calling her “Helga”.

In summary. I told my wife that I will never fly Spirit Airlines again. I would rather pay more than deal with lousy service and employees that just don’t care. While cost does matter, I will gladly pay a few more dollars for better service on the way to my destination.

P.S. I am writing this while on a Delta flight while enjoying some complimentary peanuts and drink that I was given by a friendly flight attendant. Not to mention the access to in-flight Internet access.

Paper towel dispenser in a Burger King men’s restroom.