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While sitting around the dinner table at a family get-together a couple of years ago, one of my brother-in-laws suddenly said: "So, who's the biggest looser?" To tell you the truth I was a bit surprised by this, and it took me some time to realize that he was asking who had lost the most weight since the Christmas holidays (I hadn't known that a group of them had decided to go on a diet together).
Just in case you live outside the USA, his question was based on a popular Television program called The Biggest Looser in which a group of overweight contestants diet and exercise their little cotton socks off in a desperate attempt to lose the most weight (this is one of those reality programs that – once you start watching – you can't stop because you begin to relate to the contenders and want to know how they are all getting on).
But we digress... as you may recall from a previous blog (How to increase your productivity and fitness at the same time), I started my own diet on Tuesday 15 July 2008 exactly five weeks ago as I pen these words. My goal is to lose 41.5 pounds by Christmas of this year; this will leave me weighing in at 200 pounds, which is pretty much my optimum weight.
Now, just in case you were wondering, the reason I keep waffling on about this here is to give me an incentive to succeed, because I'll look rather foolish if I fail after making such a fuss about it all. (You see, there is reason behind my madness... I'm not as foolish as I look – but there again, how could I be?)
So, how am I doing? Well, there have been some ups and downs. I lost 2.5 pounds in week #1 and another 2.5 pounds in week #2, both of which made me a happy camper. Then I gained 1.5 pounds back again in week #3, which left me gnashing my teeth and rending my garb. So I redoubled my efforts and lost 4.0 pounds in week #4 and another 2.5 pounds in week #5.
The end result is that I've lost a grand total of 10 pounds over the last five weeks, which averages out to 2 pounds a week, which is just what I was aiming for when I started out on this quest. Sad to relate, however, based on what my friends (yes, I do have friends) have been telling me, I think I'll come to look back on these first 10 pounds as being the easy ones...
But I am undismayed... this is a happy day; it must be – why else would I be performing my "happy dance" (don't ask ... there isn't a video). So now I'm embarking on the next five weeks; I'll report back then; in the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for me for luck...
Questions? Comments? Feel free to email me – Clive "Max" Maxfield – at max@techbites.com). And, of course, if you haven't already done so, don't forget to Sign Up for our weekly Programmable Logic DesignLine Newsletter.
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