Stopping the insanity

G and I have been talking a lot lately about family traditions that have gone awry. We remember when "dining out" was a way to celebrate a special event. Now it is the norm when we get together with his family. If my family lived near, we would probably go out to eat with them, too.

For some reason, eating out became a habit and as many know the documentary "Super Size Me" showed in alarming detail what happens when you dine out every night for one month.

I do not know when dining out became the focus of our family activities, but it has taken over our lives. Both Number One Daughter and Little Big Boy want to dine whenever they see their grandparents. Unfortunately and without realizing it, we have nurtured this desire all of their lives.

The buck stops here.

I stumbled upon the Discovery Channel's National Body Challenge. It starts in earnest on January 14th. I have already created a meal plan for the first week! I must take time out now for a short vent:

Discovery Channel's National Body Challenge web pages are NOT USER FRIENDLY! I started a team: Carpe Diem-Now I am unable to invite anyone to join the team, but worse yet: I AM NOT EVEN A MEMBER OF MY OWN TEAM. Further, when I was trying to make my meal plan, it was deleted twice before I figured out how to save it. You can't scroll with your mouse on the menus either. It doesn't sound like a lot of issues until I add this: It took me two hours to register and make a one-week meal plan. Granted, next time I visit, I will fly through it, but you will need to plan time to learn the quirks of the system. Vent-off.

The great thing about the site is that you will find recipes and a funny little shopping list. The shopping list is not based on the amount that you actually need during the week. It simply puts: "bags of spinach" on the shopping list.

My meal plan is about 1500 calories per day. That is ideal for me. G gets an extra 500-800 calories per day and it is easy to add them. We are going to do this together, but more importantly, we are going to break the cycle with our family. We deliberately didn't eat holiday meals at our families' homes. I prepared meals here. It was good for us. We have been weaning off of dining out, too.

The fact of the matter is that I got lazy. I lost my life in the past six years. Two pregnancies and a major surgery plus three falls. But I'm taking my life back this year and I am so lucky to have G want to come with me.

This May, we will celebrate our tenth anniversary. He has one and a half years left to go on his second college degree and a job waiting for him upon graduation. We are definitely blessed. We are going on a second honeymoon for our 15th anniversary. We are going to slide down the Seven Sacred Pools in Hawaii.

Before we depart, we are going to: lose weight and get in shape; take ballroom dancing lessons; learn to dance without counting the beat, which means we have to take lessons within the next two years so by the time we land in Hawaii, it will be second nature to twirl around a dance floor. We are going to change family gatherings from meals to activities-like a trip to the zoo.

It is an ambitious plan and for the first time in many, many years, I am excited about losing weight and getting in shape. There was a time when I ran two miles in 14:20. That's damn good and I worked hard to get there. I could do ten tricep push-ups. I could hike up a mountain, work all day and hike back down the mountain again-ten days in a row.

I'm ready to work back to it. It is time. G, Number One Daughter and Little Big Boy are all a part of the plan. We will make this life-style change for the rest of our lives. If you would like to make a healthy life-style a reality in 2006 and need a jumpstart, come with us! Visit Discovery Channel Body Challenge 2006.

You have about one week to prepare yourself mentally for it. We're going to make this change for the rest of our lives-no surgery-no pills-no gimmicks. Just a quick two-month start that will help us prepare for the rest of our lives. We also have Dr. Phil's Weight Smart book to guide us through. So, here we go; let us know if you are going to come along! No matter what you try to change this year, I wish you success.