Shut up and get started

Welcome to my first post!

Two nights ago I had a moment of clarity. After spending the last few years packing on over 30lbs, I need to get creative. Dieting and working out is always on my mind, but rarely actually happens. My weakness is night-time indulging (read binging) with my partner Chris, who has been gaining right along with me.

We call "the binge" a "feast" — sounds better right — and it usually consist of some kind of fast food (Burger King, McDonald's, Taco Bell, KFC, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, the list goes on), followed by chips, and/or ice-cream, and/or chocolate bars, and/or licorice, and/or cookies, and/or... you get the point. I've earned my spare tire. It's been hard work.

We even invented the Chocolate Salad.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients
8-10 chocolate bars

*Maltesers and Rollo are good additions as they are already bite size

Directions
1. Break chocolate into pieces

2. Dump into a bowl
3. Eat

mmmmm, where was I? Oh yeah, clarity! I realized that none of this food made it into my house without someone weakening and then dragging down the other. What if we weren't allowed to even talk about all the bad stuff we wanted to eat? And what if there were consequences to mentioning it? This got me thinking...

At the next commercial, I told Chris we needed to lose weight. I say that most nights. Then I said we needed to make some rules. The commercials ended, Lost was back on, and we never made the rules.

The next day I remembered my plan and called Chris to get the rules in place before I got home. I even went to the gym at lunch and shocked the regular office gym crew.

Anyway, the rules:

Rule#1 No talking about "off-limits" foods (this is the shut up part). This includes everything mentioned above. Not allowed are, "You know what I feel like eating tonight.." or "How about ice-cream?" or "That looks good, should we order it?"

I know it sounds nuts, but if we can't bring it up, it can't happen. Nobody is dragged down. The initial thought is never mentioned — perfect, right?

Maybe, but what if there were consequences? I came up with a good one... or two. We have two Irish Setters, McCully and Mollie, and anyone who has dogs knows the morning walk is the worst, THE WORST. Getting out of the warm bed, getting dressed, going out into the cold, and waiting for 2 dogs to take their morning poops kinda sucks. Typically we alternate mornings, but if the rule is broken the person who breaks it needs to take the other person's next morning. Believe me, we love our dogs, but neither of us is into an extra morning.

Last night we tested Rule#1. Commercial after commercial came on TV advertising all kinds of delicious, but neither of us said a word for fear of the extra morning walk... success!

OK, let's save Rule#2 for next time... I will tell you the consequences get BIGGER.

Now what?

Do it: Set up Rule#1 and agree on a consequence, make it a good one that you will absolutely hate, the more tedious or disgusting, the better.

Snack on it: strawberries and cottage cheese

Workout with it: Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer - Freemasons ft. Sophie Ellis-Bextor *available at itunes