The Challenge

For several years now my dear husband, James has been listening to me complain about a menagerie of health issues ranging from being overweight to being a smoker. He's always telling me that he loves me the way I am but he will gladly support any steps I want to take to being happy with my physical and emotional self: his attitude is, "How can I help?"

Last week James presented me with a challenge. He told me that I can choose a health issue I want to address and he's making a bet that I can't complete my goal by the time we save up $1,000 in a special savings account.

I want to go to Barcelona for my 40th birthday, three years from now. I've been wanting to go for several years and I'm working toward making it a reality.

James wants s new guitar. Currently he owns two: a custom Epiphone and an Epiphone Les Paul. He wants a Gibson Les Paul.

Enter the challenge:
James and I have agreed to begin putting $25 from each pay check (for a total of $50 per pay day) into the savings account beginning this week. It will take 10 months to build that up to $1,000. In the same amount of time, I will be working towards losing 40 pounds.

If I make my goal, the $1,000 goes towards my Barcelona trip. If I don't make my goal, James gets a new guitar.

This will be diffcult. I LOVE fried foods and sweets and I would rather eat a bag of rocks than spend any time exercising.

Today for lunch I had a tuna sandwich, a small portion of red pepper/tomato soup, a small handful of sweet potato chips and for dessert, low-fat cottage cheese with diced peaches. Now I want a fucking donut. Or seven.

Let the games begin. Who are you rooting for?