Step One: Commit Myself To Change

I am now 38, and only a couple months til I turn 39. According to the BMI standards, my ideal weight range for my height is 118-159lbs. Which means I'm 112-153lbs overweight. If I lost 135 lbs - I'd weigh 135 lbs (I'm two people in 1 body)

Now for just a bit of history: I had weight issues while in High School and was constantly reminded by my father how fat and lazy I was. As a teenager, I learned to "ignore" the comments, but it set inside my mind that I was not good enough and that I had to lose weight. But, I was not active and I loved junk food. The summer after I graduated from high school, I spent almost every morning playing tennis with my friend Mike Hall (I've lost touch with him over the years). Mike was a freshman my senior year, but with both of us in the band we hit it off. Besides my additional experience made up for my lack of athleticism and it made the tennis challenging for both of us (he was in very good shape).
  
That summer I lost over 40lbs and dropped from 188 to 145. But I never felt "thin". I always thought I was still overweight. I didn't know. I look back at photos of me between 19yrs old and 30yrs old and I'm amazed at how fit and healthy I looked. But I don't ever remember being fit.

My 30's have been very busy. I got married to my lovely wife who also will be working right beside me to become more fit. I finished my bachelors and went on to complete my master's degree both in marketing. My wife & I had a daughter. We were awarded custody of my 2 older children. And I've started my online marketing consulting business.

But I'm not prepared to let it stop there - by the time I turn 40, which is only 13 1/2 months from now I plan to have lost 100 lbs. Roughly 60 weeks or I need to average 1 2/3rds pounds per week in weight loss.

So I am committed to losing the weight through proper diet and exercise to achieve much higher level of fitness. My first step was getting a gym membership.

At the high school, there is an attached "fieldhouse" this is a shared facility between the high school students (athletes & Physical Education) and the community membership. They have a complete fitness center with treadmills, elypiticals, cycles, circuit training, and a complete assortment of free weights and other equipment that I hopefully will get to use over the course of my makeover. They also have a lap pool and a leisure pool - this will be great for the kids and getting that low-impact workout. Fortunately my schedule will allow me to visit the gym 3-4 times a week, plus a couple times to the pool with the kids or alone. Any membership fee would be worth it, but I found that this offers more for either less or about the same as a standard gym and it's less than a mile from our house - it's the right fit. So we purchased a family membership on 3/11.

What was even better; was that they had a "Weight Loss Challenge" that was beginning on 3/17 to run for 6 weeks - my wife & I thought what better way to start our path to total fitness. So that was the plan. On March 17 we will begin our quest. But we already had our membership - So we took the kids swimming. It was very nice, we experienced all that both pools had to offer. We had a great time and the kids are looking forward to many days playing around in the water, becoming better swimmers and ultimately improving their overall health.