the Rob race and the Hometown 20 Challenge

Okay, this is the 4th time I've tried to write a post today, and I'm hoping this one won't turn out to be another incoherent babbling mess. I'm going to post it regardless, so I apologize in advance if it doesn't make a lot of sense. Or if I repeat myself. Or if I edit it twelve times after I hit post.

As you may or may not know, I am currently in the middle of a weight-loss race with my husband. It used to be a three-person race, but Jarrod dropped out to go to Cancun and lift weights or something. ;) So it's down to us, and I am losing quite handily. Rob's got 7 lbs on me, and even though his lead will soon be shrinking, I'm not likely to make any stunning comebacks. And that's all to the good, really. Even if I don't win in the end, he's still 20 lbs lighter and we have an XBox (his prize of choice).

That doesn't mean I'm giving up on 165...just means that I feel safe turning my attention to another challenge, one I'm calling The Hometown 20 Challenge.

You see, I'm going to my hometown in September for a friend's wedding. When I was there in February, I weighed more than at our wedding (which was the last time I saw my family before that). What this boils down to is that my family hasn't seen significant changes in my size in two years or more, and hasn't seen me below 180 since Noah was a baby. On this trip, I think I'd like to get a "holy shit, have you lost weight?" or two. I'm thinking 165 will get me there. Depending on whether the scale says 177 or 178 tomorrow (AND IT WILL SAY ONE OR OTHER, OR THERE WILL BE KILLINGS), it's either 12 or 13 lbs away. With the wedding on 9/17, that's 12-13 lbs in 11 weeks. If I stay on track, that's totally doable.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "Why 'Hometown 20'? There's no damn 20s anywhere in there!"

Well, I've pored through my archives, and found that I was somewhere in the neighborhood of 185-187 the last time I went home. I don't have a weigh-in post from that week, for whatever reason, but I do have a post about being at 187 a couple days before the trip. IIRC, I dropped some water weight, so I could have been at 185 by the time we left. 185-165=20. Even if I didn't lose those 2 lbs before we left, I like numbers that are multiples of either 3 or 5. (Or in the case of 165, both!)

So, in short, it's called The Hometown 20 because I like the sound of that better than The Hometown 22 or Maybe 23. :)

Anyway, every good challenge has guidelines, and these are mine:

Food

1. No more than 1700 calories per day, Sun-Fri. Still a 1000-calorie limit before 6 pm on weekdays.
2. Free Saturdays. ONLY Saturdays.
3. 2L of water daily.

Exercise

1. Three short cardio workouts (30-45 minutes)
2. Two long cardio workouts (1 hour or more)
3. Two strength workouts, with abs

Accountability

1. Journal everything Sun-Fri. No, really--everything.
2. Weekly progress reports
3. Monthly measurements

I may have to tweak the calories if I'm not losing fast enough. I've lost 2 lbs this week on a 1700 average, but I think it's more because of last week's freak gain than a true 2-3 lb loss. Since I'm only going for a little over a pound a week, though, 1700 calories and a full exercise schedule should do it.

This challenge starts after tomorrow's weigh-in. The Rob Race also continues.

(And this probably goes without saying, but if I get pregnant between now and then, all bets are off. I don't foresee that, but I keep hearing that it happens as soon as you give up trying, sooo....)