Today marks my 36th anniversary on this planet and is a big reason that I'm Pounding Poverty. I was keenly aware that I'd hit the back stretch toward 70 this year when making the decision in late 2013 to pursue this weight loss. My adult life has been a string of rationalizations for poor health habits that relied on youth for validity and was being rapidly backed into a corner. It's a little hard to say, "I'll do that next year," when next year is dangerously close to the midpoint of your life expectancy.
Honestly, this has been going better than expected. I've lost at or a little above 20 pounds in less than a month but, more importantly, my family has begun to incorporate healthy eating and exercise into our routines. That was no easy feat for a family where the mom manages a large retail store (working nights, weekends, and other crazy hours) and the dad is a senior manager in a large organization. Add in two little ones with a competition dance team and you can see how it would be hard to switch from Mickey D's to chopping veggies. But now that we've made the successful switch, how do we keep it going?
Sustainability is one of my primary goals for Pounding Poverty. First, I want to sustain these lifestyle changes for myself and my family. It is beyond time for us to set a healthier example for our 8-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy who would sustain themselves on Gattitown and Skittles if left to their own devices. So far we have found a way to cook healthy meals nearly every evening, relying on the frozen green box "dinners" just to get out of a time pickle a couple of times. Along the way I've picked up some new foods like Mahi Mahi and avacado and so have my kids. After 24 days it's starting to feel like this is something we could do for the long haul. We actually like it.
Secondly, it's important to me over the next 8 weeks or so to find a way to sustain this project. The positive feedback we have received from the community has been overwhelming and it's easy to sense there's a hunger for this activity. So what would Pounding Poverty look like beyond the end of March? Do we recruit someone else to carry the mantle and keep losing? Do we start a Pounding Poverty 5K that raises funds for community action while engaging neighborhoods in training and healthy eating along the way? I've always wanted to see a 5K race through lower income neighborhoods that engaged residents in training and participating (and allowed them to run for free).
Somehow in the coming weeks I'm going to make these decisions and would like your input. How do we keep this going beyond my own weight loss project and, more importantly, grow it into an opportunity to help others improve their lives? I'm hungry for ideas so please submit your thoughts to me on this blog or via e-mail and I promise they'll be seriously considered. I can't promise we'll all like what we come up with but we'll certainly have fun trying.
For the record I am hitting the gym today and even have an appointment with the trainer. And while I have earned a night out and some dessert I was especially careful to choose a restaurant - Cheddar's - where I can get a relatively healthy meal with my family while celebrating my birthday. Later, Cathy has made a special cake from our weight-loss cookbook so I can avoid my old friend the Mondelli's birthday cake that is so delicious but sooooo stuck around my middle from previous birthdays. I'll miss you my old friend but it's a new day.
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