I have had this trip to Hawaii planned for just about a year when this Eagle Challenge thing came up. I wanted to be committed and support my team, but I was going to be 2,500 miles away sipping coconut juice for two weeks in the middle of February. Well, I got the approval of the team and of Madame Melissa to be gone for the two weeks and just report the same weight I was before leaving while I was gone. Now the first thing you need to know about me and a vacation is that I love how food and relaxing seems to cohabitate. I love planning the day around where we are going to eat. This trip on the other hand was only half my decision. My wife, Marla and I celebrated our 25th anniversary in June 2007 and I had given her this trip to Hawaii for that event. She has always wanted to visit Hawaii, but since the two things I dislike the most are sun and sand, we just never made it there. After 25 years, I thought she had earned it. I just didn’t find a vacation, I found a bicycle vacation. Seven days of riding around the big island of Hawaii. I actually thought this was my best chance of avoiding the sand. The bicycle portion of our trip accounted for only half of the days we would be gone, the other seven were ate up in touring Oahu and travel. You would think that a bicycling vacation would be similar to visiting a fat farm, but my history shows I tend to gain weight on bicycle trips. This trip, I vowed to not allow the typical feeding frenzy that normally accompanies long days of riding and free food.

Having my team back home and knowing that they were not only counting on me, but working their tails off at work and at succeeding in the Eagle Challenge, I had to refocus. Each day while traveling or riding, I noted what made the trip more difficult packing the extra 100 pounds on my body. Fitting in seats, fitting in clothes, being seen in clothes, open wounds on my rear, all were reminders of why I was in the Eagle Challenge. I kept reminding myself that today it is uncomfortable, but someday, with diligence, it will be better. If I continued to observe people around me, and choose to not eat like them, but to Eat like no one else, then I will be able to Live like no one else. To make a long story short, I came back 10 pounds lighter than when I left. How exciting to not only plan on this first step, but to walk the path that led to the success of the first month.

TEAM PERFORMANCE…..Down 76 pounds over 5% of our body weight is gone!!!

WAY TO GO TEAM!!!