March Challenge: Shed weight, get an iPad

I'm Fat (according to my wife). It has taken nearly two years but the cliche of gaining weight after one gets married can be categorically be applied to me.

"Honey, you need to lose some weight", is what I hear quite often, although a new tact was tried a few days ago. She came home and offered a challenge:

If you (me) can lose 10+ kilograms in March, then you (I) can get an iPad or a Kindle.

The challenge sounds pretty sweet. I don't really want either device, but kindle might come in handy sometimes, and the new iPad may be available sometime in April. I accepted the challenge. She originally said 15+ kilograms, but that number sounded way too high to be healthy.

When I met my wife-to-be I was a runner. I ran a lot. I used to run most mornings (~5 to ~10 Kilometers), and I used to run long distance anywhere from 1 to 3 times a week (~20 to ~40 Kilometers). I usually weighed around 65 to 67 Kilograms at my peak. I was also doing my PhD at the time and I mostly ate and drank whatever I wanted. Good times!

Now, I run in bursts a few times a year, mostly in the warmer months. When I stop, my metabolism doesn't :( I've ballooned out to more than 20 Kilograms above my running weight. I figure a healthy weight is 75-80 Kilograms, based on the body mass index chart, still putting me in the overweight range. Yuck! What the hell happened!??

Anyway, time to tackle the issue and kick it off with a challenge. I'm going to start my running regime again. I'm also going to eat more meals per day to feed my boosted metabolism, while reducing calories (more protein, same meals over and over again, and less or zero white carbohydrates). The intention will be to drop back to a healthy weight eventually and maintain it, if I can.

I also figure it is an excellent opportunity for data collection. I usually record my exercise regime, but in this case for the challenge, I'll record my body metrics such as weight and belly circumference. Thirty days is not much time at all, so I doubt the graph would be interesting on April 1st, but it may be interesting to revisit in 3, 6, and 12 months. No promises though.

iPad image taken from Wikipedia.