The El Gordo Gauntlet

We interrupt this broadcast of Brian Versus the Volcano for a special announcement.

I've been challenged. My friend Nick emails me one day out of the blue to say,"Hey, you're more of a lazy, fat toad than I am and I can prove it."

I kid.

He actually recounted a couple of conversations we've had about all these skinnyfit guys we bike with and how much easier it would be to keep up if we dropped some poundage.

Nick suggested that we blog our weight loss goals and exercise over the next several months in the hopes that going public will be the bit of motivation that puts us over the top.

When I accepted the challenge I figured I'd let Nick take the lead on how detailed we get. He went full monte, posting up the poundage number and everything. Great. I've spent the last decade perfecting the art of shirt tucking and elastic pant wearing just so I could try and hide my number (didn't work anyway)....so, here it is.

211

My end goal is probably 175. An intermediate goal is to be under 200 by my Womble trip 3-26. I want to be done by the end of May. That's may be a big stretch, but that is what its all about.

I've actually been back on the bandwagon since November, so I have a running start on the challenge, having dropped somewhere around 5-8 pounds since the holidays. I typically lose VERY slowly because I apparently have the metabolism of a tortise.

I am weightlifting 3 times a week, playing basketball 1-2 per week and do a mix of running, hiking, biking, heavybag (boxing) and some yoga. I'll do some more detail on my exercise in future posts. I will be updating this every Monday. This week I did very well, until I got to the weekend (oops).

For those of you (Jill and Denise) patiently waiting for Bri v. Volcano Part III, we will be returning to our regularly scheduled programming by mid-week. Hang in there.