Choose Healthy Living

Confession: Doug and I have become "The Biggest Loser" fans. Somehow we stumbled upon the show flipping channels one evening, and it stuck. It surprised us how quickly we got hooked, but we can honestly say, we are inspired by the people on this show! Each week we gawk at how huge these people were, and marvel at the changes they have made in their lives to become healthy, to lose weight, and to increase their quality of life. We just watched the season finale (a week late on Hulu). Most of the contestants are completely different people now than they were at the start of the competition.

Watching the show got us thinking about our own health situation. Neither of us is morbidly overweight like most of the contestants on the show, but we both are feeling a bit thicker than we once were. But it's not even just about putting on extra weight. In the last few years we have had some significant lifestyle changes, but our healthy living habits have not followed us. It may seem like a small departure now, but we are concerned about where it will lead. Where we were once active young single students with time to focus on ourselves, we are now sedentary married folks with desk jobs and little time to spare. Our lives are changing and we don't like the direction they are going. Where will we be in 20 or 30 years if we keep on this track? We are especially concerned about teaching our children good health habits so they can start life right.

We've spent a lot of time discussing the "Biggest Loser" program. What makes it work, and how can we make it work for us? We think there are a few key elements:

- Motivation: two sub-factors motivate the contestants

• Competition for a reward - this provides the initial impetus, but by the end, most people realized the reward is now the way they feel--being healthy, they never want to go back to the way they were.
• Support

- Accountability: A weekly weigh-in on national TV!

We would like to create an online environment where we can replicate these elements for ourselves and our friends. And so, we invite you to join us as we launch our own program: Choose Healthy Living. We have created a new blog for this purpose (choose-healthy-living.blogspot.com) and have a post there that outlines the details of the program.

We all have room to improve our health habits - many of us have extra pounds to shed, but even more of us, we would guess, have bad habits that left unchecked could lead to premature death, illness or just a decrease in quality of life. We hope the program we are launching will have something for everyone.

Please consider your health situation carefully and join us as we strive for healthier living!