In a little over 5 months I turn 40! For some that seems ancient, while for others it makes themselves feel ancient. It’s a big deal to me.

As we approach Father’s Day weekend I remembered he was close to 40 when his heart disease and diabetes began developing. He passed away in 2003. While there are many things about my father I wish to emulate, his health problems are not one of them.

I have a choice and I choose to turn back the clock and be as healthy at 40 as I was at 20. In fact I want to be in better shape than I was back then. This is the closest picture I have of myself at that age: first day of college when I was 17

Over the years I’ve tried and tried and, while losing some weight , it wasn’t a significant change. Motivation is the key. Feeling better and looking better are nice, but they are goals that are difficult to measure and even harder to visualize. On a daily basis you feel no different.

Last week I found out about the Scale Down Challenge via friend from Twitter and specifically the Social Media Club. I thought this would be a great motivator for me. I’d not just be doing it for myself, but in this modern age with social media, my Twitter followers and Facebook friends would make this a very public experience.  I’ll “tweet what I eat” and let you all comment on it, good and bad.  All suggestions will be welcome.

Although the public aspect of this contest would be great, a friend reminded me that money has never really been a motivator for me.  Helping people is my number one motivator.  It’s what I do for a living and I love it.  It’s why I am a proud member of the Lawrence Give Back program

Then the idea hit. I won’t win the money for myself, but for the Lawrence Humane Society! If I don’t win, I wouldn’t just be letting myself down and possibly my friends, but all the animals and people that the Humane Society supports. Puppies and kittens are great motivators!

There you have it: what I’m doing and why. Follow my progress at this blog and the twitter username @scaledowndave

Tags: diet, Scale Down Challenge, turning 40, weight loss

This entry was posted on June 13, 2010 at 4:27 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Scale Down Challenge by dgreenbaum 3 Comments