Chapter 10 Fit Happens: Large (Shirts) & In Charge

Yes, it's finally happened. About a month later than I expected.

It's the wall. Not as intimidating as China's or as musical as Pink Floyd's. But it's an inevitable part of a weight loss program.

It seems to be happening to all of us at the same time. Out of the 3 of us who have recorded our weights since April 1, we have lost a combined 1.8 pounds. At nearly the halfway point of April, that is 22 pounds less than we lost from the first 14 days of the New Year. Obviously, the main reason for that is the ease of the weight loss for all of us in the initial part of the contest.

It's difficult at times to be motivated by weight loss at this time of the contest when weight loss is at a minimum despite our improved dietary and exercise habits. But it's a natural process with this contest. We were all going to face a wall at some point. It's funny that we all hit it at the same time.

I know that we're trying to get through this, but I think it's a realization that we need to step things up. Increase the better habits: more intense workouts, different workouts, better diets than we've already been taking part of.

This month, I've been working out about 5 out of 7 days. My workout intensity has definitely increased. I have been stepping up my treadmill cardio to 45 minute sessions where I end up burning close to 800 calories by the time the workout ends.

I've managed to squeeze ahead in the weight loss this month, but it's not showing in the standings. And that's what we need to remember.

It's not always going to show up in the numbers. As long as the right mindset of continuing these good habits exists, everything will work out in the long term.

Oh yeah, and I can fit in large shirts again without looking six months pregnant. Go me!

Until next time, thanks for reading.

MLB Betting 4/8/13 thru 4/14/13

Last week's bets: http://b-boknows.blogspot.com/2013/03/b-bos-mlb-bets-futures-daily-bets.html

YTD: 29-37, -463.45 (Updated 4/15/13)

WTD: 13-17, -175.25

4/8 (1-4, -248.80)
Bos/Balt (Bucholtz/Chen) Over 9 - 66/60 - L - Never had a chance.
Garcia (StL) -111 vs. Cincy - 88.80/80 - L - Bad 2nd half of game for StL, even worse 9th inning (9 runs allowed)
NYM/Phil (Harvey/Halladay) Over 7.5 - 67.60/60 - Halladay is losing it. Sad
Hou +135 1st 5 innings - 70/94.50 - Dumb bet
Hou/Sea Over 7.5 - 84/80 - Dumb bet


4/9 (4-2, 185.25)
Det/Tor (Sanchez/Morrow) Under 8 - 70/70 - Morrow allowed too many hits. After mid-game tease, Detroit finished it off in 8th inning
Lee (Phil) -173 vs. NYM - 86.50/50 - Lee cruises to victory. Phils bats helped the cause
Richard (SD) +120 vs. LAD - 80/96 - Never trailed. SD opens up game in 8th.
Parker (Oak) +135 at LAA - 75/101.25 - After blowing 4-0 lead, big 5-run 7th seals it.
McDonald (Pitt) +130 at Ariz - 60/78 (first 5) - Pitt's big 4th inning seals the bet.
Colorado + 114 - 70/79.80 - Rockies couldn't muster any offense after a big 2nd. 

4/10 (2-2,  54.20)
Cin/StL (Bailey/Westbrook) Under 8.5 - 65/66.30 - StL explosion in innings 5-7 ruin a great start toward the under
Moore (TB) +124 at Tex - 80/99.20 - Nice shutout Tampa.
Floyd (CWS) +151 at Wash 50/83.05 - Brief lead, but never had a chance.
Bos/Balt (Dempster/Arrieta) Over 9 - 74.90/70 - Looked like a loss, but Baltimore puked and rallied. Must remember that these good fortunes usually balance out the bad beats.


4/11 (0-2, -150.50 )
Axelrod (CWS) +144 at Wash - 70/100.80 - Plenty of chances, but no dice

Cle/NYY (McAllister/Hughes) Under 8.5 - 80.50/70 - rained out
LA Angels Over 4 runs - 80.50/70 - Never threatened to win this bet.

4/12 (4-1, 312.5)
Cubs +128 (Villanueva) vs. SF - 65/83.20 - Cubs BP tried to blow a fantastic outing from Villanueva. Luckily, Romo was just as giving.
Pitt/Cin (Burnett/Leake) Under 7.5 - 67.20/60 - doomed from start. Went way over.
Hou +175 (first 5 innings) at LA Angels - 60/105 - Dominant performance by Bud Norris
Hou +185 (game) 50/92.50 - Never a sweat on this one. 5-0 win. Hard to beat that non-sweat with a +185
Iwakuma (Sea) +132 vs. Tex - 75/99 - Iwakuma an early season surprise. Hopefully catch value for another start or two w/ him.

4/13 (1-3, -143.40 )
Atl/Wash (Hudson/Strasburg) Under 7 (96/80) - 
Sale (CWS) -130 at Cle (78/60) - Sale got bombed today. 
Det/Oak (Verlander/Anderson) Under 7 (85.40/70) - Hard to bet unders on Tigers games. Need to make a note of this.
Cin/Tex parlay - (60/121.24)

4/14 (1-3, -164.50)
KC -103 (Santana) vs. Toronto - 103/100 - walk-off single wins it. Santana was solid.
Phil/Mia Over 8 (Halladay/Slowey) - 84/80 - finished way under. Halladay finally pitched decent.
LA/Ariz Over 9 (Beckett/Cahill) - 80.50/70 - again, way under. Both guys acted like they were Cy Young winners for a day. 1-0 final.
Balt/NYY Over 8.5 (Chen/Kuroda) - 100/112) - third time's not a charm. Way under. Again. Might need to lay off the totals for a bit.

America's Scummiest Home Videos & Other NCAA Musings

Who would have thought that the focus of Final Four week would be more so off the court than on it? Some items of note:

• Did you see the Louisville guy (Kevin Ware) break his leg on TV Sunday? I didn't - and I have no intention of ever seeing the video of it! If you try showing me the video, I will not watch it. I accidentally saw a picture of it when Jen had it up on the computer or phone. I heard how bad it was, and I saw enough of the reaction of the players on both Louisville and Duke to know that I don't want to see it. I'm glad CBS didn't do what the broadcasters did 30 years ago when Lawrence Taylor snapped Joe Theismann's leg, and the coverage apparently showed slow motion replays of it non-stop. I can go without seeing the Ware injury.
  
• And to think college video from the week couldn't get more ugly to watch, there was the Rutgers incident. The video of the former Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice circulated, showing Rice basically playing a one-man game of dodgeball with the basketballs at practice (except he was only doing the throwing.) Even though this video has been in the hands of Rutgers personnel for months, it took world-wide exposure for them to fire Rice. Sadly, there is more psycho coaches out there that systematically mentally and physically abuse players from the lowest levels of sport all the way to the top. The more successful your team is, the more acceptable this abuse becomes (see Bob Knight). Unlike the others, Rice was caught on tape.
  
  And to those who say the boys should have stuck up for themselves, it's always easy for us to say this. We say this about victims of all types of crimes in society, particularly physical abuse and rape. It becomes a case of blaming the victim ("I would have stuck up for myself," many say). Yet when people get put in that situation, they are often so mentally abused that they don't feel like they can get out of the situation by defending themselves from such abuse. Instead of implicitly blaming the victims, we should sympathize with them and realize their situation was not the easiest to deal with. Many of these guys have professional aspirations. If they lose their scholarship, the road to getting the seasoning required for attention from the professional ranks becomes a much more difficult one. It's easier for some of these guys to take the abuse and gut it out than it is to risk the chance of getting kicked off the team for ratting on their abusive coach.
  
  It doesn't make it right for what coaches like that do - we just need to understand that it's not the easiest thing for these players to report their coach for such abusive behavior. It makes me think that all colleges, if they don't do so already, be required to film all of their practices for compliance purposes of player safety from abusive coaches.
  
• Two Pac-12 teams hired coaches. One just finished a Cinderella run as a 15-seed in the NCAA tourney with Florida Gulf Coast and moved to USC for an incredible pay raise (Andy Enfield). The other didn't even have time for the ink to dry on his 10-year extension with New Mexico (Steve Alford) before bolting to UCLA. More on Alford later.
  
• Oh, and I almost forgot about the Auburn football scandal, which has a little bit of something for everybody - robbery, bribes, murder. Ok, not murder. Just wanted to see if you were still paying attention. 

More college thoughts/rants

If you haven't heard a head coach in college football or basketball lie to you recently, you haven't been paying attention to any time they open their mouths or you have your television on mute.

Sure, there are some college coaches that might have some shreds of morality, but I'm not sure who those guys are. When you hear a guy has signed an extension with a school, all that means is....well, nothing. It doesn't mean the guy is going to stay with your school for 10 more years. It doesn't mean anything.

Most (if not all) of these big money contracts these guys sign includes a buyout clause jusssssst in case they get a better offer or opportunity somewhere else.

Did you take a look at all the coaching changes that occurred this offseason in football? It was a domino effect that seemed to touch about a quarter of the BCS-based teams. Then there were some coaches like Les Miles who helped get himself an extension by "showing interest" in the Arkansas job. I put that in quotes because it's debatable whether there was any interest or if it was merely a ploy to get more money.

Going back to Alford, who the hell signs a 10-year contract with a team (which he was lucky to get to begin with, considering how little Alford has done to earn it in his NCAA tourney appearances) and then bolts days later? On the Dan Patrick Show, he said he gets a lot of calls, but the call from UCLA is different because it's UCLA. Like hundreds of college coaches in the major sports, this guy is going to preach loyalty and committing to a team when he's literally a phone call away from being wooed away from that locker room.

It's one of the main hypocritical things that bother me about college sports, right next to the free labor that the NCAA and coaches get from the players and the dumb transfer rules that cause players to sit a year when they want to transfer to a new school.

Argue all you want, but you'll never convince me that these players don't deserve at least some form of payment? You say their scholarship should be considered their payment, but how many of these guys even get their degrees? Most of these guys in basketball, especially the NBA-caliber guys, are 1-2 year rentals who 

These unpaid servants of the NCAA are the ones whose talents create a product that is worth billions of dollars. And who reaps the benefits? The coaches who can bail to another school whenever they want. The NCAA administration folks, whose morals are even lower than the coaches.

And since when does a coach need a 10-year contract for a security blanket?

The most baffling thing about the Alford thing, outside of him getting an extension, was that he needed such a lengthy extension. Are these decade-long contracts really necessary for teams to show their "loyalty" to certain coaches or to prove to the coaches that they want them around for a while? Do you have any idea how many coaches in both college football and college basketball have been with their current schools for 10+ years?

Well, thanks to Wikipedia (and I know people can enter in information on that site at will, but to the best of my knowledge, the data looked accurate), I broke down both sports based on length of coaching tenure. Below are the percentage of coaches who have been with their current schools for a decade or longer.

College basketball: 52 of 347 (15%) - look at the top 10 list below. Unless you're a big time college basketball fan, good luck knowing more than two names on that list.

College football: 10 of 125 (8%)

And here are the numbers for new coaches to their respective teams entering the 2013 seasons of their sports:

College basketball: 35 of 347 (10%)

College football: 31!!! of 125 (25%) To think, I thought I was exaggerating with the quarter of NCAA teams changing coaches seemingly. Seemingly ended up being true...

I'm not sure if this data is consistent throughout the years, but that means if you picked a coach at random in college football, you're 3 times more likely to pick a team who hasn't coached a down at the current school as you were to identify a coach who's been at a school for a decade or longer.

Alford was at New Mexico for six years, so he was less than five years away from making it to 10. However, as is the case with many of these coaches, they get bored at certain jobs or get wooed by better ones.

No one is going to argue that UCLA basketball doesn't sound sexier than New Mexico basketball - no doubt, UCLA's history is hard to ignore. But you just signed a 10-year deal days before! You said you wanted to stay there and be there for years to come. Then you bolt at the first call you get from UCLA?

At the very least, if the NCAA isn't going to change its transfer rule with the athletes switching schools, they should make coaches sit out a year before transferring to a new school to at least show some consistency in its policy. However, that would require the NCAA to do something it is incapable of doing.

After all, if players who continue to get paid squat keep making these guys a collective billions, then why would they want to change anything? The system works best for those on the top of the food chain: the big conference adminstrations, athletic directors, coaches, and most importantly, the NCAA. Let the free labor reign.

Fit Happens Chapter 9: Halfway There

In case you missed the individual profiles on each of the contestants from the past week, click the links below to read about our individual trials and tribulations:

Profile 1 (Chris)
Profile 2 (Hippo)
Profile 3 (Magic Bus)
Profile 4 (B-Bo)

We're halfway done with the Fit Happens Weight Loss Challenge sponsored by Papa Johns. Papa John did not sponsor us unfortunately, so we will not be able to give away two million free pizzas. April Fools!

Weight as of April 1: 208.4, a loss of 27.2 pounds. Currently leading in Fit Happens.

And the good news? I'm still in the lead...but barely. Below are the standings at the halfway mark.

User	lbs	%
Dave	-17.6 lbs	-6.1 %
Hippo	-27.4 lbs	-11.1 %
LionEsquire	-20.8 lbs	-8.52 %
B-Bo Knows Weight Loss	-27.2 lbs	-11.54 %

Other good news? I won the month of March, but barely. Thanks to my slightly less plump exterior compared to Hippo, who lost the same amount of weight but lost a less of a percentage.

User	lbs	%
Dave	-1.6 lbs	-0.59 %
Hippo	-7.2 lbs	-3.18 %
LionEsquire	-2.2 lbs	-0.98 %
B-Bo Knows Weight Loss	-7.2 lbs	-3.34 %

That makes two victorious months and one second-place finish out of the three months of the contest. Can't complain with that. Hell, I'm shocked I have lost 27+ pounds so far. I figured to get about 20-22, but 27 is a nice cubed number.

So what's next?

For me personally, there's a lot going on in the next month that can help me continue going strong in the contest:

1. Exercise bike - Thanks to a client of Jen's moving to Georgia, we inherited a free exercise bike for the apartment a week ago. It currently sits in our living room behind our couch facing the TV. I have used it three times and Jen has used it once or twice. I believe this will get used more than home exercise equipment that I've used in the past. Last year when I lived with my parents like a cool 29-year old, we inherited a machine of my grandma's that was covered in dust. After cleaning the dust for that and using it a little, it is currently gathering dust in the garage. The goal: use the exercise bike 4-5 times a week to ensure it does not turn into a coat rack with a plug.
2. Warrior Dash - I signed up for the Warrior Dash on Friday, ensuring that I will continue to run on the machine (and hopefully some outside as the weather allows it) to get into better shape. I hope to be in the 190s when I'm racing in June.
3. Zoo Run in June - I may be running this with fellow Fit Happens member Chris. It would be the day after me and Jen move into our yet-to-be-determined new apartment. It's a 5K, so I shouldn't have a problem running it at a decent pace (for my first 5K in a while, it'd be nice to have a 9 minute mile pace).
4. Free Time - For reasons I'd rather not discuss right now or at least online, I may have some more time to myself coming up. If this is the case, I will focus on making sure to maximize this time to working out and getting into better shape.

Not sure when I'll update this again (maybe next month). Hope you've been enjoying this series so far.

B-Bo's MLB Bets (Futures & Daily Bets)

Daily Bets (4-1 thru 4-7) - (16-20, -288.20)

4/1 (1-3, -$122)
NY/Bos Lester/Sabathia Under 8 (57/50) L - 9th inning Boston runs
Chi/KC Sale/Shields Under 7 (48/40) W - 1-0 Sale win
Phil/Atl Hamels (Philly) -110 (55/50) L - trailed throughout
Ariz/StL Kennedy/Wainwright Over 9 (50/50) L - narrow loss

4/2 (0-2, -137.30)
Balt/TB Hammel/Price Under 7 (61.50/50) L - McGee melts in 7th inning
Tor/Cle Dickey/Masterson Over 8.5 (75.80/65) L - no bullpen runs allowed


4/3 (3-2, 50.00 )
Tex/Hou Ogando/Humber Under 8.5 (69/60) - Astros shut out. Look to bet unders of teams coming off near perfect game/no hit bids
Chi/KC Peavy/Santana Over 7.5 (60/63) - Sox can't score w/o HR; too many runners left in scoring position in late innings
Det/Min Sanchez/Correia Over 8.5 (60/60.60) - Never had a chance
Wandy (Pitt) -133 (79.80/60) - Well-pitched game. Wandy a Cub killer
LA/SF Beckett/Lincecum Over 7 (61/50) - Strong offense vs starters. No more runs after that (5-3)

4/4 (5-1, 282.90 )
ChC/Pitt Wood (ChC) +130 (50/65)
ChC/Pitt Under 7 (40/40) - Wood pitched well; Marmol did what he could to blow it. Avoid Cubs games for most part!
KC/ChW Guthrie (KC) +114 (65/72.10) - Guthrie was sharp. Sox no HRs = Sox loss
SD/NYM Stults (SD) +136 (50/68) - Lots of LOBs, but SD never trailed. Held on in 9th.
Mia/Wash LeBlanc (Mia) +200 (40/80) - worth a shot. Mia got spanked.
Phil/Atl Lee (Phil) +113 (60/67.80) - might be the last time Lee gets + anything for a while. A gem.

4/5 (4-3, 96)
SD/Col Marquis (SD) +140 (60/84) - Not enough offense; 3rd inning error is the difference (3 unearned)
KC/Phil Davis (KC) +107 (60/64.20) - KC 13 unanswered runs after falling behind 4-0 early
Min/Balt Hendrix/Arrieta Under 9 (54/50) - Pretty much DOA in the mid-innings despite a pair of scoreless innings to start. Davis stays red hot to open the lead up for the Orioles.
Bos/Tor Doubront (Bos) +135 (60/81) - Never trailed. Decent bullpen work.
Mia/NYM Sanabia (Mia) +139 (60/83.40) - Bounced back nicely after getting swept. Almost blew 6-0 lead.
Mil/Ari Lohse (Mil) -131 (78.60/60) - 2 runs allowed on a wild pitch the difference. Crazy.
Sea/CHW Beaven/Quintana Over 8 (66/60) - Quintana implodes. League has caught up to him. Fade away.

4-6 (1-4, -215.30 )
Sea/Chi King Felix (Sea) -129 (90.30/70) - Windy day. King Felix threw one mistake and Rios made him pay.
Bos/Tor Lackey/Happ Under 9 - (60/61.80) - Great outing for Happ. Lackey got hurt, might be out for year. 
LAA/Texas Harrison (Tex) -124 (62/50) - Harrison roughed up in 1st. Bet never had a chance. 
SF/StL - Vogelsong/Miller Under 7 - (63/60) - Big 5th for StL is basically the difference. 

SD/Col  - Ross (SD)+129 - (60/77.40) - Garland pitched well in first start in two years. SD couldn't take advantage of bases loaded, no out in 4th.

4-7 (2-5, -242.20 )
ChW/Sea (Sale/Iwakuma) Under 7.5 - (69/60) - After rough first, both settled down, 4-3 in extras
Bos/Tor Lester +125 (60/75) - Total Red Sox domination. Least sweat bet so far this year
Wash/Cin Under 7 (Strasburg/Cueto) (72/60) - Both roughed up early. Teased a push, but lost in 6th.
TB/Cle Under 7 (Price/Masterson) (75/60) - Price got rocked. No shot.
StL/SF Under 6.5 (Wainright/Cain) (64.20/60) - 9 run fourth for StL - no shot.
Col/SD Over 10.5 (Chacin/Volquez) (66/60) - No help from SD. Col helped in late innings to no avail.
LAA  (Weaver) +129 vs Texas (Darvish) (100/129) - top half of first showed promise. After that, it was all Texas.

Fit Happens Chapter 8: Participant Profile 4 (B-Bo)

What better way to close out the participant profile section of Fit Happens than to interview yourself and talk in the third person in the process.

File photo of B-Bo. He has since gotten a lot skinnier and his tan has decreased significantly.

As the last official member of Fit Happens (a name he helped coin), B-Bo knew he had a good chance of winning this contest based on his previous attempts of losing weight when joining his gym (then called Cardinal Fitness) in 2008. In his first three months of working out there, he lost over 20 pounds.

However, unlike last time, B-Bo needed a little extra push, some motivation to work out. He had tried to get back into going to the gym last year, but he was never fully able to motivate himself to go the gym as frequently as he used to, at least not enough to see a health impact from it.

The contest came a callin' and B-Bo answered. Today, he shares his story in the third person to tell us about his motivations and goals for Fit Happens:

1.       What made you decide to do Fit Happens? In December, I was emailed by Chris about this idea that they had about a weight loss contest. I had been dragging my feet about working out, despite having a pretty decent gym in the basement of our building. I've also wanted to lose a little weight for a while, but I had no motivation and drive when trying to restart my workouts last April. Thankfully for this email, I had the proper motivation. After we bickered a little bit about the layout of it, the contest was all set and ready to begin on January 1^st.

2.       What were your goals to come out of this? I won’t lie and say having a chance to win some money wasn’t a little motivation before we started the contest. But once I went to the gym on the first day of the year and weighed myself, it was all about my health at that point. It made me realize I needed to go back to Brian circa 2008 and started working out and eating a little better. I forgot how good it feels to listen to some music, dripping with sweat as I toil away on the treadmill. There's a sense of accomplishment from it, and plus, it's helped with increasing my overall energy on a daily basis. I actually look forward to my work outs because of it.

3.       What changes have you made to your daily habits during the contest? I am now way more active than I have been since starting my current job in July 2010. I try going to our basement gym about 4-5 times a week. And if I know I’m going to a bar within a couple miles, I’ll walk there instead of taking a cab or other form of transportation. Diet-wise, I have been eating a lot less. I can’t say I’ve eliminated bad foods (don’t think I ever will), but when Jen and I do order out, I will order chicken Caesar salads more frequently than I used to. The diet is probably the thing I have to work on the most—I have no problem motivating myself to work out anymore.

4.       Have you ran into any difficulties during this contest? If so, how have you overcome them or trying to overcome them? To be honest, I haven’t had any difficulties during the contest. Maybe at the beginning, it was difficult to accept that I had gotten so out of shape that walking on the treadmill at 4 miles per hour was a challenge. Now, I’m back to running my 6+ mph pace and have signed up for the Warrior Dash in June, the second time I will have participated in the race.

5.       When the contest is over, do you think it will be hard to keep up this level of intense workout and/or diet? Being a numbers guy, I will miss the weigh-ins once or twice a week and seeing how everyone has progressed and how I compare to them. Outside of that, I think this contest has done exactly what it was meant to do. It has gotten us into better eating and workout habits.  And I believe all of us are fully capable of living long, healthy lives. If this is the start of it for all of us, then I’m glad to be a part of it.

6.       Entering the second half of the contest, what are your goals for the next three months? Have you had to adjust them as time has passed? I’d like to keep losing weight at the rate I have been the past couple months (around 5-6 pounds per month). I know the first month’s output of 13+ pounds is likely unattainable again in the course of the contest. And I’ll be the only one who says it, but hell, I want to win this damn thing. It’s something I would be very proud of—even if I don’t win it, I plan on keeping up with the work outs and eating better.

As far as my goals go, the only way I’ve had to adjust them is to expect more of myself. My original goal was to get under the 200 mark (losing 35 pounds). Now that I am over 25 pounds lost at the halfway mark, I feel like readjusting the goal to a lower number (like 190 or 195) would be a good thing to do.

7.       What do you expect your final weigh-in to be? Originally, I would have been happy to be at or near 200 when we reached the end of June. Now, I’d like to be around 190 but am expecting something closer to 195.

8.       In your honest opinion, who do you think is going to win the contest? All of us are capable of winning the contest if we do the right things to our body—eating the right food, getting the proper weekly activity, etc. That being said, I think my motivation to get into shape is just as strong as these gentlemen. And with the small lead I’ve built at the halfway mark, I believe I’ll be able to carry that over into the last three months and come out ahead as the Fit Happens Champ.

Not to go cliché, but at the end of the day, we’ll all be winners as long as we continue to reach the goals we set out to reach when we started in January.

Fit Happens Chapter 7: Participant Profile 3 (Magic Bus)

The third profile of Fit Happens is on Magic Bus, a friend of Hippo and Chris who I have never met but have heard plenty about through their podcast and their famous Game-a-thon sessions where the trio plays video games for 24 hours straight.

Magic Bus had many different reasons for joining the Fit Happens challenge than the others. He has also faced some early difficulties during this contest, thanks in large part to a vacation which briefly set him back in early March. He might be trailing the pack in the contest so far, but don't count out the Bus. As you read below, you'll see plenty of reason for him to continue his weight loss journey beyond the parameters of the six month contest.

Magic Bus (middle) with Chris and Hippo at their latest Game-a-thon in Nov.

1.       What made you decide to do Fit Happens?

Honestly, as lame as it sounds, I wanted to get healthy for my daughter. I want to be a good role model for her as she gets older and continuing to eat as I was would be teaching her the wrong thing. I'd also like to be alive for her high school and college graduations.

2.       What were your goals to come out of this?

By June I'd like to be down to around 250 lbs, but I don't plan to end there. Ultimately, I'd like to get down to around 200 lbs or less. More than weight loss though, I want to change my lifestyle. In order to keep the weight off, I know I need a permanent change. I'm hoping at some point my tastebuds will change slightly and I'll crave fatty foods less and healthier foods more. That's actually already started to happen for me. I've developed a strong taste for all kinds of fruit and lots of raw vegetables. Still fighting those bad foods though!

3.       What changes have you made to your daily habits during the contest?

Most of the changes I've made have been to my diet. I used to eat a lot of fried and processed food. I've reduced those foods and have started to eat more fruit and vegetables. I've tried to make it a point to stay away from "diet" foods because I don't see that as maintainable in the long term. Way back when, I started WeightWatchers Online and that's been really helpful to me during "Fit Happens". It helps me gauge how much I should be eating and which foods I'm willing to splurge on and which I'm not.

Another thing I'm trying to do is be more physical, just in general. I take the stairs when I used to ride the elevator and try to take a walk a couple of times a day. The Nike Fuel band was nice for motivating me in the beginning, but I've gotten away from it recently.

4.       Have you ran into any difficulties during this contest? If so, how have you overcome them or trying to overcome them?

Oh Yeah! My vacation to California was really hard. I almost fell apart, but I decided that I'm not going to deprive myself from the foods I love, but try to make at least one good choice at each meal. That might have been something as simple as getting a water instead of pop, or passing on the appetizer or bread. I did end up gaining a couple of pounds, but I think it would have been a lot more if I hadn't kept "Fit Happens" in my mind.

5.       When the contest is over, do you think it will be hard to keep up this level of intense workout and/or diet?

No. I've deliberately made changes to my diet and physical activity in a gradual way for just this reason. I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to keep it up past June and hopefully into the next year!

6.       Entering the second half of the contest, what are your goals for the next three months? Have you had to adjust them as time has passed?

I'm currently behind in the contest portion of "Fit Happens". I'd really like to pull closer to the pack, so being a little more stringent on the diet and especially physical activity is going to be important for me. I think my overall goals have stayed pretty consistent though. I just want to be healthy.

7.       What do you expect your final weigh-in to be?

250 LBS!!!!! (I hope)

8.       In your honest opinion, who do you think is going to win the contest?

My initial though was B-Bo, but I'm not sure how much more weight he's got to lose. With that in mind, I'm going to say Nick.