The sweet taste of weight loss.

Today I am 101 days into a 365 day bet or challenge. Over a year ago Maria's parents challenged everyone in the family to give up sugar. At that time I had little to no interest in doing it so I never even attempted the challenge. I watched from the sidelines as others began and gave up months into the challenge. I forgot to mention that the prize for managing to stay off sugar for one year was a sizable amount of cash.

Long after all had given up on the challenge for various reasons, Maria became pregnant. While visiting with her cardiologist he said that her heart murmur could become more troublesome during the pregnancy. He said one way to avoid extra problems was to cut back on sugar intake (a sign right?) Well I still had no interest in doing attempting the sugar free lifestyle.

The first part of summer and several months into Maria's un-sweetened pregnancy I began to come around. Maria said it was getting harder and harder for her to stay sugar free with little or no support on my part and I also made the mistake of allowing Maria to check my blood pressure at one of the pharmacies near our house. Needless to say I began feeling a bit more pressure to give it a try.

Maria and my health were not the only motivators to start. Maria's cousin Jennifer also had began a sugar free existence along with some other doctor prescribed diet changes and began to melt before our eyes. She has lost a ton of weight and is doing great.

I hate being told that I cant do something. I guess it is the child in me, but I hate it. Many times I will do what ever it is I am told I can't do in spite of the individual who lacked faith in me. The sugar challenge was not different. So I guess what I am saying is aside from my health, Maria, weight loss, and/or money, a huge part of me is doing this because Lara said I couldn't, and I am grateful for her lack of confidence in my abilities.

Well this turned out to be a much longer post than I intended but I want to finish up by saying a few last things. First of all I am so proud of Maria for doing this and motivating me to do the same. While being prego she has managed to safely loose 30 0r so pounds and will be on the path to becoming and staying healthy. To Jen I also want to say thank you. You are doing awesome and looking great, keep it up (if you want post and let everyone know how much you have lost to date). I have managed to loose 17 pounds in the three months by only cutting out sugar!! It was much easier to do than I thought with Maria's support. To Lara, I hope I never gain your confidence - it's great motivation!! And finally to Spence and Christine I just want to say thank you for caring enough about your family (even the in-laws) to challenge us to be better and you best start saving up now!!