When I was growing up, I was a fairly skinny kid, a bit athletic but mostly skinny. After getting married, the workouts, the exercise, the fitness pretty much ceased due to a new marriage, a new practice and eventually kids. Lately, I've been on a quest to regain my fitness and get back in good shape. The impetus was a bet with a good friend in the middle of January to see who could lose the most weight and body fat by Cinco de Mayo.

Well, I proceeded to kick my workouts into high gear. I had been working out regularly the past three to four years with a trainer (prior to which I had peaked in weight), so my fitness was better, but the weight was still a bit high as I didn't really care about diet. I just enjoy eating and drinking too much.

The workouts have been going great but I had some challenges that I knew were going to be a problem. A week-long trip to the IDS in Germany and a Disney cruise with the family after that. I knew if I could survive these trips, I'd have a good chance of winning the bet. Surprisingly, I made it the two weeks and only put on .5 pounds! And trust me, I ate like you have never eaten on both trips. What's the fun of going on these trips if you aren't going to live it up?

But I did work out daily during those two weeks, squeezing in a run, pushups, whatever I could, whenever I could. Hence the minimal weight gain. Once I got back I doubled up the workouts. I'd go to the gym in the morning switching between three days of cardio and three days of weights, and I would come home and do a round of Insanity - an intense workout routine. And once the trips were over, diet became strict - very strict. I figured I had primed the pump with lots of food and exercise - now if I continued the exercise and just cut down on the food, I'd see some significant results.

So every day since the bet started, I have been weighing myself. I know weight fluctuates but I wanted to see the trends of my hard work, double workouts, and eventual clean eating, etc. Every night I would weigh myself, and weigh again in the morning. The difference was about 2 pounds. Don't know the reason, but that's what happened. It averaged about a 2-pound weight difference between each night and morning.

Now during the day, I'd eat and drink, so the weight would come back, but I started to see a consistent trend. I was losing about .25 to .5 pounds daily with my workouts. I'd be 215 one night, drop to 213 in the morning and the next night I'd weigh in around 214.5 or so. This continued and continued and showed me that my hard work was paying off.

Well, last night, I was 202.2. This morning - 200 flat! When I started my bet I was 217.9 (using the same scale I'm using today). When I got back into working out four years ago, my weight was in the 230-235 range. Mind you, I've never been fat but I sure as hell have been skinny fat! Skinny arms and legs and big gut.

I'm just so happy with the weight loss, and frankly, I'm in probably the best shape of my life. I can do more pushups, more pull ups, bench more, pull down more, curl more, do more triceps dips, and run farther than I ever have been able to. Running 6-8 miles now is no issue at all, whereas in the past, I'd struggle with just a mile or so.

When I got married almost 14 years ago, my weight was around 195. I'm 6'4' so that is a lean 195. So today, I'm about 5 pounds away from marriage weight. The great thing is that I don't think the weight loss is stopping anytime soon. I feel as though I could keep this up forever. I'm not starving - in fact, I'm really eating a lot, but eating clean. It's amazing once you get your metabolic engine in place how much energy your body burns.

The weigh in for my bet is May 5. Cinco de Mayo. Well, it's May 4 actually - we both agreed to push the date up so that we could have a nice enjoyable cheat meal on May 5. I'll let you know the results. The stakes are high - the loser buys the winner a custom-made suit! But regardless of what happens, I figured I've already won as I've been able to break through a threshold of weight that I had been stuck on for years.