Record editor Terry Farrell and his wife, Erica, challenged themselves to lose 60 pounds, combined, in 60 weeks, combined. The challenge ended this month. Here is their final report…
Terry & Erica Farrell
Record staff
And so the journey ends – at least the documented portion.
We have completed our 60 in 60 Challenge and we are proud to say “mission accomplished”… almost.
In the spirit of full disclosure, we fell 9.6 pounds short of the target of 60 pounds in a combined 60 weeks. But if you add in the inches lost, it more than makes up for it.
And, while we didn’t quite hit the target in the allotted time, we are still dedicated to reaching at least the 60 pounds. In fact, we’ve visited the gym three times this week.
Where the mission was truly accomplished is in our healthier lifestyle.
Our bodies have adjusted to new eating patterns.
Our former 12-ounce steaks have turned into four-ouncers.
Our multiple side dishes are now a single, multiple ingredient salad.
We only consume alcohol on weekends. OK, that one we might not treat as gospel, now that we are putting the scale away.
But the rest is the new “us,” and it feels great.
It looks pretty good too. We saw a lot of folks last weekend in Vancouver who hadn’t seen us since last spring, and the compliments were many. People really noticed the change.
The wardrobe update has been a worthwhile expense, and this weekend, in a celebratory move, we will donate all our “big” clothes to charity.
That will be the ultimate commitment to the new us – getting rid of the clothes that fit the old us.
It will be an interesting form of closure for me, as it was a clothes shopping trip last summer that started this whole procedure.
I found that I could not fit comfortably into anything smaller than a 40” waist. I refused to buy any new pants that day, because I would not accept being a 5’ 9” size 40.
Today I need a belt for my 36” pants. I’m determined to get down to a 34.
My neck size has shrunk by a full inch.
From a fitness level, I went out for a five-kilometre run Monday night and I finished a full five minutes faster than in December.
Erica’s achievements have been every bit as noticeable.
The other day at the gym, the elliptical was being used, so she decided to go for a 45-minute swim, as the treadmill doesn’t give her a good enough workout anymore.
Friends from Vancouver were wide-eyed when she entered the room, wearing a dress she would not have even tried on eight months ago.
When we started this, last Thanksgiving, someone advised Erica to measure herself, saying she might find the inch loss to be more of a tell than the weight loss.
We pulled out the tape measure this week, for the first time since Thanksgiving, and the numbers do not lie: Erica has lost three inches in the waist, three inches in the bust and two inches in the hips.
(Cheers of great joy ensued.)
Now the task is keeping it off.
Erica will have an immediate challenge, as she leaves for England next week – the land of clotted cream and fish and chips. But she will get plenty of exercise, as her mother has three border collies that demand daily exercise.
My immediate challenge will be to maintain a healthy eating routine, in Erica’s absence. It is always easier to order take-out than it is to prepare meals for one.
But we both know how we felt just a few months ago, and how much better we feel today. That should be motivation enough to maintain the lifestyle we have embraced – especially after this weekend’s wardrobe purge. We’re too cheap to size up again.
Thanks to everyone for your ongoing support and encouragement. It’s been a lot of fun, and hopefully a few of you used our experience as motivation. And thanks to this form of accountability, we don’t dare rediscover the weight we have shed.
And so, the journey never ends – other than the documentation.
Terry Farrell is the editor of the Comox Valley Record
