My Thanksgiving Weight-Loss Plan

Day 52 finds me tipping the scale at 215.0 pounds... down 23.5 pounds with exactly 48 days to go on my 100 Day Challenge, and 48 hours before the annual 'festival-o-food' called Thanksgiving. And I have come to the conclusion that I may be the only person on planet Earth intentionally planning to lose weight on Thanksgiving Day!

The key word here, of course, is P-L-A-N-N-I-N-G.

You see, most people are planning just the opposite. You, too, I'm guessing. And that's fine - you might be able to afford the calories.

I cannot.

Like a person going to market to buy the week's fruit and vegetables with just 53 cents in hand, I too am on a strict budget - it's just that my budget is made up of calories, not pennies. And in my pursuit of a complete and totla body transformation, I do not have an extra calorie to spare!

"Oh, come on, Richard. It's Thanksgiving!" you're thinking.

Yes, it's Thanksgiving. And I intend to eat light and give thanks 'in advance' for...

• 50 more years of a healthy, fit and mobile life with my younger (and considerably more active and 'spry') wife, Andrea...
• 50 more years of speaking, training and strutting across the stage like a peacock, not a stuffed 'turkey', and...
• 50 more years of looking in the mirror and seeing the person I always intended to be looking back at me in and whispering, "Thanks for digging in while you still had the chance. I'm proud of you!"

Because after 50 days on my plan my vision of what is possible has changed... and oh what a vision it has become!

So on Thursday you will find me at home, knife in one hand and fork in the other, carving the 10-pound bird we bought at Fred Meyer... and gobbling down the pre-planned amount of exactly the 1,853 calories of life-sustaining food... and giving 'thanks' for every last, delicious, fat-free morsel of it!

See you Friday!