Sound body. Sound Business. (Why This Entrepreneur Is On A Diet)

Great entrepreneurship begins with a healthy body. Today, it all starts for me.

Everyone who knows me is chuckling right now because they have heard me declare my intention to lose weight and get really healthy for years now. It usually happens on Mondays (wait, today is Monday!). I have had many different schemes for getting healthy and losing weight, and unfortunately my family and the patient folks at Next Step Magazine have had to listen to them all without seeing any results.

One of my favorite plans consisted of going to Wegmans, the local supermarket, and buying a ton of different frozen vegetable combinations. I put them in the freezer at work and was going to defrost one a day for lunch. Sounds like a healthy lunch, right? Well that was three years ago, and most of them are still there in the freezer. Anyone for some frozen Brussel sprouts?

Anyway, I am ready to start anew and have created what I hope is a realistic plan for achieving my health goals. This time I am serious.

It's not that I am massively overweight. If I lost 20 pounds, I would be in the "zone." My cholesterol would go down to a healthy level--or so my doctor tells me--and I would have the energy I need to run a small business while raising a young family.

I figured I would create a vision of what it looks like when I have reached success. Then I thought I should create a strategic plan on how I'll actually get there. To make me more accountable, I have posted the plan below. If you see me cheating, please whack me on the side of the head as hard as you can. The toughest part of this plan for me is giving up the glass of red wine with dinner every night. This has been a staple for me for years. Do they make a patch for this?

Anyway, here is the plan:

Vision:
I am fit, trim and feeling massively energetic. My blood pressure and cholesterol are at healthy levels and I weight 180 pounds or less.

Current weight as of Septmeber 8, 2008: 203 lbs.

Goals:
by October 1: 195 lbs.
by November 1: 190 lbs.
by December 1: 185 lbs.
by January 1: 180 lbs.

Exercise:
One hour a day, six days a week. Work-out video/treadmill/elliptical.

Breakfast choices:
Oatmeal
Wheat toast (dry)
Egg whites
Fruit

Lunch choices:
Salad
Fish (baked or grilled)
Sandwich (wheat bread, low fat protein, no cheese)
Fruit

Dinners:
Cut down on pasta serving size
Low-fat proteins
Salad
WATCH THE PORTION SIZE!

Other restrictions:
10am and 3pm snacks can be almonds, walnuts or half a Clif Bar
No eating after 7pm
No desserts
No wine with dinner every night. (This saves 100 calories per night--or 700 per week!)

If you have any suggestions, please reply via comments. I'll keep you posted on how it's going.