I ate breakfast today. This isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, I know, but it marks a big change for me.

I usually eat about one meal a day, and it ends up being much too large a meal. My family and I decided to start a "Biggest Loser" competition – where the person who loses the most weight in 2007 is the big winner. (You can read about a Shakopee resident who was part of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" reality show in the Jan. 4 edition of the Shakopee Valley News). The competition started in January, and my goal is to drop about 50 pounds by the end of the year. I intend to win whatever it is my sister and I come up with as our top prize. I also intend to win some of the monthly gift certificate prizes.

My method for losing the weight? I intend to eat more often. It’s an unconventional strategy, I realize, but I think it can be a good foundation of weight loss. Like I said before, I usually eat one massive meal late in the day. I figure that I can reduce my meal intake by eating smaller meals throughout the day. I’m going to start with two and see how that works out. If need be, I will even go so far as to eat lunch on a daily basis.

Of course, any simpleton knows that diet alone cannot account for a healthy lifestyle. The keys are diet and exercise (or so my father, the physical education teacher, tells me). I’ll be doing my part by biking (indoors, mostly) every day and swimming once a week. I may even throw some push-ups or sit-ups in there if I get ambitious. I probably won't get ambitious often.

But this blog post isn’t just to tell you that I am a big loser, it’s also to invite the readers of the Jordan Independent to be big losers, too. Join the Big Losers group on this site at http://www.jordannews.com/node/1202. You can also share your weight-loss/healthy lifestyle tips in a forum at http://www.jordannews.com/node/1203.

Here’s a quick link to help you get started: calculate your ideal weight by visiting http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/iwc. Or visit St. Francis Regional Medical Center’s fitness page at http://sfrmc.netreturns.biz/healthinfo/topic.aspx?topicId=abab4a2b-dd15-4b8e-8f13-d180d0d37730. Their weight page is http://sfrmc.netreturns.biz/HealthInfo/Topic.aspx?TopicID=4c649d5b-de04-....