The Pact

A good friend of mine and I have a similar goal. It's a number of pounds. We are different people with different lifestyles and eating habits, but we both like to cook, have significant others, and enjoy a love/hate relationship with running. We decided to embark on something we call the Pact.

The Pact is kind of a social experiment for both of us--a combination of social media and gym-buddying. We have different schedules and live too far away to be reliable gym buddies, so we began a blog only visible to ourselves where we:
- Update daily the amount of calories we've eaten
- Update daily our workout
- Update Sundays our weight
- Update win/fails
- Post recipes we'd otherwise have to email to each other.

The beauty of social media!

We have agreed to keep the blog internal between us since sensitive information (such as numbers...eek) are post on there, but I will be cross posting only my own updates that are interesting enough for the larger general public.

I have had a hard time with one or the other--just a gym buddy or just technology. I've kept blogs, I've used online calorie counting software, hell I've even built my own spreadsheet that tracked things for me. The problem that I have with them is burn out. I obsess from between 2-8 weeks and then have one day where I don't get around to it and boom. Three weeks go by and I havent' touched my calorie intake.

Also, my blog or my tracker sheets don't call me at 6 am to remind me that I need to go to the gym or slap my hand when I'm about to eat pizza. They just chug along and do exactly as I tell them. And let's be honest, who doesn't lie from time to time? I mean, really, is anyone's driver's license accurate under "Weight." It might as well say "My Ideal."

I've been through an unreal number of gym buddies...and usually the problem is that we're on different fitness levels or interests. K, for example, hates the treadmill. While I don't love it, I don't hate it to the point of avoidance. Also, I enjoy going to the gym to talk to her. Not to work out. Additionally, my morning gym buddy is a good friend of mine and since we no longer work in the same area, our morning coffee walk is out of the question, so I am yet again eager to chat with her while I walk for a half hour. I should get real. If I'm going to get up at 6am, I'd better damn well be ready to run, not to chat.

So, hopefully this will give me the independence to keep up the gym routine that I need to have while getting the support of my gym buddy.

Results to come!