So it begins...

Hi, I'm Kevin.   I love my job as a teacher and I've got a wonderful wife and a funny little Havanese.  Life is good.

That said, I'm 5'9" and 200lbs.  BMI-wise, that's right on the line of overweight and obese.  My darlin' and I are working on having kids, and I'd like to be healthy when that happens.  A role model for my kids, to show them that you can love food, enjoy cooking, and still be healthy and fit. 

In the past I've had success at losing weight.  2 years ago, I was at 175 lbs.  I really got into running, and ran a few 5 and 10 km races.  I was making many healthy food choices.

The exercise was pretty easy once I got into it, and I don't think I'll have any problems getting out 3-4 times a week to jog, play squash, or throw around the ultimate disc.

Did I mention that I love food?  That I love to cook? 

That's not going to change.  I love trying new recipes, experimenting with new foods, and... I love to eat.  This is going to be the hard part.

I'm going to keep cooking, and I'm not going to change my love of eating well prepared, tasty food.  But my choices have to become healthier and I have to eat less of what I make.

I also enjoy writing, so my first thought was to keep a food diary.  The food diary is easier to keep up than a daily food log, and it engages me more, allowing me to reflect more concretely on challenges.  I managed to keep it up for a few days, then I'd forget where I kept the diary and then I'd have to update it for days at a time.  And my memory just isn't that good.

So now we've arrived here... a blog.  There are many things that make a blog seem like the right answer for my food diary:

1.  It's all the rage, what with Julie & Julia out in the theatres. 

2.  I've got a laptop in front of me at work all day, and I almost always go on it at night. 

3.  I won't misplace it.

4.  You wonderful people can give me advice... if anyone reads it!

40 lbs in 40 weeks.  Here we go!