No photos, please

I loathe blog postings that don't include a photo. But right now I'm banning any photos of me from the neck down. No kidding. Interested in the plan to end this paparazzi blackout? Read on...

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, thoroughly disgusted with our respective lack of willpower and current fitness status, my mother-in-law Karen and I were philosophizing over what exactly is the motivation (or punishment) that would commit each of us to a regular workout. We were upon the danger zone of decadence in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas - when pants only get tighter in the weeks leading up to December 25, and I already can't fit into 70% of my pants from last year!

After many ideas we determined that a CASH consequence for each day that we missed our scheduled workout was enough daily motivation to at least get us started toward a healthier lifestyle. So for each missed workout, the offender (non-workouter) owes the other person some amount of money. But it needed to be enough money that it would hurt to actually work. Let's face it, if the consequence for a missed workout was say, a dollar per day, I'll pay for the week upfront thank you very much.

Here's the deal:
-There are 31 days between day 1, and the next time Karen and I will see each other again (Dec 24)
-For each missed workout, the offender owes the other person $10
-A potential "worst case" grand total penalty of $310 each

Each night Karen and I SMS each other with the new "worst case" grand total. It's 9:30pm, and I have 2.5 hrs remaining to txt her my $270 update for today. Gotta run...no joke.