Yesterday I had an interesting chat with Tyler Cruz, a friend of mine who’s also a Blogger and an Internet entrepreneur like myself.

Since we both make money online and work from home, we chat online a lot and one of the things we talk about from time to time is how crappy we eat and how we put on weight due to our bad eating habits and mostly sedentary lifestyle.

Last year Tyler did a Weight Loss Challenge on his Blog and asked me if I wanted to participate, but at the time I was still planning on getting back to my P90X workout schedule so I declined the invitation.

Yesterday Tyler informed me that he’s planning on doing another Weight Loss Challenge and asked me if I wanted to participate.  This time I decide to accept the challenge and take him on.

What is the Challenge?

The challenge is between Tyler Cruz and I to see who can lose a certain amount of weight over the next 10 weeks.

Since there is a slight difference in starting weight between Tyler and I, to keep things fair we’re going to have a slightly different target for me and Tyler.  We’re both going to try to lose 6% of our total body weight, which means that with Tyler’s starting weight of 201 lbs he is going to try to lose 12lbs (about 6% of his body weight), and with my starting weight at 212 lbs I’m going to try to lose 13lbs (about 6% of my body weight).

So Tyler’s target goal is going to be to reach 189 lbs, and mine is going to be to reach 199 lbs.  The 10 week Challenge starts today and ends on May 21st, 2010 at 10pm PST.  Here’s a link to Tyler’s post for this challenge.

Loser Has to Cough Up $600

To make things interesting we’re wagering $600 each on the challenge.  Meaning, if I don’t hit my target weight as of May 21st at 10pm then I have to cough up $600 and send it to Tyler to do with as he pleases.  However, if Tyler doesn’t hit his target by the same date then he has to cough up $600 and send it to me to do with as I please.

If both of us or neither of us end up hitting our targets then nobody pays, but if one person reaches target and the other doesn’t then the loser has to pay $600.

What are the Rules?

We have set a number of rules for this challenge so that Tyler doesn’t cheat there is no cheating.  Here are the rules:

• Each challenger must post an official post announcing the challenge on their Blog which talks about the challenge, explains the rules etc.
• Each challenger must post “Before” and “After” photos at the beginning and end of the challenge, as well as a video of themselves “weighing in” to prove their weight.
• Each challenger should also post regular updates (1-2/week) on their Blog showing regular updates throughout the challenge.
• Challengers are not allowed to use dietary supplements or weight loss pills that have “Weight Loss” as their primary advertised benefit.  Healthy nutritional supplements such as vitamins, protein wonders or bars, meal replacement shakes, etc. are all fine but “fat burners” or “metabolism booster” pills or any of the other unhealthy crap that unnaturally tries to induce weight loss is not allowed, nor are colon cleansers.
• No starving yourself, or dehydrating yourself or any unhealthy tricks like that, just old fashioned natural weight loss.

Why I’m Doing This

So why am I doing this?  Well, there are five main reasons why I took on this challenge when Tyler contacted me.

(1) To Improve My Health

One of the biggest reasons I want to lose the excess weight is to improve my health.  Even though I am currently “healthy” with no real challenges on the surface, I am very aware of the fact that appearances can be quite deceiving.  Just because I’m not experiencing any symptoms of disease, that doesn’t mean that my body is operating at peak condition.

In fact, in the last five years I’ve watched as my belly has grown and grown and I want to make a change before my poor eating habits and lack of exercise manifest some kind of disease.

(2) To Have More Energy

Another big reason I want to do this is to improve the amount of energy I have.  From previous experience I have found that the amount of extra energy I had from exercising and eating healthier made up for the extra time required to exercise.  Meaning, if I spent one hour per day exercising, the amount of extra energy I had from that exercise has more than made up for any productivity loss in my business by having to exercise.

I also found that when I was eating healthy and exercising I didn’t feel as sleepy all the time so I got more done when I was working on projects or just going about my day.

(3) To Ground Myself Spiritually

For about a year now and especially in the last six months I’ve really been working on opening up my sixth and seventh Chakras.  I’ve been studying psychic development courses, taken a Reiki Healing course and have worked with several spiritual mentors to help me develop my intuitive abilities.

About a month ago one of my mentors did a reading for me and told me that I need to take a rest for a while from intuitive development and to ground myself.  I guess I’ve been really pushing myself to open up my higher Chakras and kind of ignoring the lower ones.  Yesterday my wife came home and had yet another message for me from a psychic that said the exact same thing.  She told me I really need to ground my lower Chakras.

So, in addition to some meditation exercises I will be working on, I have always found that exercise and eating a healthy diet is very grounding for me.

So the third reason I want to do this is to help me get more grounded spiritually.

(4) To Test Out My Weight Loss Theories

I’ve been on many different types of diets before and I’ve got dozens of weight loss books and programs on my bookshelves.  I’ve also taken various nutrition courses and got my diplomas in Advanced Nutrition.  However, I’ve never really implemented the stuff I’ve learned in my courses in my own diet.

Last year when I went on the P90X exercise program I wanted to follow their diet because I wanted to document my progress without changing what they suggested.  I wasn’t overly impressed with the results I was getting from the nutrition plan.  I was happy with the increase in muscle strength and my cardio levels, but honestly I wasn’t very happy with the P90X nutrition plan.

I think I can do better and I want to test it out.  So part of this challenge for me is applying some of the theories I have for weight loss to see if they work.  I’m sure I’m going to learn a lot either way.

(5) To Challenge Myself and Have Some Fun

Another big reason I wanted to do this is to make losing weight, improving my health and exercising fun.  I love friendly competitions and challenging myself, especially when I’m competing against someone else.

I’ve Blogged my weight loss progress on several occasions before but I never did a challenge against another Blogger and I never had  financial penalty for not achieving my goal.  I think it’s going to be fun to see how motivated I am considering I’ve got $600 and humiliation on the line.  I’ve known Tyler for a while now and I know he’s going to rub it in my face if I can’t lose the weight so I’m not going to let that happen.

The “Before” Photos

Here are my “before” photos.  As humiliating as it is to take photos without my shirt on I have been doing that ever since I started taking “before” and “after” photos so that I can compare what I look like.  When I wear a shirt (as in the video) I find it way too easy to hide the fat.  Taking photos without the shirt allows me to see the truth much more accurately.

The Weigh In Video

Here’s my weight-in video showing me tipping the scales at 212 lbs as proof of my start weight.