Great Bend Tribune Managing Editor Dale Hogg and his wife, Volunteers in Action Volunteer Coordinator Linn Hogg, have embarked on this two-month lifestyle change experiment as a couple.

Linn
This past week, I’ve had to take a step back and reassess this lifestyle change.
As women, we feel obligated to arrive at parties or family gatherings with food – not a tub of potato salad from the Dillons deli, but genuine, homemade stuff.
Christmas is especially bad for this. I’ve said before this is my favorite time of the year to cook and bake, and I do so with a vengeance.
Not to say I sample what I cook, but, I sample what I cook.
Then, there are the parties and gathering themselves.
I find myself torn as to when I should allow myself to indulge in the higher-calorie items or opt for the more sensible options
I guess my challenge for the next couple weeks is not to try to be perfect. Instead, every day I will try to make the good choices when possible, take my vitamins, drink my water and do my best.
I do have a success to report. Some of the pants that I had to lay on the bed to snap before are now buttoning easily.
This is how I measure improvement, not so much on what the scale says.

Dale
This week, I rode my road bike to spin class on Saturday morning. The temperature was in the low 20s and the sky was grey.
I had second thoughts. I pondered driving. And, to be honest, I pondered staying home in bed.
But, before common sense could win out, I suited up, pulled the bike from the garage, clicked in and pedaled away.
I realized two things.
First, I wasn’t as cold. My feet were a little chilly since the wind cut right through my mesh shoes, but other than that, I was fine.
Second, I really miss riding a bicycle outside.
I have ridden to work on a few of the extra cold days we’ve had lately, but it really isn’t the same thing as being on a bicycle with no particular place to go. That is liberating.
Maybe its me feeling sorry for myself, but on the food-consumption front, it was a rough week. I have diminished will power around sugar cookies.
I have done well at eliminating my midnight snacking, but am struggling with the snacking just before bedtime.
With just under two weeks remaining on this journey, I will say this – I have forced myself to re-evaluate everything I do regarding my diet and exercise. If I cheat and blow off the gym, I do so as a conscious choice, a choice that then haunts me for the rest of the day.
Now, I need to turn this remorse into a steely resolve to keep my cotton-pickin’ fingers out of the frig and snack trays.
Also, since this is the last time I will communicate before Christmas, have a merry, consciously healthful Christmas not riddled with guilt for snarfing pecan pie or figgy pudding.