When Jason and I met over seven years ago, we had really terrible eating habits and our fitness habits were nonexistant. We both enjoyed going out to eat and drink and definitely went overboard. It wasn’t unusual to meet for appetizers, entrees, desserts and drinks when we dined out multiple times per week. Treating ourselves became common for all occasions (to celebrate, when we had a stressful week, just because… etc.). We both ended up gaining 40 pounds each over the first year of being together. Finally, after a few occasions where simply walking made it difficult to breathe, we decided to make a change. Through various diets and working out a small personal training gym, we ended up losing close to 100 lbs together. This was really exciting because we were now able to find joy in healthy activities such as hiking and going to the gym. Although we kept most of the weight off, we slowly began to gain some of the weight back over the next few years. The diets that had helped us loose weight were not long term solutions, so when we had a craving for something that we had been depriving ourselves of, we went overboard. It wasn’t until the nutrition challenge that we began to see how we really needed to change our whole lives to reach our long term goals. Through the nutrition challenge, we learned to make healthy choices that didn’t feel like a punishment. The challenge mentality helped us stay on track most of the time. When we did make a few small mistakes, it was easy to get back on track (which is a philosophy that has been really important post challenge). Having a support system such as our facebook group helped us lose over 25 pounds together during the challenge! This has been a great motivator to keep us going! We both feel more energy, determination and enthusiasm to continue our health journey together.