While most of you may know me as a rather good looking fellow with boyish charm, I have in fact become a bit of a slob over the years. When I started at TokBox in June 2008, I was probably approaching a 40″ waist line. Nothing like the 30″ waistline that I came into college with. Clearly those “Freshman 15″ hit me a bit harder than I would have liked.<\/p>\n
When I first measured in February of 2009, I had a 38″ waist. I did so because I gave up fast food for Lent, and I wanted to see what the difference would be. It was huge. I lost 2″ over the 40 days of Lent with no fast food. I’ve since gotten it down to somewhere between 34.5″ to 35.5″ depending on the day. Now my goal is to reach a 33” waist by my 25th birthday which is on November 20th. I have just over 2 weeks to do it, and I want you to help.<\/p>\n
You probably weren’t going to get me anything for my birthday anyway, and that’s okay! I didn’t get you anything for your birthday either. But, I am going to be a bit selfish, and ask that you help motivate me by “sponsoring” my drive to 33″. For each inch lost (today I measured, and I was 35″), I ask that you pledge an amount to donate to charity. I don’t have a favorite charity, and so I’ll be taking suggestions for that as well. I say make it a bit fun too. As an example, pledge $10 for a 34″ waist, but $25 for a 33″ waist. Give me that extra bit of push!<\/p>\n
All said, I need 2 things from you, my friends.<\/p>\n
Worse comes to worse, we’ll have fun and laugh over that time when I thought I could be good looking again! Please do post to my blog your ideas and pledges because these links tend to get lost on Facebook\/Twitter\/etc. after a few days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While most of you may know me as a rather good looking fellow with boyish charm, I have in fact become a bit of a slob over the years. When I started at TokBox in June 2008, I was probably approaching a 40″ waist line. Nothing like the 30″ waistline that I came into college […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQyAq-3A","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":273,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2010\/02\/17\/no-flour-no-sugar-for-lent-2010\/","url_meta":{"origin":222,"position":0},"title":"No Flour, No Sugar for Lent 2010","date":"February 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I started observing Lent two years ago because I'm fascinated by the idea of self-restraint and how it can help make one better. The goal isn't to give something up forever, but to see if one can give it up at all. The reward, if it can be called as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Year Resolutions"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":521,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2012\/02\/23\/giving-up-soda-for-lent\/","url_meta":{"origin":222,"position":1},"title":"Giving up soda for lent","date":"February 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In college I dated a catholic girl who didn't give a damn about being catholic. I thought it would be fun though to try Lent out one more, and so I gave up red meat for 40 days. It totally opened up my eyes to how much red meat I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Year Resolutions"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":523,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2012\/02\/27\/resolutions-keeping-score\/","url_meta":{"origin":222,"position":2},"title":"Resolutions: Keeping score","date":"February 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I want to keep score as to how my resolutions and sacrifices are affecting my life. For the new year I've resolved to give up fast food, and for Lent I've given up soda. The main goal is to get to a healthier place in life. I have to add\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Year Resolutions"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1481,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2015\/02\/17\/what-im-doing-for-lent-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":222,"position":3},"title":"What I'm doing for Lent 2015","date":"February 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Fat Tuesday everyone! This year for Lent I'm going to focus on 2 things: Not yelling at the kids - This has been a bad trend lately... Luka is being a pain in the ass. Amelia is acting like she's six months old at times. And all I want\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1519,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2015\/04\/05\/lent-update-happy-easter\/","url_meta":{"origin":222,"position":4},"title":"Lent update & happy Easter","date":"April 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I failed at both of my lent tasks this year. I did way too much yelling, and I only dropped to 190 lbs :-\/Oh well.\u00a0Here's a picture from our Easter trip to get tomatoes and strawberries for the garden. \u00a0As you can see we're excited, and ready to grow! The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Updates"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":728,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/01\/01\/2014-resolutions\/","url_meta":{"origin":222,"position":5},"title":"2014 resolutions","date":"January 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"2014 is here! and it's going to be a big one (I'm turning 30!). In 2013, I gave up soda for my New Year's resolution. I killed it (I only had 24 oz all year), and my waist line agrees. I really missed soda though. In 2012 when I gave\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Year Resolutions"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}