The Plan

A. Exercise We will complete two workouts a day, Monday through Saturday, lasting at least an hour each. Most often, we will lift weights in the morning and do cardio, sports, hiking, stretching, or balance work in the evenings. A day of hiking, snowboarding, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, etc. will satisfy the two-workouts-a-day requirement. B. Diet Strict caloric limits will be imposed. We will start with a goal of 1800 calories per day, and try to consume roughly 85 percent of our body weight in lbs in grams of protein. We will stay within 150 calories of this target per day. This target can be adjusted, within reason, as long as notification is given at least 1 day ahead of time. This does not mean that it is ok to adjust limits so that we may eat a whole pizza or something and then change it back. But if we realize at some point that 1800 calories is either too much or too little to meet our goals, we need to be able to make changes. To the greatest extent possible, meals will be organized, planned, and prepared each Sunday for the following week. We are limited to 3 alcoholic drinks per week. This should be brought within daily caloric limits as much as possible. We are allowed one “free” meal per week. This should be brought within daily caloric limits as much as possible. C. Work and Study Each day will be strictly scheduled. 9 am to 4 pm, Monday through Friday will be reserved for work and study. There will be no TV, videogames, or online video streaming until after dinner on weekdays. Weekends are free, except for the two workouts on Saturday. D. Other We will strive to spend 30 minutes a day doing meditation. As soon as we can afford it, we will start taking some form of dancing lessons. We are both tired of having no skills on the dance floor and of being outshined by D-bags at weddings or dance-parties. E. Duration The Plan will last for 5-8 months, depending on work and school issues that might keep one or both of us away from Missoula for extended periods of time. F. Failure and Enforcement There will be two major enforcement mechanisms. First, we will be posting monthly shirtless photos to show our progress. We will look so embarrassingly out of shape in our first photos (well, at least one of us will), that we will be forced to work hard and post better photos in the months ahead, unless we want to hear about it from friends and family for the rest of our lives. Second, we will each write out $300 checks to our most hated organizations, and give these checks to a third-party “enforcer.” Daniel’s check is made out to Massey Energy, a company that utilizes mountaintop removal, which permanently destroys ecosystems. Daniel is an environmental scientist (and a bit of a tree-hugger). Michael has two $150 checks: one made out to the Glenn Beck Show, and the other made out to teapartypatriots.org. If we fail to follow the plan, the third-party will mail off our checks to their respective organizations.
We will be allowed 3 alcohol skip days, 3 food skip days, and 3 variable skip days, which could be used toward food or alcohol. In addition, we will have 6 work/study skip days to allow for ski or hiking trips. We will make a detailed spreadsheet of our diet available to the third-party every Sunday, which details our consumption, broken down by calories. If we fail to provide this caloric breakdown, or if we skip a workout or blow a meal or work day beyond what is allowed by the set number of ‘skip days,’ then we have failed and the checks will be mailed.	Vern "Hat" Hatley: Enforcer
Of course, to do this, we need a third party ‘enforcer.’ To act in this capacity, we have recruited the meanest, most unforgiving SOB we can think of: our father, Vern Hatley.