Karen and I have been invited to tour the Himalayas with our friends Gaurav Jani and Sobby, both from the film "One Crazy Ride". Here is the problem, the largest bike we will be able to obtain easily there is a 500cc Royal Enfield (shown below) and neither of us are "small" people (to put it lightly, forgive the pun).

The bottom line, both of us need to loose weight before the trip AND increase our general health before tackling an adventure ride to such a remote location. The fact that loosing weight would be a REALLY good idea for us both not withstanding, neither of us has had much luck loosing weight and keeping it off. Our goal here is to put ourselves in front of the entire world to increase our stake in this emotionally. The thought is that with everyone watching we will have the motivation to stay the course during those difficult periods, hence the name Operation "Microscope". We will post our starting weight and (if we have the guts) before and after pictures.

The Plan:

To meet our goals we will be implementing the fundamental lifestyle changes necessary for healthy weight loss. We both believe that there are no "magic bullet" diets, many of them are just flat out dangerous. We are removing processed foods of any kind, moderate use of "non white" carbs, such as organic whole grains, lots of fish, fresh vegetables and fruit. Along with the modification to the input side of the equation we will be hitting the gym no less than every other day. Mostly cardio stuff at first to get ourselves ready for some strength training. We will be required to keep a journal of our gym activity and post it here for all to see. Weekly, we will weigh in and post those results here.

Bill's before image and Initial stats:

Height: 6'4"

Weight: 380 lbs (10/30/09)

Goal: 280 lbs or less. Net loss 100 lbs.

Karen's before image and Initial stats:

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 256 lbs (10/30/09)

Goal: 180 lbs. Net loss 76 lbs.

How can you help?

You can contact us and lend us your support and suggestions, we'll need it...

You can reach us via the blog here:

Operation "Microscope" Blog

Or by email at these addresses:

Bill: wruehl (at) hotmail.com, Karen: agentkalltheway (at) aol.com

Here is the latest from the blog (below):