Fruit Ninja Saved My Life

It's been over a month since I've started eating healthy and exercising.  My husband and I had a few serious conversations in January about changing our lifestyle to include healthy food, less drinking and daily exercise, and we jumped right into the routine!  I have had plenty of mistakes and daily cravings, but we're on the right path and haven't looked back! 

Because I haven't looked back, I never thought about the exact moment in time that we made the decision to change our lives.  In fact, I didn't think that there was an exact event that triggered this.  I knew it wasn't a New Years Resolution (because those are meant to be broken).  I thought we just started talking and went for it!  But today my husband reminded me exactly how our journey started.

It was a Friday night.  We had just gotten home from work and were already into our second or third beers when we decided to turn on the Xbox Kinect that we got for Christmas.  We were looking through the free games to play, and decided on Fruit Ninja.  For those of you who are not familiar with the game, let me sum it up for you.  Pieces of fruit are thrown up into the air, and you have to cut them in half.  You do this by acting like your arm is an extended sword, Mortal Kombat style, and quickly making a slicing motion through the air.  If you are too slow, nothing happens.

Yep, this is what we look like, just not as badass.  

So there we were, throwing our arms in all different directions, trying to chop as many pieces of fruit as possible!  Being a little tipsy, we were giggling through the first couple rounds.  Then we were heavily breathing.  Sweat started to form on our foreheads. My arms started to burn.  A wheezing sound was echoing through the room.  Finally, we both plopped down on the couch after less than 10 minutes - worn out, sweaty, and in pain.  This video game had officially beaten us.

A game without an enemy or boss had beaten my butt.

Who would have though fruit could be so fatal?

We looked at each other, confused.  Were we really that out of shape? I knew I was about 35 pounds over-weight, but compared to what I see on TV, I thought I was still doing okay since I was well under 200lbs.  My husband, who has always been the scrawny kid, looked just as surprised as me!  He wasn't gaining weight like I was, yet he couldn't do a physical activity that included only his arms for longer than 10 minutes?

That's when it happened.  We realized what the road that we were on would lead to (health issues, obesity, and even an early death), and that it needed to change.  We didn't drink anymore that night, and the serious conversations started the next day.  So when asked what was my first sign that I needed to lose weight, my first motivation to start eating healthy - I have to find a way to say it with a straight face.  Fruit Ninja.

The GAME  Fruit Ninja, not the real life one.

Although this guy could motivate me to lose weight as well...