A new challenge

Fifteen days ago, my mom and I were in the kitchen at my parents house talking when my dad came in. He was coughing and looking for some cold medicine. My mom told him he was starting to sound like my aunt, who has been a smoker for years and has a horrible smoker's cough. (She probably has emphysema.) So anyway, my dad said it was just a cold, but my mom and I told him it was from his smoking. (For a long time, he's done this weird clearing his throat thing, but has never really had a "smoker's cough." This is new for him.) I'm not sure how long he has smoked, but he is 60 years old, so it's probably been close to 45 years. That day he decided to quit. It's been 15 days and he hasn't had so much as one cigarrette. Cold turkey. My mom told him she would go get him the patch or gum or that new medicine chantix, but he said no. He's been sucking on Werther's candies to help him get thru. I'm so proud of him. I never thought he would do it. I hope and pray that he keeps going strong.

And if he can do it, I can do it. I'm not a smoker but I could stand to lose a few pounds. Ok, maybe more than a few. So I'm gonna do it. I took my first spin class ever today. And although I couldn't totally keep up with the rest of the people in the class, I did complete it. All 50 minutes. I may not have stood up all the times they did, but I never stopped pedaling.

Tomorrow I'm gonna make my dad oatmeal raisin cookies. They're his favorite, and now that his taste buds and sense of smell should be coming back, I'm sure they'll be tastier than ever. (I don't like raisins, so no worries about me eating them, and failing on my end!)
I'm proud of my dad, and hopefully one day, I'll be proud of myself for losing a bunch of weight. Here's hoping we both keep going strong.