I promise I will not be playing any Bon Jovi today

Last Saturday night I stood in a bar with some friends on the lower east side when suddenly "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey started blaring from the speakers. This isn't a terribly unusual occurrence. Anyone who has had alcohol in a public place in their 20s is probably all too familiar with this, but given that it was around 11:30 p.m. at the time, this did seem strangely early for it, as was pointed out by my friend Amy.

Perhaps more curious, though, was that we had not yet heard "Don't Stop Believin'"s companion in the "We always get played at bars so drunk girls can act excited about it as if it didn't happen last week" circuit. That song, of course, is this one. (Ok, I lied. Get over it.) If you're in a financial crunch, you can basically bank your life savings on the fact that at some point Saturday night in any bar in Murray Hill you'll hear four dozen 23-year-olds sing "Livin' on a Prayer" at the top of their lungs -- assuming you can find a bookie dumb enough to offer that bet.

This is kind of annoying, partially because none of these people can sing and partially because the experience ruins what is, really, a pretty fun catchy song. And as a result, it makes it doubly annoying that it was one of the first things that came to my mind as I stepped on the scale this morning.

See as you may or may not remember, while I aim to get myself down to 175 pounds by my sister's wedding this June, my starting weight was 219. That's 44 pounds which means if you passed second grade you can probably deduce that a weight of 197 pounds would be, well, "halfway there." Of course, I don't really think the work to get myself to the halfway point in my weight loss needs to driven by, well, "prayer." Nor is my likelihood of actually succeeding at this as unlikely as, say, achieving the American dream when I'm a striking dock worker and my wife, Gina, is a hard working diner waitress.

I'm working pretty hard, what with the jogging and swimming every morning and the periodic weight lifting. Progress is slow, but it is steady.

And yet, today after getting off the elliptical machine, I felt like a lyric to an 80's hair band's smash hit because the number rang up at a miniscule 196.6. (Aspiring journalists, this is called burying the lede. Do not do this.) Well, 196.6, last I checked, is a lower number than 197, and that means that as I venture to get myself back to my college weight I am, well, you know.

This is probably a bigger milestone than I'm making it out to be -- or maybe I'm actually exaggerating its value since I'm writing this incoherent blog post. But it's still a tangible measure of the fact that all of this business is actually working. Who knew eating fewer calories and exercising every day would actually be a successful weight loss plan? Apparently I do now since even though my scale often can't make up its mind consistently, and it didn't this morning, the range of numbers I'm seeing is still dropping.

This comes at a fairly appropriate time considering my sister's engagement party is actually this Saturday night, which I guess marks the halfway point toward her wedding from, well, four months ago. Either way, it seems like a reasonable time to be 50% of the way there, but I also know as I lose more pounds and get closer to what my body would weigh if I were actually in shape, the weight loss will be slower, which is important to keep in mind considering half of the weight has been lost in just over one third of the time I've given myself.

The next four months are almost certainly going to be full of diminishing returns, but as long as the returns are coming I'll be satisfied. I might even be so satisfied that I'll be willing to stand around a bunch of drunk recent college grads belting out Bon Jovi on a Saturday night.

Ok, I lied again. I'm pretty sure I'll never be willing to do that again. Ever.

CROWD-SOURCED WEIGHT LOSS PLAN DAY 84!

Days until wedding: 128
Target weight: 175
Starting weight: 219
Weight today: 196.6