The Biggest Loser

So you may wonder what I’m doing differently to win this weight loss journey.

Well, last Tuesday, my office decided to start a version of its own “Biggest Loser.” Being a fan of the show, I thought this could be the accountability to lose weight that I was looking for. So I joined.

Here are the rules…

- Its $10 up front to join the 10-week challenge.

- You weigh in every Tuesday morning.

- If you maintain or lose, great! If you gain .2 (increments of the work scale) or more, you pay $2. If you decide not to weigh in, you pay $2.

- All these funds are kept in a pot. The weights are monitored by one person only who has been sworn to secrecy or a beating shall ensue. At the end of the challenge, the person with the greatest percent of weight loss wins the entire pot.

Last year, the pot was over $300. We’re hoping to have a similar amount this year.

My short-term goal for the duration of the challenge is to lose 15 pounds. Anything more is a bonus. My long-term goal is to lose 50 pounds. That seems like a lot when I actually put it in writing, but considering my voluptuous (and quite busty, might I add) build, its completely reasonable.

I’m using this work challenge as my “Weight Watchers” type of program. I’ve had great success with WW in the past. After I graduated from college in 2004, I joined WW in Atlanta and lost 30 pounds. It felt like it just fell off. Now, I’m finding it’s a lot harder to lose. Being close to 30 might have something to do with it, but I think having a husband with the metabolism of a high school track runner and who loves to eat, is what really makes it hard. Love has done some funny things to my body.

In Atlanta, it was just me. I worked a lot and came home to myself. And this cat. Who wasn’t very supportive. (A high-five every now and then would’ve been nice. It’s the least she could have done since I fed her fat ass every day.) I worked in a luxury hotel in Buckhead and I walked my ass off (literally) every day. I wore a pedometer and on one of my busiest days, I walked the equivalent of a marathon. After a long day, I would come home, head back to the gym and then back to my cozy apartment where my cat would seemingly mock me as I microwaved a Lean Cuisine. I didn’t have a lot of friends and my boyfriend at the time was two states away. I had no one to answer to except for the inner skinny girl calling to me.

Now 6 years later, I’m in the best place of my life. I have a truly supportive husband who makes me fall more in love with him every day. I have a job that came out of no where, that is a perfect fit for me. I live in a beautiful city that I adore. We have THE life – a loving family, a house with two spare rooms that one day we want to fill with beautiful, Irish, chubby cheeked babies and a Goldendoodle. To start.

So here’s to weight loss. Because you have to start somewhere.

~Jenn