Food, Fitness, & Fun in All 50 States

Welcome to my new weekly series!!! Okay, I know I have to actually write on here to qualify for having a weekly series. But I plan on it! If you followed me to this blog from my previous blog From Bulge to Bikini, you are well aware of my ongoing battle of the bulge. Well, let me tell you, it hasn’t gotten any better since we started traveling. Matter of fact, I have gotten super fat. It’s sad. It’s frustrating. And it is no more!

I started a weight loss competition all on my own recently and it is going better than I could have imagined. One day a couple of months ago I was trying to think of what was missing in my weight loss strategy – why wasn’t I succeeding?! And the missing motivation I came up with was money. See, I have been telling myself for years now that once I finally lose the weight I will go on a huge shopping spree to build an entire new wardrobe. Fun?! Of course. But, it was with my own money…money I had to budget and save for. But the thought of winning somebody elses money for said shopping trip – now that is motivating and exciting!

So on our trip home from DC I got the nerve up one night and posted the following message on my Facebook page:

Hey fb friends…I am thinking about putting together a weight loss competition if I can get enough people interested. Money is super motivating to me, as it is to most of you I assume. I’m thinking that if I could get 20+ people to commit it could be a lot of fun.

It would be a % lost concept with everybody buying in at $100. This would allow for:
1st place: $1100 ($1000 + initial $100 back)
2nd place: $600 ($500 + initial $100 back)
3rd place: $300 ($200 + initial $100 back)
To me, that is a motivating amount of money…enough to get a new wardrobe goin!

I think it would also be fun to do some weekly challenges for say $5 a person so the weekly winner would get $100 to put toward say a personal trainer, weight watchers, tennis shoes, etc…whatever they think will help them meet their goals.

My thought is maybe a 6 month competition but am open to suggestions. If enough people are interested we would have to work out some of the logistics for honor system (consistent) weigh ins, etc.

Anyway, is anybody interested in something like this??? I AM going to lose weight this year! 13 is my favorite number and its my last year in my 20′s so it just feels right and its way past time. I’m just trying to think of any possible ways to keep myself motivated and this is one!

I was so embarrassed quite frankly! I figured everybody would think that this was a stupid idea and nobody would want to do it. But, much to my surprise, I started receiving messages from people that wanted in on the challenge. And before I knew it, we had 22 people spread all across the country committed to losing weight in this competition! We came up with a set of guidelines/rules, set deadlines, and prepared to drop some weight!

So, two Saturday’s ago marked our first official weigh-in in this 13 week competition ending on April 13 in 2013…cute huh?! There is $3205 up for grabs between weekly competitions and the final prizes. We have 21 competitors, with 16 of us participating in the weekly competitions. It has been so much fun and turned out to be the exact thing that I needed to get motivated to lose this weight once and for all. In two weeks I have lost 10.8 pounds already! I am exercising nearly every day of the week, and eating healthier overall. I feel like I am treating this as a “lifestyle change” versus a diet for the first time ever and it seems to actually be working! I am attending my weekly Weight Watchers meetings, making exercise dates with friends, and shopping at the local seafood market…all positive changes!

As a group, we have lost 119 pounds so far in only two short weeks…and that calculation is missing three people that haven’t weighed in yet due to travel. How cool is that??? It’s pretty spectacular that such a small group of people can be making such an awesome change in our lives. We are all becoming healthier together, encouraging and driving each other to succeed each week. It is truly awesome!

So enough rambling. I just wanted to introduce my new weekly series “Skinny Sunday”. I will be updating you each week with my weight loss progress and our groups overall achievements to date. I also plan to start incorporating recipes and exercise routines again as I get back to living a healthy, active life. If you are wondering where my before picture is this time…it’s going to be a while before I feel comfortable sharing all that with this lovely cyber world again. I have taken pictures and measurements for myself. And I will share them when I feel like it’s time. But until then, you will just have to wait and take my word for it that I am succeeding.

To end today, I would love it if you would please share any healthy recipes with me that qualify as “Super Bowl food”. I would like to share appetizer type recipe ideas with you next week to go along with the theme, but I need some help! So please message me privately through the Contact Me form or just comment below. And all encouragement will be greatly appreciated! Have a great week everybody…and I am back…again…