On December 6, 2008, Phoenix real estate blogger extraordinaire Jay Thompson threw down the gauntlet and announced an RE Biggest Loser contest. Members of the RE.NET (as well as anyone else that wished to join the fray), each agreed to put $50 on the line for the charity of the biggest loser’s naming to see who could lose the most weight in a 7 week period.
The goal was simple. Lose more weight than anyone else, as a percentage of your starting weight, and earn the title BIGGEST LOSER. That loser would get to name a charity and each of the other participants would donate $50 to that charity. With over 50 people joining in, some lucky charity was set to get $2500.
I put together a simple wiki for people to track their progress, create a diary, and even do a little smack talk. The wiki was for however folks wanted to use it. Almost no one had been involved in creating the content for a wiki, but in my estimation, the group embraced it fabulously.
So how did I do?
On December 6, I weighed in at 215 lbs. By the end of December I was down to 210, with Christmas and the holidays making it difficult to keep on track, but still not a bad result. Yesterday, I weighed in at 202.5:
How did I lose 12.5 lbs? Most importantly I cut out all soda and all Starbucks (aside from maybe a half dozen trips to get a drip coffee). And eating french fries was extremely rare. Salad for lunch was commonplace. Being a little hungry: also rather common. Not super hungry, but a little hungry. And of course, I drank a lot of water.
On top of eating better, I exercised about the same as usual, which meant karate twice a week and riding my bike twice a week. I was hoping to exercise a bit more, but the bustle of the season didn’t allow me to get in the extra days I originally targeted it.
My final result: 5.81% weight loss. A couple of the bigger losers lost nearly 10%, so I wasn’t the biggest loser, but my result honestly shocked me, because I thought I was rather fit already. In fact, the pounds came off so fast and easily, I had to revise me original target weight of 209 in early January down to 205. And then yesterday I did a little dehydration ride, and blew past 205 to 202.5. From a practical standpoint, I’m now 205, right where I wanted to be.
Best of all–for me–I think I lost the weight the right way, in a manner that I can keep it off, and better yet, continue to lose more weight. I expect to be under 200 by the end of February, and then my goal is to stay below 200 for the rest of the year. As the year goes along, I’ll keep looking at it. Could I get down to 190? Or 180? Maybe cutting out soda and Starbucks will reveal a completely lost and forgotten Steve…like that one that was around in his 20′s!
To all of my fellow LOSERS, congratulations in achieving a wonderful thing for yourself. And to Jay, even though you’ve credited me a bit with getting this started, I want to thank you for giving shape to the idea and encouraging us all to set and achieve a truly meaning life goal. I’m just getting started on my new path.
{ 1 comment }
$2500 is a great contribution to any charity –
good job on losing the weight and good luck with keeping it off and continuing to lose more.
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