So, I’m in the middle of a mind-numbing and I realized “Hey, now is the perfect time to update my blog”, especially since I haven’t put anything out since April. My blogging about this challenge was seriously more pitiful than the last challenge – I bailed 2 weeks in! OK, so straight to the results. This challenge was a little more squirrely than the last one because of how they evaluated success and who the winners ended up being. Obviously I didn’t win but my complaints aren’t a result of bitterness because I placed second again. (Kind of like always being the bridesmaid and never the bride.) Anyway, last time the criteria was the percentage of weight lost (amount lost divided by starting weight). This time, they took percentage of weight lost and added percentage of inches lost off the waist (inches lost divided by starting inches). So, in my case my I started at 162.8 and ended up at 140.8 resulting in a total loss of 22 pounds (again) and a percentage loss of 13.5% and I lost 6.5 inches off my waist (34.5 starting, 28 ending) for a percentage loss of 18.8%. Using their criteria, my total percentage lost was 32.3%. I really dislike their new method of evaluation. First, it puts equal emphasis on weight lost and inches lost from a particular area (the waist). Where you lose (and gain) weight has a strong genetic component. I am someone who puts weight on and loses it all over. But we’ve all seen women who put weight primarily on their lower body (the pear shape) and women who put weight on primarily on their torso (the apple shape). Clearly the apples are going to lose a greater percentage of weight in this area and this can skew the results and I think it shouldn’t have been a part of the evaluation. Another reason why the waist measurements is an issue for me is because one of the participants had just had a baby when she started the competition. Her abdomen was still swollen from the pregnancy and I believe that a good portion of her waist measurement changes were a result of her body going back to normal. According to the results, she did not lose the greatest percentage of weigh lost, but she won based on her waist changes. I feel really bad about the whole thing because my sister was very dedicated and if the challenge had been based solely on percentage weight lost, she would’ve won. But because she didn’t lose a lot in her waist specifically, she ended up placing third. I was worried that it would discourage her, but with support from me and her trainer, she realized that she lost pounds for goodness sake so she’s a winner no matter what! Oh, and one more thing, there were no vacations or other fantastic prizes. In fact, they didn’t really have much for the runner ups; kind of a letdown.
However, I’m doing it one more time. Yep, I know; I definitely have a mental illness at this point. But what can I say? It keeps me motivated and I tend to do really well when things are competitive. And I’m hoping that by the end of this competition, I’ll be at my goal weight and can relax a little bit. What is my goal weight? I’m not really sure. I don’t know where my “happy” weight is. When I was on phen-fen I got down to 135 but I only ate a bowl of Top Ramen for the whole day and was too weak to do any real physical activity. I definitely don’t want to give up exercising and going to the gym. It gives me such a clear head. So, I know I need to balance things in such a way that I’m eating right to support my daily activities but not gaining or depriving myself. If I can get to the 130s that would be great and then I can evaluate how I feel and how hard it is to stay there. When looking at my ending weight from the last competition, it seems like I’m pretty much there. But a lot of that was water and deprivation. Additionally, I intentionally gained a bit of weight that I knew I could lose easily to put me a bit ahead of the game. So my starting weight for this challenge was 153 but the scale in the women’s locker room put me at 155 so I’m looking to that again as my benchmark. That was 6 weeks ago. I’m already down despite the fact that my trainer and I are not in the burning phase right now (more on our plan in another post).
In wrapping up, I want to mention that my mom is also joining me in the challenge. I think when I lost weight in the first challenge she just thought it was because I was obsessed. But when she saw that it worked for my sister, I think she felt that this was something that was achievable and she was ready to make the commitment. I’m also working on having my Bodybugg data (calories burned, calories consumed, and deficits/surpluses) using a Twitter app that should post my BB upload automatically. Having my unadulterated stats out there for everyone to see should help keep me on track since it seems like it’s getting harder and harder to lose as I get smaller and smaller.
That’s it for now. More to come.
(This was originally written 8/11/09 but not posted.)
