A month ago, I joined a DietBet hosted by MamaLaughlin.
I dieted down well before Jamaica, even though I was still 2lbs above my goal weight when we left. When we were there, and then for a week or two after, I left my diet go. My workouts were at 60% effort during that time, too. It's pretty incredible how quickly the weight comes back with just a little bit of diet slacking and not giving it your all at the gym. I've been trying to get the extra pounds off since, and it's been stinkin' hard, lemme tell ya.
My family has our annual beach trip coming up, and I am EXTRA motivated to get these pounds off. Just because my mind is motivated doesn't mean my body is cooperating, though. When I heard about this DietBet, though, I thought it would give me the extra push I needed to get that scale a-movin'!
DietBet is exactly what it sounds like. You wager a certain amount of money that you will lose a certain amount of weight in a certain amount of time. In this particular case, I wagered $35 that I would lose 4% of my body weight in a month. That came to a 5lb loss. If I achieved that goal, I at least win my money back. Depending on how many people in my game meet their goal, my winnings could increase.
When I started this game, I truly thought it wouldn't be a big deal. 5lbs? Not too awful. More than a pound a week, which is means I'd have to put forth more effort than the usual 1lb/week loss that most diets expect, and I was all up for that.
I stuck to my diet almost perfectly (I can count my cheats in a few bites, not meals), and I increased my cardio at the gym every day so I was sure to burn more calories than I had been. Going into the last weekend, I was pretty nervous. Weekends tend to derail me because that's when all of our social activities tend to happen. Take this past weekend for instance. Hung out at the pool all day Friday, was pretty lazy after a morning gym class on Saturday, and then an amusement park on Sunday. Didn't plan this DietBet finale weekend very well.
I weigh in every day (I know, I know), and when I weighed myself Saturday morning, I was almost a pound below goal! Let me just tell you, I was struttin' around my house that day, proud as a peacock. Sometime late in the day, it hit me that I been in the SWELTERING heat all day Friday, and I had likely had the "sauna effect" happen. I realized then that it was likely all water weight, which I could very quickly put right back on eating out for every meal on Sunday. I weighed myself Sunday morning, I was back to .2lbs above goal. Soooo frustrated!!
I tried my best to eat as healthy as possible while we were out on Sunday, and hoped for the best yesterday morning. Stepped on the scale, and...nothing. No change. Still .2lbs over goal. On any normal day, I would be happy that I had just hadn't GAINED anything, but this wasn't a normal day. This was DietBet final weigh-in day!
Even though yesterday was the end of the game, final weigh-ins didn't have to be submitted until today. I decided to bust my butt at the gym, tighten down my diet, drink lots of water, and I was sure I could drop that last .2lbs.
I got dressed, and started my normal morning routine. As I finished up breakfast, I felt the urge to go.
#tmi
So I went. Then I weighed. And BOOM! Made it!
<insert Tiger Woods fist pump here>
I took my final pictures and officially submitted them to DietBet. They have been verified and approved, and now I just have to wait for everyone else to finished submitting their results to see how the winnings pay out.
All in all, I thought this was a fantastic way to motivate yourself to stick to your fitness goals. I was already motivated, but there was no WAY I was going to get so close and not win this thing. I'm very competitive, and having this goal to shoot for just added that extra push to do it quickly.
If I have any complaints, it's that there were so many people in the game and it didn't have much sense of community. I would've liked to have made some friends and learned things they were doing to reach their goal. I still enjoyed the experience, though, and I'm already thinking about doing another one!
After my vacation, of course.
#eatallthethings
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