You feel the cold snap in the air, big sweaters, warm comfort food and the holidays are almost here. What is usually included in that is clothes a size bigger as we all indulge in hot chocolate, pie and turkey! As happy as all that food makes me, squeezing into tight clothes, taking advantage of the bulkiness of layers to hide behind, and keeping my eyes averted every time I pass a mirror does not.
 
Apparently a lot of my co-workers feel the same way as we have begun a “Biggest Loser” contest - and no the fact that most Saturday nights I am home watching TV or playing RockBand with my dog as my groupie does not automatically make me the winner. Modeled after the hit NBC show of the same name, we have weekly weigh-ins, and based on your starting body weight contestants are judged by the percentage of weight they lose not the actual pounds. Some people joined up for the push to  be good over the upcoming holidays, I joined because I’m competitive. No really I am currently following Weight Watchers and have been since February. I have lost 52% of the weight I am looking to lose so far. My motivation when I first started was having to attend my best friends wedding in August and not get asked when I was due by people that I haven’t seen since my slimmer twenties.

Now that the wedding was over and there was no “need to lose ___ pounds by _____” hovering over me I was not as diligent as I was at first. Combined with hitting a plateau - continued loss of at least a pound every week for seven months will spoil you into thinking as long as you followed the program, and worked out you would always lose weight and it is not the case – and not having a goal date I slacked. I slept in on Saturday and didn’t go to the gym. I used my “extra” points during the week for bad things. I followed the program but as I need immediate gratification and was only losing .8 lb or staying the same I was getting bored. Which is why the thought of a competition is totally getting me back in my groove. I don’t even know what or if there even is a prize for the winner my point is I have to be the best. Last time around I lost by .5 pounds and second place isn’t good enough for me this time!
As we have only had our initial weigh in we don’t know who the leader of the pack is yet – or leader of the unpacking the pounds that is!

So now I must get off the computer and go do something active as my butt isn’t getting smaller if I’m sitting on it!