September 26, 2008
I just finished doing one of the craziest things I have ever done. I know, the list seems long sometimes, but this really does reach the top ranks of crazy things in my life. And the funny thing is... it started out so normal.....

Three weeks ago, I was hanging out with an American married couple that lives here in my city. I don't know how this came up, but we decided to have a weight-loss contest. They were both going to be heading to a beach vacation this next week, and I am leaving for a retreat in Bali tonight. So we were all motivated to lose weight, but lacked the proper motivation. All three of us LOVE to play games, all the time, any time, any where. So this seemed like a perfect solution.

We decided to have our contest be based on losing the highest percent of our body weight, rather than losing the highest number of pounds. So we all weighed in, wrote down our starting weight, and then planned to calculate our weight loss based on that starting number. We had weekly progress reports, and took pictures along the way. Here you see our "front shots" from week 1, week 2, week 3 and week 4.
             
      
By the pictures above you might not notice any huge changes, and might think that this was just three people trying to eat a little healthier, and exercise a little more, over 3 weeks. But in reality, our competition started serious and ended just plane INSANE.

We all started the contest by running every day and eating smaller portions with more meals throughout the day. We asked fitness and health experts (namely my brother and the internet) about effective weight loss strategies. But as we checked on our progress each week, the competition heated up. We started trying to figure out what we would need to do to win the contest, and as all of us went further and further in our exercise and ate smaller and smaller portions each day, we took it "to a whole nother level."

Sometime during week 2, we felt compelled to start two-a-day workouts. We were running a lot around a dirt track across the street from our apartments. Our times were getting faster and we were feeling stronger and healthier all the time!
     
        
      

By the end of the 2nd week, into the final week of our competition, we all started pushing ourselves further and further. We were researching weight loss ideas online all the time, looking up calories on one apple or a 1/2 cup of green veggies, etc. We started working out more and more, and would size each other up every time we saw each other. Now, don't get me wrong; the awesome thing about this contest is that we were all really really happy to see each other losing weight, so we were encouraging each other constantly. I was just as proud to see the married couple lose weight as I was to see myself begin to drop the pounds.

But going into this final week we got kinda nuts. We all decided we would need to go for a more professional cutting-weight technique, so we were looking up info about wrestlers and other athletes who have to cut weight for competitions. We were hardly eating anything by this final week, working-out in the heat constantly, and then we stopped eating all together. On the last day of the contest before our final weigh-in we stopped drinking and worked on dropping our water weight. It was ridiculous. I think we all thought we were going to die. We were checking in on each other all the time, just to make sure we were okay. I won't go into the details of the feelings of true dehydration, but I don't recommend them.

By the time we got together this morning for our final weigh-in we weren't thinking very clearly. All we wanted was WATER. It was way past the line of common sense. But it worked! We all lost a ton of weight, got in shape, and learned about weight-loss in a way we never had before. I had a lot of fun with this contest, and we all agreed to NEVER do that again! I don't know how wrestlers do it, but to me, nothing will ever separate me from my water again. I have a whole new appreciation for fruit.

Here are pictures we took after our final weigh-in. We were so happy we tried to do jumps for joy, but couldn't seem to getting the timing right with my camera timer. Also, we are holding up signs showing our total weight loss percent we lost over 3 weeks.
( I will let the results speak for themselves in announcing the winner of the contest. )
    
          

After our final weigh-in, we starting chugging down glasses of water and ate some juicy oranges too. Then at lunchtime we all ate our favorite junk food to celebrate - but didn't eat too much since our appetites weren't quite what they used to be. Me and the married guy went for Pizza Hut supreme stuffed-crust pizza, and the married girl ate a Big Mac and fries.
            
It was totally delicious, but I have to say.... it wasn't nearly as good as that orange tasted this morning. Hmmm..... I hope I can remember that for the future!

Here are our "Before and After" pictures from the contest.
                 

There are only a few people I know in the world that I could have had this contest with. This married couple is definitely a rare breed of awesome. We all REALLY wanted to win the contest, but we all were really happy for each other along the way. And no one gave up! Everyone went to amazing lengths to find their limits and give it their all. How many people do you know that could be that competitive and still be encouraging? I don't know many.

So my final words on this crazy weight loss contest is that I'm really glad to have "the married couple" as my friends. You guys ROCK! You could probably make just about anything fun.

As my reward for winning the contest, they will each be writing a song about how awesome I am, and also giving me $15 on iTunes. But this is one of those rare situations where we truly are all winners at the end of the day.....     and crazy.