Diet Bet 1: 23 Days Left

Well, we hit the big $60K.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to describe this experience and I think I finally figured it out.

It’s like playing a video game.

Now don’t get me wrong I’m not much of a gamer, I prefer to watch movies or read when I have time but this is like a game. The people aren’t real because you’re never going to meet 2400 strangers. The numbers are crazy (3757 total pounds lost and it started five days ago).  And working out doesn’t feel like a chore, I feel like I’m mentally scoring points towards an immediate goal. And look what I got via email today:

A FREE frothy drink from Starbucks with no strings attached.  And have I used it? Nope. I’m giving it to my dad.

Realistically could I drink it? Sure a tall caramel macchiato is 240 calories according to Starbucks. Same with the tall hazelnut macchiato but 4% is an ambitious goal and I’d rather have the satisfaction of finishing in the green in 24 days.

I’m still eating well and tracking. I didn’t work out today but I was so busy I didn’t eat much. I’ll be curious to see what that does to the scale tomorrow.

Tags: Diet Bet, Goals and Motivation, How to lose 4% in 28 days, Social Dieting

Okay I’m obsessed. Remember how I posted yesterday about my discovery of Social Dieting? At the time there were 2296 people in my bet and $57,400 in the pool.

Well that changed slightly:

Over 2300 people have joined the party for the next 25 days. AWESOME!

I’ve committed to two different Diet Bets (with about 2 weeks overlap in the middle) so I’m in this until 4/30/13. I’m supposed to lose 6% of my weight in 6 weeks. Can I do this? Sure. Is it healthy? Weight watchers would say no (1-2 pounds a week is best). I could argue being overweight isn’t exactly healthy either so I’m doing this and I figured I might as well document it here. I’ve got several races coming up, most notably the 2013 Dumbo Double Dare at Disneyland (you do a 10K on Saturday and a Half Marathon on Sunday). I’d like to be fitter when I show up to the starting line because fitter means faster.

So how did Day 1 go? Not bad actually. I swam for an hour and wrote down everything I ate. That’s pretty much a perfect health day for me.

25 more days for Diet Bet 1!

Tags: Diet Bet, Goals and Motivation, How to lose 4% in 28 days, Social Dieting

Today was a rather glorious day. It turns out some brilliant genius has combined two of my favorite things: Social Media and Dieting.

HZ, why didn’t we think of this???

From what I understand it has been around for awhile but apparently I was living under a rock and missed it?

I’m talking about Dietbet.com

Here is how it works: you “buy in” to a diet. The group I joined today is MyFitspiration’s DietBet (http://www.dietbet.com/games/9856) this particuarly challenge is hosted by “Biggest Loser 11 Winners Hannah & Olivia” I don’t really watch The Biggest Loser but popularity makes a difference. 2296 people had joined the bet for a total pool of $57,400. If you can’t reach your 4% goal you lose your buy-in (in this case $25 although prices vary). If you reach your goal and lose 4% of your body weight in the 4 week window then you split the pot with everyone else who lost at least 4%. At a minimum you get your $25 back and you could get more if other people fail. I

Do I expect to make a fortune? Not really. But each group has a page that looks like facebook where you can make comments, respond to other people’s comments and post photos if you like. I LOVE that part.

So I’m in as of today even though I’m 3 days late joining the group. I have 25 days to lose 4% instead of the full 28 days I could have had. I’m okay with that because $25 is enough to motivate me but not enough to bankrupt me if I miss my goal.

I’ll be checking in here daily to tell you how it’s going and blogging a bit. Mostly because I actually miss this.

And who knows, we may try a Fat Chicks-hosted Dietbet in the future. I think it would be a fun way to get to know people better.

Tags: Diet Bet, Goals and Motivation, How to lose 4% in 28 days, Social Dieting