THE REASON

What is my thinspiration? Well like many i want to feel better about myself and look better in a bathing suit. Although part of it also has to do with working in a industry which is predominately male and feeling like im always being looked upon my appearance. Also the fact that the few girls that do work there are not Hispanic nor overweight. I don't think any of them weigh more than 150. All these things are good reasons for me but what really was the motivation was the competition.

How it started...

It all started with four guys at work; "Glazed Ham", "Muffin Top", "Pork Chop", and "Swollen Asian". They began a weight loss competition that involved big money. My friend "Tons of Fun" is a Senior Compliance Analyst and one of her responsibilities is to do email surveillance on all salesmen and traders. While reading emails she came upon the spreadsheet of the weightloss competition between these four guys so she decided to propose that us girls also have our own competition which would follow the same rules.

The rules...

The rules remain the same but the prices vary. Initial buy in to the competition was $50 for us and $200 for them. To start the competition each person was to choose their own 10 week goal, basically how much you hope to lose by the end of the 10 week competition; mine is 20lbs. In order to reach my 10 week goal i need to lose 2lbs a week. Which brings us to rule number 2, you have to reach your weekly goal or else pay a fee; ours is $5 and theirs is $100. Rule number 3 is, at the final weigh in you must pay a fee for every pound that you were off from your end goal. Our fee is $5 and theirs is $50, so say I only lost 15 instead of 20 I'd end up having to pay $25, but no worries I'm sure that wont happen. Rule four states that we are not allowed to weigh ourselves the day before or else pay a $2 fee and rule five says if you miss weighin you pay $6 the guys pay $50. All of us had to come up with fat nicknames for the sake of the competition and those are the names I'll use. The girls are Pudge Muffin, Tons of Fun, Chunky Monkey and me; Fatty Cake.

My progress...

Now this brings me to week 3 weigh in, which was on Friday. My start weight was 194.6, during my first weigh in I lost 3lbs and week two I lost 1.4lbs so this brought me down to 190.2. Not to mention that a week before my initial weig hin I began to prep myself and lost 2.4lbs; i was weighing 197, so in 3 weeks I had lost 6.8lbs. By the end of this competition I hope to weigh 175 but it won't end there! :)

The screw-up...

Although this last weigh in threw me off my game; bumping me from second place to last. On Friday I weighed in at 192.6. Luckily I wasn't alone in gaining this week. Chunky Monkey was the only one that didn't gain nor lost nor met her weekly goal meaning she still had to pay just like the rest of us. Now In order to not pay this week and to meet my goal i must lose 6lbs, shit!

What really screwed me up was my brother visiting me and all those days we went out to eat. If you notice the food journal you'll see how each day I let myself go a little more. I'm not a sweet tooth person, salty foods and carbs are what most attract my taste buds so when my brother suggested that we go to places like our favorite Colombian restaurant, Johnny Rockets, BBQ, and our favorite pizzeria it was hard to resist. *sigh*

The plan...

Well the same day that he left I went to Barnes & Noble and picked up a bunch of different diet books. I've decided each week I'm going to read up on a different diet and try it out. I'll follow through with each diet for a full 7 days until I find one I like and can stick to. My fiancé has decided to join me as well.

Well, bottom line is that my weakness screwed me up this weak and I must say that I'm truly embarrassed because as the heaviest in the competition I should be pulling bigger numbers when it comes to weight loss not bigger numbers in gaining. I've got the most to lose this week.

I've decided to go traditional, counting calories and excersizing every day this week until Friday, while I read up on The Atkins Diet which I will begin next week. First I've gotta do my research and know what I'm getting myself into before I get started.

Please feel free to comment and give me tips along the way. I need to win this for me, not the money and not to gloat, although a few extra bucks never hurt anyone. :)