Four weeks & four percent

Tomorrow marks the start of a fun four-week adventure. I owe it all to Jillian Michaels, who has long fueled my sweaty workouts and attempted muscle definition. I recently friended her on Facebook just so I could see her little daily fitness inspirations when I stumbled upon this:

Jillian's Beginner Shred Challenge

At first, I thought it was just a challenge to complete her 30 Day Shred video. I already do that video multiple times a week, so I wasn't terribly excited by it. What I found when I went to the website, however, DID excite me.

Basically, it's a "Diet Bet" with myself and the other participants. I have four weeks to lose four percent of my body weight. I paid a $30 "wager" (as did 3,894 other people to date) to become part of the community. If I do not lose the 4%, my $30 is lost to me and the community will divvy it up among themselves. If I DO lose the 4%, I get in on the remaining money.

Now, assuming that 50% of the people succeed and 50% do not, I've doubled my money. And I've also lost 5.816lbs. So it's pretty much a win win. If I don't lose the weight, womp womp to my $30, but at least I've given it a go and hopefully lost something.

I've been stuck in the mid 140's for the last 6 months, so I'm hoping this kick in the pants will help me get down into the glorious 130's. I have not been in the 130's since I was 19 years old. I would love to be down to 135 -- this challenge would bring me down to 139.6. I'll take it.

The challenge starts on Tuesday, October 7 (if you're interested in joining me, you still have until midnight tonight to sign up!!!) and runs through Tuesday, November 3, when I will have to do my final weigh-in and see how my efforts have literally paid off.

I just submitted my initial weigh-in. I am required to take a picture in "airport security" clothing -- one full body shot and one shot of myself and my scale and my signature word (which happens to be "jalapeno" -- spicy!).

Here they are:

#awkward

#starting weight

Now, I'm already a fairly active person. According to my Jawbone UP24, I am in the top 10% most active people using that thing. Go, me! I walk a minimum of 10,000 steps (5 miles) daily and I also do a video or go to the gym almost every day. Clearly, increasing my workout intensity is going to be part of the plan, but it is one variable I have already been controlling since I moved to NC.

The real enemy in this scale war is my diet. I. Love. Food. I have always loved food. I've also tried a bunch of different diets and was semi-successful with them while they happened but certainly not great at maintaining them for extended periods of time.

 

Here's what I'm NOT doing for the next four weeks:

1) No more coffee. I don't like it black, so I tend toward the sweet stuff. It's all tea from here through 11/3.

2) No more simple carbs. No pasta, no cereal, no crackers, no fried food, nothing breadlike whatsoever. And no more desserts. Jerks. I tend to be pretty creative with my cooking, so I honestly don't think it will be hard for me to come up with fun meals to try that do not include pasta (for instance, did you know broccoli-slaw makes an excellent stirfry substitute? Or that quinoa pizza bites are delicious? I did!).

3) Less sugar. For breakfast, I normally eat a fiber bar or yogurt or oatmeal. These are loaded with sugar. While I'm not going sugar-free by any means, I am going to try to get my sugar from more natural sources, like fruits.

4) No eating after 9 p.m. I had gotten into a bad habit of having super late dinners. This needs to end.

Here's what I'm doing for the next four weeks:

Trying like hell to lose 4% of my body weight by not ingesting any of the above

Also,
exercising

"I regret that workout" said NO ONE EVER.

I'm on day 5 of Jillian's 30 Day Shred video. Let's see if I can finally stick with for 30 days this time.

Here's to my newest adventure and the next four weeks of shredding!