Back from a long, long blogger’s hiatus. Like a year. You know, cause I started Chicagogrammers and all. Takes just a bit of my time :) While Chicagogrammers is truly awesome, and I love, love all the amazing members and opportunities we get to take part in, there’s a certain subset that hates this food and drinking lifestyle. Yes, I’m talking about my pants – they hate me. They hate me so much they refuse to even let me wear them anymore, thereby giving way to me ordering new pants and generally living a life of tight buttons and fatigued belts. Fear of being in photos. That kind of thing. If you’re reading this, you may know what I’m talking about, and I’m starting a Diet Bet about it.
The thing is, Main Squeeze and I got engaged and I’m getting married in 2018. As evidenced by our Save the Date cards, I’ve got, like, two arms on just one arm. That’s not right. I’m not blaming it on this food blogger lifestyle or trying to make excuses, because I’m responsible for what goes in my mouth. It’s just when there’s a buffet of the BEST food somewhere…how am I not supposed to try it ALL, and then have SECONDS (thirds, let’s be honest) of my favorites? Oh, and you can bet that I’m pleasantly tipsy at all these fabulous events. From the National Restaurant Association Show, to the Green City BBQ and Chicago Gourmet, this year has pushed the limits of exactly how much I can eat and drink…and it’s A LOT. And I love having the opportunities to go and try everything. I just don’t happen to love ordering big pants or having double the arms and chins, or God forbid, having my future wedding photos capture my fat arms in all their jiggly splendor. I’m committed to having just one chin, normal-sized arms, and pants that don’t hate me.
If you find yourself nodding along to this, thanks…I knew you thought I’d put on a few pounds, but jeez. Kidding. If you can commiserate with this, I’d like to invite you to a challenge I’m doing. Wait, don’t stop reading. I’m not asking you to get up at 4:00 a.m. and flip some tractor tires until you puke. I’m not even telling you to go to the gym on January 1. I’m telling you that if you’d like to lose some weight and have a slight competitive streak, then join my Diet Bet starting January 2.
What’s Diet Bet, you ask? It’s the thing that helped me lose 8.4 pounds in one month, and I loved it. The great Saya Hillman over at Mac N Cheese Productions did a November Diet Bet challenge with her Life of Yes crew, and jiggly and curious, I tried it out. It was AWESOME. Here’s the gist: you join the challenge and bet $35 that you’ll lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks. You weigh-in at the beginning and at the end, using verified techniques, and if you lose your personal 4%, you get your $35 back, PLUS all the winners split the pot of those who didn’t make their bet. So I won my challenge, got my $35 back, and all the winners won an additional $18. Big money, big money.
By the time the challenge was coming to a close, I didn’t care if I won any additional money, but damn if I wasn’t going to get my $35 back! My final weigh-in was either Wednesday before Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving, and since I was meeting a friend for much-needed drinks and snacks on Wednesday night, I didn’t want to weigh-in on Thanksgiving morning. Because of the holiday, I had friends in town on Tuesday, drinking delicious beers and eating golden brown tater tots with ranch dressing, and I skipped that shiz because I knew I had to weigh-in the next day and I was hovering very close to the number I needed on the scale to win, and I. LOVE. TATER. TOTS. I know what you’re thinking, “But, Katie, you missed seeing your friends and that’s restricting yourself, etc, etc…”. And yeah, it was restrictive, but I needed to not go in the devil’s den of Tater Tot Town, because I can’t be trusted there. And if you decide to join this Diet Bet and you’re a food blogger, you may need to set some limitations for yourself, too. It’s either that or risk losing your $35. Wouldn’t you rather lose 4% of your weight than $35?
The thing about Diet Bet is that, ultimately, it’s all or nothing – if you don’t make your weight on the final weigh-in day, you won’t get your money back. BUT you’ve got a whole month to do it, and you only weigh-in officially at the beginning and end, so if you have a cheat day here or there, if you can make up for it, then you’ll still be good. Whew, it was like a psychological thriller there at the end. I weighed in and hit my target weight on my final weigh-in, until I had to put shorts on to send my full body pic to Diet Bet, cause I’m sure the good people over there never, ever want to see me in my undies. I put the shorts on, and then I was over by .2 pounds. CRAP! So I went to the gym that morning, even though I really wanted to stay home. And I came home and weighed in under, even with those shorts on. And I ate fish and a side salad for dinner the night before, even though I could’ve had tater tots. But my pants hated me a little less.
Then December came around. I didn’t want to be on a Diet Bet then, because holidaze. And my pants hate me more than ever, I have double the double the arms now, and I can’t wait until January 2 to get back on the horse and lose that 8 pounds and then some all over again. I’ll be doing Diet Bets until my wedding, and if this sounds interesting to you, please join the Dining at My Desk’s January Diet Bet Challenge. You lose weight, you win money. Diet Bet was the only thing I’ve tried this past year where I truly felt accountable, because, Dear God, I don’t like losing money. And then I lost 8 pounds, got my $35 back and won $18 more. Score!!
So…if you feel at all like I do, and want to try something different, and have at least 4% of your body weight to lose, I really encourage you to try this with me. Joining the challenge in November with Saya’s group was awesome, and the Diet Bet community boards make encouraging each and sharing recipes and work-out tips super easy. Diet Bet leaves how you’re going to lose up to you, so how do I plan on losing my 4% in January? Well, I’m definitely NOT drinking at all in January. No booze shall pass these lips. And I’m going to work out every single day at the gym. And I’m toying around with Whole 30, but I’ll likely be counting calories using MyFitnessPal, and, of course, working on getting 10,000 steps a day with my FitBit. I’ll be updating you at the beginning and end of each challenge, and hopefully we’ll all watch my arms go back to a normal shape together.
The Nitty Gritty: The Dining at My Desk Diet Bet challenge starts January 2, 2018 and ends January 29, 2018. The bet is to win 4% of your body weight. The stake is $35 to enter. If you win, but others don’t, you get your $35 back, and split the pot of the people who didn’t win. If everyone wins in our challenge, you’ll still get all of your money back. Have questions? Check out the FAQs for Diet Bet here.
Are you with me?! Join Dining at My Desk’s January Diet Bet Challenge Now!
