The Bet

I wrote this at the beginning of February but due to illness and an unexpected shift in responsibilities within roller derby, this is just now being posted. Oops.

Giraffe and I have been watching a lot of The Office lately and the first episode of Season 5 was a topic of conversation with a co-worker (Marine) and I. I mentioned that I thought their weight loss incentive program was a good idea especially given some of the waistlines around our office. So Marine says, "I'd win." I, being initially stunned at his outburst, went into explaining that it was by percentage lost and not pounds dropped and he said, "Nah. I'd still win." So then my competitive streak came out and I proposed a bet, mostly between he and I but open to anyone in our office. Whomever lost the biggest percentage by the first day of spring (March 20) would win. He said he wanted it to be in May and I said that was too long a time frame and he could also to pull in a ringer. (He's sneaky and super competitive.) We compromised and made it April 1, which is the day before our long Easter weekend.

Now here is our problem: we don't have a prize yet. He said bragging rights were sufficient, but knowing him, he could cheapen my win on bragging rights alone, so I need something tangible; however, I have no idea where to begin. Money is the first thought, but I'd rather have something I can look at and say, "I won that be beating a Marine." Any and all suggestions of prizes welcome.

The bet began on February 1 and so far I have lost 5 pounds according to the "official" scale at work. I'm on a combination of diets that Giraffe has researched fully and I can't believe how great I feel. I no longer suffer from low blood sugar attacks around eating times and I have amazing mental clarity. The diet kicked off by a 24-hour fast, which I normally do not agree with it but it was actually not hard and it helped reset my sleep cycles which are usually wonky. The next day I started on an Atkins type plan where I ate only meat for a couple of days. Again, not as bad as I thought it was going to be. After that, I was allowed to integrate some vegetables back in (salad) then it was small amounts of cheese. I found almonds to be the perfect snack, even though now I'm not hungry all the time between meals like I used to be.

The second part of the diet will be an anti-inflammatory diet, specifically the Asa Andrew one, that is similar to Atkins but takes out dairy, which has been making me sick lately anyways. I will, however, be allowed to drink Diet Coke again once I get to this stage! Hooray! I was doing the Asa Andrew diet for a while before the bet and found I liked it a lot. I didn't feel sluggish and had more energy. That's all I really want out of all this anyway: more energy, better lifestyle, and...oh yeah, bragging rights! Ha!

I haven't upped my exercise routine yet because I've been slightly under the weather, but that will change soon. I want to begin training for the same 5K I ran last May and need to work on securing a better time. Not to mention, I want to have faster laps around the derby track.

Hopefully soon I can sneak a picture of Marine so there can be before and after shots for both of us. Whee!