The Bet

After getting grossly out of shape while in grad school, I lost about 30lbs (taking from my most and least weights…realistically, it was more like 25lbs.). Since then, I have stayed between 140 and 150 – favoring 142 and often taking few week breaks to get slightly gooey again so that I regain the motivation to work out and get a tight belly back again.

I tried to work out for my Halloween costume (right)...and it turned out alright, but then I let go a bit till after the new year. 



I worked off a few holiday pounds in January and I looked alright at the end of January, but I was frustrated because, as a person who loves instant gratification – I was weighing 148 every week and saw little changing besides some muscle building in my stomach:

…and the elliptical was broken and I hate treadmills. So I stopped. I worked out the first 2 weeks of February sporadically (typically I go for 1.5 to 2 hours MWF), then pretty much stopped altogether except for a day here or there.

Last month, after about 6 weeks out of my regular gym routine and after a couple of weeks of complaining about being squishy (see pic, right, 1 week prior to competition) to a friend of mine – and he feeling out of shape as well and needing to train for a half-marathon in late April, I suggested we make a competition out of it. So we decided our individual wagers (if I win, I get my climbing shoes…finally) and set a start date of March 22nd and an end date of May 1st.

His start weight was 147. Originally mine was 148 that I had somehow maintained since January (damn you 148!). Since he weighed in on Tuesday, he let me push back my weight again till Wednesday when I weighed in at 150 (extra water? I don’t know. But I took it...I also took a photo, but I'll show you that one for comparison purposes once I start to progress -- again).

Two weeks prior I had been really sick, but took off that Thursday and felt better. However a pesky cough stayed with me. After the Beer Fest in AC the weekend of the 20th, I came back doing not quite as well, but went grocery shopping for “diet” foods and worked out starting that Wednesday. I lost 5 pounds from Wednesday to Saturday. That Monday was getting more ill and couldn’t make it to the gym. I had to call off Tuesday. I saw the doctor on Wednesday (and if you know anything about me, seeking medical attention means I’m hurting. Bad.) and returned to work on Thursday, still not feeling quite up to par. This past weekend I spent outside with my family and felt okay – I thought I was healing…aside from the coughing at bedtime. Then I slept on my aunt’s pull-out sofa and the animal hair and whatever else made me regress to feeling just awful in the morning. I tried resting up to get back to the gym this week, so I’m making the attempt tonight.

He allowed me to push back the date to May 8th since I was out of the fight for a week due to death illness. Today I weighed in at 147.5. He weighed in at 140. I’m way behind.


I'll post pics and progress periodically...