When being a BIG LOSER is a good thing...

Hi everyone,

My office decided to have a weight loss challenge for the month of September. Everyone wanted me to join but the idea of me getting on a scale in front of a coworker gave me the same feelings as the anxiety dreams I used to have in high school where I found myself naked in algebra class. Kids, can you spell "uncomfortable?" Afterall, there are only 3 people in the world who know THAT number and that is me, Dr. Buchin and God! Nope, not gonna do it!

After some cajoling, I decided to swallow my pride (pardon the pun) and join in for the sake of office camaraderie. Of course, I was already into the 3rd week of loosing weight on my own when they started this and didn't have a chance of winning, but I figured I would give it a try. There were 2 categories to win in: Most pounds lost and Biggest Percentage lost; three prizes for each category and a hefty cash price for each! Each week, we weighed ourselves in front of one person who recorded our weight. At first, everyone got a little crazy. Commenting on everything the other person was eating...pointing out how many calories were in that sandwhich and don't dare to use real sugar in your coffee! It was bound to turn my coworkers into vengeful villagers with torches storming to take out Frankenstein! We had people starving themselves, others buying diet pills from Brazil on the internet, others binging and purging in the bathroom after lunch and I heard a few mention of enemas....but I will spare you all the details on that! After two weeks people started getting grumpy, smoking more and just plain giving up and dropping out of the contest on their way to the local pizzeria.

I was discouraged after two weeks myself because I hit a plateau and saw very little if no weight loss. My PCP reminded me that this was not a "diet" but a "life style change" and an important one especially for me seeing that I am working towards bypass surgery in a few months. I loose sight of that because of the numbers game we play in our head and the evil scale that lurks below the cabinets in my kitchen waiting to overtake and attack my self-esteem.

Well, today was our final weigh in. I lost 12.8 lbs in four weeks and won second prize in the "pounds lost" category, a prize of $250 dollars! I lost to a very nice man who lost 2 pounds more than me (he won $500), but he probably gained it back with the 3 egg, bacon and cheese sandwich he had right after the weigh in. And me? Well, I sat down at my desk and ate my raisin bran with skim milk after my weigh in.

So, the moral of the story is: Slow and steady may have brought me only to second place this time, but my bowl of raisin bran will help me kick ass in the long run.

So, here's to all of the biggest losers in our world! Cheers!

Veronica