Weddingbee Blog

No, I am not losing my sanity.  I’m losing those lbs!

We all know there is a lot of pressure on brides, especially when it comes to physical appearance. I certainly have had my fair share of weight fluctuations over the years. I’ve heard that when people get in relationships, men lose weight and women gain weight. Something about how the women cook healthier so the men eat better and, I don’t know, I guess the men take the women out to dinner more? Whatever the reason, this has definitely happened in my relationship. When we moved to Florida, Mr. Squirrel left behind a very stressful job and he lost a good deal of weight. On the other hand, I started a stressful job and the last thing I wanted to do after my long commute home was cook a healthy dinner. And gym? Ain’t nobody got time for that.

I have generally been a pretty active person, and thankfully becoming engaged was my wake-up call that I needed to get back on track. I wanted to start cooking wonderfully healthy meals again. I wanted to push myself and become strong again. Over the past year, Mr. S and I have done a great job. Our lifestyle has evolved into a much healthier one. We both shop the perimeter of the grocery store, and I canceled my cable so the only way I can watch my trashy reality TV shows in real time is to watch them on the elliptical. (Love me some Bachelor.)

After the holidays wound down, we both reached a bit of a plateau and wanted to jump start our weight loss again, so we tried something new. We joined a program called DietBet. The creators call it a “social dieting game.”

Here’s how it works:

1. Everyone places a bet.
2. You have four weeks to lose 4% of your starting weight.
3. All winners split the final pot.

At first I worried 4% would be a huge amount, but after I did the math I realized this is very doable as long as your put the effort in. We set it up so our bets were $25. Enough to motivate people but low enough that my sisters in college could participate. You weigh in at the beginning and at the end but can give updates as well. (Don’t worry…no one else can see your weight!) We had 14 people play in our game and it was only family and close friends. Some games have hundreds or thousands of players. There is a message board that you can use to motivate each other…or trash talk.

It was fun to hear what is working for everyone else. One person in our group is on Weight Watchers, some are doing low carb, another is training for her first 10K. We swapped our favorite recipe websites and cheered each other when a goal was met. When I saw my mom had reached her goal before me…you can bet I was sweating buckets that night at the gym.

I really enjoyed DietBet because, even though it is a competition, you are really only competing against yourself. As long as you lose the 4%, you win. It doesn’t matter how the other players do. I say that, but I was still accountable because my family would have never let me live it down if I had not made my goal. (Since I may or may not have bullied most of them into joining…)

Our first game ended a few days ago, and I am happy to say Mr. S and I both met our goals. Fortunately/unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), almost everyone else did too. I kid, I was happy for everyone. I made a little bit of money and lost some pounds, plus it was a fun way to stay connected with my family.

We just started a new game. We’ve had a few people from the original group drop out because they are already at their ideal weight and we’ve added a few new ones. I am excited to see how this round goes!

Has anyone else tried DietBet or a diet game with a similar concept? How do you stay motivated with all the wedding stress?