Don't ForGET the BET! (rhymes)

Ehm, yeah. The Bet.

For those of you who dunno about it - The Bet featured quite heavily in my posts in early-mid January. The basics: Ppl at work had three months to complete an important goal, be it quit smoking, get a six pack or lose ten kilos (of which I was doing).

Nayways, I started out well (thanx to food poisoning), then started to plateu a bit, then had one good week and then quit. Why? you ask - here's why....

{Deleted by the Author - sorry dudes!}

And then this was sent by the fellow doing weight loss who was almost guaranteed to win:

I entered this competition in the spirit of good fun and camaraderie. I will contribute to the winner(s)as detailed in the contract, however I do not expect anything in return should I achieve my required goal. I would still like to go to lunch - but I'll pay for myself. I am not in this for a prize. My motivation is personal and not worth bickering about. If it was about the money it would've been cheaper not to start.

I believe that anybody who makes an honest attempt to achieve their goal is a winner. Having said that no one should expect that I won't cajole, tease, taunt or congratulate along the way as I believe light heartedness is as important to the competition as my personal results (which are
superior to everyone else's!).

Can we start planning the next workplace challenge now? I'm going to start jogging each day .......................

And my response:

I've been stewing on this since he sent it - and I agree!

If I 'complete' the bet, I don't want anyone to pay for me. The chances of me making are fairly slim anyway, but I am moving into a very busy period -I've got lots to do at work ((project name here) anyone?!), feeling left behind at uni, and LOTS of martial arts stuff coming up - I'm running short on being able to afford the time to go the gym and do homework and train/ plan/ organise martial arts AND keep my job (lucky I have an understanding boss - awww)

Also, in the interest of team-building and team-adhesion, rather than team-tearing-apart, I want to make it as relaxed as possible - yes I want to at the very least maintain my weight (I still want to lose!!), but I don't want to made to feel bad if I'm stress-zonked out of my brain and
someone hears me rustle a chip packet or if I'm not at the gym. If things the 'dark side' of the bet keeps going at the rate it is (and gets worse closer to the due date) I won't be able to talk to half you people, let alone buy you lunch ;o) so I'd rather you know that I'm not expecting any
praise or monetary payoff - I'd rather go out and enjoy my lunch with my team (normal shouting rules will apply for drinkers!)

So in the spirit of good will, don't feel like you owe me anything on the chance I do lose ten kilos - I've lost more than half that and I'm happier and fitter than I was, and I plan to keep it goin' that way.*

And it was never spoken of again...

Until this month!

My boss, the guy who almost completed his bet and myself have a sneaky quiet cheeky lil bet going based on percentage of body weight lossed per week. It's conducted almost entirely over email and only the middle techo guy is aware of it otherwise. If you are not 'the biggest loser' for the week (every Thursday), you have to put $1 into a big fat buddha money box - it sits on the winners desk for a week as a trophy and the money goes towards a plate of fruit or something just as exciting at the end of the bet.... This is hopefully going to be a much better arrangement as we are all doing the same thing, have no set (potentially unreasonable!) target to reach and we're not super competitive - just wanting to encourage each other to get healthy!

Week One I was the middle loser, so doin okay so far...!

*Ignore the fact that I immediatley stopped exercising, ate tonnes of junkfood and as at Monday was higher than my starting weight in January