Friends, Welcome to another Thoughts for Thursday. Today I am sharing something really fun with all of you and really personal for me (wait until you see these pictures below).
My friend, Katie, shared on instagram one day a picture of her food prep for the week. I was pretty intrigued as it was something that I always said I wanted to do, but had never actually done. I read down on her comments and she said she had just started a bet on an app called Diet Bet. Well of course I had to go check it out for myself.
That was in mid January and I hopped right on the bandwagon.
It was perfect timing since I had a couple of stubborn pounds left from my second pregnancy that I knew I wanted to get off and then I also still had 5 more pounds from my first pregnancy that I was dying to get rid of. It was the beginning of a new year. What better time to start??
I downloaded the app and educated myself on the system.
It turned out that one of my very first blogs that I ever read, Our Best Bites, had started their own game. Oh, I was thrilled to hop on board with them. I paid up my $30 dollars and submitted my weigh-in with hopes to lose 4% of my body weight in 4 short weeks.
Below are some stats from the Diet Bet website of how many players they’ve had, total weight lose, and the amount of money people have won!
I was pretty excited about my game because the pot was over $50,000. Yes, that’s right. $50K.
So that means over 1500 people paid $30 in hopes to lose 4% of their body weight.
Those who make their goal, split that $50K amongst each other minus the 20% (I think) that Diet Bet takes out for their own fees.
So, I started this bet the Thursday before I left for Miami on my cousin’s Bachelorette party. Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly dieting on that trip; but I did try to come home and get into a routine.
I’m going to share some of my tips with you below, but in 4 weeks, I came ONE POUND short of my goal weight. I was so sad, but yet still thrilled with my results.
I had lost 6 pounds.
That put me within 1-2 pounds of my weight before getting pregnant with Brody. That was what I was reaching for.
I didn’t win the money. I’m so competitive, so of course I was sad.
But the winners did receive around $40. I thought that seemed really low. If you are a winner, you are guaranteed at least your starting bet back. Some of the feedback I saw from other players was that was a really small amount of earnings compared to other games they had played. That meant that a lot of players actually made their goal this game. That made sense being that it was right in time for a lot of “new years resolutions.”
So I didn’t win my money back to start another game, but I’m still going to fork up some money again and get started. I’m ready to get back to my wedding weight and need another game or two to do it!
If anyone is interested in joining one too, please let me know and we can cheer each other on. It’s so much fun!
Here’s my incredibly embarrassing, non-edited or filtered, stomach out, before and after pictures from my first game. My motivation is that inner tube around my waist that has gladly stayed around after birthing my children!
January 15th and February 12th
And here’s a few things that worked for me during the 4 weeks:
+ Having my husband out of town! haha I’m laughing, but it’s the truth.
+ It helped me so much to have a really light dinner at night. When he would be gone, I would eat a very simple salad or a bowl of oatmeal for dinner.
+ I tried to eat dinner really early too. 5pm if possible. That helped me wake up feeling really good and skinny the next morning.
+ Exercise was either Pure Barre or a 30 minute walk 3 times a week or so. But I basically got no exercise the last two weeks because I had two sick kids.
+ I usually always had a nice filling breakfast and that helped curb my appetite for the rest of the day. I loved avocado toast (sometimes with an egg on top) or toast with peanut butter and banana.
+ I tried to limit my alcohol during the week as much as possible
+ I kept a skinny picture on the background of my iPhone as motivation 🙂
I definitely hope to add in more exercise during my next game and certainly hope to reach my goal and win some money!!
I’m joining in on this new game today called Get Fit in February with Bri_getsfit.
And here is an example of how the weigh-ins work!
Wish me luck and please let me know if you decide to join along!!
And I promise I was in no way compensated for this post!! I’m just truly in love with this concept and love the accountability of the app and weigh-ins!
Let's take a moment to celebrate the wins– AWESOME job losing 6 pounds. In this time you traveled, celebrated a birthday (with delicious looking food), valentine's etc! Awesome work– I'm sure you'll "win" again next go round! Make today work, Rachel –CubicleCouture
That is awesome! You look amazing and I love what a great motivator it is to reach goals! I want to do this after I get back from Mexico (all bets are off then!) You're killing it mama!
Nice! I laughed at the first thing to help you.. When my husband comes home at normal time from work we eat sort of bad haha.. He's a fan of eating yummy food, but exercises at lot so he's fine.. I on the other hand.. Haha
This is such a neat app!! I am going to look into it, I mean what is more motivation to lose weight than winning some money…even if it is only a little amount!
Girl you look amazing after 2 children!!! What a neat concept, never even heard of it to be honest. I would love to lose 5 lbs before starting IVF and gaining a crap ton of weight. Might look into this today!! And I'm totally opposite about my husband being out of town. He's a health FREAK so he cooks all our meals when he's here but when he is gone I go crazy and eat like a fool!
Congrats on your weight loss – that is awesome!!!! Signing up for this sounds like it would definitely keep you motivated. Who wouldn't want to win some money?!
This is crazy cool! I'm going to check this out right now! And, congrats on your first game! Coming within 1 pound is awesome!
Oh my gosh, how cool is this?! So you have to take pictures of you on the scale for it to count so people can't cheat? That's awesome! Something that would totally motivate me to want to win too and lose the weight. So you decide how much you want to lose? or is the 4% of your body weight? So if you weight 100 pounds they want you to lose 4% of that?
I am definitely going to start this! I have needed motivation to lose weight and what's better than winning money?! I will be looking into this bet this weekend and hope to start it on Monday!
Sarah at MeetTheShaneyfelts
So fun! Any type of challenge like this helps me stay motivated!
That's awesome you lost 6 lbs!! What a fun challenge. Side note: I eat better when my hubby's gone too because I can get by one fresh veggies and a salad whereas he wants some kind of meat and full meal lol no wonder I was skinnier in college when I didn't have to cook for him!
You can see a huge difference in those 6 pounds! You look great girl! I still have 9 pounds hanging on from Leo, and want to be down an extra 10 from that for a wedding I'm standing up in in October and the scale just doesn't want to budge! I'm going to seriously look into this app, maybe just it's just the fire I need!
You look great!!! I follow Bri and always see them. I wanted to try them but am a tad bit intimidated by it! haha great motivation though 🙂
Awesome job Annie! I looooove this idea too!! We've been staying with my in-laws this month while house hunting so I've been eating so much better bc there are so many more sets of eyes watching me at the dinner table! I can't take 3 rolls or 2 helpings of lasagna in front of so many people!! lol!
Do Whole30 and your middle section will disappear. Oatmeal makes your belly fat stay–waayyyy too many carbs. Eliminate carbs from your diet and the weight will melt off. Go to Whole30 website and follow on instagram for easy recipies. Check out Life in the Green House for GREAT posts. Very life changing. You will fail and yo yo on these types of diets!
Yoyo on your type of diets!