Betting on weight loss

My sister, Rachel, has been a really awesome resource for support & motivation as I've been on this journey to physical fitness. She is one of the healthiest, happiest people I know. So when I was whining talking to her about my plateau and being stalled in my progress she had ideas & suggestions to get me moving again. One of them was an article she read in Good Housekeeping magazine (linked here) about wagering/betting on weight loss and how it can assist in success. While I haven't read the whole article yet I have read enough to tell me that I WANT IN!!! I feel like I have been "competing" against myself so far & it has gotten me this far. Now I get to call on my competitive side (however underdeveloped it may be) and use THAT to get me the rest of the way.

So here's what I'm doing. I'm having mini-wagers against myself. Every 6 weeks I will mark on the calendar a goal weight (example; on Aug 7th I wrote 174 in bold, RED numbers). If that (or something lower!) is the number on the scale that morning I will get to go to my favorite nail salon and get a pedicure.

It is something that I already budget for but feel a little bit guilty about getting. I get to have an hour, to myself; away from my kids--it is SO lovely! But it is not necessary and therein lies the guilt. So now I am taking the guilt away by turning it into a reward for my hard work & sacrifice in getting fit.

I'm also going to see if Mark wants to get on board & do some wagers with him. He works really hard at what he does professionally but it is not a physical job (AT ALL) and I fear for his overall health. So I want to motivate him to get more fit & I think this will be a fun, easy way to go about it.

I've also talked with Rachel (the above mentioned, AWESOME sister) about a BIG wager between the two of us. Like I said, I feel like she is almost effortlessly healthy & thin. She LIKES to chop up TONS of veggies & make big salads every couple of days. I like EATING tons of chopped up veggies in big salads, obviously not enough to make one myself! She has been a runner for as long as I can remember. I first ran 1 mile non stop (in my LIFE) in December '09. She has a husband who works out regularly & is possibly more into healthy eating than she is. My husband has my same "love" of junk food & immobility. With all these differences it is almost no wonder that she has spent her entire life at a healthy weight (she would argue that she is well ABOVE a healthy weight right now but she is pregnant, TOTALLY excused!) and I have not. She is having her baby soon and is expecting to be cleared for working out by mid August. At that time we will compare weights & measurements (probably pictures too, it really is the BEST way to see progress in my opinion!). Then our wager will begin. We will probably be starting at a similar weight and our goal is to see who can reach Rachel's pre-pregnancy weight (135 pounds) first. This has LONG been my goal weight & I've always been a bit incredulous that I'll ever actually reach it. But I've also never had so much at stake before. I thought of (and Rachel agreed) that a good prize for the winner is a new pair of jeans, ANY jeans--EXPENSIVE jeans. I am going to go on record and say that I have NEVER owned designer jeans, I've always been too fat. It will be SO nice to be able to go shopping in a regular store and buy a pair of designer jeans that RACHEL has paid for! 

That's the deal, whoever reaches 135 pounds first gets the jeans & the 'loser" foots the bill! 

That's my new plan for success. Would it work for you?