A Big Ol’ Slice of Humble Pie

As we all know, I AM a clean eater. It pretty much goes without saying at this point that I’m just always eating all the right things. My diet regularly consists of McDonald’s and Coca-Cola and as a result, I’ve never once had issues with weight. Well, when the pandemic struck I found myself failing to get the exercise I once was. As a result of this lack of regular walking, running, and swimming and completely UNRELATED to my clean eating habits, I gained a little bit of weight.

Well, over Labor Day Weekend last year, our near and dear friend, Kamber, who you would’ve most recently seen in Hawaii: Day Three amongst the other seven Hawaiian posts, told me all about this challenge she was taking part of on this app called HealthyWage.

HealthyWage is an awesome weight loss app where you wager a bet on yourself towards a weight loss goal. You must lose no less than 10% of your weight over a period of time ranging from six to eighteen months. Then pending you achieve victory, you win all your bettings back PLUS EVEN MORE MONEY that is based on the pounds you’re attempting to lose and the money you’re wagering on yourself! Sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it? I definitely thought and think so.

Needless to say, after seeing Kamber’s dedication to her challenge and knowing that she stood to win over $1,000 if she succeeded, I knew that this was most definitely something I also wanted to do. So on September 11, 2020, I enrolled myself in my own HealthyWage competition. I bet $30 a month over seven months that I would lose 10% of my body weight, or in this case, 17 pounds. I weighed in that evening at 177 and by April 11, 2021 I needed to weigh 160, which is coincidentally what I weighed for years prior to 2020. Should I succeed, I would recoup my $210 wager, plus receive an additional $269 in winnings for a grand total of $479! I. WAS. PUMPED.

Right out the gate I entered myself into an ADDITIONAL challenge where I wagered ANOTHER $30 a month for two months that I could increase my daily step count by 25%! I had to achieve 492,000 steps by the end of the sixty day challenge or 8,200 steps a day average. I was religious about getting my steps in and had little to no trouble achieving success. I took so many laps around the Disneyland of Illinois: Wilson Park, that I was able to walk that path with my eyes closed and never miss a beat!

After my sixty days elapsed, I won back my $60 bet and also took home an additional $29, not a whole lot more in winnings, but the amount won was based off how many other winners there were in my challenge and luckily for the 120 of us involved, nearly 80 of us found success. I was riding high and feeling good, so I had no doubt at that time in November that come April, just like Britney Spears in her 2001 Pepsi campaign, I too would taste the victory!

Immediately following the success with my steps, I added a personal trainer to my routine. He was a former coworker of mine from The Men’s Wearhouse who also did personal training. The first two weeks were terrific for me! I will never forget that on our third session together, he contorted my body and stretched me out so much that over the course of the next three days I POOPED TWENTY-TWO TIMES! That was honestly an insane seventy-two hours, but just like that iconic song by John Mellencamp, it hurt so good!

By Britney Spears birthday (December 2, hello.) I weighed 169 pounds and was feeling fantastic about losing the remaining nine by April 11. Around that time though, after just a month of us working out together, I decided to part ways with my trainer. Long story short: it was no longer fun for me.

Despite losing the enhancements I received from my personal training sessions, I still felt absolutely confident I would become stronger than yesterday while achieving my HealthyWage. To ensure my success though, I decided to do the unthinkable and make a change to my life that I never once considered, but thought necessary to ensure my road to victory remained smoothly paved.

For the first time in my entire life, I quit drinking my beloved Coca-Cola and all soda in general. For two months I managed to not drink a single drop of my typical clean drinking regime and instead consumed nothing but unsweetened iced tea anywhere I dined. Please note that I regularly drink water as well, but that’s always an aside to my main drink. It was agonizing foregoing my beloved, but I deemed it essential for my success.

I’d convinced myself that by choosing the dietary habits of those who believe soda and such to be unhealthy, I would be able to lose the remaining nine pounds. I even started getting 32 ounce smoothies from Smoothie King regularly as my lunches versus my beloved McDonald’s or SugarFire Barbecue or any such place. There were two variety of smoothies I typically alternated between, the Veggie Superfood Immune Builder and the Banana Passionfruit Metabolism Boost, each only had around 400 calories. I figured this was a better alternative for my lunch than the usual 1,200 calorie meal I’d of got just about anywhere else.

Side Note: I feel the recommended 2,000 calorie a day diet is honestly not at all realistic. Someone should really reevaluate that because there’s just no way, but anyway, I digress.

Believe me, no one wishes more than I that the ending of this story was one of jubilation and celebration, but alas, it’s most certainly not. April 11 rolled around and I found myself weighing in at 167 pounds. I’ve never been one for desserts outside of ice creams and cheesecakes and yet here I am eating a big ol’ slice of humble pie. Yes, I lost ten pounds, but I also lost my challenge, so suffice it to say, I bit off more than I could chew.

Every step of the way I felt confident I was going to taste the victory. I even posted a handful of inspirational (mostly to myself) Instagrams to continue encouraging my drive. Even after dropping my personal trainer, I still maintained going to the gym three or four days a week and continued doing many of the same things we did together. I’m not saying changing my eating habits is what cost me my success, but I should’ve known better than to abandon the clean eats and drinks that have propelled me through twenty nine years, or however old I am, of life!

By no means do I feel embarrassed to acknowledge this loss, but after having spent seven months talking up this challenge, I couldn’t just pretend it didn’t happen because I didn’t get my desired outcome. I was planning on just posting an Instagram acknowledging my loss, but my near and dear friend Jamie thought a blog would be better, clearly I agreed.

Well, as always, THANK YOU so very much for reading my latest! PLEASE feel free to leave me a comment below as you know I LOVE reading and responding to them! My birthday is May 1 and my brother’s May 2, so I’ll be back oh-so-very soon with a birthday blog tribute to him! I’ve decided I’m staying 29 this year and he’s still turning 33, so it’s pretty wild that he’ll now be 4 years older than me. Anyway, I absolutely cannot wait for you to see it, but until then, I wish you all THE BEST!