Monday, February 05, 2007
Biggest Loser Weigh-In
It's getting harder and harder to update this weblog lately. My apologies. I'm really going to concentrate some time this week on updating all of the posts I've been putting off too long. This one, however, is very recent. I wasn't even going to post about it, but it does tell a bit about life on the Ice especially for me, which is what this blog is all about.When I first arrived in Denver for training, I met this guy named Atlas... yes, Atlas is his first name. I don't remember much about the first few days of knowing him, except that he had a cool name. I'm not even sure how I found out about the group he was starting down here, but there were posters plastered all over station within two weeks of arriving on station advertising something called McMurdo's Biggest Loser (aka MBL). I started asking him about it and got more information. We had a meeting where Atlas told us his idea to start a weight-loss support group on station.
The phrase "support group" leaves an icky taste in my mouth usually, but after hearing horror stories of how people put on weight like crazy down here I was really interested. I was already down 12 pounds before I got here and couldn't imagine gaining again. The meals are buffet-style. Not just some of the meals, all of the meals. And they're made to feed the people who work outdoors all the time... it's rumored that the food is based on a 5,000 calorie diet.
Atlas's great plan included daily emails, a monthly discussion group, and a little incentive to keep it up. Everyone that was interested threw in $100, and we all weighed in at Building 140 on the calibrated scale in September. Even people that weren't interested in the money weighed in. Atlas offered to do measurements for those that were interested in seeing how many inches they lost.
The discussion group was great, but we only ended up meeting once or twice. We talked about what worked for us and what didn't. People were able to offer suggestions for breakfast choices or exercise routines. We got together for walks once in awhile, but people had lots of things going on and weren't always able to get together.
I only worked out once this whole season. I was just too tired at the end of the work day to go to the gym. Some nights I would go out on hikes, thanks to my roommate Helen and my friend Ralph (who always gave a disclaimer that he took a percentage if I won and also offered to get me a tapeworm for Christmas). I watched what I put on my plate in the Galley. I stuck to the one piece of bread rule almost every single day. I tried to ignore the dessert section even though it called out my name more than a few times a week. I had a few friends that were dining attendants yell at me if I took more than one cookie on Cookie Day (Wednesday lunch), and other people in MBL would comment on what was on your plate. When I got up the guts to browse the store's offereings, Kelly an MBL-er works in the store, would always comment on that weekly bag of Cheetos I bought (which kept me from buying more of them each week). I thought about all of the steps I walked for work and tried to be as inefficient as I could be to walk more than I really needed to. A whole lot of thought and effort went into it.
But it was worth it. I started to notice my work pants slipping down by the time I got to work in the morning. When I had to hold them up to run somewhere, I knew it was time for a belt. Not only was I holding them up, but I was RUNNING! I hadn't done that in a long time. People started to make comments. Very randomly one day, my co-worker Peter told me "You walk faster now." When I first got here, I remember being 40 paces behind Peter sometimes. Now I keep up with him. One of my co-MBL-ers started calling me Skinny. My belt cinched up tighter and tighter each week. I had to tie a few knots in my navy blue work pants to keep 'em up. I checked my weight on one particular scale every other week, but it didn't really hit home until the big weigh-in last week.
Friday the 2nd of February was our big end-of-season weigh-in. A group of us Win-fly/Summers were all around to weigh in together. When they told me my weight I screeched a little bit. I definitely wasn't expecting to hear that I had lost 25 pounds; I was figuring I was just under 20. This picture was taken just after Atlas told me how much I weighed.
There was a bit of a discussion earlier last week as to whether or not a contestant should be allowed to weigh-in off the Ice using a different scale. Emails flew back and forth, back and forth between contestants. I suggested that if the contestant off the Ice won, that the pot be split between them and the winner here. The Summer (October-February) contestants had a $500 pot, but the Win-Fly/Summers (August through February) were going for a $1200 chunk of change. Atlas had a decision to make.
Fast forward to tonight's awards presentation. We talked about what worked for us and what didn't. We talked about keeping it up off the Ice. Some think it will be easier and some think it will be harder (I'm one of those). Finally we ended with the big announcements. The good news was that everyone who put money in for the competition LOST WEIGHT!! The Summer season winner lost 28 pounds and went home with $500. Atlas announced a tie between two Win-fly/Summers because of the big debate with the off-the-Ice weigh-in, and so just to make it fair he decided to split the money between the contestant off the Ice and the winner here. And I tied for first! I'll post a picture of me in the T-shirt I also won.
Now I just have to figure out what kind of camera I'm going to buy with my winnings!!
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Wow, Congratulations!
I bet not going out to eat at Northwoods or Cancun every Tuesday has helped a bit too!