Thoughts for Thursday | My first Diet Bet

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!

An InLinkz Link-up