Wednesday Weigh-In No. 1

Previous Weight: 172
Current Weight: 168.5

Anything new is exciting -- at first.

There were at least a half-dozen staffers waiting in line eager to be weighed first thing this morning. And it surprised me, honestly. I was nervous as hell. Probably because I wasn't prepared and I didn't know what to expect the scale to say. I hadn't done anything except eat less all week (and do a few crunches, lunges and squats before bed last night) and I knew there were plenty of people, unlike me, actually taking this thing seriously.

And those people were lined up in front of Kevin, our self-appointed administrator of this "what have we gotten ourselves into" contest. I have to give a quick shout out to Kevin for being a good sport. He's not participating in the weight loss game; he just keep track of all of our weights (I don't even want to think about the power over us that knowledge has given him).

Luckily for this blog, I sit just a few short feet from Kevin's weigh-in station and I get to watch the Wednesday morning goings-on. It's better than front-row seats to an Oprah show (although anything, really, including front-row seats to a Toby Keith concert, would be better than the Oprah show. Well, it might be a toss-up between Oprah and Toby Keith, but still).

It was amusing, really, how many "woo-hoos" were sounded and how many high-fives were slapped. All in all, it was a decent start for most of us. The majority of us seemed to have lost a cool 3 pounds each, with one person actually gaining a couple of pounds, and one serious competitor losing 8 pounds. (Her secret weapons: a treadmill and the Zone diet.)

Another little tidbit I picked up on came from a conversation between the Big Loser and Another Coworker as they stood in line to be weighed. Another Coworker is attending classes presented by this nutritionist guy who insists that weight loss can be accomplished by eating right and exercise has nothing to do with it. Someone else who heard that conversation commented that she's not sure if Another Coworker really believes that, or was just hoping to undermine the other competitors by fooling them into thinking they didn't have to exercise. However, Another Coworker did lose several pounds this week (though only about half what Big Loser lost), so time is going to have to be the judge on that one.

See, I mentioned before that this blog is going to be filled with drama. It's just now beginning to manifest. There are some staffers who are taking it slow and easy -- easing into dieting as if they can somehow trick their bodies into accepting their new diet. They are banking on the assumption that most, if not all, the other competitors will plateau after a few weeks and/or fall down on their diet and exercise routines. Others are plunging into the game head-first with subscriptions to diet programs or workshops. And still others already are making plans to deviously undermine everyone else's hard work -- ice cream shakes anyone?

Me? I have a diversified plan - eat a little, exercise a lot and don't get discouraged. I've tried to lose weight enough times before to know what I have to do to win this thing. My problem, however, has always been that I lose motivation a few weeks into it. Still, I have a trick or two up my sleeve (and I have no intention of publishing those tricks here, yet).

My two biggest fears are these: First, that I won't be able to muster the motivation to make it to the finish of this thing (simply because of my track record, no pun intended). Second, that there are much more competitive competitors on staff (and I know there are) who will starve and/or beat themselves six sizes smaller to win this. Either way, I'm screwed.

But it's all in good fun, right?