What is the Free Times Loser?

Well, let's see.

The Free Times is the weekly alternative newspaper in Columbia, S.C. And some of us here at the paper have noticed a disturbing trend toward rotundity in our expanding paunches -- particularly those of us stuck behind our computer moniters for most of the day.

So we've decided to hold our own "Biggest Loser" contest, named after the NBC reality T.V. show that pits teams of overweight people against each other as they attempt to lose weight and snag a hefty monetary prize.

Our office contest begins Wednesday, Jan. 11 and will run for three months -- or 12 weeks of Hell on Earth here in the office (famine was one of the four horses of the apocolypse, you'll recall). We've nixed the teams: For the more competitive types, it'll be every man for himself. And there have been rumors that some of the more subversive members of the staff are already saving up to provide doughnuts and other temptations to help us stumble along the way.

As a member of the editorial staff, I've had my eye on weight loss for a while. This time of year, its a popular achievement to try to lose weight. Columbia held that Shrinkdown! event at the Colonial Center on Monday and more than 1,000 people signed up. Well, here at the Free Times, we're just as much slaves to pop culture as the rest of 'em. Though we like to think we're more good looking than most.

But I kid. If we really felt that way, we wouldn't be doing something as ridiculous as starving ourselves for 12 weeks in a competition in which the winner is really a big loser. But for some of us, myself top of that list, this competition is our last hope to keep from succumbing to the specter of obesity.

You see, I used to be thin. No really. In my late teens and 20s, I averaged a size 6 (in my late teens I dropped down to a size 1 at my thinnest). That's pretty damn tiny (not necessarily by anorexic Hollywood hottie standards, but still). I had a couple of kids, which didn't help, I went to college where every last minute of my free time was taken up by studying, which really didn't help, and I got a couple of sendentary office jobs, which pretty much did me in. The pounds packed on. Within 3 years I had ballooned to a size 14 and last year, I topped out at size 16.

I say topped out, because I've maintained a size 14-16 for the last couple of years. But enough is enough. I'm tired of telling people: "Oh, I used to be a size 6." They don't believe me (and to be honest, I'm beginning to wonder myself if I was ever that small). I see this contest as an opportunity to do something about all that. To take back my waist and my tight-fitting jeans and my old summer dresses and my old skinny bikinis. It's about damn time I did it, too.

And to make myself even further accountable, I plan to keep track of all my ups and downs, fat days and thin days, fears and hopes for the entire world to see right here on this blog. I hope you come and visit me here once in a while.

Ciao ~ Heidi