Weigh In No. 3

Weight 167

Things have heated up around here. We've had some upturned tables and a few surprises. The Big Loser has plateaued but to her credit, she's looking really good. And anyone who works out a lot is going to have a week or two where their muscle-building weight outweighs their fat loss. That's not a bad thing (but it is one reason why a competition like this is a little illusional).

However, one person is quickly pulling ahead. We'll call her Miss Competitive. Miss Competitive didn't have much to lose to begin with, but she's already 13 pounds up and doesn't seem to be quitting anytime soon. She's overtaken Big Loser (who's at 12.5), and I'm not sure exactly what her strategy is beyond eating well and cutting out the alcohol.

As for me, well, I've lost a solid six pounds in three weeks. It's not much, and it's not enough to win the competition, but it's a start. And it's not bad considering there a few of us who've actually gained weight. (Those are the people who, let's just say, aren't taking the game all that seriously.)

I'm having trouble getting into a routine. My hectic schedule won't allow for exercise time until around 9 p.m., which is when I'm getting in some crunches, push ups, squats and a little kickboxing. It's not enough obviously (and I've only been doing it a couple times a week). I'm convinced that if I can lose six pounds just eating less and exercising minimally, that I could lose a lot of weight if I exercised regularly (and continued eating well).

It's a simple thing really. All I have to do is get up at 6 or 6:30 in the morning and go running. Thousands of people do it every day in this city, I know. But I have two things holding my back: I hate to run. Always have, and chances are good I always will. And I'm not in the best shape so the first few weeks (at least) will be hell. I'm not very good at sucking up and doing stuff. Obviously. I'm much better at whining eloquently about it on blogs.

I hate running so much that I decided that the best thing for me to do would be to drop $50 a month on a kickboxing class that's held twice a week in the evenings. Yesterday was the first class. But right before I was heading out the door to leave, my 13-year-old called me five times in the space of 10 minutes to complain about a number of things, all of which had to do with the fact that I was going to class and not coming home right away to mother him.

So, I gave up on the class. I'm a little disappointed because I know it's the motivation I need to get moving. But I'm not too upset considering I won't be dropping $50 a month after all. It has also enlightened me to the fact that even though I've dropped $35 a month on a gym membership for two years, which expires Feb. 7, I will never go to the gym. With kids at home, evenings are a wash, and if I'm not going to wake up in the wee hours to go running, I sure as hell am not going to wake up in the wee hours to go the gym. It's the same difference.

So, I'll also be saving another $35 a month come Feb. 7. I now have two options to win this thing. Buck up and get my ass out there and run, or spend the money I was sending to the gym each month on some sort of gym equipment - a treadmill, most likely - that I can use in my home where my kids will be comforted knowing I'm nearby and I can still use while reading or watching TV or doing some other activity that I always end up doing instead of exercising like I should.

So we'll see if anything changes over the next week or so. One thing's for sure, if I keep up this slow and steady pace, I'll do fine. We have 12 weeks in the intitial competition and if I lose just 1 pound a week from now until we're finished, I will have lost 15 pounds and that's not that bad, after all.