What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

Last week I received a phone call. "I have a funny question," the sweet and somewhat pensive voice said.

"Funny, hahaha, or funny, weird?" I quipped. (I'm sure she's never heard such a clever remark.)

"Funny weird.... Would you like to be on a team for a weight-loss contest through the paper?" The voice was still sweet, but maybe a little less sweet.

Honestly, it didn't bother me. She and I had talked about the fact that I wanted to lose some weight. I didn't really want to lose that much weight, but I figured that it couldn't hurt. The contest pits teams of three against each other to see which team can lose the greatest percentage of their original body weight. Each team is sponsored by a company. The team members can win a financial incentive, and the sponsoring company can win a half page ad.

So yesterday I went to a weigh-in and had my picture taken. Apparently, this contest is the material for an entire special section of the paper. Great. I wasn't skimpy on clothing or jewelry. I would like to think that this method was effective because their scale deemed me five pounds heavier than mine. I don't like their scale.

For the next 16 weeks, I'll be working my rear off (hopefully, literally) to see just how much weight I can lose. I'll keep you updated. I was going to provide you with a before pic, but I'm bundled up in all of my recent pictures. You'll just have to pretend to be impressed with the after picture. You have a few weeks to work on your surprised typing.