My metaphorical $5,000 donation

I was listening to a Radiolab podcast the other day called You v. You. They were talking about addictions and how people had overcome them. They started with a story of a woman, Zelda Gamson, who after 30 years was finally able to give up smoking. She accomplished this by telling her really good friend that if she ever smoked again, even once, her friend had to take $5,000 of this woman's money and donate it to the Ku Klux Klan. As a avid supporter of human rights, that was an organization she would fight hard to keep her money away from. It worked. She never smoked again.

I had heard stories like this before, about donating to a cause you despised if you didn't get something done, but the explanation why it works gave me an aha moment. When you are in your greatest primal need for whatever your addiction is, you need to have a strong consequence staring you in the face making you choose between your addiction or something really bad. If you smoke, even once, $5,000 is going to the freakin' KKK. No wiggle room. No mercy. No excuses.

The light totally went on for me. I realized that if I really want to do well at my weight loss plan I need to get really serious about it and stop cutting myself so much slack. Something bad has to happen if I leave my plan even once. Once I start making excuses or thinking it doesn't matter if I eat such-and-such I'm hopping back on the yo-yo train heading in the wrong direction.

So I started thinking. What should my metaphorical $5,000 donation be? After much stewing I came up with the perfect solution for me.

A boxed set of "the biggest names in country music from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, performing their biggest hits LIVE." Eight discs, seven and a half hours of straight country music. Pure hell. For me.

So this is the deal that I have worked out for myself. I have just signed up for West Jordan's Biggest Loser contest. It starts a week from today, January 17th, with a final weigh-in on April 24th. I want to do well at this contest. So from today until the final weigh-in on April 24th I am going to log in everything that I eat on loseit.com. I will be completely accountable for everything I put in my mouth. If I go over my alloted calories any day during this time, even just one day, I have to use my own personal Christmas money to buy this boxed DVD set of country music. Even typing this is making me start to freak out. But I'm going to do it. I promise here and now that if I slip up, pretty much every cent of my Christmas money will be used to buy something that irritates the vomit out of me. And not only do I have to buy the darn thing, I have to watch it. All seven and 1/2 hours of it within a week of it arriving at my house. But if I succeed, not only will I get to keep my Christmas money that I truly love more than almost anything, I will also be rewarded with a board game of my choice. I'm thinking this one:

So at any point when I feel like giving up, or not caring, or "cheating". I have a choice. If I choose too many calories I'm going to be broke and watching country songs. If I choose to be strong I get a new game and to keep my money. Simple as that.

I'm not planning to set myself up for failure. Notice I am not saying anything about how much weight I want to lose. The amount of weight I lose is out of my control. But I can control my food intake and exercise. I'm only going to restrict myself to the calories loseit recommends for losing weight gradually. In addition, I plan to go under 150 calories every day so that one day a week I can have a "splurge" day and use up to 1000 extra calories. I'm going to want a piece of cake on my son's birthday, and this way I can. I have successfully lost weight counting calories and exercising, and I know that this is completely do-able.

So that's my plan. I would love some positive peer pressure to go along with this. If you are willing to stop by my blog from time to time during the next couple of months and check up on me, would you please comment on this post or like it post on Facebook? You don't have to post comments or do anything. It just helps to know that you are watching. I plan to update this blog with my progress, and if I have to buy that awful DVD set, you will hear about it here. You can also add me as a friend on loseit if you want and watch my daily progress.

I'm a little nervous committing to this, but I think it will turn out to be a really good thing for me. Wish me luck!