How I Accidentally Thought I Could Win The Gold's Gym Challenge

One of the things I wanted to measure this time around was not just my weight loss but the actual growth of my muscles, and shrinkage (I was in the pool!) of my waist. I'm not sure if it is a myth, but I feel like when I'm losing weight and gaining muscle, they are at least minimally cancelling each other out.

So I went down to the gym to have one of the trainers give me the full gamut of measurements...next thing I know I was tangled up in something I wasn't ready for...

While I was being measured (by an inaccurate electronic body fat % measuring tool) the trainer mentioned to me that there was a contest going on with prizes. Since I already knew I could lose 20 pounds fairly easily, I was intrigued. It cost just $65 to enter and it would "keep me motivated" to maintain my workouts. Suckers! Don't they know I'm already motivated!

A few minutes and 1 credit card swipe later I had a new t-shirt and was officially entered into the Gold's Gym Challenge. Taking home the prize was going to be a piece of cake. I was bragging to all the trainers how this would be a cake walk.

When I signed up I didn't know, but this is a 12 week contest. The problem this brings is that I typically only make it about 6 weeks before I get bored and move on. So, will this contest motivate me to keep it up for 12 weeks? We shall see, but my confidence level dropped about 50%.

Then, a few hours later, I started to do the math.  If I'm 175 pounds, and I want to weigh 155 pounds, that means I'm only going to lose 20 pounds! I don't want to go below that or be unhealthy skinny. No way 20 pounds is going to win this, definitely not in 12 weeks (3 months!). There is going to be some 300 pound guy who loses my entire body weight in 12 weeks!

Note: I looked up last year's winner from my gym and he lost 44 pounds...that would put me at like 130 pounds and I would blow away in the wind. Not gonna happen. 

The confidence in winning dropped to about a 2% grasp...

So now there is a new goal. The goal is not to win, but to keep up the pace for 12 weeks, or twice as long as I typically do. Hopefully being involved in this contest will be the motivation I need.

Wish me luck.