Healthy Competition?

Back in December, a friend and I were out to a decadent lunch when we came up with the idea for a weight loss competition. It seemed like a good idea - $25 buy-in per person...weigh-ins every two weeks...bi-weekly prizes....person with the highest percentage of weight lost at the end took the pot. Seems easy enough, right? I set up this great spreadsheet to help me track progress...send individual text messages to discuss goals. I thought I was prepared and was setting up a successful contest. I should have known better.

My first clue that this wasn't going to work out for my group was during the goal setting texts. Out of the women involved, I had the most amount of weight to lose. I looked at my calendar, counted my weeks and decided that a pound per week was healthy and ideal. No one else had that logic. Suddenly, I felt pressured to have twice the goal I had initially set for myself - I wanted to win, right?

Second clue - shortly after the goals were set, the excuses started. "I am at a disadvantage...I don't have a trainer." "I am at a disadvantage because I can't work out." "I have XYZ physical condition so I believe working out is impossible for me." "I weigh less than everyone else in this group, so I have no chance at winning." Lordy.

I'm not a fan of excuses. Ever. I have a pretty good reason for it - but that is a blog topic for a another post.

Week 1 went great. We were all encouraging each other, texts back and forth. It seemed great! Then the first weigh in happened. We all did pretty good...but smoked by the sleeper of the group. The one who said she wasn't able to work out...she somehow lost 10 pounds. Damn. OK. Paid the "fat tax," (another sign that this was going to be an epic failure...the use of the term "fat tax" for paying into the pot every two weeks...) and kept on trucking.

Week 4. Smoked again. What the heck? How is this possible. The Dark Horse was eating less than 700 calories each day!

For me, that piece of knowledge was the end of the competition. All signs were there from the get-go...but this was the straw. I couldn't put money into a pot that was supporting an eating disorder. I couldn't support destructive and extreme behaviors being employed to win a competition. So...I dropped out. I called an end to it. Everyone else was pretty much OK with it - but I still feel bad that I couldn't help the woman who was starving herself. I saw her just after our most recent weigh in - her eyes sunken into her face...her skin had a pale gray undertone. She didn't look good. And I worry.

So that led me to think - is there such a thing as a "good" weight loss competition? Does the term "competition" automatically imply that someone is going to abuse the system? If the goal is slow, steady and maintainable weight loss, does a competition with money on the line open the door for more drastic measures in an effort to win the prize?

I'm a little disappointed that this didn't work out for us. I had this vision in my head of a community. A forum.   A group of people who would band together and not focus on the end prize but instead encourage each other to lose a little more each week until we all reached our goal.

We are back to being on our own. I'm ok with that - actually - since my greatest competition is the sense of doubt that lives within.