And the Envelope Please, the Biggest loser is..

The Biggest Loser results are in………….  And I am proud to say, I came in second place, losing a good 34.7 pounds,  One person who didn’t weigh in the whole time came in a beat me by one pound and a half.  When I first heard it thursday afternoon, I was really disappointed.  I became even more disappointed when I heard the rumours how they did it.  I wanted to win badly and I wanted to do it the right way.  But I realized that my journey isn’t about these six weeks and I still lost 34.7 pounds in six weeks.  not bad.  People entered this competition for a majority of reasons, money being at the top of the list.  So people were willing to do a lot of things to win, that I was not.  They are thinking about doing another one at the end of the year.  After talking to Harvey, the contestant who came in second in percentage and listening to his ideas – I combined some of his with mine and have the following suggestions for the next competition or for any other job looking to implement this into their company.  And if you do own a business or are in leadership in your company, I do recommend doing something like this.

A.  Six weeks are to short. – extend to 12 weeks.  It should eliminate people doing it for the wrong reasons or trying to cheat their way to victory.  I reduced my calories for one day and it was hard, 12 weeks will nearly be impossible.  Trying to gain an edge by gaining weight before competition.  I caught everyone except one because I was steadily losing 5-6 pounds a week, another week or two I would have caught the last person.

b.  Give everyone a prize for participation.  I can only believe that naturally there would be a drop off as the weeks went on, so to combat that,  give everyone who loses one pound by the end $10 dollars, with the condition that they weigh-in once a week.  If they lose at least 10 pounds during the 12 weeks raise the prize to $25.  Why must they lose one pound?  Because you are trying to create a healthy atmosphere.  So you don’t reward someone who doesn’t try to lose and just shows up to weigh-in.  And 10 pounds is less than a pound a week, So give a little extra for those who try really hard but can’t lose a lot of weight.

c. Penalize those one don’t participate.  You still have the option of weigh-in weekly, but for every week you miss a weigh-in – you are penalized a pound for each weigh-in you miss.  You can give one or two free passes to each person if you wish, not to penalize someone one vacation or sick.

d.  Prizes the are worth while.  From my calculation the winner lost 36+ in six weeks on pace for 72+ pounds in 12 weeks.  72 x 5 =  360.  Lets be realistic that someone is going to keep that pace all 12 weeks.  Make 1st place $300 or $5 per pound, 2nd place $200 or $3 per pound and 3rd place $100 or $2 per pound.  You get which ever is greater.  The same would go for percentage.

This is just one man’s suggestions.  But Bravo to Chris and Jackie and Parxs and the rest of the HR team for doing this.  The most important part was that they wanted to instill a healthy attitude at Parx.  And they are on their way to doing that.  For everyone else, take a page out of Parx book and create healthy living at your place of business.

Just remember we all are on journeys, some weight, others maybe career, depression, or just to find out who you are, etc…. No matter what journey your on, I wish you the best.  As for me, I might not be the biggest loser but….

the journey continues…….