For the most part, I've really enjoyed this competition. I knew that with the "honor" system for weigh-in's I was worried that there might be someone out there sandbagging or lying about their weight. But as the competition wore on, I became more convinced that everyone was being truthful.

Until I woke up this morning.

I decided to check the board and see how the first place finisher ended up and to congratulate him. I was SHOCKED to see that I wasn't in 2nd any longer. It would be one thing if the guy in 3rd passed me. We'd been battling for most of the summer, but to have someone come out of 6th place? Is it possible to lose 8% in 3 days?

David "The Biggest Loser" apparently had some magic in a bottle that allowed him to go from 11.6% to 19.86% since WEDNESDAY. By his calculations, that's somewhere in the realm of going from 220 pounds to 199. He lost 21 pounds in 3 days! I hope their able to sew your arm back on properly dude.

I don't have ANY problem coming in 2nd when I know what the first place guy has and what the player behind me has, but to sandbag the entire competition and all it's competitors, and then claim some major dehydration trick and running a couple of miles allows you to go on a 21 pound bender is dishonest, disingenuous, and most of all plan wrong. I hope you enjoy your prize money David, you'll need it to come out of the coma your body must be in from losing all that weight miraculously at the end. And if for some reason, you did lie about your weight, maybe you can use the prize money to buy yourself a life.

God bless!

....beautiful friend....the end....

Great song by the Doors. Also, you can tell by my state of euphoria that I've actually just had my first bite of bad carbs and sugar in about 2 months. Tonight. Some margs! But then, back on track. Don't want to gain all 47 POUNDS I just lost back ever again. In fact. I almost wish they'd start another one of these in a few weeks. Only make it 3 months long instead. And maybe focus a bit more on Body Fat index rather than just pure weight. That'd prevent people from eating and drinking a bunch before weigh-in and then drying out and starving at the end. All in all, a great competition. I'll keep checking back if another one gets posted.

Win or lose, it's been fun, motivating, and exciting to be able to fit into some of my old pre-marriage clothes. To top of the competition, I played an hour and a half of raquetball last night and sat in the sauna this morning. Dropped a few pounds of water weight since yesterday so I'm hoping that makes up for however off my scale was during this. Looking forward to eating a little bit more as I marathon train and start to actually lift weights again as I've lost a bit of muscle mass. It's been fun! Gonna weigh in at lunch!

As I come to weigh in day, I'm forced to reflect what I did right and wrong in this competition. I've noticed there was never really a steady loss for me. My body, along with most others, goes through plateaus. I guess this is why that whole "muscle confusion" thing works. I would think that with all the running I'm doing at the end, the minimal diet, and the tons of water, that my weight would fall off. However, here at the end, that hasn't happened. So I'm ending on a plateau unfortunately, but have seen the errors in my ways and hope to set a goal of .5 to 1 pound weight loss per week from here on out. I figure by cutting back about 250 calories a day and by exercising at least 250 calories worth a day, I'll be getting my 3500 calories of fat. I'll also start to focus on muscle and strength training, as I feel like I've lost a lot of that in this competition (except for my legs!)
Congrats all! Hope to see pics after Friday, especially of the big winner!

timing is everything. This is setting up to be one of the more stressful weeks at work as we prepare for teachers and students to return next week. What a great time to be fasting! Actually, I'm not going to fast, as that has not worked in the past. My body goes into starvation mode and I don't lose anything weight wise. Gonna hope where I'm at minus a couple of pounds will be good enough for 1st or 2nd. We'll see.

Ran 6 miles this morning. Will do a cool down exercise tonight before tomorrow's long run. Getting ready for Half Marathon training that starts Aug. 14th. Think I'll be in pretty good running shape by then and I'll be able to keep the weight off despite the small splurge that is likely to happen after we weigh in this week.

Time to start planning for the end run at this thing. Only 8 days left! I've heard all sorts of crazy weighs to drop weight, but since I've had issues with heat stroke and dehydration in the past, I'm not going to do anything drastic. That said, I'm not going to fill up on water right before I weigh in either, but fasting and forced dehydration is an unhealthy way to do this. Rather not win if it meant I ended up dead or had to pay a ton in medical bills.

A big part of this challenge is drinking enough water. I'm almost sick of it, but it helps that we have a water cooler here at work. Not only does it curb hunger, but it lets me know that my weigh-in weight is my actual weight loss and not just drastic dehydration. I'd thought about fasting the last week, but I'll need energy to continue my exercise routine so I'm just going to continue what I've been doing the last 10 days and hope to keep the "pound a day" diet going from now until the end. I'd like to win 1st, but I'm not going to do any damage to my body to do that.

Great weekend, with a lot of working out, playing golf, and eating right despite SEVERAL invites to go out to eat. I was able to maintain and even lose a few lbs and actually reached my Monday goal (I was 8 pounds away from it last Monday)

So I'm down over 40lbs and feel like I still have a way to go to reach my goal. Unfortunately, there are less than two weeks left for this challenge and I don't think I'll reach my ultimate goal of 60 pounds by then. I'll have to continue when it's over to get there. Great to have clothes fitting lose and going to another notch in the belt.

Trying to use the weekend to catch up a bit. Just finished a 30 minute walk, followed by a 6 mile jog/walk/run. Gonna ride 10-12 miles tomorrow before walking 18 holes.

The diet has been going good, but had a bit of a draw back last night. Eating more than a 'normal' portion of pasta. Despite running 3 miles before hand and riding for 10 this morning on the bike, I ended up a little bit on weight. Sad thing is I actually dropped a pound the day before but didn't post it. So overall I'm even since Wed. but I'm hoping I don't hit another plateau.

I've been able to exercise a couple of times a day, and lookie there, I've finally come off my plateau. Amazing how that works, huh? Yesterday I did the elliptical in the AM and softball in the afternoon. Ran on Monday afternoon, and rode my bike for about 10 miles this morning. Planning on another run around the lake today. Hopefully I won't be hit by a bat, like last time. It was only the size of a small bird, but weird nonetheless.

Didn't put on any weight, but this plateau is disheartening. Hoping to crack the 250 mark by now and really make a run at 2nd place. As I look back on this challenge, I realize that weighing yourself everyday or every other day gives a lot of accountability, but can be discouraging when the scale doesn't change (or worse, goes up). The scary thing is, I feel like I haven't really exercised all that much. I guess that's a good thing, but if I had done a better job of exercising around ankle sprains, knee damage and a stomach virus, I might have had a shot at 1st. I'll keep trying, but I think the lead is too much to overcome at this point.

Took another road trip this weekend,tried to run a bit this morning but Houston is like a hot wet blanket. It's tough. Just trying to survive at this point with 3 weeks to go.

I knew I'd put back on a couple of pounds following the stomach bug. Now is where I really need to make the push. Ankle is feeling better, body is feeling better, and I'm going on a trip this weekend towards lots of food and fun and drinking. Gonna have to be extra good and sneak in exercise so i can drop the 2 pounds I just put on.

It's taken it's toll on the family. We can't go more than a few minutes from a bathroom. Especially fun when you have an 8-month old that decides to throw up at 3 in the morning as well. Don't come anywhere near this house! I only wish it was on Aug.14th, cuz then we'd really have a drop off.

So, the family got bitten by the GI bug that's going around. Didn't get to exercise much and ate poorly. Can't believe there's only 4 weeks left to this thing. Going to Lake Charles to gamble abit this coming weekend, so I need a great week and hope to drop a couple of more pounds. Not completely giving up on 1st place, but it looks like my best bet is to battle for 2nd from here on out as I can't seem to be consistent on exercise, eating, or anything. Still shooting for around 14-15% and hoping that finishes in 2nd, and definitely in the money.

So, my wife is much more of a swimmer than I am. She challenged me to swim a mile yesterday. With my ankle and body still sore from softball, I needed the low impact exercise. That did the trick! Not only did I get back on track with my diet, but the 1 hour and 15 minutes it took me to swim a mile (I'm not the fastest swimmer) helped me get back on track.

This contest has really made the plateau's in weight loss infuriating. The great thing is, I know exactly why I'm hitting a plateau at this point, and maybe that's what we should try to gain out of this. I plateau'd at 6% when I changed diet but not exercise, I plateau'd at 8% when I added exercise but didn't vary it enough, and this time, at 10% I've plateau'd again and I suspect it's due to the ankle injury I got on Saturday and the fact that I haven't been able to exercise. The great thing is, I've only gained a 1/2 pound, but that's scary how quickly it can come back on. I'm going to get the bike fixed this weekend, go swim, and hopefully, if all goes well, do some light jogging. I'll stick to the elliptical machine for now, as it doesn't seem to hurt too much. I need to re-introduce the AM work out too, that'll make a huge difference. If the 1st place competitor in this competition is anywhere close to accurate on his weigh-in's, looks like I'll have to adjust my goals of 15% loss. 20% might be needed to win. (57 pounds in my case!)

Stationary movement is necessary when you have a severe ankle sprain. I'm going to have to try bike riding and swimming this week until my ankle get's back in shape. It actually doesn't hurt too much, but it looks like a grapefruit and I can actually feel the swelling on it jiggle when I step. Pretty sick.

My wife and I have started to strike deals about what we want when this challenge is over. This has definitely made us change our lifestyle and eating habits and I hope we stick with those same habits when it's over. I for one, hope to begin half-marathon training on Aug. 13. It would be nice to be at 240 by then which is what I weighed when I ran the whole Marathon back in 03. Scary, but that would be almost a 50 pound weight loss from the beginning of this challenge. I'm close to 30 down now though with 5 weeks left, so hopefully I can drop another 20 between now and then.

Doing great, but just severely sprained my ankle during softball playoffs today. Since running is my primary form of exercise, this is going to make the final stretch tough. Hopefully it won't be too bad but it's already swollen to the size of a softball.

Now that I'm down 25 pounds, I've noticed how much easier it is to do exercise. I ran the lake today at around noon in the dead heat and did fairly well. Yesterday I walked an entire 18 holes and didn't get tired and actually scored fairly well. Tomorrow, my softball team will be in the playoffs. We'll have 2 games at 9 and 11 am, but if we keep winning we could play as many as 6 games tomorrow. Not super strenuous exercise but it is still standing, running in 105 degree heat.

guess the scales were off at the cabin. I know I had been exercising and eating right for the entire trip. I was happy to find that I had actually lost a few pounds upon my return. I'm guessing some of it is do to travel dehydration though. This weekend I'll really try and push to break my next major plateau area.

Pretty successful vacation but I kind of over did it the last couple of days and have fallen a bit. Will try to get back on track when I return tomorrow. 10 hours sitting in a car won't help

Still on vacation and in the mountains of new Mexico enjoying some rain and 70 degree temps. Been hiking each day for exercise but no Internet means I have to quick blog via iPhone.

Haven't been eating bad. But haven't been eating enough right foods. Not enough proteins, healthy snacks, veggies. And not enough strenuous exercise. Got on my dad's official fancy scale and it showed I was gaining weight. I hope it's just water retention.

Despite a tremendous diet, and a ton of workouts, I put on a couple pounds this weekend. And now I'm about to begin a 12-hour road trip. Well, at least I got up to 2nd at one point! I'll be using a guest scale for the next week, so I'm sure my weight will fluctuate a bit until I return. That and I'm on vacation!

So I'm off work the next two weeks on vacation. For most people this could spell trouble, however, since my job is a prime source of bad calories and inactivity, I think this is my chance to really kick it into high gear. My ankle is almost 100% as a I ran/walked for an hour and half yesterday in the 107 degree heat. I can almost feel the weight melting off. I'll be using someone else's scale the next two weeks and I'll have to go to a truck stop to get the internet to weigh in as there isn't any in the mountains where I'm heading. I think it'll take around 15% weight loss to be in the top 5 which is insane. (although not considering that one guy is already past 8%) Good luck all, and I'll see you on the other side of vay-cay...

My family are a bunch of eaters. We go out to eat almost every night we're in town. I survived Salt Lick, but Pizza? Italian food? Mexican food? This might be the end for me. Then we travel to Ruidoso for the best breakfast place, The Log Cabin and their giant pancakes. I'm in trouble....

Despite the trip to the Salt Lick. I managed to just eat some turkey. That was rough!
Started really working out sometime last week. Ankle is still sore, but will continue to find ways to work out around it, even though my favorite way, running, is a little difficult. The first 15-18 pounds has come off quickly but I think I'm about to hit the wall.

Walked into Hut's for our usual Wednesday 2-for-1 night. Wife got the veggie burger and I got the Buffalo burger which is leaner and actually tastes a lot better than regular beef. However, the bartender upon seeing me walk in had my Miller lite waiting for me. I'll have to work on saying no to that.

Played half-court bball yesterday for the first time in a dozen years....Still have some moves, but man my body is outta shape and that muscle memory from back in the day wasn't there. Hope to start playing a regular game, b/c it's a great way to work out for 1 and 1/2 hours as long as my ankle holds up.

1 week in and I've lost 10 lbs. Unfortunately, since I was at such a high weight to start, that's only a small percentage. I also know that was mostly late put-on weight and the next 10 will be a lot tougher. My ankle injury threw off any chances of working out, aside from swimming, but the good news is that I lost the weight with diet alone and I ate the right foods. This week I'll start to do some more rigorous exercise mixed in with sports (basketball today, softball tuesday - where I hope not to get hurt again). If our daughter will sleep through the night, I might start getting the energy to get up and work out in the mornings too. Maybe tomorrow....

Not a great start when right after I weighed in on Tuesday, I turned my ankle playing softball. As a result, I haven't gotten off to a good start. I've been able to adjust my diet, but need to introduce exercise back in my life if I want to have a shot at this thing.

Using the Livestrong website and iPhone app to track my calories. Noticing I eat a lot of sodium and cholesterol. Going to have to reintroduce this thing called "fruit" back into my diet if I want to have a chance at this thing. I figure the first 10 or so pounds will be the easiest. After that, is when the real work comes in.

I have to admit, I've been anxious to get this started since signing up for it almost a month ago. Now I see so many people on it, should be quite a challenge. I was majorly stressed when I couldn't weigh in on Monday. One more day of rest and eating whatever I want I guess. Last night it became official. My plan of attack....eat whatever my wife tells me :-)