“Power of Ten” Challenge is Over!!

We have had the final “weigh-in” for the “Power of Ten” holiday challenge that I presented to the membership of MedX last October. The challenge was to lose ten pounds within the first month and then to keep that weight off through the holiday months. It’s been interesting to watch this challenge develop as each official “weigh-in” week approached.

In October I remember coming off a series of articles that focused on “creeping obesity” and the national obesity crisis that is facing our healthcare industry. I also remember wanting to personally lose ten pounds that were just sitting on my hips and thighs with the realization that the holiday eating months were just around the corner. So I came up with the “Power of Ten” Challenge, the goal of this challenge is to lose ten pounds during the first month and then keep those ten pounds off for the next three months. Challengers will weigh-in every month and put $10 into the winner’s pot. Challengers will also pay additional dollars for weight that is not lost and/or gained back throughout the four months.

That’s how it was presented and started. I figured that $10 is essentially nothing, but enough of something to motivate or to sustain the “weigh-in” challenge. Here’s what happened, initially 45 people signed up and weighed in during the month of October. Wow, I was surprised that there were that many individuals (both male and female) that also wanted to lose weight during the holiday months and keep that weight off. Guess how many finished? Seventeen! This is what’s been on my mind the last four to six weeks of this challenge as I noticed so many individuals not coming in to follow-through with the challenge. What was going on?

Here are my thoughts. First of all, I think I started the challenge a little hasty with the proposed “10” pounds to be lost the initial month. Out of the initial 45 challengers only a few actually accomplished this initial “10” pound weight loss. It was hard to do! My philosophies behind that “jump start” included; First, usually when individuals lose “initial” weight (in any weight loss program) there are two to four pounds of fluids that immediately drop off the body, therefore we were only looking at six to eight “core” pounds to lose until the second weigh-in. Losing only 6 to 8 pounds in a month is not unhealthy and not unrealistic at the beginning of any weight loss program. Second, my experience with weight loss and members is that most of us need that initial “shock” and “focus” even if it was a little hard to reach. If we knew what needed to be accomplished and we only had four to five weeks to get there, just maybe we could focus long enough to reach this short term goal. Maintaining that weight loss was to be only an afterthought (for three consecutive months) once the weight was lost.

Then November and December were upon us and we were into maintenance mode. Whatever was lost whether it was two pounds or 12 pounds, you now had a new “set-weight” that you had to maintain throughout the remaining months of the challenge. We also decided to break the challenge into two distinct groups, one that wanted to continue with greater weight loss goals and those who just wanted to maintain their weight throughout the holidays. However, by the month of December we’d lost more than half of the challengers. To worry or not to worry? I’m still trying to decide.

Out of the seventeen finishers, it was split just about straight down the middle between these two groups. The overall winner ended up losing 25 pounds during our four months which attributed to 15% body weight and the second place finisher lost 22 pounds (10%). All the others in the “weight-loss” group lost no less than 11 pounds and kept all the pounds off during the holidays. The nine individuals who continued to “weigh-in” all ended up simply maintaining their body weight. None of the “maintenance” group ended up ever losing ten pounds, in fact most of them ended up within three pounds up or down from their initial weight.

I’m not exactly sure why 28 people dropped out of the challenge. I’m assuming that holidays, schedules, traveling and other issues came into play. It might have been that the “Challenge” focus kind of “developed along the way” as the weigh-ins occurred each month and I was able to see how to make this challenge sustain itself through the holidays. When we do it again next year, I think I’ll take the focus off of the ten pounds and keep the focus on the maintenance of body weight (with an initial “challenge” of something), because that’s where the concern lies with “creeping obesity.” It creeps up on you one year at a time, one decade at a time, one pound at a time and we need to stop it.

I am so proud of all of our challengers that completed the four months whether it was with overall weight loss or just by maintenance. It was a challenge worth every penny! Congratulations!

 

Deborah Holmes

January 29, 2008