Mmmm... Stakes

My Mom and I have decided that a challenge is in order. We are competing to see who of the two of us can lose 15 pounds first.

The challenge began less than a week ago, and in that time, Mom has started Phase One of the South Beach Diet (in which you can expect to lose up to 14 pounds in the first two weeks). I, on the other hand, have been to McDonalds roughly 5 times (their Sausage McMuffin with Egg is one of my many weaknesses). Something tells me that this challenge will end poorly for me.

Usually, challenges really work for me, as I am extremely competitive. The week we started our wellness challenge at work, I spent roughly 12 hours on the stationary bike (the challenge is based on minutes of activity). I think the lack of motivation in this challenge stems from one source: namely, that we have not decided what the stakes are (and now you understand the misspelling in the title).

Many ideas have been thrown out for the stakes:

1) Loser has to cook dinner for a month. This seems a little one sided, considering that for one, Mom would be doing that anyway, and for two, I will be moving out in the next couple months and even now only eat at home half of the time.
2) Loser has to clean the house regularly. Again, I am moving out soon, and me having to clean the house seems way worse than Mom having to clean my newly moved into (and therefore not gross yet) apartment.
3) If Mom loses, she has to watch a month's episodes of Glee with me. I didn't actually throw this one out there, because I feel like her dislike of the show would put a damper on my watching experience.
4) Loser has to buy a meal for the other. This one seemed counterproductive, as cakes and fried things were mentioned in the general conversation.


I am thinking about offering to do a lot of preparation for my parents' future garage sale (such as cleaning and fixing up items to sell and going through the attic) for my punishment. This would be a huge motivator to lose the weight as fast as possible, because I would genuinely hate preparing for a garage sale. My only concern in bringing it up is that I am definitely the underdog in this challenge.

Mom keeps saying that I should have to up my goal to 20 pounds, because the younger you are, the faster you can lose. What she keeps forgetting (on purpose, I imagine, because this way she has the upper hand), is that I already lost 30 pounds this year, so it is a lot harder for me to lose weight now. That, mixed with my lack of motivation and her South Beach Diet, put me at a definite disadvantage.

Wish me luck!