Ten pounds of candy and no trick-or-treaters.
There is construction going on outside of my building which doesn't allow you access unless you know where the back door is and can navigate my building's catacombs, so I shouldn't be too surprised. And to be perfectly honest, I only had one trick-or-treater last year. I knew when I bought the ten pounds of candy it was going all to me.
***
Last week I weighed in at 200lbs, a new high. I walked around 175lbs in college, fought for the boxing team at 156lbs and around the time we moved to New York, I was 185-190lbs.
I can point the finger at getting older, at my job selling beer, my overall bad diet, or the fact that I don't run anymore.
Recently I've been trying to find time to go to the gym, and run, and I don't drink nearly as much when I get home as I did even a year or two ago. I even stopped buying ice cream at the supermarket. But I haven't gotten any lighter. So it was time to take what some may consider extreme measures.
I've signed up for a website called Stickk.com (yes, with two "k's"). It's a website that is supposed to help you reach your goals. If you want to quit smoking, run a marathon, et cetera... this is the place to do it.
I picked a goal: lose 15lbs in five weeks. For you math geniuses out there that is three pounds a week. The way Stickk encourages you to lose the weight, or whatever your goal may be, is by using incentives and stakes. Do you want to put money on achieving your goal? How much? Where does that money go? If you want all of your friends to know about it so they can encourage/discourage you, Stickk will let you do that.
I've picked Jacqui as my third party referee to make sure I hit my weekly weigh-in goals, and the website emails her to confirm.
And I've put money on this, what I consider a lot of money: $500.
Every week I don't hit my goal $100 goes to a "charity" or "anti-charity" of my choosing. I have chosen one anti-charity for all five weeks.
Later this week I will reveal which anti-charity I chose, and why.
There is construction going on outside of my building which doesn't allow you access unless you know where the back door is and can navigate my building's catacombs, so I shouldn't be too surprised. And to be perfectly honest, I only had one trick-or-treater last year. I knew when I bought the ten pounds of candy it was going all to me.
***
Last week I weighed in at 200lbs, a new high. I walked around 175lbs in college, fought for the boxing team at 156lbs and around the time we moved to New York, I was 185-190lbs.
I can point the finger at getting older, at my job selling beer, my overall bad diet, or the fact that I don't run anymore.
Recently I've been trying to find time to go to the gym, and run, and I don't drink nearly as much when I get home as I did even a year or two ago. I even stopped buying ice cream at the supermarket. But I haven't gotten any lighter. So it was time to take what some may consider extreme measures.
I've signed up for a website called Stickk.com (yes, with two "k's"). It's a website that is supposed to help you reach your goals. If you want to quit smoking, run a marathon, et cetera... this is the place to do it.
I picked a goal: lose 15lbs in five weeks. For you math geniuses out there that is three pounds a week. The way Stickk encourages you to lose the weight, or whatever your goal may be, is by using incentives and stakes. Do you want to put money on achieving your goal? How much? Where does that money go? If you want all of your friends to know about it so they can encourage/discourage you, Stickk will let you do that.
I've picked Jacqui as my third party referee to make sure I hit my weekly weigh-in goals, and the website emails her to confirm.
And I've put money on this, what I consider a lot of money: $500.
Every week I don't hit my goal $100 goes to a "charity" or "anti-charity" of my choosing. I have chosen one anti-charity for all five weeks.
Later this week I will reveal which anti-charity I chose, and why.
Ooh, hey, this is super lame of me to show up just because you mentioned StickK and I'm with a competitor, but, well, here I am!
ReplyDeleteI'm really curious to hear how this works for you. And I guess I can't help but mention that Beeminder is like StickK for data nerds, where the commitment contract is based on a graph of your progress: keep all your datapoints on a "yellow brick road" to your goal and you get charged if you ever go off track (automatically escalating amounts until you're forced to take it seriously). We're pretty sure it's way better, if you can get past all the nerdery!
So, I just got done checking out Beeminder, and I really love the idea of graphing progress. Being able to visualize numerical accomplishments sounds great to me. But if I could offer some criticisms:
ReplyDelete-Bethany seems like a really lovely person, but the video on your homepage is is a minute too long and doesn't quickly and clearly explain exactly what you guys are trying to do.
-If I don't hit my goals (or go off the yellow brick road) it seems pretty clear that you guys are the ones that get my money. Listen: I don't want anyone getting my money because I couldn't reach my goal, but I promise you I will fight a lot harder to make sure my goal is reached if (like with Stickk) my money is going to an organization that stands completely against some of my core beliefs ("anti-charity").
-Everybody lies. Your "self-regulation" is bogus. I would absolutely lie to your website about how much weight I lost if it meant you didn't get my money. You need some sort of third party to verify that your users are telling the truth (roommates, friends, etc).
Thanks for sending me to your website though. Again, I love the graphing and "yellow brick road" aspects a whole lot.