About this time for the past few years my office usually does the “Biggest Loser” weight loss challenge but I was sad to find out they wouldn’t be doing it this year. A friend of the wife approached a group of people and asked if they’d be interested in doing something similar and I responded immediately with a yes. The challenge for me isn’t about winning or losing, but about achieving goals (with a little incentive at the end for the biggest loser). It’s about commitment, lifestyle changes, goals with rewards and all that drive our inner competitive nature to be the best that we can be. This particular challenge is health driven and those participating will be losing weight in a healthy manner. This is the best part as I’ve been in other contests where individuals have gone to the extremes and used diet pills or even dehydration to the point of being sick for several days after the competition. While these individuals may have won the competition, they failed the test. See, the objective was to make a healthy lifestyle change and stick to it. While they dropped the weight in record time, I’ve revisited those individuals and they have gained it back and then some. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to win, but the way I look at it is if you’ve committed to participate in the challenge then you’ve already won.

Do you have plans for a healthier New Year? What changes have you made to make it happen?