Dum, dum, dum, DUM! And the winner is...

Sun Productions! (Do you want me to reveal your real name Ms. Sun Productions?)

She lost a whopping 6.1% of her body weight. 

We're ever-so impressed. And also awestruck. 

In second place is dcfullest, who lost an amazing 4.23% of her body weight.

In third place is Patty, who lost an outstanding 4.07% of her body weight. 

Will the three of you please send your contact info to myweightisasecret at gmail dot com ? Thanks! The most amazing prizes in all the land are coming your way. Eventually. 

Kudos to Hannah, Sweet Escape and Katie who all lost more than 3% of their starting weights during the contest. 

A big old hearty pat on the back to Rachel, Maureen, Rachel R., Heather, Wendi, Marie, Renee, Sara (yes, that Sara), Holly (that's me!), Amy Lou Who, Joolee, Tiffany and Gina Lee for persevering and making some positive changes over the past couple of months. I am impressed with how many either lost weight or maintained at a tough (and delicious) time of year. 

A less hearty, but equally sincere pat to Kelly, Katy and Diane, who all weighed in the week before last, but didn't show up at the final weigh in on Friday. All three of them lost significant amounts of weight!

(If any of you want to know what your final percentage was without having to do actual math, send us an e-mail at myweightisasecret at gmail dot com. 

Thanks for all your comments, insight and good humor. 

Thanks to those who kept reading even though the contest got away from them somehow. We'll expect to see you next time. (cue menacing music)

And last but not least, a huge lump of thanks goes to Amy Lawson of Amy Lawson Inc. for writing about the contest on her mostly-famous blog and bringing many of you to us. She may have thrown her scale down the basement stairs, but she'll always be a winner to me. Also a quitter, but a quitter in the best way possible. Thanks, Amy Lawson!

Keep fighting those pounds, folks. It's worth the effort. Honest! And please come back for more Diet Cake anytime. 

Coming up...

Tomorrow by noon (Pacific Time) I will post the winners for the contest. Woo!

I'd do it now, but I've been doing math (I should have made you figure out your own percentages) and my brain is too fried to write a post more interesting than this one. 

See you tomorrow!

What now?

Bring on the cookies! Yee haw!

Nah. Just kidding. (Kind of.)

First of all, if you didn't post your final weight and you should have, please do it! It's not too late. 

Once we've figured out who is who and what is what, we'll announce the winners of the First Annual Diet Cake Holiday "Ho Ho Ho We're Fat" Weight Loss Contest. Then we'll send those winners some sort of fabulous prize, which will include, but not be limited to, Egyptian trash. 

All of you, winners or not (oh gosh--you're all winners, but you know what I mean), figure out what's next in your battle to get/stay slim, strong and healthy. 

We'll keep posting here at Diet Cake. Maybe some of it will be helpful. (It could happen!) I hope you'll keep reading and letting us know about your successes and struggles. 

I'm thinking another contest is in order...maybe sometime in the spring. Won't that be fun? (Answer: of course it will)

This is it, folks!

Just as all good things must come to an end, so must all great! things like this great! contest. (I emphasize great! just in case you didn't know how truly great! it is.)

The great!est part about it is how many of you stuck with it! Really, Holly and I are totally impressed. Thank you for sticking with us.

And now for the fun part--weigh in! Post your weight in the comments, and tell us what you're most proud of from the contest.

It's my birthday present to ME! (I'm so happy!)

Name that movie!

My birthday is next week. I'll be 36 years old. Yep! Closer to 40 than 30. Twice the age of the kids starting college in the fall. 

I was thinking that our weight-loss contest shouldn't end until after my birthday. I know--it's totally selfish. I just want some kind of motivation to avoid a birthday-week snarf fest. (I'm not going to reveal the exact day of my birthday--my age is enough info for the internet). 

What do you think? 

The contest is supposed to end this coming Friday (January 16th). Does anyone object to extending the deadline to Friday the 23rd? (We'd have the final weigh-in on that day.)

I haven't even consulted Sara about this, so possibly she'll be the one to object. 

Any strenuous objections? Concerns? 

Those who are already doing really well are the ones whose opinions I'm most interested in, as they potentially have the most to lose if some sneaky dark horse decides to lose 10 pounds next week. 

Talk to me.

P.S. That's a picture of me on my 10th birthday. It looks like I'm about to blow out a few blood vessels along with the candles. 

Contest Day 29: Weigh it...weigh it good.

Hello! Sorry I didn't start the thread earlier.

Post your weight! I know you don't want to, but do it anyway!

If you don't do anything else this year about your weight (though I hope you and I both do lots), at least resolve to start facing the truth.

Contest Day 22: Still time to weigh in, even if I am tardy!

Feeling a little bloated post-Christmas? Me too. I ate pretty well, overall, but all that festivity and association with relatives makes me retain water. 

Still, I weighed in this morning. I hope you did, too. If not, do it in the morning and get back here and post your weight (please). 

Did you eat 5 pounds of peanut brittle yesterday? Two quarts of eggnog? All the hard candy that was stuck to the bottom of your kids' Christmas stockings (from last year)? Oh well. Weigh in anyway. Think of the number on the scale as a reference point, rather than a manifestation of your character and worth. 

And by all means, please don't through in the proverbial towel and decide to "start over in January." That's baloney/bologna. Start now and avoid the January 1st here-we-go-again dieting fiasco with everyone else in the USA (and Canada). 

Also...Merry Christmas! I hope you had a lovely holiday. 

Contest Day 8: It's weigh-in time! Also, I'm conceited.

Post your weight in the comments section of this post (please). If you're an e-mailing contestant, send us an e-mail instead. 

Don't run away! Don't hide! We won't laugh. We won't point. Even if we get carried away and do some pointing, you won't see us because we aren't with you, so you'll never know!

Also be sure to read the previous post. It's important. (Do I sound conceited? Is it conceited if I think everyone should read what I write? Do conceited people even know if they are conceited? If I Google "conceited," will it bring me to this post? Do only conceited people Google "conceited"? Am I even spelling "conceited" correctly? You know how when you say or write a word over and over it starts to look fake? "Conceited" is starting to look like a made-up word.)

Contest Day 6: Brace yourselves

Our official weigh-in is coming up on Friday. Are you ready? Huh? Huh? If the answer is "yes," good for you! If the answer is "no," you're not off the hook. We here at Diet Cake (I love saying that--it makes me feel important) expect all of you here. If you can't make it, you can have a make-up weigh-in on Saturday. 

Contest Day 5: Already?

I can't believe we're 5 days down already. How is everyone doing? Honestly, today is the first day of the five that I have eaten reasonably well. Better late than never, but I don't think I'll lose any weight with 20% adherence to sound weight-loss principles. 

I'm doing my best not to beat myself up for my bad behavior of either the recent or distant past. (See? I listen to my own advice.) However, I'm recognizing the need for better, more consistent effort. Also, I need to eat vegetables once in a while. I have been really bad about that lately. 

See you tomorrow!

Contest Day 3: Are we there yet? and a Roster

A few years back, my church women's organization, which is called the Relief Society, sent around a list of names of all the women in the congregation so we could check for correct spelling and addresses, etc. At the top of the page was the heading, Relief Society Rooster. Sometimes typos (spelling errors?) are great fun. My friend and I had a good time with that particular one for a few weeks after. "Who can cock-a-doodle-do-it? The Relief Society can!" You get the idea.

Hoo boy, do we have quite the list of contestants! I'm jumping up and down with glee (in my mind, not physically--that hurts). The more the merrier, I say. Thanks for joining. I hope this thing helps you get through the holidays with a little more sanity and health, not to mention less self-loathing come January.

I compiled the following list of folks who signed up for the contest. If I left you off, it was completely by accident (I can be a flake at times--Sara and I both have fun and alarming stories to tell about that). Please let me know and I'll add you. If I spelled your name wrong or did something else that needs fixing (not in life--just on this list), again, let me know. Feel free to post a comment or send an electronic message to myweightisasecret at symbol g(don't put this space or these words here)mail dot com.

Official Diet Cake Weight Loss Contest Rooster

Holly

Sara

Brandi

Tiffany

Jess

Katy

Stefanie

Amy

Vicky

Melissa

Maureen

Debbie

dcfullest

Stephanie

Kelly

Awkward Turtle

Leila

wowo

Joolee (is that you who e-mailed?)

Heather

Bethy

Anne

Savannah

Renee

Marie

Wendi

John

Rachel

Jeri

Kita

Gina

Patty

Katie

Denise

Rachel

Nancy

Hiroko

Rachel R.

Ash

Raiye

Andrea N.

Tanwon

Kara

EmmaLee

Jenn

Hannah

Christina

Andrea

Cindy

Natalca

Patty W.

Nicholle

Cathy

Stephanie L.

Liligurl

Amanda

Mandy W.

Julie

Amy Lou Who

RosieRider

Chantelle

Julia

Diane

Be warned, now that your name is on the rooster, you are committed. We're not letting you off the hook. Even if you wander down the path of forbidden chocolate Santas and eggnog (3200 calories for a 1/2 gallon of the teetotaler variety), you must return! No giving up. No whining that you can't do it. We'll track you down! (Scared yet?)(Don't be; we're really quite nice.)(But we'll still come find you.)(Plus there are prizes! You can't miss out on prizes!)

Again, if I've left you off the list, butchered your name, or you are one of the folks who share a name with a fellow contestant and want to give us an initial to put after your name (or if you want us to use your real name vs. your handy moniker)(in my opinion, everyone needs a handy moniker), please let me know.

Have a lovely Sunday, and PUT DOWN THE BROWNIES!

Woo! Day 2!

You should know that both excitement and rhyming hurt my head.

When I was in high school I was in an improvisational theater troupe called, ironically enough, "Improv." It was kind of like group-therapy-through-drama (which, looking back now, I think "How is that effective?" and also, "Boy howdy did we take ourselves seriously"). We acted out different scenarios of problems teenagers face (well, faced in the late 80s/early 90s, that is; I'm awfully glad I'm not doing this sort of thing nowadays!), and we'd always leave the dilemma open-ended which then enabled the counselor who lead our group to talk with the audience about how best to resolve the problem. This part was called "processing." I hated that part, but that's mostly because I've always hated talking about feelings. I was raised by a therapist, see, and while most people may have what they call an "inner child," I have an "inner therapist's child," which means that I tend to run the other way when faced with anything that even resembles a discussion of feelings. I have a very patient husband.

Thankfully for him (and I guess my own emotional well-being, blah blah blah), I've gotten much better at it over the years. I've found, however, that while I'm still not totally hunky dory with talking about how I feeeeel, turns out I kinda like problem-solving. I like stewing things over in my mind and coming up with possible solutions.

Holly and I would like for Saturdays to be the day that we process our week (btw, I'm totally making fun of my teenage self by using that word)("process," not "week") and make our plans for the week to come. What was hard about this week and why? What was easy? What can you do to replicate your successes and minimize your missteps? This is also a good time to brag on yourself, since I really believe that focusing on the positive is what does the most good. I think that the negative is useful for examination purposes only--"why did this happen and what can I do to keep it from happening again" sort of thing, and after that we need to move forward.

Since we've only just begun (cue Carpenters) and can't really examine this past week in terms of What Will Bring Us Closer to Winning Our Own Piece of Egyptian Trash, let's look for some positive things that we did this week. Like I'm sure somebody's t-shirt/bumper sticker/piece of flair says, it's not bragging if it's true. What good thing(s) did you do this week?

Also, if you haven't already, make up your plan for this week. Make it as detailed or as vague as you want, but at least consider what's going to happen in your life. I almost never plan my food out in advance (though in my defense, I pretty much eat the same stuff all the time), but I always plan my workouts. I may not actually do the prescribed workout, but at least I've considered what's going on that week and when and what type of exercise I'm going to do. That not only helps me set it in my mind that I am going to workout that week (whether or not I "want" to) , it also makes it easier to come up with a Plan B if something unexpected crops up. So think about your week, look at a calendar and figure out when you can exercise, check to see if you have Your Food in the house--what can you do to set the conditions for success?

In a not-related-to-bossing note, Holly and I are both so happy to have so many participants! Thanks for joining up, and we're looking forward to getting through these holidays together smaller than we started!

P.S. The picture at the top is one I took surreptitiously at the Pyramids.

Join the Contest: Contest Day 1 and official weigh-in

This is where you can post your name and weight. First names only, please.

See previous post and this post for more contest info. Don't see the information you're craving? Just ask! There are no stupid questions...only stupid answers.

If you want to e-mail your weight to us instead of posting it, still post your name and your intent to participate and e-mail your starting weight to myweightisasecret put that little at sign here gmail dot com.

Here we go!

P.S. Cut-off time for joining is 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time tonight! Join the fun now while you can!

Are you ready for some WEIGHT LOSS?

Do they still use that song for the NFL (was it the NFL?)? Do you even know what I'm talking about? I've never been much of a sports fan and I'm married to a guy who watches History Channel shows about salt (not making this up--click the link) instead of sports. So, I don't know what ditties the NFL is using these days.

Which leads me to what I do know. It's time for me and Sara and you (yes, you) to defy the odds and lose some weight. According to this study, the true average weight gain during the holidays is a mere pound. But...BUT...people who are already overweight or obese are likely to gain more. I know I'm in that group. I'm already off to a bad start. I made an 11x17 pan of pecan pie bars last Saturday for a family party and I'm pretty sure I ate at least half of them. There was a lot of butter and sugar in that recipe.

I need a contest. Perhaps you need a contest, too? We're both in luck! The Diet Cake, still-unnamed holiday weight-loss contest begins today, December 5th.

Click HERE for the rules.

To clarify a few things:

-rule number 6 requests that you don't participate in the contest if you're below the healthy weight range for your height. This means it's OK if you're in that range now and want to go lower in that range. Go ahead, enter the contest! But, if your weight is already below the lowest weight in that range, don't try to lose more! Please!

-friends and family of Sara and Holly are welcome to join in. However, we will not favor you--you have to win fair and square if you want a fabulous prize. Sara and I will be joining in also. If one of us wins, I guess we'll supply our own prize.

-You MUST weigh in to participate and you must do it today (December 5th). We understand that some of you don't want to post your weight for all to see. So, we offer you the option of e-mailing your weight to us. You still need to post to let us know you're participating, and in your e-mail make sure you tell us who you are. We promise to keep your e-mail private and your weight even privater.

-The contest winner and the two runners up will receive prizes. We still don't know exactly what those prizes are, but they will include items from Egypt! Sara, as a person living in Egypt, has access to lots of very interesting Egyptian stuff, including Egyptian garbage. There is no cash alternative to the prizes. If you win and you don't want your prize, I guess we'll just donate it to charity and you get nothing (but why wouldn't you want your prize? It's free and you earned it!)

-We'll have a weekly weigh-in. If you can't make it on the specified day(s) (TBA), just make sure you post at some point during that 7-day period (Friday-Thursday) so we know you're still participating.

Don't post your weight in the comments of this post. There will be a separate Join the Contest post after this one for that purpose.

We're excited to have you on board! Good luck!

We will post daily during the duration of the contest (December 5th 2008 to January 15th 2009) and give you tips, motivation, and plenty of drivel and poorly-constructed sentences. We're here to help!

Name it! Another contest post.

My dad is trying to name his new English Setter. My husband and siblings suggested "Timber," "Fire" and "Look Out." (Go ahead--yell for your imaginary dog using those names and see how awesome they are.) But my dad is more of a traditionalist. He had a name picked out, but then I said if I ever had a boy (human, not dog), I might want to use that name. I'm cool with having a son named after an English Setter, but my dad thought maybe he wouldn't want to call for his dog and have his grandson come running too, so he's still working on finding a name. 

But this post isn't about my dad's dog. It's about our incredible holiday weight loss contest! I feel like our contest needs a name. How is it supposed to feel comfortable with its peers if it doesn't have a name? I want our contest to be properly socialized. Wanna help?

Here are some ideas (let me know what you think):

*Lose Your Bowl Full of Jelly   (reference to The Night Before Christmas, you know)

*Be Thinner on Christmas Than You Were 20 Days Earlier!

*Put Down the Fruitcake

*Big Fat Holiday Loser

*Ho Ho Ho...We're Fat

*Santa's Stuck in the Chimney and So Am I

*Help! I Can't See My Feet!  

Sara likes The UC or The Unnamed Contest. 

Any other suggestions?

On a semi-related note, if I ever have another daughter (or get a really awesome dog), I'm totally naming her Amy Lawson. 

Don't forget...the contest begins tomorrow! Dig out that scale. 

A Contest! An Unnamed Contest!

You know how people eat too much during the holidays and gain 5-15 pounds in approximately 30-35 days and then find that it takes 3 months to 35 years to lose that extra weight? You know what I'm talking about, right? Well, let's not do that this year. I'm talking to you. Yes, you. You! Tell those visions of sugar plums to stop dancing around your head right now. (now!) I have a proposal. A proposal of the losing kind. I think we (this still includes you, by the way) should not only avoid gaining 5-15 pounds before the year is out, but we should also lose some weight. You heard me. Forget maintenance. Forget the status quo. We're talking about real live weight loss here. As in, pounds of fatty excess gone from your body. 

Rather than have a vague notion of doing this thing (remember "hope is not a plan?"), I propose that we have a little weight loss contest with prizes and everything. We at Diet Cake care about our reader. Oh wait. I'm seeing a problem here...um...I'll get to that in a moment. 

But first, let's talk about the contest itself. 

I think the grand prize should be $100,000. However, I'm a little short on $100,000es today and I think Sara might be in the same boat (please correct me if I'm wrong, Sara). Also, all our major corporate sponsors have either backed out or outsourced their blog weight loss competition sponsorship to India. 

But all is not lost. We will still offer a prize to the person who loses the most weight (as a percentage of starting body weight) during our competition. It will (brace yourselves) be worth dozens of dollars. I can't tell you what it is yet, because I don't know. I promise you will not hate it (unless you are incredibly picky, in which case you probably shouldn't be hanging out with me and my blog because I will undoubtably annoy you a great deal) and that you may or may not be the envy of everyone you know. 

How about some rules?

Weight loss contest rules:

1. Contest is open to anyone, including me and Sara. We only ask that all contestants be real people and over the age of 18. I don't know why they have to be over the age of 18, but it seems like something I should put in contest rules. 
2. Contest will begin on December 5th (there is a reason for this--be patient) and end on January 15th (of course).
3. To enter the competition, all you have to do is leave a comment on December 5th's post with your name and starting weight. If you don't want the internet to know what you weigh, let us know and we can make other arrangements.
4. Contestants must check in at least once a week to let us know they are still participating.
5. Contestants are requested to refrain from using extreme measures (e.g. fasting for the entire month of December, chopping off a limb) to lose weight. Please try to be healthy. If you don't know how to lose weight in a healthy manner, I'm sure there are people who could tell you (don't look at me!) As the restraining order forced us to remove our hidden cameras, the honor system will have to do.  
6. Contestants are also requested to refrain from being contestants if they are already below a healthy weight range for their height. We want to encourage good health!
7. Grand prize will be awarded to the person who loses the highest percentage of his/her body weight. There is a possibility that second and third prizes will be awarded, but don't count on it.
8. Sara and Holly reserve the right to disqualify any contestant who seems fishy, dishonest or non-human. We'll try to be fair, of course. 
9. We also reserve the right to amend these rules at any time during the contest. 

I'm sure I'm missing something...

Oh yes. Back to the fact that we get maybe 10 hits a day (I'm not counting hits from me and Sara) on this blog and many of those hits are from people looking for pictures of Igor (I'm not even kidding). We have a few faithful readers (thanks guys!) and one very faithful reader (thanks Wendi!), but it would be far more exciting if we could recruit others to join in our weight loss fun as well (of course it will be fun! what's not fun about eschewing cookies and pie all month?) Plus, I don't think Wendi needs to lose any weight. 

So, that's why we're not starting officially until December 5th. We need time to find contestants!

Anyway, if you're reading this, and you know of someone (or someones) who might be interested in losing weight over the holidays and possibly winning a not-so-valuable prize, please send them over to Diet Cake. 

Stay tuned for more information!