A new weighty challenge

Sadly, I haven't really lost any weight since autumn. When I began my quest on 1/2/2006, I hoped to lose about seventy pounds. I have actually lost just over fifty. My friend BriWei was one of the inspirations for my journey, after he lost around thirty five pounds. He too found himself stalled on his quest.

Today, he informed me that he has renewed his quest and is back to Weight Watchers. He and I have virtually the same goal weight going. Though I'm fifteen pounds closer to the goal than he is. To encourage me on my stalled journey, he threw down a gauntlet: "Let's see who can get there first!"

I initially balked. First off, I don't know that I can get there or maintain it if I do, since I have been comfortably maintaining my current weight for about five months now. But B egged me own. Then I pointed out that it might be a somewhat unfair challenge since I am fifteen pounds closer to the goal than he is already. He then pointed out that people at the beginning of a diet often lose weight more quickly than people who've been on one for a while. I took the bait, even though I know he's already lost around ten pounds in the last couple of weeks, and may have already burned up his 'beginning' bonus points. If B is magnanimous enough to allow me the head start, who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The next issue was what to wager with. Neither of us is so impoverished that we don't ocassionally give into our consumerist whims. But, after several hours of cogitation, I offered a wager that was heartily accepted.

B and I are both creative types, of a sort. He gets to exercise his creative juices pretty regularly on stage in amateur theater. But, we are both frustrated writers. Neither of us gives the time to our creative writing that we wish we could. So, here's the meat of the wager:

The first of us to reach the goal weight and hold on to the loss for at least a month gets a 1000 word short story from the less-successful-loser. The story will either begin with a sentence supplied by the winner, or will revolve around a theme suggested by four words chosen by the winner. (Example: girl, chocolate, bathtub, alligator ... Just imagine the story wear those four words guide the theme.)

So, even if I am not "the biggest loser", I get to challenge myself on another unmet goal: creative writing. In my mind, everybody wins this one.

If I have to write the story, I will post it here. Hopefully, B will see fit to do the same on his blog if he is the one who has to deliver the fiction.