Interesting. I hadn't given an update since I started my "new" weight loss plan that involves self-bribery. I am apparently extrinsically motivated. Who knew?

I started on May 1 with a weight of 195.6 (the weight I seem to have been stuck at for months and months now). I did much better about my eating for the week, while doing so-so at the working out (I did manage at least a brief workout five of the seven days that week). Lo and behold: one week later (May 8) my weight was 193. A 2.6 lb drop earned me (at $3 per lb) $7.80. The working out is what really adds up; five days of working out (only one of which was a two-workout day, sadly) earned me another $16, for a total for the week of $23.80. Whatever money I earn for myself I will just set aside for what I hope will be a killer shopping spree for all new clothes when school starts in August.

Anyway, this week hasn't been quite so stellar, although I still have a few days left. We've done more eating out than we should, and my weigh-ins have really fluctuated, with a high one morning of 194.2 and a low a two mornings later of 191.6. This morning it was 192.2. That still gives me a net loss for the week. Hopefully I can shed a little more between now and Thursday. The problem this week has been work--I've been grading rough drafts of research papers, and they've been...well...rough. I'll fully admit: I didn't spend nearly enough time working on the paper with this group of freshmen, and they aren't self-motivated enough to look up some of this stuff themselves. Of course, they should already know it; there's no reason any kid should make it to 9th grade without having had some exposure to research methods, notetaking, outlining, and citing sources. This may make the final papers, which get turned in later this week, pretty sketchy. We'll see. Anyway, the rough drafts have gone slowly enough that I've been getting up early in the morning and using my workout time to grade papers, and I'm still not done. I'll have to get the last ones done today for sure, because I need to hand them back to the girls this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed on that one.

So, the weight loss is progressing, although oh so slowly. Hopefully I can drop a little more this week to sweeten the $.

In a sporting world full of jackass superstars, overpaid prima donnas, and thugs constantly getting arrested, it's nice to see a really inspiring act of sportsmanship.

A softball player at Western Oregon University hit a home run with two runners on base in a game against Central Washington University. However, her joy turned to anguish when she blew out her knee rounding first. Suddenly, a really bizarre ruling came to light. If any of her teammates tried to assist her in traveling the bases, she would be called out, and if her coach subbed in a pinch runner, the hit would only count as a single. The poor girl couldn't make the bases on her own. So, what to do?

The Central Washington players didn't hesitate. Two of the girls approached the batter, asked which leg was hurt, and carefully carried her between them around the bases, stopping at each base for her to touch with her foot to make the run count. They said afterwards they weren't thinking about winning or losing the game, only that the girl on the other team had hit a home run and deserved to have it count.

Why can't we have more athletes like this?

OK, so, apparently I don't understand weight loss at all. Yesterday morning's weigh-in after a night of meat debauchery: 195.6 lbs. This morning's weigh-in, after eating reasonably well yesterday AND working out for over an hour: 197.0 lbs. WTF? Not fair. I know, I know, today's weigh-in probably more accurately represents the feeding frenzy from two nights ago, but still. Not fair at all. It's only my second day of the experiment and I'm already in negative numbers, but not the negative numbers I'm supposed to be seeing. Dang it. And I couldn't run this morning because I apparently pulled a hamstring in my excitement yesterday morning, so I had to rely on sit-ups and push-ups, which probably won't help much. Crud.

So, it's the first day of May. I find myself weighing the same as I did the first day (I weighed myself, the 4th) of April: 195.6 lbs. Eek. Actually, I had expected worse; we ate at Texas de Brazil last night, and as I've described before it's somewhat of a meat orgy. So it could have been worse, but still. Obviously, I've made utterly no progress at all in the past few weeks. So I'm trying to regroup (again, I know, it's getting a little silly) and try to figure out a way to motivate myself.

Here's my thinking: from today, there are fifteen weeks until school starts (oh, the horror; there's nothing worse to think about for a teacher who isn't even out of school yet than the fact that school starts in a few months) for the next school year. Here's my idea. Apparently just cheering myself on to lose weight isn't nearly enough to get me going. Maybe I can bribe myself. I've got two separate plans.

Plan one has to do with the actual weight loss. Each pound I lose will be worth some dollar amount ($3 is what I'm thinking of so far; $1 seems too small and $5 seems a bit much, at least it did when I first started thinking about this, but maybe $5 might be more motivation!). The money I accumulate over the summer will go towards buy the new clothes that I'll hopefully need for next school year.

Plan two has to do with the exercise. Each day I workout will also be worth money. The first day is worth only $1, the second day $2, the third $3, and so on. If I were to work out for seven days in a row, it would be worth $28 (and maybe I might reward myself by rounding it up to $30). I might even consider adding a dollar to each day that I work out twice. I don't know; I haven't ironed out all the details.

Now, I haven't quite decided what to do about any possible weight GAIN I might run across. Maybe if I end a week with a weight gain, obviously I wouldn't get any money from the weight loss, but I could possibly penalize myself by removing half the money I earned from working out. Hmm.

Ultimately any money I get from all this would go towards the clothes shopping I will hopefully need to do at the end of the summer to prepare for the start of the new school year.

Any suggestions as to how I can fine tune this plan? The good news is I've started out well; I managed to run this morning, despite every urge to the contrary.