As the contest has entered its halfway point, I wanted to profile each of the contestants aside from myself. The only one to respond so far is Chris, who was kind enough to answer some questions about the inspiration for the contest as well as some goals and challenges he has faced as the contest has developed.
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| Chris cooking up some results in the weight loss category. |
1. What made you decide to do Fit Happens? I needed to lose some weight. On a binge eating experience with Hippo and Magic Bus, Hippo started talking about a weight loss program he was trying. That got the ball rolling. Before too long we were creating a contest. The motivation to lose weight as already there, the contest just made it more serious and urgent
2. What were your goals to come out of this? To lose weight and look skinnier. I had a goal weight in mind, but I think my number one goal is just to look and feel better.
3. What changes have you made to your daily habits during the contest? The biggest thing I have attempted is to eat less and eat slower. I have not modified my diet all that much in terms of what I eat. I just try to eat less and by eating slower, I recognize when I am no longer hungry and am able to stop. Before I would regularly shovel food as fast as possible and would stuff myself way too often. I'd feel sick afterward. Honestly, there have only been 1-2 times during fit happens when I felt that way. Major progress from my few times per week before the context.
4. Have you ran into any difficulties during this contest? If so, how have you overcome them or trying to overcome them? The only difficulty I have had is the recent plateau. We all shed a bunch of weight in the first few weeks/month. After that it is much more of a slow burn. There is less motivation when you lose half a pound in a week than when you are seeing multiple pounds per day come off. I am just trying to keep up with the diet and the exercise intensity so that it continues to come off, even if it is only a small amount at a time.
5. When the contest is over, do you think it will be hard to keep up this level of intense workout and/or diet? I should easily be able to maintain the diet. I just need to remember to take it easy at meals and eat slowly. My exercise regimen has been pretty intense. I work out a minimum of 6 days/week right now. That will be difficult to maintain, but I should be able to keep up at least a 4X/week program without much issue.
6. Entering the second half of the contest, what are your goals for the next three months? Have you had to adjust them as time has passed? My goal is exactly the same - lose as much weight as possible.
7. What do you expect your final weigh-in to be? Aspiration - 210; realistic - 215 (both much lower than I anticipated)
8. In your honest opinion, who do you think is going to win the contest? B-Bo is on a tear, but Hippo is right on his tail. I'd say that Magic Bus and I are comfortably out of the money. I will leave it at that.
