Is there such a thing as friendly competition? I’m not so sure. Let me explain. A couple of weeks ago, Parish and I decided to wager a friendly bet after working out one day. The deal was this – whoever lost the most weight in a week would win $20. We weighed in on a Sunday and agreed to weigh in the following Sunday to crown the winner. I wrote our starting weights on a memo pad on the fridge and we both put a $10 bill on it. It was official. I Googled “how to lose five pounds in a week,” and Parish started running around the apartment complex. I never really considered myself to be really competitive – I think my wonderful partner has a way of bringing it out of me.
My Google search suggested eating 1,500 calories a day and burning 1,000 calories at the gym. I didn’t know how difficult it was to burn 1,000 calories until I tried it the following day. At Snap Fitness they have this machine called the Cybex Arc Trainer. It is a beast of a work out and I love it. I can burn about 300 calories in 30 minutes, which is pretty awesome. During the first day of my workout, I jumped on the Cybex and typed in 45 minutes. I burned about 400 calories and then proceeded to get on a treadmill. I stayed on the treadmill for an hour and burned a little less than 400 calories. I was on my way to my Google goal!
I performed the same workout for the next two days and felt good. On day two and three, I add in a little weightlifting and abs exercises. By the fourth day, I’m pooped. I have no desire to go to the gym or burn even 10 calories. I think I might have blown out too fast. Parish exercised a lot during the week also, although, every day he goes to work he does a full body workout. He does concrete work and it’s better than any piece of cardio equipment. He slings sledge hammers, moves mud (concrete), carries heavy pieces of wood and is basically on the move from four to nine hours a day. I love my job, but I must admit, I’m a little jealous of the workout he gets – especially with $20 on the line!
We make it to Saturday night and after working out, Parish jumped on the scale. We agreed to wait until Sunday, but Parish cheated. So then I had to get on the scale too. That is when the competition heated up.
There are two scales at the gym and I got on both of them and got two different results. Naturally, I decided to use the one that showed the greater weight loss. Parish announced that that wasn’t the scale we used and I had to take the number from the “broken” one. I didn’t take this piece of advice too well. I hastily put on my shoes and walked out of the gym in a huff.
When Parish caught up with me outside, he suggested extending the challenge for another week and we agreed to use the scale I liked. I guess there is such a thing as friendly competition – you just have to find someone who knows you really well and likes to see you happy.
