Wow!  What a final weigh in!  For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been leading a twelve week “Boothbay’s Biggest Loser” challenge here that just wrapped up this last Saturday.  Basically, I charged people $25 (I’m not trying to make $$$ of this; I’m trying to share what I learned through the Biggest Loser), which was split three ways:  to cover the cost of everyone getting a copy of the Biggest Loser Calorie Counter book (essential for any weight loss plan, check the link below), half of what remained would go to the individual with the greatest percentage weight loss ($275), and the other half would go to the team with the greatest combined percentage of weight loss.

Well, 30 people signed up (awesome!!!), and the results are in!  Tom Dewey, a local man who took the challenge to heart, managed to drop close to 65 lbs in just twelve weeks for a 19.5% weight loss which easily won him the title and the $275!  Absolutely amazing!!!  He pulled it off by counting calories, journaling his eating, switching to a healthy diet and regular exercise.  True Biggest Loser style weight loss!  No gimmicks in that!  Two women won the team prize; Karen and Cindy weighed in with a combined 11% (I might have the number off by a fraction or so; don’t have the results right in front of me) weight loss.  I was excited they took the prize because they were actually the other two people with the highest percentages of weight loss in the group!  Most exciting for me, though, was the fact that every single person who started the challenge weighed in lighter than when they began, many significantly so!

In January we’ll be starting another twelve week challenge (towards the end of the month, once the holidays settle down a bit).  It’s exciting because so many people have been wanting to get in on the next one!  There’s even a church in the neighboring community that plans on launching one as well (I’ll attend their first meeting to lay out the plan and answer questions, and their final weigh in, as well as be in regular contact with the group leaders through the challenge)!  Should be fun!

In other news, I’ve been enjoying speaking at different organizations in our great state of Maine!  Last week I was at Central Maine Power’s health conference; before that I was at the Dept. of Transportations’s health conference, and in a couple weeks I’ll be at the University of Maine.  On top of that I’ve been speaking at churches, working on my articles for the Journal of Student Ministries, and even bouncing around some ideas for church resources.  Hey, if I don’t stay enmeshed in weight loss and maintanance culture … I’ll forget to keep the weight off!  That, and it’s something I am completely passionate about now a days!