A weighty decision...

So back in January, work decided to have a "biggest loser" contest. I signed up - not because I really felt I needed to lose a whole lot of weight, but figured that I should at least give it a shot. I didn't really try very hard, though, and only lost a few pounds. A few weeks ago, I went to Vegas, and gained a few pounds, so I worked my ass off the next 2.5 weeks. I ended up losing a total of around 8 pounds, which gave me a loss of 5.7% - not far behind the third place finisher, who lost 6.2% - although I have no idea how many people were between him and I.

They are starting up again June 1st, and I'm wondering if I should give it another shot. I was thinking I would relax the next couple weeks - not intentionally try to gain weight, but not take any extraordinary efforts to lose it, either - and then go hard come June - 2 hour daily workouts and eat about half what I'm eating now.

But now I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't sign up at all. The thing is that I probably could stand to lose a couple pounds, but I don't think I could lose enough to win - and I think I'd be miserable. Because I really like to eat, and not being able to eat things I like makes me miserable -and since I already exercise regularly, I'd need to add a bunch more to actually lose rather than maintain. I normally do 90 minutes a day, so I would need to do 2 hours or more, which means not getting home until after 8.

The other thing is that a friend of mine has been trying to convince me to start lifting for years, and I probably should start. I think it would be good to add some muscle - but muscle means weight, which means I would need to do even more cardio if I want to lose weight while adding muscle. That means 3+ hours a day.

Which I could do, but I'm lazy. And therein lies the rub - not doing the biggest loser means admitting that I'm too lazy to put in the work necessary to win, which isn't a good thing.

But I also feel like I'm at a a point weight-wise where I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. I'm not saying I couldn't stand to lose some weight. I'm 5'5" and 142 pounds at last weigh-in. By the government's BMI calculator, I'm in the normal range for my height - but near the top. The range is 111-150. So I could lose 31 pounds and still be healthy - and I'm kind of curious what a 111 pound madanthony would look like. Would I be able to see my ribs?

But unlike where I was 5 or so years ago, when I was 250 pounds instead of 142, it's no longer critical that I lose a significant amount of weight, just nice. Which makes it a lot harder to justify putting a huge amount of additional time and missed ice cream cones towards it. It's my grad school dilemma all over again- I have the time, and I have the ability to achieve it, but it's a question of if it's worth the effort and time or if there isn't something better/more productive I could put towards it. And like grad school, there is no easy answer.