Winner, Winner - Chicken Dinner!

Since I was just talking about breeches, I had to share this little tidbit!

Many of my colleagues and I have been playing variations of the Biggest Loser for the past 7 or 8 years. It's fun, usually, and it keeps us watching what we eat. Some of us have a lot to lose, some just a muffin top, and others simply want to maintain their current weight. To accommodate all of our weight loss goals, we created this version of the Biggest Loser.

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Rules for the Biggest Loser:

1. Determine a start and end date. Each player weighs in on the start date and contributes $5 to the pot. CM has a great digital scale that she leaves in her classroom for our use. Each player also receives a raffle ticket.

2. Each player weighs in weekly and records the new weight. If you lose more than a pound, you get TWO raffle tickets; any weight loss up to a pound earns ONE ticket, and zero weight gain or loss gets nothing. If you gain any, however, you drop $5 in the pot.

3. At the end of the contest, the raffle tickets are put in a bucket and a single name is drawn, winner takes all.

After however many attempts, I was finally the winner! Not only did I win all the money, but I actually lost weight, too! I paid my original buy-in of $5, but I never put in money after that. For the entire 8 or 9 weeks that we played, I lost at least one pound per week, sometimes more, for a total of 12 to 13 pounds. Go, Me!!!!

I received my "winnings" at lunch and was quite pleased to see $40. Well of course it started burning a hole in my pocket immediately. I knew I had to treat myself to something equine related, but what would it be? I had to stop by Target for some household stuff after work on Friday, so I thought I might browse the Active Wear section; $40 goes quickly there.  Here's what my weight loss got me:

Sweet, Huh?!

I had to spend a bit over the $40, but not by much. I bought two packages (12 pairs) of crew socks for a total of $13.78 - even though I school in field boots, I don't like to wear tall socks. The moisture wicking top was $12.99; it's super cute with a shimmery, metallic sheen. The sports bra was $16.99. None of it was on sale, but the total of $43.76 (plus some tax) seemed fair.

So I now have some new socks, a riding top, and a sports bra to wear with my two pairs of brand new breeches. Hold the phone, boys; this girl is rockin' it!