Diet bets: what I've learned

Is she talking about diet bets again???

Yes!  I am no way getting paid or compensated for this post, but I thought I'd do a little recap of the success (and problems) I've had with diet bets.

The thing that is most exciting to this penny-pinching stay-at-home-Momma is that I've banked around $180 in three months!!!

I originally spent $55 to join my first two dietbets.  I currently have $55 towards two bets that start on Monday and $183.63 in my account!  That number along with the weight I lost is so rewarding and motivating!

I've hit my goal each time.  It was a bit easier in the beginning but I haven't had a problem getting to goal yet.  The people on the bets are so supportive and everyone gives each other encouragement along.

On problem I am seeing is that I am not succeeding in creating a healthy lifestyle because I will stay super strict during the games and go completely nuts for the week in between.  I'm embarrassed to say that I gain nearly 5lbs just in that week off...  

I have been seeing it get better.  I have realized that I can lose the weight by bumping up my exercise and allowing myself to not be so deprived.  It has helped me to not go off the deep end as much during the week between bets.  

I also have been noticing how terrible I feel when I am giving in to all my vices.  I literally  feel sick for an entire week.  This gives me hope that my "fake it til you make it" method may still be doing me some good.

I have done about 10 games now and I've tried big games, little games, higher bets and lower bets.  I've noticed that the average winnings tend to be $10 more than the bet I placed.

The winnings don't seem to vary much among the big games, or depending on the bet size.  Where I have noticed a big difference is between the smaller games. I recently joined two games with under 200 players.  One of the games was full of supportive and encouraging people and one was not as encouraging and people didn't interact as much socially.  The pro to the social groups is that the majority of the group made their goal!  This also meant that we netted only about $5.  In the non-social group, we had only 3-4 winners and we netted about $41.  That was re most I had ever taken away from a game!  However, this is ultimately about losing weight and, if I hadn't been in the other games concurrently, I might have struggled as well.

So, if you're thinking about joining a diet bet, decide why you want to do it.  If you want to be motivated by the potential to win a lot of money, join a larger bet like the Jillian Michaels bet http://diet.bt/13NQqTG that is already up to $75,000 and should go higher.  If you want a small supportive group that will help you lose those pounds, join a smaller game with people who stay involved and supportive of each other (comment if this is something you're interested in, and I'd be more than willing to start a game) .  If you want to take home the most money, scout out the games for about a week. If you notice a smaller game where people seem to be struggling with the weight, join late and keep up your motivation while the others lose their drive.

All in all, I'm going to keep rolling my money into diet bets until I can't lose the 4%.  It works for me right now, and the money I'm banking for something I would do anyway, is a HUGE bonus!

It's Thursday so I'm linking up with Katie and Ashlee with my non-scale victories. As I said, I'm on a week between diet bets and I don't have much to say: I broke my 60 day my fitness pal login streak, I had some delicious glasses of wine last night, ate ice cream in bed...  However, before all that, I RAN MY FIRST 5K!!!  If you missed it, head back to read about it!  I am scouring MN for a couple more to do before the snow hits.

How was your week?  Any NSVs?  Have you joined any dietbets or thought about giving it a try?

(By the way, our power went out yesterday and I still haven't gotten the Internet fixed, so this post is from my phone - check back for all the fancy stuff - pictures, links, an whatnot!)