Do it with your family and friends- it works!

This post was updated 1/13/26 to include an additional (easier) way to track weekly weights and progress.

In my morning meditation today (Calm app), I heard the following quote,

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.”

Dan Millman

I love it. It was talking about setting INTENTIONS for your day, month or year, as opposed to RESOLUTIONS. Resolutions like “losing weight’ are negative- ie fixing something that’s wrong or broken; whereas intentions are positive- like ‘eating more mindfully’.

Like many people, my family is concerned with extra pounds that can contribute to health issues at the worst, and just drag down our energy at best. It’s common to start your good intentions come January 1, but this is a challenge we started in October and can be done certainly any time of year.

I’ve been doing Weight Watchers (WW) for about a year, and have taken off about 10 pounds, but couldn’t seem to get my weight below a certain number and stay there. Until this challenge came along! I still fluctuate, but it has stayed below that number consistently since starting this program. I didn’t think I was competitive at all (and I still don’t think I am very high on that scale), but the beauty of this challenge is that it’s more about competition with YOURSELF, ie doing progressively better as opposed to competing with anyone else. That is the magic element of this.

Our daughter’s boyfriend, who I’ll call “M”, suggested a weight loss competition with my husband, who was diagnosed with a fairly serious heart issue this past year. Although his health depends on it, he has been having a heck of a time complying with any weight loss program. He KNOWS what to do and how to eat, he just doesn’t DO it, for many reasons: fast food deals that save money, little time to plan, shop and prepare, celebrations, drowning sorrows, addictions to salty and sweet…that’s like most of us, yes?

It was very thoughtful of M to think of this idea, and it couldn’t hurt anyone, that’s for sure. What started out as an idea for him and my husband turned into a game of sorts with me, my daughter and sister-in-law, too. We thought the rules were a little strict at first, but there definitely needs to be rules to make it work. There also needs to be someone in charge. This person will collect the weights, calculate percentages, and report the results to the group each week. This person will also remind people to send weights and distances walked.

** See the bottom of the post for an alternative to having a person in charge of tracking everyone’s weights!

Biggest Loser 12-Week Challenge

The Rules:

• Everyone has to send in a picture of their weight on the scale to M on Monday. You have by midnight to get your weight in.
• On Tuesday, M sends the percent losses or gains. If you don’t send in your results on time, then you’ll have to drink a Suja green drink to get back in by the next day or be disqualified.

Weekly Challenge:

• Whoever scores the highest loss percent gets bragging rights for the week. 
• Whoever scores the highest gain percent or lowest lost if no one gains, has to walk a mile a day or at least 2k steps.
• The 2nd place for highest gain percent or lowest lost has to walk a half mile a day.
• You’ll have to send in proof of the steps/distance using a phone tracker.
• If you do your walk on a different day to either make up or get ahead, then you’ll have a 50% additional penalty. If you have to walk a mile and you do it another day, you’d have to do 1.5 miles plus what you’d have to do that day.

Final challenge:

• Winner (biggest percentage lost) gets bragging rights for life and M will give you $10 for a dessert/ice cream place of your choice.
• The smallest percentage lost or highest gainer will have to walk either the Bulldozer Trail or the Wissahickon Forbidden Drive trail. (These are, obviously, super hard trails and no one will want to hike them.) They will also need to a drink a Suja green drink or peer made drink.

I’ve been in last place before, and was surprised when, in fact, M held me accountable and asked me to send him my walking miles! I will admit that things like this, that could honestly be construed as annoying (Is he really telling me what to do? “Demanding” to see the distance I walked?) and took a little getting used to, actually became one of the main reasons people stuck to the program.

If you don’t send him your weight by Monday night he’s asking for it again. Oy! I also think the idea of making exercise mandatory for those who didn’t do well is a great one. I was walking maybe 10 minutes a day on the treadmill, but when I came in last place and knew I had to be compliant, I was walking 25 minutes! Whether that helps in my weight that week or not, it’s still really good for me!

Here’s what a weekly results tally looks like:

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Biggest Loser- Week 8 results

• In 2nd to last place: N
• In last place: K
• The biggest loser of the week, with a +.06% weight gain: E!

Just a reminder:

• Last place needs to walk at least a mile a day
• 2nd to last needs to walk half a mile a day
• The biggest loser gets bragging rights!

So far, collectively, we all lost 26.3 lbs!! Great work everyone!!

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** NOTE. We decided to do the challenge again in Spring 2025, and instead of putting the burden of tracking everyone’s weights on one person, we developed a spreadsheet like this:

My husband, the database manager, developed this sheet for each of us whereby all we needed to do was plug in our weight every week, and the percentage lost (or gained-ugh) was automatically calculated.

Making the process as easy as possible is an important part of this exercise, and this sheet was perfect. We all just reported the percentage lost each week. Very simple, but you do have to be honest!! 😇

Good luck and have fun if you try the Biggest Loser!

Here’s to optimal health and happiness for you and your loved ones in 2026!