I’m a Las Vegas Loser

As of today, I am a Las Vegas Loser.  Not the kind who comes to town to say goodbye to their paycheck, but the kind who signed up to participate in the Las Vegas Review Journal’s “weight-loss contest”.  In fairness, it’s not a contest as much as it’s a group effort to lose weight (I wish someone else could do my share!), but there are small prizes along the way for people who are meeting their weight-loss goals.  There are about 112 people involved (I think that’s what was said), and today we had our first official weigh-in, and we posed for a group photo.  The event will run for one year.

I’m not exactly sure what compelled me to write in to the newspaper to volunteer.  I’ve wanted to lose weight for a few years now (I’ve gained about 30 lbs. in the past four years), and I think the casual, experimental feel of this event appealed to me.  There are people of all ages and from all walks of life involved; we can follow any diet and/or exercise plan that we wish to achieve our goal.  There are tentative plans for a few guest speakers to talk to the group, but other than our required monthly weigh-ins, we’re really on our own.  I’ve always been a bit of loner and have never done well working under a buddy system, so this type of setup is perfect for my personality.

I have no idea how well or how poorly I’ll do.  My goal is to weigh 135 in one year.  Today, after getting home from the weigh-in and photo shoot, I was so exhausted that I took an oxycontin, an oxycodone, and a Skelaxin, and I’m still in pain, as well as suffering from extreme fatigue (I’m writing this entry from bed, on a laptop).  I have visions of daily walks on the treadmill, but this illness is so unpredictable—that treadmill walk may leave me so incapacitated that I’m unable to work, and that will be unacceptable.  I want to try to lose weight by exercising rather than changing my diet, but I’m not sure how much exercise I can tolerate.  Sometimes a trip to the grocery store is all it takes to send me back to bed for the day.  I know that increasing my strength and endurance would improve my quality of life, though.  This process will be a lot of trial and error.

My preferred weight-loss plan has always been Weight Watchers, so that’s what I’ll defer to if I decide to start formally planning snacks and meals.  I love to cook, but that’s another taxing activity—will I be able to cook every day and still get my paid work done?  Will my medications allow me to lose any weight?  All these things and more will be answered in the next twelve months.  I really, really want to work hard to achieve my goals, but if I can’t reach the goal, I’ll get satisfaction from knowing I did all that my body will allow.

Posted by on 01/21 at 12:21 AM

  1. Hows the diet plan going? Weight Watchers is excellent and helped me lose 35lbs.

    Posted by Anon  on  03/18  at  04:35 PM

  2. I’ve lost almost 30 pounds since I wrote this entry, not with WW, but just by cutting down portions.  The fact that most of my meds make me nauseous adds incentive smile

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  03/18  at  05:52 PM

  3. Weight watchers is definitely a great way to go but nobody should limit themselves to trying just one method and then giving up if that doesnt work. There are many diets and weight loss plans out there.

    Posted by Anon  on  03/19  at  02:13 PM

  4. Dear Spammers -

    As you may note under the box where you leave your comment, I’ve got comments on moderation.  So, you go through all your work to leave your comment to spam your url, and then I edit all that info out, replace your fake name with “Anon”, and then make the comment visible.  So, I end up with more comments, and you end up with no backlinks. It’s a perfect solution. 

    I’d bet that I know more about “working the system” with regards to the Internet than any of you do, and I know not to bother with blog spam because it’s a waste of time.  Just like you wasted your time here.  But by all means, continue if you wish… I’ll just edit them before they leave moderation, and/or ban your IP from the server, depending on my mood.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  03/19  at  05:55 PM
    5. Page 1 of 1 pages

I've been forced to put comments on moderation because of recent spamming, and I've also removed the spot where you can leave the url of your blog. I'm sorry... if you have a blog that you'd like me to add to my blogroll, please email it to me! And spammers, urls left in comments are not converted to links. If by some rare chance you leave a comment which is actually on topic, I'll just remove your url before I approve your comment anyway. Long story short, it's a waste of time to spam here. No one but me will ever see it, and I'll block your IP at the server level.

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Comments are unfortunately on moderation because of spammers. When I'm Queen of the world, spammers will be given the death penalty (but pot will be legal).

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