Up the Stairs and Body Beautiful Program...

One of my teams at work is currently having a weight loss challenge. Supposedly my current “fully clothed with no shoes on” weight of 193 is about 10 pounds higher than my ideal weight (don’t worry, there will never be any “before” and “after” pictures posted to this blog, or any other blog for that matter). In order to win the challenge, or at least not have to pay any money to anyone, I simply need to meet my weight loss goal (there will be an overall winner based on percentage weight decrease, but they only receive winnings from those people that don’t meet their goal). Considering it is busy season and our opportunity to do anything besides work is pretty much zero, I’ve inspired the team to join me in climbing the stairs twice a day. Considering we are on the 16th floor this has turned out to be a phenomenal workout in a fairly short period of time. We have a couple of “young pups” on the team that are fresh out of college and still in pristine shape. I know my limitations and most of my coworkers limitations, so the first few times we climbed the stairs my mantra for myself and the older (i.e, out of shape) team members was simply “slow and steady.” We enjoyed a great deal of satisfaction to see the young ones quickly disappear up the stairs only to meet them on the 16th floor nauseous, beet red, and slumped against the wall (our condition wasn’t far behind them, but it was very gratifying to see the young ones humbled). Now that we have been climbing stairs for several weeks the climbs are easier, but still grueling. We try to mix it up by increasing the speed, doing two stairs at a time, and never touching the handrails. However, today at lunch while we were all putting down some cake and contemplating another piece, I came to quite the epiphany concerning this whole “body beautiful” program. Fortunately for me, my metabolism is such that I haven’t gained any weight in about 4 years, despite the out of town meals and minimal consistent exercise (I expect a lot of hate mail for even making that comment). So, it’s not so much that I need to lose weight when I can very easily maintain my current weight; instead all I need to ensure is the people on my team simply gain weight or at least maintain their current “larger” status (that’s a pretty negative thought). Don’t worry though, I’m still doing the stairs twice a day and encouraging my team members to join me. However, now my mantra as we climb the stairs has an out of breathe saying tagged on the end of it, “slow and steady, slow and steady; I look good when you look big.” I’ll keep you posted on how the whole body beautiful program shakes out.