There was a cool story that I heard a couple of years ago on NPR called Put Your Money Where Your Girth Is in which two Yale professors (one an expert in contract law and the other a behavioral economist) talked about how they discovered that if you invest a lot of money in something you’ll be more likely to follow through on it. Well, duh, right? But they were talking about losing weight and they discovered this by betting each other $500 per week that they would each lose a certain amount of weight. If they didn’t they’d owe each other the money. They developed this idea into a website called stickK ( I have no idea why they chose that name). You can go and pledge money to do anything from lose weight to quit smoking and then if you lose you have to pay up.
So, what does this have to do with Foodie, Formerly Fat? Well, I don’t have $500 a week to fork over, but I thought the idea of public accountability might help me in my efforts to reinstate good habits; like drinking more water, exercising, sticking to reasonable portion sizes, or not eating between meals. Now, I also happen to know that the best way to make a change is to do it slowly and not to try to do too many things at once. (There’s a whole other post on this coming up sometime soon.)
This is where the blog comes in (you knew I’d get to it eventually, right?) Well, I’m planning to have a weekly post each weekend called ‘Weekly Pledge”. In it I’m going to focus on one behavior that I need to work on to develop a healthy habit (or get back into a healthy habit I’ve let lapse). The following week I’ll provide an update on how well I followed through. I’m hoping that the threat of public humiliation public accountability will encourage me to stick with it and I won’t move on to the next healthy habit until I’ve gotten the previous one thoroughly incorporated into my routine. (And if this doesn’t work I’m going to delete all of them and disavow any knowledge of them.)
If you’d like to join me on this journey to healthier habits jump-in in the comments section and let us know you are on board. Then you can give us updates each week on how you’re doing.
Tune in later today for the first edition!
Hi. I have recently discovered your site and have been inspired by your recipes and dedication to feeding your family healthy foods. I love to cook and have decided to make some of them. As you have struggled with your weight in the past, I have too. I worked very hard to get the weight off and attained my goal until I got pregnant with my second child. I now have a wonderful 3 month old and a not so wonderful extra 25 lbs hanging around. Thank you for your posts. I am pledging to stop snacking between meals for the week and to drink more water. Pledging is a great idea. I will check back in and tell you how I did. Have a great week.