Back in March 2012 Greeley got its own permanent Weigh and Win Kiosk. I had heard about it through work earlier in 2011, but since there wasn’t a permanent station in town, I didn’t sign up until March. Weigh and Win is a program that was started with Kaiser Permanente. This is how it is described on their website (www.weighandwin.com):

Weigh and Win is a program available to the general public for FREE through made possible by initial funding from Kaiser Permanente.  Weigh and Win helps people achieve and maintain a healthy weight through daily emails or text messages, a weekly journal, 24/7 health guide, and access to personal trainers.  Participants can track their progress through photographed weigh-ins at kiosk located throughout the community.  Motivation is kept high with monetary incentives based on weight improvement and opportunities for prizes just for participating.

I am very much motivated by incentives and tracking. And because it was free, I had nothing to lose but some extra pounds. I brought Britton along for the first weigh in that would establish our baseline. At this first weigh in, we both found out that we were slightly into the “overweight” category, but not too terrible. In a way, this is good, because they only pay you the incentives if you start above a 25 BMI.

This is the payout structure:

Monetary incentives will be rewarded to participants who achieve weight improvement according to the below structure.  Cash rewards are distributed quarterly.

% of weight lost                       Quarterly Award
·   5% =                                        $15
·   10% =                                      $30
·   15% =                                      $45
·   20% =                                      $75
·   30% =                                      $150

So a very motivated and obese person could technically win up to $600 a year! Not bad for getting into shape. For Britton and me, we were looking more at the $15 to $30 range, but I could go up to the $75 if I wanted to weigh what I did when I was 15 lol. We’ll see about that. Anyhow, the first couple of months we really didn’t change much. It was still cold out so we didn’t get out and exercise, we were still eating pretty heavy and we weren’t weighing ourselves regularly. I had lost 1/2 a pound. Woopdeedoo.

At my second weigh in at the Kiosk in Greeley’s Centennial Branch Library April 2012

Then at some point, I think it was June, they increased the number of “points” for the weigh in from 25 to 100. If you get 300 points in a month you are entered into a drawing to receive gift cards and other prizes. That increase was enough to make me want to weigh myself more often. So through June and July, I lost about 6 more pounds mainly because I wanted to see the scale go down when I weighed in. I really didn’t change my eating habits that much because we already ate pretty healthfully.

But I did cut back on portion sizes and started tracking my food on Myfitnesspal.com. That made a really big difference because I had really underestimated the calories mainly in foods eaten out at restaurants. As for exercise, we had always liked walking so we kept at that and made sure not to miss any nights and sometimes we would go a little longer/farther than we normally would have.

Still, we hadn’t quite reached the 5% marker that would earn us our first $15. So we pushed hard this month to reach it. And finally, we did it! Actually I went over! I only needed to lose a little less than 8 lbs and I lost 10.2!

August 2012 After losing 10 lbs in about 4 months (Britton is to the right haha)

It’s a slow weight loss, but I am happy with it! Britton has also lost about 11 lbs so this month we will both be receiving our first incentive pay cards! That’s awesome!

I would recommend everyone do Weigh and Win. Currently it is only in Colorado, but I hope it spreads. It really keeps you motivated and gives you an easy way to track your progress. I still want to lose about another 10 to 15 pounds, so I will keep you updated on my successes or setbacks. But I was so happy to see that we had made our goal that I wanted to share my news with you all!