Biggest Loser Challenge

I love a good challenge.  I am not sure if it is the competitiveness in me coming out or if I am just a glutton for punishment that makes me join them.  I take any competition I do seriously and therefore work hard at the challenge.  This month is no exception I have committed to doing 50 miles in the month of Dec.  I will work hard and do my best to make sure I run each and every mile of this competition.  I do have 10 miles in already and although I am happy with that I know I need to pick up the pace. 

Friday marked the end of a different challenge for me.  It was a Biggest Loser contest which lasted 3 months.  This sounded like the perfect challenge for me, I had weight that I wanted to lose, and half the money that was put into the contest would go to the Ronald McDonald house.  I was going to support a great charity and lose weight at the same time, not much can be better then that right?  It did not go as well as I had hopped for, but I did get a lot out of it and shed a few lbs too!
This challenge started in Sep. and I was on top of my game, running 3/4 times a week training for my first 5k.  I had it all together I was eating great, training well and I was even in the lead of the Biggest Loser contest.  I ran my 5k and afterwards my shins just were not the same.  I was in a lot of pain.  I slowed down my running but that did not help.  So I took some time off to rest my legs, about two weeks.  I started up again slowly and then got hit with a very strange stomach bug.  Whatever it was kept me down for another week and a half.  I was feeling very down for the whole month but I was able to modify my diet and still continue losing weight, just not as much as I would have liked. 
Feeling defeated already, a bomb was dropped that kinda had me wondering why I did this challenge at all.  I found out that one of the contestants decided that she would go on the hCG diet.  For those of you who do not know what that is... it is a diet where you eat only 500 calories and then receive injections of hCG.  Doing this is supposed to give you a weight loss of 1-3 lbs per week.   There is no way that I or anyone else in this challenge would be able to keep up with that.   I have read that 500 calories is not enough to support normal brain function but I am not a dr. so I will keep my mouth shut.
Anyways hearing this took the wind out of my sail.  I was in a place of, well shit if I had known that there was no way of winning just by using hard work and dedication I would have just written the Ronald McDonald house a check and called it a day.  I continued to lose weight and I was happy about it but I did not push myself as hard as I could have and my weight loss was minimal.  My negative attitude towards the whole thing was not helpful, and I remember one night eating a piece of cake thinking io myself well it is not as if I have any chance to win anyways.
I went into this challenge not with the thought that I might win the grand prize of just over a $100.00 but to support a good cause and lose weight in the process.  So why did I get hung up on the whole competition part of it all? 
My legs eventually started feeling better and I threw myself right back into running.  Mile upon mile I ran until those negative thoughts were gone.  Running is the best therapy I swear it is!  I became ok with the thought of not winning the challenge.  I tried to look at it like any other race or challenge I participated in this past fall.  When I run in a race I know I am not going to win, infact the thought of winning does not even occur to me.  There is a quote that I once saw on a friend's facebook page that I should have kept in mind the whole time I was feeling down about the outcome of the challenge... "It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit".- George Sheehan 

In the end I lost 15lbs and although I would have liked to have lost more I am happy about the amount I have lost.  I wish I could have been more positive throughout the challenge perhaps a more positive attitude would have helped lose a couple more pounds.  Who knows but the competition is over hCG girl won of course, and that is ok.  I know that I worked hard and my body is so much more physically fit then it was 3 months ago.  I am proud of myself!