The Goal
My goal for May is as follows. For the seven days between June 1 and June 7, I need to have an average body fat percentage of under 16.84. If I had failed, I was required to pay $100 each to the source of choice as chosen by the following three economics blogs: Why I am doing this and how economics can help you meet your goals are explained in - My $1200 Weight-Loss Gamble and How Economics Can Help You Keep Your New Year's Resolutions.The Results
For the week of June 1 to June 7, I average a body fat percentage of 16.62. That exceeds my goal, but the slim margin of 22 points was a little too close for comfort. Overall I have lost 12 pounds in the 3 months I have been doing this.The Difficulty
Near the end of April and beginning of May my progress had come to a near halt. I thought I was doing a fairly good job of exercising and watching what I was eating, but it simply was not working.To help figure out what I was doing wrong, I enrolled in About.com's Calorie-Count to find out where the extra calories were coming from. After a few days, the results were striking - all the hard working I was doing was being offset by all the calories in the couple glasses of red wine I was drinking every night at dinner. The calories from alcohol were the problem.
The Solution
This is probably an overly drastic solution. I am trying to make sustainable changes to my lifestyle and this one may not be sustainable. But I thought I would try it anyway.I resolve, that until July 8th, I will completely abstain from alcohol. In order to make that stick, I need a penalty. As a member of the Pigou Club, I thought this solution was appropriate:
For every day I drink alcohol, I will send $100 to NoPigou founder Terence Corcoran.
That ought to keep me on the straight and narrow.
