I don’t know about you, but a healthy competition always motivates me to get my butt into gear…literally.

For example, in 2011, I entered the Walk the Talk employee competition at Jenny Craig, won $500, and lost 18 lbs.

I’m halfway to getting this baby weight off and a weekly competition with some of my family members has really helped me get there.

But for the longest time, I didn’t know what to recommend to other people. There are a lot of “Biggest Loser” type competitions, but when there’s only one winner, that’s not very motivating. The minute you start falling behind, it’s easy to give up.

Guess what? I found an awesome competition that anyone can do! (Well, my sister found out about it and told me…so I guess I should probably give her the credit. Love you Sis!)

I’m so excited to tell you about this, because if you’re wanting an extra boost to get serious about your weight loss, this could really be the thing for you.

Here’s how the competition works:

You sign up for the next open game at DietBetter.com and put $25 in the pot. Once the game starts, you have 4 weeks to lose 4% of your body weight (on average, between 1-2 lbs…so it’s a healthy competition…which is good). Whomever accomplishes this goal splits the pot.

If you accomplish your goal, you are guaranteed your $25 back, even if everyone in your game accomplishes their goal too. Of course, that doesn’t happen too often.

My sister’s friend played, accomplished her goal, and won $45!

When I heard about this, my first question was, “How do they prevent cheating?” They’ve got a pretty good system for this. They have you weigh in with a picture of yourself standing on the scale, then with a picture of your feet, the number on the scale, and special word you write on a piece of paper that sits next to the scale. Interesting, huh? But I could see how that would work.

If breastfeeding didn’t rapidly slow down my weight loss (I can’t seem to be able to lose more than half a pound a week…give or take), I’d get in on one of these games. Honestly, if I still haven’t gotten this baby weight off by the time Ginny is 1, I’m definitely doing this. Hopefully that won’t be the case though.

So where are you?

Are you trying to lose weight but losing motivation?

Or, are you perfectly motivated and want to reward yourself?

If you’re still reading this post, I’m guessing you’re one or the other. Unless you’ve got a medical reason that prevents you from losing 1% of your body weight a week, maybe give this a try.

And if you win (ie accomplish your goal), post below! Weight loss deserves recognition because damn, it’s hard work.