At the beginning of my last three (yep, I joined three at once) KickStarters, I posted that I'd just won an incredibly difficult KickStarter (for me) and had vowed to "never do THAT again." For some reason, losing 4% in a month has been crazy-difficult for me.

Now, I've never lost a DietBet. (Full disclosure: I did lose one round of a Transformer because the weigh-in date meant I had to weigh in late at night after a long day of travel -- and not, surprisingly, I weighed quite a bit heavier than I had in my morning weigh-ins. But ultimately I won the Transformer and got a share of the pot, so it didn't feel like a loss at all. But I digress...)

I'm about to lose my THREE latest KickStarters -- all on the same day. But I'm feeling surprisingly philosophical about it -- and here's why.

  • I didn't "put all my eggs into one basket." I love competing with myself, but honestly, to stay motivated, I need to win -- often. My DietBet participation this month has me not only finishing these KickStarter bets, I am also finishing -- and winning -- three Transformers. Those winnings help cushion the blow -- financially and psychologically -- of losing 3 KickStarters. I am still so far ahead -- in terms of both my winnings and pounds lost than where I was in January. And I'm okay with that.
  • I didn't lose "real money." Admittedly, this is simply my perspective, but I played these KickStarters with previous winnings, so I felt it was money I could risk losing. I'm not happy I lost it, but I'm happy that I was courageous enough to take a risk on me, and at least I can comfort myself that someone who worked hard to lose weight this month is enjoying it, and it didn't really cost me anything out-of-pocket. And I'm okay with that.
  • I've been showered with NSV (non-scale victories) in the 4 weeks of these KickStarters. A 5K PR; and coming within a whisker of a half marathon PR. (Not bad for someone approaching 60!) An award for hiking in all 43 North Carolina State Parks. Slipping into a "normal" size (buh-bye PLUS sizes) that I have not worn in years. All those things tell me that despite what the scale says, what I am doing is working. And I'm okay with that.
  • Most importantly, I have not broken my agreement with myself. I decided when I started DietBetting in January that "this time" I was not going to lose weight by coming up with a list of restricted foods and forcing myself to live with that. Instead, I was going to find a way to figure out how to enjoy foods I absolutely love in moderation. Doing that, I have been steadily losing weight, but not quickly. And I'm okay with that.

Now I have to decide if I want to join another Transformer, or choose to maintain this weight for a while. I'll need to give that some thought.

And I'm okay with that. :)