Hi again,
Have you ever heard of the concept of sponsored weight loss?
If not, let me enlighten you...
Sponsored weight loss takes many forms:
1. Employer sponsored weight loss. Your employer realizes that helping you to lose weight and keep your weight loss permanent is to their advantage. They offer either free or reduced weight loss programs involving education and counseling designed to improve diet and increase physical activity. These programs last anywhere from 2 to 18 months. Forty-six percent of the the programs in a recent study involved low-intensity interventions, 18 percent were moderate intensity and 36 percent were high intensity.
2. Sponsored weight loss via a website. The person that needs to lose weight sets up a website. The "sponsors" are varied in what is needed from the person that sets up the website and the sponsor who is helping to motivate them.
The way the website sponsor process works is that for every 1 -5 pounds a person loses, their sponsor will give the person losing weight what was promised before the weight loss started. Items offered could be $1.00 given to charity for every sponsored pound lost. Or, $1.00 given to the person losing the weight in order to buy clothes in smaller sizes for every 5 pounds lost.
Other types of offerings benefit the sponsor. During the 5 pound sponsored weight loss time frame, the sponsor would offer encouragement to the person losing the weight in sticking to their diet for instance. The person looking to lose weight may spend this time (while losing the 5 pounds) encouraging their sponsor to stick to quitting smoking or anything else that the sponsor needs support with.
3. Sponsored weight loss via a TV show. Rachel Ray sponsored a woman's 180th pound last year. She had the person that lost weight appear on her show and gave her $1,000 towards a new wardrobe.
I have personally been drawn to this concept of sponsored weight loss because I have 100 or 110 pounds to lose.
I am putting these weight loss sponsoring ideas out to my friends in the Gather community. What do you feel are the pros and cons of these incentives towards a weight loss?
Now imagine I personally was setting up a website to have people sponsor my weight loss. What would you offer to me or anyone else needing a sponsor for my 1 to 5 pounds of weight loss? Would you want support in return? If so, in what ways?
Take care all and thanks for reading my article. All constructive criticism on my writing style is welcomed as well. I am by no means a professional writer.
Ginny
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Comments: 15
I wouldn't join something like Weight Watchers where they want money to weigh you in front of other people. I don't know anyone who has done WW and managed to keep the weight off when they could no longer afford to belong to a group. I'm sure people get results from it, but no one I know has had permanent loss.
I do remember him walking into my parent's house on a visit one day and asking me where those 50 lbs. were....I had just gotten out of the shower and had on my bathrobe and was embarassed to be standing there without clothes on. I just blurted out "I don't know, I've lost them, haven't I?" He thought that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard.
I loved my grandfather very much but I am beginning to see where my mother's relationship with him was a huge factor in how my relationship with her developed, since she couldn't understand my relationship with my own father. But that's a whole 'nother post for another day....