And the Winner Is...

Sameer Puri D.D.S.

14 years ago

I can't believe how many people have been e-mailing me and asking me about the results of the contest. So I'm sure you all are wondering what happened?

Well, technically it was a draw but I'll consider it a victory. Let me explain.

I lost 22 pounds of weight, most of it in the last six weeks as I upped the intensity of the workouts and really tightened up my diet. My competitor only lost 9 pounds of weight. Victory for me.

But weight loss was only part of the bet. We were also tracking fat loss. According to my scale, I dropped 3.5% of body fat and my competitor lost 4%. So he won that.

We called it a draw because frankly we didn't trust the measurements on the scale we were using. For example, my body fat fluctuated 4% in a period of eight hours according to the scale. Umm, hello??

Regardless, by the time the weigh in came, both of us were so sick of the diet and brutal workouts we just congratulated each other on the hard work and decided to call it a draw.

Both of us made tremendous improvements to our bodies. As I mentioned previously, I'm in the best shape of my life and at my marriage weight from 14 years ago.

Here is the kicker: we both had planned a huge celebration meal where we were going to pig out and eat all sorts of dessert, but we both chickened out at the dinner table. Sure we splurged a bit - had an appetizer with carbs, ordered dessert. But it wasn't the gluttonous feast we had planned. I think we both felt guilty. After all the hard work, why throw it all away?

I'm happy to report that I will continue my hard workouts (probably not to the same intensity) and clean diet (again-not to the same degree).

This whole experience made me realize what is possible when you put your mind to something. I had been stuck at the same weight for the longest time; I had hit a plateau. But with hard work, motivation and some incentive, frankly, I'm proud of what I was able to achieve.