Since the beginning of October, I’ve lost just over twenty pounds by carefully monitoring my calorie intake and working out 4-5 times a week. The lion’s share of my weight loss has been spurred by my friend and colleague Randy Schmidt‘s brilliant new website, Lose It or Lose It, which has a simple, effective premise:

1. Set a weight loss goal
2. Give Randy lots of money
3. Check in every week. If you’ve made your target, you keep all your money.
4. At the end of the ten-week plan, get your money back! And now you’re skinnier! Whoo!

I put up fifteen hundred dollars in November against the goal of losing twenty pounds in ten weeks. I was 251 when I started, and I’m right around 236 now, with all my trendlines going steadily downwards. You can see pictures of each week’s weigh-in here.

The great thing about Randy’s program is that it provides the missing ingredient of immediate, specific, and consistent motivation. I’m not trying to avoid eating that cheeseburger based on some nebulous beach goal seven months away; I’m avoiding that cheeseburger because if I eat it, I lose a hundred bucks on Monday! You don’t have to risk as much as me, but I really like cheeseburgers, so I put the figure pretty high. So far, it’s worked great, and I’m starting to get to the point where people are noticing and commenting that I’m looking skinnier.

On Wednesday, CBS3 technology reporter Nicole Brewer called Randy about doing a story on New Years’ resolutions and technology. Lose It or Lose It’s official Philly celebrity geek Blankbaby couldn’t make it, so I filled in. Kate, Lydia, and I drove in to the city, met Nicole and her camera operator in the lobby of the sporting club at the Bellevue, and even got a workout in for the camera! (I burned 14 calories during the shoot; Kate burned 12. So, you know, we got our morning exercise in!)

Here’s the piece that Nicole made!

I had a great time talking to Nicole, and I’m glad that the piece worked out well for Randy, with the URL getting carefully spelled out on TV and everything. Hurrah!

PS. After we were finished shooting, we stepped outside the Bellevue on our way to the Academy of Music to take Lydia to the Nutcracker. I stopped and turned in an uncertain circle. “Uh… which way, honey?” I said, my iPhone grasping for satellites. Kate pointed: “Let’s follow all the girls in red velvet dresses”, gesturing at a sidewalk FILLED with six, seven, and eight-year-olds all headed one way, decked out in velvet trim. The Nutcracker was GREAT, and the trip to Max Brenner’s afterwards was FANTASTIC. What a day!