The Rules

1.You must sign up by midnight Central time, Monday, January 5th, by emailing me your “starting” weight. I will accept late members until Monday, January 26th but you will be penalized by paying the $5 “fatty fee” for each weigh-in missed (i.e. the January 14th and 21st weigh-ins) and the $5 initial pool fee. Pool runs from January 5th to April 5th with the last weigh-in on Wednesday, April 1st and the two winners of the pool to be determined by April 5th.

2. You must register with Paypal as the monies for the contest will be collected in a Paypal account in which all fatty fees will be collected. You do this by going to paypal.com & clicking “pay online”. Very Simple!

3. To become a member of this pool, you must send the following information to my email address: amywalsh5@gmail.com.
a. Your name
b. Your starting weight (this will not be made public)
c. Email address and Paypal account information (to bill you if you when you first sign up, if you owe money and/or if you miss a weigh in)

4. I encourage you to take measurements and take a “before” picture. Sometimes you can lose inches but it doesn’t reflect much on the scale. That is still success in the battle for a more fit and toned body. You do not have to submit these measurements or pictures unless you want to.

5. Weigh-ins are recorded every Wednesday. You must email your weight by Midnight, Central time on Wednesday. Failure to do so will result in your being assessed the $5 “fatty fee”. Your payment is due to the Paypal account by 12am Central time the following Friday or you are eliminated from the program.

6. Each week, I will track everyone’s progress and post the results from that week’s weigh in. Your weight will never be mentioned, only pounds lost (or gained, but hopefully that will not happen!!!) but even when you have a down week, this is the time at which myself and other members will be able to post encouraging messages, so don’t beat yourself up if you gain, we’re all in this together!

7. The success of this entire experiment depends on the honor system. When you report your weight each week, be honest. Nobody wants cheaters participating. Don’t be a cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater.

8. What is the “Fatty Fee”? If you lose at least a pound, you owe the pool nothing. If you maintain or gain, you owe the $5 fatty fee. It’s that simple. This is a 12 week program, lose a pound a week, that’s a great start if you have a lot to lose or it’s a good total amount if you have “let yourself go” and just need to get toned up and back in shape. The focus is to have your weight loss be fun, simple, and healthy above all. No crash diets or unhealthy weight loss suggestions will be offered here. Just the old standby: eat less, exercise more. Period. Can’t deal? Don’t join.

9. There will be TWO WINNERS of this 12-week weight loss pool. They will split the pot, whatever it turns out to be. One winner is the person who loses the most pounds. The other winner is the person who loses the biggest percentage of weight. This will be two individual people, one person cannot win both categories. The person who wins the most pounds will win ½ and the person who loses the most percentage of weight will get the other ½. If this is the same person, one ½ will go to the next person in line for percentage of weight.

Additional notes:
• Each day or so there will be posts. Please comment if you have suggestions or just want to share a warm fuzzy with the other members of the pool. This is a positive & fun environment, it is meant to be a support system, to lose weight together and build each other up!!
• Tell all your friends or family members about it right away. There is a deadline and the more people who become members, the more fun it will be!
• If you have suggestions for post ideas, recipes, tips, etc. please send them to the email address.