Flake Family Fat Contest - by Bethany

At the end of 2010, my husband and I sent an email to the family (my siblings/parents) proposing a weight loss contest. It would start on New Year's Day, and end at our family reunion in Nauvoo, IL in July 2011. Everyone needed to take a "before" picture, and note their starting weight. We asked people to keep track of anything of interest throughout the contest, like races run, sports participated in, remarkable consistency in exercise or diet, returning to pre-pregnancy weight, inspiring stories of dedication, etc.

Dad's reply shows his extreme weirdness:
"How about some "spiritual" ones too, like: Never missed a day of scripture reading, never missed a day of journal writing, brushed teeth twice a day, flossed twice a week, washed hair often, cabbage each day, did not speed, wrote family letter every week, wrote Derek often, read Conference Ensign daily, did treadmill daily, got up on time, read Preach My Gospel, read patriarchal blessing, etc. I'm getting carried away."

Whitney's response:
"Count me in.  For everything except baby bounce back and eating cabbage daily.
Whit"

Yes, he really did eat a quarter of a head of cabbage before lunch everyday.

Despite the somewhat confusing response, most people did take the weight loss contest seriously, as evidenced by emails full of trash talk throughout the 6-month period. As July neared, Paul and I collected data and pictures to present at a "pep rally" at the family reunion. It was a greatly anticipated event.

When the time arrived, we all gathered in a conference room at our hotel in Nauvoo, and Paul and I set up our slideshow. We tried to make it a lot of fun, revealing stats along the way while interspersing it with audience participation. We did feats of strength:

Joel can bench press Greg!

And look how many nephews he can lift!

We also did taste tests, comparing "diet" and "nondiet" foods, as well as a blindfolded test to see if you could tell the Hostess product from other "lesser" imitations. The in-laws lost miserably to the Flakes in that category - we know our ho-ho's!!

We reported on sports anyone in the family had played in during the contest period, as well as races run (including times). There were seven different sports represented, and 25 races - it was pretty amazing!

Sarah's kids played soccer that year.

Every adult, whether they participated or not, appeared in the slideshow with a January and July picture, and each received an award. For example:

Mom got the Trailblazer award for inspiring us all by her impressive weigh loss even before the contest started.

Heather got the Chuck Norris kickboxing award, since she lost weight by going to a lot of fitness classes at the YMCA, including kickboxing, of course.

Austin got the Aquaman award. He lost weight by swimming like 500 miles over the course of a year.

I got the Calorie-countant award, for counting calories.

Whitney got the Tortoise and the Hare award. She didn't lose much weight at the beginning of the contest, but got serious at the end and did great!

Ashley got the Wheat is Murder award. She lost her weight by avoiding bread products.

Some of the sillier awards for those who may not have actually been trying:

Matt got the "Coulda Been a Contender" award.

Kelsey got the "136 Peanut Butter Balls Later and Still Lost Weight" award. (I don't think she ate all those herself, but I could be wrong...)

Haley and Greg, both ridiculously skinny, got awards referencing Greg's years working at a pizza place in Provo, UT. They eat a lot of really good pizza and never gain a pound! Haley got the "Eats Brick Oven Weekly - It's Just Not Fair" award, and Greg got the "Never Trust a Skinny Cook" award.

Derek got the Diet Diversity award. He was serving a Korean-speaking mission at the time.

We announced the awards, taking breaks here and there for contests to see who could do the most sit-ups or push-ups, and we even had an arm wrestling tournament for the little kids, complete with brackets!

In the end, we revealed the actual weight lost by each person, as well as the winners. Austin lost the most weight throughout the contest period - a whopping 50 pounds! (For some reason, when we were making the slideshow, Heather kept sending me pictures of Austin without his shirt on or with tight shorts on or something, so I won't post a picture here, but if you're into that sort of`thing, Heather posted one just for you!)

Mom won the overall weight lost (she'd been working at it for a couple of years) - 85 pounds!!

Over the course of the contest, the family lost 240 pounds! If you include additional weight lost in the previous 2 years (Mom and Joel went on major weight loss programs, and Whitney lost a bunch of weight on her mission), the family lost 430 pounds!

The slideshow ended with quotes from family members about their experience. Things like:

"So free, so confident, so happy"

"A complete lifestyle change, altering our children's future"

"I will have a longer life. I wish I'd started sooner."

"I know it's the right thing to do."

"I can move faster. I feel younger."

"I'm not going back to who I was."

It was such a unique thing to be able to work together with most of our family, as far apart as we all were, for a common goal. It had to be done individually, but was such an accomplishment when we saw the results of the group as a whole. Very inspiring. Let's do it again sometime!

The whole skinny crew in front of the Nauvoo temple, July 2011