Weight Loss Buy Back Program

Posted on March 14, 2019

Description:

There was a time in my life when I was "obese" based on my body mass index. I took control by starting to exercise regularly and inventing a diet I called "Juice & Salad" where I ate, almost exclusively, juice and salad (I was buying a lot of fruit and vegetables). Over the course of about eight months I went from 215 to 165 lbs. As I returned to a normal diet my weight leveled out at 175 to 180 lbs.

When my wifi scale died in early 2018 (RIP) I had been in that range for a number of years and decided not to replace it. I was shocked and sad when I stepped on a scale a few days ago and it read 193.8 lbs.

I was tempted to return to my Juice & Saladโ„ข but the CDC suggests healthy weight loss is no more than 1 or 2 pounds per week, and itโ€™s not about a diet or a program as much as creating an ongoing lifestyle that involves healthy eating and regular exercise. Following this advice it will take me 18 weeks to get back to 175 lbs (and in the "normal" BMI range). If I start now Iโ€™ll be at my target weight in July. (Swimsuit season!)

Initially I thought this would be the perfect use case for Beeminder, which charges you money if you miss your goals. I love the idea of commitment contracts, but since I have shareholders, my proposal is to penalize myself with a share buyback program.

(Not sure how buybacks work? Here is a quick primer.)

If I donโ€™t lose weight, I lose money, which facilitates market liquidity and increases the voting power of all shareholders. It's a true win-win!

Proposal: For 18 weeks I will record my weight each day with the goal of losing 1 pound per week based on a rolling average. For every 1/10th of a pound over my target weight I will purchase two (2) shares on the open market (so a 1/2 pound would be ten shares, which at current rates would be a penalty of $57.10).

This vote will end on March 17th. Update: Vote extended because delay in sending out email to shareholders. The exact terms of this vote may change during the open voting period based on shareholder feedback.



Past Discussion

beau ๐Ÿ’ฏโ˜•๏ธ (200.0 shares, voted yes)
highly recommend using the rolling average of your weight for that sunday goal number (and weighing every day, you can tape over the number on your scale and only look at the trend online if you take that approach and care about seeing the number so often); i used and loved TrendWeight for a long time which facilitates an easy rolling average: https://trendweight.com/
Robby Russell โ˜•๐Ÿ’ฏ (114.0 shares, voted no)
Interesting idea but want to be mindful of the time commitment to tracking/buying back shares -- should you not meet these goals. I'm saying, "No" to 18 individual weekly assessments/potential tasks to buy back a share. Am open to the concept -- but would advocate for less check-ins as I want you to use those mental calories on your other projects/goals...so that I get filthy rich off this investment.
Mike Merrill ๐ŸŽ–๐ŸŒฎ๐ŸŒด
Robby: appreciate the concern on time but I've been getting deeply into personal tracking this year so it won't be much more effort at all. In fact, i'll have more info about that soon...
Mike Merrill ๐ŸŽ–๐ŸŒฎ๐ŸŒด
I wrote up some notes about the specific plan and how to follow along if you're interested: https://news.kmikeym.com/capitalism-weight-loss-program/
jesserifkin (1.0 shares, voted yes)
I vote yes, but suggest you change your goal to get back to your TRUE original weight: 7 pounds, 8 ounces.