As I was dressing up for an event last week, I asked my wife “Do these pants make me look fat?” She said, “No dear, not at all; it's the beer and pizza. The pants are fine.” Not long before that, a good friend of mine, Erwin Versoza from Outdoors Club asked me to drop by his shop in Greenhills. When I did, he installed a really awesome rear mounted Rhino rack bike carrier on my Trailblazer. When I asked why, he said, "because you used to be thin."
A day or so after, I won a really nice 'M' bike in the BMW Christmas party.
Side profile of me on the day of the weigh in, Jan 26, 2014
Me (right) at my ideal weight of 175lb in July 2012
Now call me crazy, but I was really starting to think that someone was trying to tell me something. So I decided right then and there to do something about it and sold the bike and the Rhino rack and bought a set of bigger pants. Just kidding. But you should have seen your face.
Seriously though, I know I've let myself go. I have no excuse. But with season 2 of my TV Show Drive on CNN Philippines ready for taping, I made a pact to shed off at least 20 pounds. No excuses.
Now I’ve done this twice before, so I know I can do it again. But the thing is, at 42 years old, I needed extra motivation. So just to make it interesting, I posted the challenge on my Facebook page and asked if anyone would be willing to sweeten the pot and sponsor each pound I lose from now until, say, April, with the condition that whatever is raised goes straight to charity.
I call it the #sparetirechallenge. The idea is simple. My starting weight as of January 26, 2015 is 200 pounds. I want to lose as much as I can from now until April, so I'm asking friends/companies to nominate an amount they’re comfortable with to sponsor per pound I lose from now till then.
Say for the sake of math it's 500 pesos per pound. At the end of each month (starting Feb 28) I weigh in. Whatever I have lost in that month, you pay up and we use the money to sponsor a child in World Vision. If I haven't hit my goal (which is unlikely in the first month or two) you have the option to sponsor the next month or just end your sponsorship there. Your choice.
But even if you did decide to just do a month, just imagine that I lose 10 pounds in that first month and collectively I have pledges of just 840 pesos per pound; that puts one child through school (complete with books and a little baon) for one year. Not bad, huh? Basically, my loss is someone else’s gain.
Immediately after I posted the challenge on Facebook, as in a minute or so after, Lexus Manila President, Danny Isla kicked in with 1,000 pesos per pound. I’m not sure how much was for the charity and how much to watch me suffer, but shortly after, Marc Soong from Jaguar, Land Rover, Ferrari and Maserati matched it. Not to be outdone, Gus Camacho from Auto Circulo, the largest dealer of Peugeot and Kia in the country said, “What’s Marc pledging?” And when he found out it was a thousand, he bid 1,100 pesos per pound. Just because.
I hadn’t even finished laughing at Gus’ message when Maverick Advertising agency president, Jasper Golangco, who has always been extremely supportive of any type of good cause that comes up, kicked in with another 1,000 per pound. Then a reader popped a message into my inbox offering 200 per pound, while Hola Magazine publisher, Paolo Manzano threw in 2k for the buena mano pound.
So, in less than 24 hours, I now find myself with 4,200 pesos per pound, which means if I lose 20 pounds, that sends ten kids to school. It’s a strange way to look at it, I know, but when you think about it as two pounds per kid, it kind of makes it easier to put the donut or the beer and sisig down when you realize that someone's future literally depends on it. Which got me thinking. Why stop at 10? Because the more sponsors I can get per pound, the more kids get a brighter future, so I'm upping my goal to 25 pounds or 20 kids before enrolment this year.
Who’s with me?
*update: Hola Magazine upped their pledge, while Autodeal.com.ph and BYD Philippines both pledged 1,000 pesos per pound, bringing the total pledge per pound to 6,650
*update: An anonymous donor pledged 2,000 pesos per pound, while Paolo Vasquez and the always-ready-to-help Francis Aguila from Brembo brakes threw in another 200 and 250 pesos respectively, bringing the total to 9,100 pesos per pound. Still aiming for 14,400 per pound to send more kids to school. Let's do this!
The Rhino Rack Bike Carrier Christmas gift was the nicest way someone told me I'm fat
