[beachgal]

Intriguing! This is an excerpt from a wonderful newsletter I get weekly (Washington Post's Lean Plate Club). Sounds like an awesome idea to start at work or even at home with your family.

You'll find the Lean Plate Club (along with the option to sign up for their e-newsletter) here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032500803.html

With a Little Help From Your Friends
By Sally Squires
From: Lean Plate Club Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2006

A Lean Plate Club member from Dartmouth, N. H., recently e-mailed me about ball-holding, a creative activity that he and his officemates made up:

"Our office had a successful team diet a few years ago: We lost 242 pounds, collectively. We then... well... struggled. So we've restarted it. To add to the contest, we have invented HallBall. Those playing are assigned a squishy weighted ball (Danskin has some nice ones) of either three or five lbs (player's choice). Every time you leave your office, you must carry your HallBall. Trips out of office (to the loo, to your car, etc) can be ball-less, but otherwise, those caught without their ball get a Black Mark on the HallBall Wall of Shame. Three such marks and you owe the pot $3. (Our current aim is to buy a gift with the pot for the overall weight-loss winner.) Once someone gets their third mark, all other marks are erased and reset to zero). This has the added bonus of giving people incentives to 'ballhawk'-- watch with eagle eyes for those who forget.

What's really great is how you see people standing and talking, tossing their balls from hand to hand (or person to person), casually holding a ball under their arm (or balanced on their head), trying to juggle carrying their food from microwave to table, HallBall balanced with drink with food. (Our advice to whiners: "Make two trips -- the extra walking is good for you!"). It's a small weight but over the life of our diet contest, it should prove very helpful as a weight-loss aid as well as a muscle toner. And one woman told me, today, 'I hold this and think, wow, if I could lose five pounds, it'd be like putting this ball down, forever....' Exactly."

Sally Squires: If you'd like to try something similar you can buy Century weight balls for about a dollar per pound at many sporting goods stores, including Olympia Sports and Sports Authority. They're apparently squishy and easy to carry. Skip the eight-pounder, which the Dartmouth crowd has found too cumbersome for regular use.

What do you think?

[Stephanie Osborne]

This sounds like such a fun idea!!!

[kyemom]

sounds great!!

[Monkeybabies]

That is a cool idea!