My friend Carolyn Lee came up with a brilliant personal weight loss campaign. This is what she had to say about it:

A couple of years ago I went hard and lost 15kg. Unfortunately thanks to kilo creep, about 7 of those have snuck back on over the last year and a half.

I had a brainwave to motivate myself to lose the weight once and for all. What if I could link losing weight to helping the Sunrise Children’s Village - a Cambodian orphanage that I’d heard about on the ABC’s Talking Heads program.

I thought, “what better motivation is there than to be sponsored for each kilo I lose and donate this money to the orphanage”? So I asked my partner and family to sponsor me. They loved the idea and are offering me $10 for each kilo that I lose.

This is how the idea of Less is More came about.

Then I started thinking: if I was weighed and sponsored publicly, I’d be even more accountable. My little brainwave has blossomed and my local paper The Kiama Independent has agreed to run regular features on my progress and call for public donations.

I plan to lose 15kg before my 36th birthday (June 11 2009). As of 6 January 2009, I've lost 2.5kg

I ask that you contribute what you can. Some people are offering $1/kilo ($15). Others are able to give more, which I really appreciate.

If you’d like to support me, I’d encourage you to go about this one of two ways:

  1. Make a safe and secure donation directly via PayPal through Sunrise’s website (ie. assume I will lose the weight and make an upfront deposit). When paying, please make sure you put: ‘Carolyn Lee – Less Is More’ – in the Description section so Sunrise knows the funds are being raised for this campaign.
  2. Send me an email with a pledge to pay me $X for every kilo that I lose. When my birthday rolls around, Sunrise will then get in contact with you for the funds you pledged based on my weight loss to date.

Of course if you need any more reason to support me, it’s all tax deductible.

Great idea huh? So what are you waiting for? Do something good to kickstart this year and sponsor Carolyn’s weight loss. And PayPal takes money from anywhere around the world.