I joined a fitness challenge with my wife a few months ago. I did it mostly to support her, but since I'm a competitive person, I also pushed myself really hard. I ended up losing 12 lbs, gaining muscle, and being in really good shape.

As far as the contest rules go, the winner was not chosen based on a points system or hard data. They wanted people to simply post before and after pics, and tell their story on social media. The person with the "biggest transformation" would be chosen as the winner.

I'm not a big fan of social media, and especially not in this circumstance. I didn't make it to the finals or anything, but I was looking at all the people who were in the top, and their "story" that they posted. Well, there are all these sob stories. For example, the guy who won posted a story about how he and his wife had fertility issues, so he let himself go due to the stress that caused him, but this challenge helped him triumph over his challenges and be successful.

In my "story," I simply said that I was happy with my results.

If I wanted to, I could tell a story about how I have an auto-immune disease that affects my joints, or that I can't do high impact exercise without being in a lot of pain, but that I triumphed over my challenges. I didn't do this because I don't like making excuses for myself. I worked hard for the sake of being healthy, and I don't need validation from other people to feel like I succeeded.

I probably sound like a heartless jerk, and that I'm minimizing the challenges of others, but I just hate that so many other people feel like they need to tell sob stories in order to appeal to the larger audience. Rant over.