Last Week of My Twelve Week Challenge

Ok, this is the last week of the twelve week challenge I participated in at work.  As you can see, there are not many posts, and can I tell you something?  I was not motivated, and I fear that I was not successful.  I had to really sit down and take a look at why.  This is hard for me, because I don't like to admit defeat, and I am competitive person.  Here are the reasons:

1.  I did not commit to myself fully.  I knew that I wanted to lose weight, but the commitment was just not there.

2.  I did not plan ahead.  I didn't plan what I was going to do for exercise, what I was going to cut out, or not cut out with eating.

3. I let stress dictate my snacking.  I used food for comfort.

4.  I used excuses, the most common being, I will do better tomorrow, or next week.


What is the difference this time?

1.  My doctor basically gave me a time frame to lose weight.  I have health issues that are blaring "WARNING".  This hit me hard.  This is not a time to say "I can wait for tomorrow".

2.  I have a daughter I promised that I would eat clean as long as she was clean from an addiction of her own.  She is so important to me (as are my other children and husband), but food really is MY ADDICTION, and I really cant pretend it is not.

3.  I AM DOING THIS FOR MYSELF!  I am worth it!

4.  I have a cute niece that posted a 30 day Paleo challenge, and it hit me hard...I am TAKING THE CHALLENGE!  See her blog here: Challenge


5. I am ready to run, to play to live to laugh, to feel sexy and to wear cute jeans!

Want to come play with us?

I will be posting recipes, my exercise and my ups and downs...OH, and pictures weekly...AAAHHHHH.

Take the challenge!

New CONTEST!

On New Year's day, we met at Nathan and Kristen's house ( my nephew and his wife) to start our new 12 WEEK CHALLENGE!  This one is a family challenge and Steve and Amber ( other nephew and his wife) started a great new plan for us!

I am SO excited to be doing this with family...that is what it is all about, right?  This is a bonding thing as well as a great support system and healthy way of living.

That first meeting was fun.  We had computers set up and skyped in another nephew Will and his wife Anika, my sister Debi, and my daughter Jacey...They gave us the awesome guidelines and this is one I am a little bit more serious about...

There are quite a few of us in the family doing this...my niece Lynsie and her kids, the above mentioned family, my brother Craig and his wife Sher, my niece Amy and her kids will come for some of the challenges.  I am not sure who in my family will actually do it with me, but Riley and Jocelyn came to the first meeting too.  Nate and Kris have their kids joining in as well...I LOVE THIS!

We have a point system, where you get a point for eating 3 fruits,  points for eating 5 vegies, points for water, NO SUGAR,points for no fried foods, eating breakfast,1/2 of grains eaten are "whole grains",no soda, no eating ater 7 pm,   exercise (you can get up to 3 points) and sleep...what is that?  I am not very good at the sleep thing.  Part of that is Jeffrey's fault:)  He likes to have the TV on until 3:00 am and it is hard to sleep through that, so I take Ambien.  I know, bad!

Quite a few of us use the "My Fitness Tracker" to log our food and exercise.  It is a great and easy app you can download onto your smart phone.

We are going to divide into teams for challenges.  The winner of the biggest percentage of body fat lost gets to lead the rest of us in any workout they would like...aaahhhh. You have to do extra things if you dont lose and you are put on probation if it is a few weeks in a row.  The winning team gets to make the losers do something crazy like clean their house while they watch, do a play for their neighbors, go to the movie theater dressed as trolls.  Man I love this crazy family!

I am more committed to the NO SUGAR this time.

I hope my cooking well and eating well is a good example and motivation for my whole family.