Wk 5 challenges!

Alright - week 5 already!! PHEW!! It's FLYING by! Here are the new challenges for this week (thanks for the suggestions!!)

OP: As usual 10 pts/day that you spend OP

MOIE: 1pt/minute of intentional exercise + 10pts/each day you complete a strength session of at least 20 minutes

Fitness Challenge: (25) Lots of us have a tough time working out in the absence of equipment/a gym and let's be honest, when you travel or are working out at home sometimes you don't get those luxuries...it's incredibly important that you know how to get your heart rate going and sweat flowing on your own. This week you get 15 pts for developing and posting to your team a 20 minute workout that you can do WITHOUT any equipment that can't be found in/around your house (for example, broomsticks/soup cans/chairs/the playground down the street are all okay to use - just no weights, dvds etc). An extra 5pts for each time you complete your workout (up to a max of 10pts)

Nutrition Challenge: (25) Last week people seemed to really benefit from getting new breakfast ideas - so I think maybe getting some new dinner ideas would be VERY helpful...especially for those of us in "food ruts" who are getting tired of our roster of dinners. 3pts for everyday you post your OP dinner to your team and a bonus 4 if you do it every day - (it doesn't have to be posted every day - just by the end of the week make sure you've told us the 7 dinners you had). Also, last week I didn't specify this but from my thread spying I realize that although some ppl were posting their brekkies, sometimes they weren't OP (i.e. sugary granola bars, a couple cake-like items, etc). So for this week post your dinners, but you only get the 3pts/day if you dinner is OP! I know...I'm tough stuff!

Lifestyle challenge: We are getting to know each other pretty well by this point - and although sometimes we are our biggest critics, we are the biggest fans of eachother. Every day post at least 1 positive thing you admire about one of your teammates (again, it doesn't have to be EVERY day - just have a total of at least 7 posts) - 25pts if you have at least 7 positives for your teammates

BONUS: (25) you know the deal.....stick with your exercise...keep doing it every day! Are you getting stronger...are you noticing muscles that weren't there before?? Let me know how it's going! I hope you're finding that you're getting something out of this!

Wk 4 Challenges!

OP: As usual 10 pts/day that you spend OP

MOIE: 1pt/minute of intentional exercise + 10pts/each day you complete a strength session of at least 20 minutesFitness Challenge: Many of us pick our “fav” workout and stick to it because we’re comfortable with it – BUT exercise has been found to be much more effective if you mix it up. 25pts this week if you mix up your workout at least once, trying something that you haven’t before (or that you usually don’t do) .Thanks for the suggestion Becki!

Nutrition Challenge: (25) Breakfast is the most important meal of the day – but sometimes it’s hard to have one that is balanced and tasty (and fast!) Everyday that you have a good breakfast (meaning it stays OP – so no donuts or leftover birthday cake) AND post what you ate for the team you get 3 pts (with a 4pt bonus if you do this all 7 days). The goal of this is to make sure we’re eating good breakfasts AND to give the rest of your team ideas for some things they might want to try.

Lifestyle challenge: Spring has sprung (in most of Canada!). GRAB A FRIEND AND GET OUT THERE!! 25 pts if you grab a friend/coworker/significant other and go outside and get some intentional physical activity this week!

BONUS: (25) again – stick with that same exercise and keep trying to improve it on a daily basis. If you’re doing push-ups, how many more can you do now? If you chose a plank how much longer can you hold it now? Note your progress we’re approx halfway there! Post your progress for the team

Wk 2 Results!!!!

Well here are the results for another fabulous week! Great work everyone!!
This week we had pretty good participation – the Snapdragons and Stingers were missing 1 member each and the Springtastics were missing 2. Don’t forget – when you don’t post you bring down the team averages so make sure you let your team leader know if you’re going away for a week and won’t be able to post. Great work everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the challenge so far! We’re almost halfway done!

SN=SNAPDRAGONS SP=SPRINGTASTICS ST=STINGERS

OP: SN-46 SP-31 ST-45 - 10 big ones for the Snapdragons!
MOIE: SN-383.12 SP-253.5 ST:406.18 – GOOOOO Stingers! 10pts!
Fitness Challenge: SN-15.31 SP-10.71 ST-17.65 - 5 for the Stingers!
Nutrition Challenge: SN-14.56 SP-13 ST-17.53 – Another one for the Stingers! 5pts
Lifestyle Challenge: SN-20.31 SP-14.29 ST-20.59 – Holy smokes! Those Stingers are on fire!! 5 more!
Bonus SN-9.375 SP-1.78 ST-10.29 5 last ones for the Stingers!

So totaling everything from last week……
The Stingers have: 55 pts
Springtastics: 5
Snapdragons: 20!

Okay – and here’s the GREAT news – as a group we are down another 27.7 lbs….for a total of 70.6 lbs so far!! Great work ladies!!!!

Keep it up everyone!

Wk 3 challenges!

Alright ladies….week 3 starts tomorrow!!! How is everything going? Are you happy with the challenges? What would YOU like to see in the remaining weeks? Let me know!! Here are the challenges to start up tomorrow:

OP: As usual 10 pts/day that you spend OP

MOIE: 1pt/minute of intentional exercise + 10pts/each day you complete a strength session of at least 20 minutes

Fitness Challenge: We are all busy ladies and sometimes it’s hard to get in our workouts when we have busy lives to attend to – this week your challenge is to squeeze exercise into a typically non-exercising activity and let your team know what you did. Some examples could be taking the stairs instead of an elevator, doing push-ups during the commercials of your favourite show, taking a walk on your lunch hour, doing squats while your coffee is perking, walking to the convenient store instead of driving….you get the picture! 3pts/every day you do this AND report it to your team (you don’t have to report it everyday but if you’ve done it daily by the end of the week you should have reported a total of 7 instances that you’ve added in exercise into your life where you didn’t have it otherwise) – 4pt bonus if you do it all 7 days (total of 25pts)

Nutrition Challenge: (25) Revamp an old favourite recipe into a ww friendly version and share it with the group on a daily recipe thread (all three teams on the same thread – that way we can all benefit from the recipes)
** The last challenge I ran, I put the recipes together into a Word document organized into categories. If you are interested in me doing that again, let me know and I’ll put something together that can be emailed out.

Lifestyle challenge: We all talk about the physical challenges we face in regard to eating and working out…but what about how you feel about yourself…what is the biggest emotional challenge you’ve faced thus far in your weight loss and how have you worked at overcoming it? I’m hoping that this will give support to people that are maybe facing the same difficulties you did at one point and give us a chance to learn from each other.

BONUS: (25) again – stick with that same exercise and keep trying to improve it on a daily basis. If you’re doing push-ups, how many more can you do now? If you chose a plank how much longer can you hold it now? Note your progress we’re approx halfway there!

Wk 1 results!!!!!

Well at last here are the week 1 results!! GREAT JOB to all teams! This week because of all of the week 1 “dropouts” I took them off the rosters so everyone had 100% participation – but for all of the upcoming weeks participation will count – so don’t forget to post!!

Also – to the team leaders – in the future please don’t combine the FC and Bonus – MOIE and strength bonuses go together, but if you don’t mind please keep the FC and general bonus apart. Thanks! You three are doing an amazing job!

Don’t forget teams…it’s not about winning/losing – it’s the fact that you’re doing things and staying on track more than you would without the challenge and that you are supporting lots of amazing people in the process. Thanks to everyone who has participated so far – you’ve all been great and I’m excited to continue the challenge with you! If you have any challenge suggestions let me know and I’ll do my best to incorporate them. Here are the results…….

SN=snapdragons SPR=springtastics ST=Stingers

Staying OP: SN: 56.875 SPR: 47.14 ST: 56.47 Close race!! 10 pts for the Sassy Snapdragons!!

MOIE: SN: 373.5 SPR: 262.57 ST: 384.65 - another close one! 10pts to the Sensational Stingers!

Fitness Challenge (20min exercise/day) + bonus: SN: 24.69 SPR: 3.57 ST: 26.47 5 big points for the Stingers!!

Nutrition Challenge (sub in protein into one snack/meal per day): SN: 22.94 SPR: 22.43 ST: 23.24 5 more for the Stingers!

Lifestyle challenge: SN: 24.06 SPR: 25 ST: 25 It’s a tie!!! 5 for the Springtastics and the Stingers!!!

So totaling it up…..
The Stingers are in the lead with a whopping 25 pts!
Next are the Snapdragons with 10!
And coming in third (but I feel a great week coming on for them!!) is the Springtastics with 5!!

And here is the even MORE fabulous news – as a combined group we lost 42.9 lbs last week – that’s an average of .91 lbs per person! Amazing!!! Let’s see what we can do for week 2!!

Wk 2 challenges point summary

POINTS SUMMARY

OP: 10pts/day you are OP

MOIE: 1pt/minute of intentional exercise + 10pt bonus for each day you do a strength routine of at least 20 minutes

LC: 25pts for telling your team your 3 top tips for getting/staying healthy

FC: 25pts if you push yourself “to the limit” 3X this week

NC: 3pts/day for each day you can say no to unplanned nighttime snacking (you can have it if you have points left….but otherwise it’s a nono) – 4 bonus points if you do it for all 7 days

BONUS: 25pts if you complete your exercise of choice from the list above all 7 days

Week 2 challenges!

Welcome to week 2 everyone! I hope that you had a great first week of the challenge and are excited for the upcoming week! For some of us this is likely to be a challenging few days with Easter eggs and family dinners galore! Let’s band together and get through the weekend feeling successful! Don’t forget about the goals you set last week! Remember at the end of the challenge the goal is to have broken a negative behaviour or started a positive one! We’ll be sure to see how it goes at the end!

Here are this week’s challenges:

As usual keep track of the days you are OP – 10pts/day

MOIE – keep track of the number of minutes of intentional exercise you complete – also – remember you get an extra 10pt bonus for each day you complete at least a 20 minute strength routine

Lifestyle Challenge: Share with your team your top 3 tips that help you succeed on getting healthy (can be exercise or nutrition tips). It could be special snack ideas that get you through the day or exercise habits that really help you see results. 25pts if you do this.

Fitness Challenge: I’ve noticed that lots of you get lots of minutes of exercise weekly (WOOHOO! Awesome job!!) – but sometimes you don’t have the time to work out for that long. Also – studies have shown that increasing the intensity that you work out (and therefore decreasing the time you spend doing it) will work better to burn calories – and it will be much more likely you’ll stick with it, because really – who has 2 hours a day to work out (unless your on the Biggest Loser!!)?? I want you to push yourself to the limit. 25pts if you can “push yourself to your limit” 3X this week – that means go until you can’t go anymore – if you run, sprint that last little bit – or if you’re about to give up on a wall squat don’t get up, stay there until you slide down the wall!! Go to your limit! Your body is likely stronger than you give it credit for! Let it show you how strong it really is! (Just please….be your own judge…don’t hurt yourself…)

Nutrition Challenge: This week is likely to be tempting – with chocolate eggs filling our cupboards and family dinners w/ leftovers snacking may be tough. So therefore this is an ideal week for no night-time unplanned snacking! So, if you have points left over for a nightly snack that is fine – but otherwise no extra snacking!! 3pts/day you can do this – and if you do it all 7 days get an extra 4 points (25pts)

BONUS: same as last week (not because I didn’t want to put in the effort of thinking of a new one…but because I want you to focus in improving in one specific exercise haha) Whatever exercise you picked last week (and if you didn’t do the bonus last week, start fresh this week and pick one of the exercises below) do it each day – 25pts if you do it everyday – the goal is by the end of the week increase the number you can do/time you can hold the exercise in the case of the plank.

Upper body giving you grief? Push-ups - 3 sets of as many as you can a day (aim to improve each day)

Ab difficulties? Planks – hold one as long as you can, plus one on each side as long as you can. Try and increase the time you can hold it each day

Legs your area of concern? Lunges – aim for at least 10 on each side and do 3 sets on each side