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

All my ranting and raving about protein

Some of you may be wondering...."for the nutrition challenge this week, why did she challenge us to reduce carbs at one meal (preferably breakfast/afternoon snack) and increase my protein instead?

If you want to know why, here's an example article talking about why protein is so important in our diets...in the right amount- especially for active people and those people looking to lose and manage their weight!

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0846/is_2_22/ai_91233478/

Why the scale lies....

Over and over again I battled with the scale. When I was doing full-fledged WW I tried everything - not eating my APs, eating all my APs, eating all of my Flex, eating none of my Flex and everything in between trying to control the scale. Finally, I realized the scale is not anywhere near the top important thing in my fitness world....I love this article. It's a popular one around the ww world and I thought it would be important to share with all of you!

http://primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/library/weight/scale.htm

Clarification

Sorry about the confusion.....it's always tough to get everything going smoothly at the beginning!

Here is a points summary for everyone...I hope this helps:

OP: 10pts/day you are OP (max of 70pts/week)

MOIE: 1pt/minute of intentional exercise

Strength bonus: 10pts/strength session of at least 20 minutes (70pts max for the week)

Lifestyle: 15pts introduce yourself

10pts think of the 2 habits you'll be focusing on

Nutrition: 3pts for every day you add additional protein into a meal/snack – if you get all 7 days bonus 4 pts (for a max of 25pts)

Fitness Challenge: spend 20 minutes a day doing some sort of physical activity - 25pts if you do it every day

Bonus: 25 pts if you pick one of the listed exercises and do them everyday

I hope this is alright for everyone!

Week one challenges! Good luck everyone!

Alright everyone – here is week 1 of the challenge! It is slowly creeping into short-sleeve weather (except maybe for you Winnipeg residents….sorry!) and it’s important that we develop great habits BEFORE the summer hits so when the barbecues, vacations and patios filled with margaritas forge ahead and make us forget how hard we worked all winter to get into shape!

So much of what we do in life is because of habits – think about it – that bit of chocolate right after dinner…it isn’t NEEDED but it’s a habit. That creamer in your coffee every morning….a habit. That popcorn at the movie…a habit. Lounging on the couch all night after work…a habit. Anyone who’s tried to change one knows that habits are hard to break. I’ve read all over the place that it takes 21 days to develop a new habit (http://www.shapefit.com/habits.html – check out that article if you’re interested) – I’ve also read that you can’t cut a habit out of your life without replacing it with a new behaviour. Telling yourself you’re going to change your behaviour “forever” is daunting and making small steps to an ultimately healthier life is the way to make it last – no fad diets here – just lifestyle changes to make you a healthier and happier version of YOU! Let’s cut out some bad habits and create some good longstanding behaviours. This challenge let’s pick concrete individual goals and work towards them together.

OP: keep track of all of your OP days – 10pts/day (a max of 70pts/week)


MOIE: keep track of all of your minutes of intentional exercise (1pt/minute) + 10 bonus pts/day if you do at least 20minutes of strength training

Lifestyle:
1.) For 15pts: introduce yourself to your team and tell them a little something about you – some of you have already done this but if you haven’t, hop on your team’s daily thread and tell them a bit about who you are.
2.) Think about your daily life….what habits do you have that are infringing on your weight loss/fitness progress? My biggies are the nightly dessert after dinner – and that last little “treat” before bed every night that I don’t count. For others, it’s the creamer in their coffee during the morning break or the candy they pick up at the receptionist desk every morning. It might be retiring to the couch immediately after dinner only to stay there all night… For other people, they may not have bad habits to break – but they may need to initiate GOOD habits – like those of us who don’t hit the gym our goal 4 days a week (or whatever you aim to do), or some of us who intend to get SOME FORM of physical exercise daily but just skip it here and there – or maybe it’s that every time you work out you avoid the REALLY TOUGH exercises (push-ups…planks….ahem….)….For this part of the challenge I want you to pick two habits – one to do with your eating habits and one to do with your fitness habits – that you want to change over the next 6 weeks. They can be habits that you want to break – or habits that you want to form – either way, make it something worthwhile and something challenging. Tell your group about what you decide – and remember we’ll be using these for the next 6 weeks…make them good! We will start implementing the changes NEXT Thursday (April 9) so you have a few days to really think about the changes you’d like to make.

Nutrition:
Let’s start this one out nice and easy – so many of us miss out on a valuable part of our diet because we skimp out on protein. Because it’s not counted in WW we often miss it and it is SO important for fat burning and muscle building. This week, add protein into your diet – just try and substitute extra protein into breakfast or lunch or a snack everyday. For example if for breakfast you have a bagel, instead have a half bagel and 3 egg whites (only 1 pt for 3!!) – OR if you have a granola bar as your afternoon snack instead try a cheesestring and carrots OR if you have oatmeal for breakfast throw in a scoop of whey protein powder and a tbsp of PB instead of fruit/sweetener OR on your toast instead of butter use peanut butter OR on your salad take out the croutons and add tuna OR in the afternoon for a snack have ½ cup of ff cottage cheese w/ strawberries (2pts and my personal favourite) OR instead of OJ in the morning have a glass of milk….3pts for every day you do this – if you get all 7 days bonus 4 pts (for a max of 25pts) This should help you feel fuller longer and give you more energy! What are your favs?

Fitness Challenge:
Let’s get the ball rolling – this week spend 20 minutes a day doing some sort of physical activity – go for a walk, do squats and pushups in your living room – anything! 25pts if you do it every day

BONUS: Pick your level of intensity – challenge yourself! Let’s get some strength moves happening! What is an area you’d like to focus on? Pick ONE of the areas below and do the corresponding exercise every day – 25pts if you do it everyday

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

Click on the link below for samples of how to do all of the exercises above in regular and modified versions.
(http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/exercise_demos.asp?exercise_type=upper)

Good luck everyone!! Let me know if you have any questions!

Sprint Into Spring is about to begin!!!

Are you all ready to get a move on??? I’ve been doing lots of thinking about the upcoming challenge and I’m SO excited to get going. The team rosters have been made. So far there are 3 teams of approx 20 people each. If you wanted to be part of the challenge but don’t see your name there or you haven’t signed up yet, let me know and I’ll put you on a team. The challenge will officially start on April 2 (this Thursday). This is the way it’s going to work:

This challenge will work like many of the challenges in the past. Basically, each team member will earn points based on their weekly performance in the following categories. Your stats must be posted by midnight (your time zone) THURSDAY in order to be included in your team stats. If Thursday isn’t your WI day that’s fine – just use the WI from whatever day you weigh in that week.

There is a website for the challenge that you can use to check the challenges. It’s sprintintospring.blogspot.com (it’s also in my signature). I hope to add to this blog regularly, to keep me on track, to add links to interesting things I think you might like, to post pictures and to include stories to inspire you or show you something silly and make you laugh. If you have anything you think the group would like to see, please email it to me and I’d love to post it – whether it’s a photo, a cartoon, an article – anything goes!

Your assignment from now until Thursday is to start a team thread (for now Teams A, B, and C will do) and pick team names – I’m thinking of having Spring be the overall theme so let your imaginations go and come up with something good by Thursday.

Remember - this is a TEAM challenge – you need to commit to your team! If you do not post your stats weekly, you will bring that team’s overall averages down…so please post! If your stats are missing for 2 weeks in a row (without an explanation) you will be dropped from the rosters. ** This week only: if someone on your team doesn’t appear on the team threads from now until the first time we post stats we will remove them immediately because likely they changed their mind about joining the challenge.

For me, the real beauty of this challenge is drawing from the strength of others, learning new things and just spending some time with fabulous ladies and gentlemen such as yourselves! Keep checking back for updates!

Points:
Basically the way this works, is every week there will be challenges. No matter what, each week you will be asked to keep track of the number of days you spend OP (see below for details) and to keep track of all of your INTENTIONAL exercise each week. Other than those two numbers, each week there will be 3 other challenges – one for fitness of some sort, one for nutrition/food of some sort and one for overall lifestyle activities. Those will change weekly and will hopefully be posted by Wednesday of every week so you can be ready to start them on Thursday each week. In addition, each week post your WI results – we will not be using these numbers for challenge points but I think it will act as a great motivation for everyone to see on a weekly basis how much we’re losing (or maintaining!!)

OP days!
10 points for each OP day (max of 70 points per week) – OP means you are following the 8HGs set out by WW (not including the 30 min of physical activity/day – we measure exercise in another category here). This doesn’t mean you can’t have snacks you enjoy – as long as you’ve planned your points so that you can include all of the minimum requirements of F&V, dairy, grains, protein, healthy oils and water first!

Physical Activity Points
1 point for each 10 minutes of INTENTIONAL exercise (e.g. if you go to the mall and stroll around, that doesn’t count….BUT if you go to the mall with the sole purpose of getting your butt moving and you do laps, count it!)

10 bonus points for each strength training session you complete (at least 20 minutes) – for a maximum of 10pts/day for a max of 70pts/week – this could be doing your own sets of squats and abs and push-ups, or completing a stability ball/pump class at the gym or a pilates class that gets your core working – anything that gets your muscles burning!! So often, people get it in their heads that cardio is the only thing that will drop the weight – but in combination w/ strength training results can come so much faster! *** Just as an example this means if you do 30 minutes of strength training one day you get 40 points for this category (30 for the minutes of intentional activity and 10 bonus points for the 20 minute strength session you completed)…let me know if this is confusing or if you have questions

Challenges
25 points for each of 3 challenges per week! Each week there will be 3 challenges to take part in incorporating three really important aspects to weight loss: activity, nutrition and general lifestyle! Some weeks might seem tough but the goal is to push yourself! If anyone has suggestions for any of these challenges I’d love to hear them! The specific challenges for this week will be posted by Wednesday!

I know that this challenge has lots to keep track of so I have a template available to anyone that needs it!

Team leaders will be asked to tally their team’s weekly results and send them to me for a stats report (my email address is kotackr@queensu.ca). Team leaders, please send me an email so I can have your email address to send you a points template (it will make my life much easier if everyone works off of the same type of sheet!) Let’s try and keep this as simple as possible!

I hope I didn’t make this too complicated – let me know if I did or if you’d like to change anything. I’m open to ideas! And if you want a template for keeping track of your points let me know and I’ll email you one! Let’s get all of the “bugs” worked out before Thursday so we can hit the ground running!!! Thanks everyone for the enthusiasm! I hope you all have a great time and really get something out of this!