8-Week Healthy Habits and Weight Loss Challenge
Adapted from SixSistersStuff.com
HOW IT WORKS:
This is an 8 week challenge where you can win a prize two different ways:
Maintaining Healthy Habits and Losing Weight.
Healthy Habits Challenge:
- You can get over 300 Healthy Habits points each week for specific things, following the checklist you can get here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qkt5n-dQuuCIiaApxrpHsq_rzzIfh1uUYYryCWmnlMo/edit?usp=sharing
- Print these 8 pages to keep track of your Healthy Habits Points. It should only take a couple of minutes each night to determine if you get points for each habit for that day, and then a few minutes to tally them up at the end of each week.
- Each week there is a double point Healthy Habits challenge highlighted in yellow.
- For the Clean Eating / Best Choices category you will evaluate your eating each day and award yourself the points if you feel you really made the best choices you could, given your circumstances in general and that day in particular. Note that this will mean something different for each person, and even for one person on different days. On an ideal day this may mean all meals home cooked with local, organic ingredients and nothing from a box, bottle, etc. If that's where you are on your healthy journey, then kudos!!! But I know for some of us it may mean eating whatever your hubby prepared for the family (if you're lucky enough to have one of those!), but loading up on the veggies, skipping the garlic bread and not sneaking any chips /ice cream / candy from the kids stash. Or on a day when you're traveling this may mean choosing the best thing from the menu every time. On a special holiday or celebration, or when dining at a friend’s house, this may mean eating and drinking in moderation, choosing only one small piece of the special homemade dessert and forgoing the store bought ones, etc. So in my head I've sort of switched to calling it "Proud" points. If at the end of the day I can honestly say to myself "I'm proud of my choices today" then I get my bonus points. They should be achievable every day, but you would need to really push yourself to get them. Now, that said, this is a challenge, so think about how you can improve your diet, wherever you are right now. Here’s an article and a video to help you set some goals for yourself: http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/23/health/clean-eating/ http://ninamanolson.com/what-to-eat/
- You can exercise each day, but you will only receive points for exercising 5 days a week.
- 1 cup of 100% fruit /vegetable juice (100%) can count as ONE daily serving of fruit OR vegetable.
- 1 cup of Lentils or Beans can also count as ONE daily serving of vegetable.
- Alcohol can be consumed without penalty (other than its high caloric content).
- Tea counts towards your water intake.
- You can use your own kind of food journal to keep track of what you eat, including apps such as LoseIt or websites like SparkPeople but these are NOT necessary. You can print out this very simple, one page weekly food journal to use instead: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K7jXe_NVxMBxZABxAMASzDF75qByhF4QjZTItkHvMDc/edit?usp=sharing
- A big part of this challenge is supporting each other, so you also get points for daily contact with teammates. You can email, call, or text someone on your team to encourage them to have a healthy day. You can get together to exercise or share a healthy meal. It helps knowing that we are all in this together and makes you accountable for what you do or don’t do.
- No Eating After 9pm / Go to Bed Hungry - you should not eat a heavy meal within a few hours of going to bed, since it’s hard for the body to digest it properly.
- You will also get 50 points each week for maintaining the lowest weight you have achieved since the start of the competition.
Weight Loss Challenge:
- Weigh yourself each Sunday, trying to be consistent on how you do it (morning/night, empty/full stomach, using same scale). You can weigh yourself more often, but only Sunday weights are recorded.
- Report your weight to the coordinator, rounded to the nearest pound. For example, 173.4 will be reported as 173 lbs and 173.5 will be reported as 174 lbs.
- The coordinator will compute your percentage weight loss each week: initial wt - current wt initial wt100
- Your weight will never be posted publicly, just your percentage lost.
Determining the Winners:
- Each participant must report their weight and Healthy Habits points weekly to the coordinator. If you don’t report by midnight Sunday you receive no points for that week. Note that even if you’re traveling and unable to weigh yourself on a Sunday, you can still report your Healthy Habits points. You would not get any points for weight loss or maintenance, but, really, you are traveling, so what are the chances?
- The coordinator will compute everyone’s standings on Monday and publish them here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UbsdL1QF4gZQphZZ2CtHcOqMJavBn6t04pLIRX5hiFU/edit?usp=sharing
- At the end of the eight weeks, cash prize money will be divided equally between the person who loses the largest percentage of weight and the person who has the most total Healthy Habits points.
- In the event of a tie within one challenge, that part of the prize will be split.
- In the event the same person wins both categories they will only be awarded the prize for Weight Loss and the runner up(s) in the Healthy Habits challenge will get that part of the prize.
TO PARTICIPATE:
- Challenge starts on Monday May 19, 2014 and ends Sunday July 13, 2014
- Each person will pay $25 up front to enter the challenge, which must be paid by Monday May 26. Payment should be in cash or check, given to Maria Ripol in person or mailed to 2906 NW 12th Pl, Gainesville FL 32605.
- Email Maria your initial weight by midnight on Sunday May 18.
- Each Sunday after that you must email Maria two pieces of information before midnight: your Sunday weight and your Healthy Habits points for that week.
RESOURCES AND INFO:
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