Shoutin’ from the Rooftop

Good morning. I am excited to announce my challenge that I am throwing out. I am so excited about it that I personally started yesterday even though I won’t count it. 

Date Challenge Runs: February 1st through February 28th

Deadline to Report Stats to me: March 5th   (You will need to email me at Kristen2309@gmail.com you will need to include your full name & your total number)

Requirements: For every day that you stay on program, you need to track that day. At the end of the month, you will need to total up the number of days that you were on-program. Please be honest. It won’t help yourself if you fudge this information.

Definition of On-program: If you are following Flex, on program means that you eat only your daily allotted points. You are welcome to use any APs that you earn if you choose. You may also use your weekly flex points. If you use your weekly flex points and go over the weekly points, you cannot count the day that you went over your weekly flex points. Make sense?

If you are following the Core program, you need to eat between hunger & fullness. Don’t stuff yourself. You know what it means. Also, you cannot go over your weekly flex point allowance. Same thing for you as the Flex people.

Details: At the end of the month, you will email me with how many days you were on program. I am hoping that we have everyone tie at 28 days.  I will take all of those that tie at the highest number and put their names in a hat. I will let Sydney draw their name.

Prize: You have heard me rave about Funky Monkey (www.funkymonkeysnacks.com) and how great they were to email me and send us some goodies after our disappointment when we were at the store. So I am going to share. Plus I am going to throw in some of my other favorite go-to snacks that help me. If you do not live in the Muncie area, I am going to mail the prize package to you!

When I came up with the idea of the challenge, I couldn’t decide what would be the best way to challenge everyone. I had considered a recipe contest, a recipe review etc etc. I feel like this can help the most people. Plus I need the kick in the pants myself. So in the moment of self-disclosure, here is what I am going to do.

Step One: I am only going to eat my daily flex points each day. I am allowing myself to eat my weekly 35 poings IF I am hungry.

Step Two: I am going to weigh-in every week between now and the end of the challenge (I am going to weigh in between now & April 15th if not longer) . Even though I am a lifetime member, I still need the accountability.  I have used the excuse that it is too much of a a pain to wear my weigh-in clothes to weigh-in and then change so I can start working the Saturday morning meetings. So no more. Back to weighing in every week. Lately I have just been hoping to lose these last 10 pounds and not determined. (Does that ring a bell?)

Step Three: I am going to work on not eating unless I am truly hungry. No more of this mindless eating, eating because I am stressed, anxious etc. It is life and I can’t continue to do this. I had done really well with not wandering back to that path during the fall and for some reason that old nasty habit has creeped back in. So I am outing myself so I have to stay honest.  So if I think I am hungry, I am going to drink some water and wait 20 minutes before I eat anything. If I am still hungry then I will see what I can do about it. I did this yesterday and it really does work!

Step Four: This is going to be my hardest challenge. I am going to workout intentionally five days a week. Sunday is going to be one of my days off and I will allow myself one other during the week depending on our schedule. I will do my best never to have my two days off back to back. The experts say that your metabolism slows down when you do that. So I am going to have to buckle down.

So as you can see, I am going to be doing the February Challenge with you. I started yesterday because I didn’t want to wait until February to start. I have been treading water too much these last few weeks. So I gave myself a hard talking-to and I am back to being serious.

I will remind everyone as we get closer to February 1st. Make sure to track honestly to yourself.  If you cheat, you are only cheating yourself. My plan is at least to report how many points I used each day. As time allows, I will try to report my food just to give you different ideas. (note: I only used 17 points yesterday)

OK. I think that is enough. I hope that I have explained it clearly. I am sure there will be questions but that it just fine. Email me and I will answer. I hope that you can use this challenge to spur yourself on. Let’s see what we can do in February. How much weight can you lose if you are really determined and sticking to program? You will still want to make sure to get in your 8 Healthy Guidelines, work on your APs etc. You know the program.

Finally, I have a few food reviews that I will try to get posted later. My girls just got up so I am rushing to get this at least posted. I hope to have a Buffalo Chicken Soup recipe posted also. Just need to figure up the nutritional value.

I hope that you each have a great day! Find your determination so we can complete this challenge together!