Challenge Rules

9 week challenge - January 23 - March 25

Each participant contributes $20 to the Prize Pot.

4 Point Categories: exercise, challenge participation, weight loss challenge & Blog participation.

Exercise: You will receive 1 point for every 30 minutes of exercise for up to 5 hours. Anyone who completes 5 hours will receive 15 points. No extra points will be awarded for hours over 5. Exercise should be intentional and challenging.

Weekly Challenge Participation: You will receive 1 point for each day you complete the weekly challenge. If you complete every day of the week you will receive 10 points. (weekly challenges are listed on the right)

Weight Challenge: If you maintain your weight for the week you get 5 points. If you lose any weight for the week you get 8 points.

This challenge is about more than weight loss, we want the focus to be on creating good habits and feeling healthy. But we recognize that some of you may desire to lose weight and you should be rewarded with additional points.

Blog Participation: You will receive 5 points for each week that you post an update, thoughts or motivation on the blog. Setting goals works best when you have people to share with and report to, use the blog as a way to motivate and encourage each other.

Make up Points: If you miss a day of the weekly challenge you can earn 4 make up points. If you do the challenge from the previous week, every day for the current week, you can get 4 bonus points. You must do the previous weeks challenge in addition to the current week and do it perfectly to earn the 4 points. You are only eligible for the bonus points if you missed a day from the previous week, you cannot have a perfect week and keep doing the previous weeks challenge to earn 4 additional points.


Monday, January 30, 2012

Exercise is AWESOME

Don't you hate those days when you just don't want to exercise? You lack time, desire and motivation. You just want to sit around and read a good book or watch a good flick and have the benefits of exercise miraculously just sort of descend upon you. Days like that are rough.

I've always said that exercise is 90% mental and 10% physical. (My own personal philosophy--I don't have fancy statistics or brilliant experts to back me up. Just my own experiences.) I exercise 5 days a week. I get up at 5:30 a.m. and go running outside in good weather, or on my treadmill in really cold or bad weather. I do this on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I either ride my stationary bike or do a hiking trail on my treadmill.

So...what motivates me to get out of bed? If I'm running outside, it's my iPod. I love listening to good tunes. I haven't been able to find a running partner compatible with my schedule or pace, so when my cute mom goes out walking with her friends, I run their route. I do a lot of backtracking. :) I'll be honest. With outside exercise, I don't need a lot of extra motivation. I love being out there. It's time for myself, and there is nothing like a runner's high.

The treadmill is a different story. It is SO boring. To break up the monotony I've done several different things. I have a TV and DVD player in my exercise room, so I'll watch a movie. Sometimes that's not enough so I'll put the subtitles on the movie and listen to my iPod simultaneously.

Lately, my favorite thing has been watching Netflix while I workout. It has a lot of shows I have never seen. I'm totally catching up on shows that I never thought I would watch. Buffy the Vampire Slayer anyone? I can't believe I'm admitting that! Total guilty pleasure. The point is that the shows are new and different to me, and I don't feel guilty or like a couch potato because I'm exercising while watching.

The point is to do something that is fun. If you hate to run, try Zumba or Yoga. If you can't stand the gym, go outside. If you think you can do it and you convince yourself that you actually want to do it, you will find yourself actually looking forward to it instead of dreading it.

Happy Exercising Everyone!!
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1 comment:

  1. Jen MatthewsJanuary 30, 2012 at 1:20 PM

    Love this! We just cancelled our netflix and that was my favorite thing to do when I got on the treadmill at night. Another idea is conference talks. I feel like I get a lot more out of them because I'm alone and can focus but it also makes the time go by fast. Glad things are going well!!

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