THE END.

Well the 6 week challenge has come to an end.  Congrats to everyone who finished strong!  Just a few reminders.  Make sure and weigh in at some point today.  You will need to calculate your percentage lost.  You can use this calculator to figure it out.  The first day of the Challenge was Monday October 13.  So you will use that weight as your starting point.  Please enter your percentage lost in the same place you enter your weekly points.  It is the link on the right side of this page that says Online Weekly Report.  So you will be reporting two things today: your total points from last week and your weight loss percentage.  If you have any questions you can e-mail me at kelseyward29@gmail.com.  I will try and let you know who the winners are tomorrow!

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

LAST WEEK

Congrats!  You have made it to the last week of the challenge.  Just in time to enjoy a yummy Thanksgiving Dinner.  Last week you were supposed to work on something that you felt like you could improve.  I decided to work on my exercising.  I am proud to say that I went to the gym 4 days in a row.  I had not done that in a little while, so it was good to get back at it.  I hope you were able to have success on your goal too!  

Bonus Challenge Week 6

The last bonus challenge will be the following: 

Every day this week (not including today because I am late posting this) I want you to write down one positive thing that you love about you or your body.  I feel like we are so use to criticizing everything about ourselves that we forget to look at the good.  We all have so many good qualities, we need to learn to love ourselves for who we are.  I think this will be a good challenge for me and it goes right a long with Thanksgiving.  Sometimes I take for granted the things I have been blessed with, especially when it comes to my body and my self image. 

Today on Instagram someone posted this quote and I really loved it.  I hope you like it too. 

Good luck on the last week!

ONLY 2 WEEKS LEFT!

Well we only have 2 weeks left!  Crazy.  If you have been struggling like me, you still have time to kick it into gear!  If you feel like you are going to lose with the points, keep trying because you could still win the weight loss portion.  Either way, the purpose of this challenge is to create healthier lifestyle habits.  You can do it!  

This past week I started reading a book called It Starts with Food.  It is a book about about eating whole foods.  I just wanted to share a couple of things from it with you.  One of the first sentences in the book says "The food you eat either makes you more healthy or less healthy.  Those are your options."  That makes it sound so simple!  But we all know that it is so much harder than that or we wouldn't struggle with eating healthy things.  We need to become more educated about what we are putting in to our bodies.  

I saw this quote today and loved it!

Read labels.  If you don't know what the ingredients are, chances are it probably isn't healthy for you.  Cooking healthy takes time, energy, and a lot of thought.  Plan your meals for the week.  Make a goal to not eat out.  Go to the grocery store as often as you need to eat fresh fruits and vegetables.  

This next quote I found very interesting.

"Modern technology has stripped the nutrition from these foods (processed, refined food-like products), replacing it with empty calories and synthetic chemicals that fool our bodies into giving us the same powerful biological signals to keep eating.  This means we are eating more calories with less nutrition."

I have read that you should do most of your shopping around the outside of the grocery store.  Once you start going down the isles, that is when you start getting in to the highly processed foods.

For me I want to start implementing healthier habits one little thing at a time.  I think if I go all out, I am setting myself up for failure.  I want this to be lasting.  

I want to be healthy and take care of my body.

  

  

Bonus Challenge Week 5

This week I want you to choose one thing that you want to work on.  Something that maybe you have been slacking at and try harder to make it better.  I'm not looking for perfection just improvement.  I have had the hardest time working out the past couple of weeks.  I went on vacation and ever since I just can not get back in the habit of going consistently.  This week I have a goal to work out every morning Mon-Friday.  I already got my work out done for today, so only 4 more days to go!  

Good Luck!  

WEEK 4

Way to go!!  We are half way there!  Today we start week 4.  Once again, just a reminder to enter your weekly points here on the blog today.  

Bonus Challenge 

For this week's bonus challenge you will need to read a health article.  It can be about exercising, nutrition, or anything about creating a healthy lifestyle.  Then share one that that you learning with someone else in the group.  

For mine I am actually reading a book right now titled It Starts with Food.  I am excited to learn more about food and how to have a healthy relationship with it.  Next week I will share something I learn from it on the blog.  

Good luck this week!  I hope everyone had a good weekend and are ready to start fresh today!

WEEK 3

It is time to start week 3!  After this week, we will be halfway done with the challenge!  Once again make sure to enter your points for last week.  

Week 3 Bonus Challenge 

This past week I attended a cooking class called "Surviving the Season".  It was a very interesting class and I learned a lot.  They focused on eating more whole foods like fruits, vegetables, and nuts and cutting back on processed foods.  It made me think more about what I am putting into my body.  Am I eating things that are going to help me or that are going to eventually hurt me?  We need to take care of our bodies so that we can enjoy all life has to offer us!  

For this week's challenge I thought it would be fun for everyone to try a new healthy recipe and then share the recipe with someone else in the group.  It doesn't even have to be a dinner, it could be a snack or a breakfast meal.  Be creative and have fun!

     

Week 2

Way to go!  You made it through week 1!  Just a reminder to enter in your total weekly points here on the blog.  Off to the right there is a link that you can click on and then enter your name and your total points for the week.  

WEEK 2 BONUS CHALLENGE

This week I thought it would be fun to change up your exercise routine and to do something that you don't normally do.  Choose one activity that you haven't done in a while and do it for one of your days of exercise.  For example you could go rock climbing at the Quarry, play tennis, racket ball, go swimming, yoga, water aerobics, Zumba, go for a hike, basketball.... the list could go on and on.  Just do something out of your normal exercise routine.  Sometimes exercise doesn't have to be going to the gym.  You can do other activities that are fun and active at the same time.  

Click on the picture for some everyday things that can help you be more active.

DAY 1

Welcome to the Health Challenge!  I am so excited to get started again.  For those of you who are doing this for the first time, WELCOME!  I will be posting on the blog all of the important information you will need to know during this challenge.  So check it at least every Monday.  

This challenge will go for 6 weeks.  It starts today, Oct 13 and ends on November 23.  

Each Monday I will post the bonus challenge for the week on the blog.  

WEEK 1 BONUS CHALLENGE

To start off this challenge I want you to sit down and really think about the reason you decided to join the Health Challenge.  What is your motivation?  If your first response is to lose weight, then that isn't the root cause.  Ask yourself "Why do I want to lose weight?".  You should continue asking why until you have found the root cause.  What is going to be your driving force?  What will keep you going and not just give up?  Then I want you to write this down.  Hang it somewhere you will see it often to remind you of the real reason you are working so hard.