Habit Formers *12 week challenge*
 

Welcome one and all

I came across this wonderful challenge in another forum that I thought would fit this group. I did ask permission to "borrow" the challenge idea from Extrinsic Rapture and post it on "Chicks Up For A Challenge" and with her blessing here it is ....

Originally Posted by :
Welcome to the 12 week challenge! Here we are incorporating each week (or at least trying to ) a tip that's posted on: http://health.discovery.com/centers...am/program.html . I've tweeked it a tad below.

Week one: Incorporate exercise or establish a regimen.
Week two: Analyze your goals and make them reasonable.
Week three: Why do you think you over eat? (Think about it and discuss)
Week four: What are things you can do to make your health journey easier?
Week five: Making sure you eat all your meals in the correct portion.
Week six: Half-way through challenge: re-focus if need be.
Week seven: Are loved ones sabotaging your efforts? What will you do about it?
Week eight: Finding things to do other than eat.
Week nine: Coming up with strategies for eating healthy when at outings etc.
Week ten: How will you be health conscious even when on vacations or planning to relax?
Week eleven: Review your challenge accomplishments. What are you most proud of?
Week twelve: What has the challenge helped you to see or learn?

New members are more than welcome to join!....

The challenge will begin on Monday, August 1st (a fitting date I thought) - the beginning of a new month, and finish at the end of the twelveth week, October 31st.

It's a great opportunity to post both weight related and non-scale victories. Enter the challenge by recording your starting measurements and weight as of August 1st.

Starting measurements:
neck:
chest:
wrist:
bicep:
waist:
hip:
thigh:
calf:
ankle:
wieght:

Suggestions welcome.... feel free to share ideas....

Here's to making new healthy and empowering life long habits. :cheers:

Participants so far are (updated as you arrive ):

JoyG - Joy
miss elisha - Elisha
Ladywind
Teezmom
Betani - Elise
Teresa1222
Purplefirefly - Theresa
DJLexie - Alexandra
Hikein - Julie
Curlygal1 - Caroline
Aunty EM - Eva
StarAngel2528 - Jessica
flirtgirl - Kari
MsRD
TBJ333

You know I'm in!

I'm in
 

Count me in. I'll send the measurements as August 1st gets nearer since hopefully they will change before then.

I'm in too!..My first day committed to losing 30-40#
start's tomorrow..July 17/05
I'm going to do my measurments in the morning
& give my results on August 1/05..now this is great
for me just starting out! I'm going to make that
extra effort till then......and beyond :D

I'm in, if you don't mind a newcomer. I've been quite down about myself lately. I'm in some kind of plateaued rut, and can't seem to pull myself out of it.

I'll have to buy a new tape measure. I don't have proof, but I suspect hubby threw mine out when I started getting depressed.

I'm in! I can't wait to get started. I started keeping track of my measurements last week. So, this gives me an extra push to stick to my goals. :)

Count Down...
 

Well there's five more days until our challenge begins.

Has everyone got their tape measures ready.

If you haven't checked out the link to Discovery Health here it is again. Might be a good idea to read ahead and get an idea of what we'll be focusing on in the first week and prepare some questions or topics for debate or whatever WE need.

Here's the link. http://health.discovery.com/centers/...m/program.html. The program is called Dr. Peeke's 12-Week Weight-Loss Program.

"See" you Monday... unless of course there are some questions now....

Hugs.
Joy

I wann join!! I wanna join!! If you don't mind a newcomer I will post my measurements on the first as well.

Im definaltly in. ill post mine when i can. lol I am new to this forum so hello everyone! and well youlll be seeing me a lot i guess. laters

Count down - 2 days -LONG but worth reading
 

Since I'm not sure if the link "worked" for some of us (I'm new to linking) I've copied the information from Discovery Health Dr. Peeke's 12 week program below.

I previous reading (I think on the introduction page) Dr. Peeke suggests that you complete a pledge form as a commitment to yourself to work through this program. I'm going to print it, sign it and put it on the cover of my food & fitness journal. I thought we could put together the pledge form here as a project, collectively, and put our "signature" to it here. Any ideas? I looked on line and couldn't find anything to copy... and I'm afraid my old computer doesn't even have a word processing program (time to upgrade) so if someone here is good at setting something like this up NOW IS THE TIME TO STEP FORWARD AND VOLUNTEER :coach:

Originally Posted by :
Week 1: Getting Started


1) Make sure to get in about 200-300 calories of physical activity each day. If you do, you'll lose from 1 to 2 pounds of fat every week.
2) Write your progress down in your Food Journal and your Physical Activity Journal. [Science shows that to guarantee success in your new weight-loss and fitness program, you need to keep some king of record of your daily progress.] It will keep you accountable and help you get over mindless eating.

3) Choose one thing about your eating and physical activity to change this week. It could be as simple as putting your walking clothes out each night to remind you to walk in the morning, or it could be eating breakfast, instead of following your usual pattern of skipping it.

4) Take action today! Don't overthink your weight-loss and fitness plan. Without pondering and "What if'ing", get up and make that healthy dinner, or take that walk. It's that first step that will build your motivation to keep going.

5) Don't just rely on your scale. Use your clothes-o-meter! Get out that pair of jeans or belt and mark where your size is today. Try them on once a week before your weekly weigh-in and note the progress. The fitter you become, the more compact you'll get and you'll easily see it in the size of your clothes.

6) Try not to leave more than three to four hours between times to eat. If you leave too much time, you'll overeat. For instance, eat a mid-afternoon snack to prevent you from eating too much at dinner.

7) Change your unhealthy habits gradually. Start by weaning yourself off any late-night junk food binges. Substitute them for low-fat desserts and snacks, eating no more than 1-2 servings at a time. Spend the following week practicing eating less and less until you no longer need the extra food.

8) Take it easy on the exercise as you start your physical activity program. It's easy to go gung-ho and end up hurting yourself. Be patient with your body, especially if you've been sedentary for a long time.

9) Watch out for perfectionism. That's not the goal. It's all about consistency. Strive for achieving your goals about 80 percent of the time. Some days you'll be 100 percent and others 50 percent. The aim is to average 80 percent. That's what the most successful people do.

10) Set up a support system. No man or woman is an island out there! Tell a trusted loved one what you're up to and let them cheerlead you along your journey. Having that support will make all the difference when the going gets tough — and isn't that what life is all about?

I couldn't find the agreement either, but I think we could make our own just as easily, and it would be more personal. Example:

I, Elisha, do hereby commit myself to making healthful changes in my body during the next 12 weeks and beyond. I am undertaking this adventure in order to lose weight, decrease my body fat, strengthen and tone my muscles, make my body stronger and healthier, and make my life longer and fuller. I will follow the 12-week plan, and I will incorporate other healthy strategies as well. I will eat right, I will exercise, and I will drink plenty of water. There will be times when I slip, but I will get right back on track. I will not allow minor setbacks to deter me. I will accomplish my goals.

Of course, feel free to write your own, if you see fit, or use mine and just change the name. Print it out and post it somewhere you can see it every day.

Also, I'm going to set a definite reward for myself that I won't get unless I meet my goals. However, I'm not making my reward dependent upon losing a certain number of pounds by a certain date, because sometimes my body loses weight easily, and sometimes it doesn't, so it's hard to judge how long it's going to take. So I'll get my reward for exercising at least 20 days in the month of August. My reward will be getting the book "The Dark Tower" by Stephen King. I've been wanting to get it since it came out months ago and haven't, and now I'm telling myself that I *cannot* have it unless I exercise. In September I'll set a different reward.

OK, so now for my measurements. I've taken the measurements the way I always take them, then I added the different ones at the end, so they may not be in the same order as they were listed here, but I think they're all there.

Weight: 212.0
Body Fat: 36.0%
Waist: 37.75
Hips: 46
Abs: 49
Butt: 49
Chest: 37
Bust: 41
Upper Arm: 14
Bicep: 12
Forearm: 10.75
Upper Thigh: 28.25
Thigh: 20.5
Calf: 17
Neck: 14
Wrist: 6.75
Ankle: 9.75

I also figured something out this morning. I have a scale that measures body fat, and although I'm not entirely sure of it's accuracy, it says I have 36.0% body fat. That means that 76 pounds of my body are fat and 136 pounds of lean mass (muscles, bones, organs, etc). That means that at 170 pounds I'll have 20% body fat, which is on the actually rather low.
16-20% = Athletic
21-24% = Fitness
25-29% = Acceptable
30+% = Overfat

So with those numbers in mind, my goal weight for fitness should be somewhere in the 170's. That's a lot higher than what I had previously though, meaning that I don't have as much to lose as I thought.

However, I still fully intend to lose weight/fat until I'm comfortable with my body, and whatever I end up weighing is ok. It's just something else to think about. Right now I'm just concentrating on getting my weight below 200 once again. Hopefully that will be by the end of the 12 weeks, if not sooner.

OK, this post is plenty long, so I'll stop typing now. Best of luck to everyone!
~Elisha

:thanks: Elisha. the pledge is just perfect for ME as it is.

Starting measurements:
neck: 15.75
chest:47
wrist: 7
bicep: 17
waist:46
hip: 47.5
thigh: 28
calf: 16
ankle: 8.75
wieght:230

Originally Posted by :
I, Joy, do hereby commit myself to making healthful changes in my body during the next 12 weeks and beyond. I am undertaking this adventure in order to lose weight, decrease my body fat, strengthen and tone my muscles, make my body stronger and healthier, and make my life longer and fuller. I will follow the 12-week plan, and I will incorporate other healthy strategies as well. I will eat right, I will exercise, and I will drink plenty of water. There will be times when I slip, but I will get right back on track. I will not allow minor setbacks to deter me. I will accomplish my goals.

I'm in too!
 

I'm very excited about this challenge - I am needing to lose about 25 pounds and I think this is a great opportunity to get my butt in gear and start DOING something about my weight, instead of moping about it all the time. I'm definitely going to need all of the support I can get, which is why I'm glad you guys are here!

Here are my stats:
chest:38
bicep: 12
waist:31
hip: 38
thigh: 25
calf: 12
wieght:160

I, Caroline, do hereby commit myself to making healthful changes in my body during the next 12 weeks and beyond. I am undertaking this adventure in order to lose weight, decrease my body fat, and make my life fuller. During this time I will follow the 12-week plan. I will eat ONLY when I am hungry and will stop when my body is satified, NOT FULL. I will eat slowly and minfully and will enjoy the experience of eating. I will exercise, and I will drink plenty of water. I expect that there will be times when I overeat or don't exercise. But since consistency is my goal and NOT PERFECTION, I will not allow minor setbacks to deter me. I will accomplish my goals.

I'm here!
 

Just a quick check in to let you know that I do want to do this, but I don't think this week will be the week for me to start, so I am going to read, but I will promise that once back from vacation, I will start with week one, (if that's ok!)

Chat with ya'll later!

Hugs!

Hi Everybody :wave:

:cheer: I'm feeling so phyched (sp) today.

I'm really going to focus on measuring my portions, and getting into the habit of having smaller portions that I can count with acuracy. I'm going to be following the Weight Watchers Flex Plan. I am allowed 28 points per day.

I borrowed the following information from WebMD Weight Loss Clinic. It seemed appropriate when looking at ways to get in 200-300 calories burned per day.

Originally Posted by :
Check the chart below to see how many calories your favorite aerobic activities burn off in just one 30-minute session:

activity calories burned
Aerobic (low impact) 192
Ballroom Dancing 96
Cleaning 114
Hiking 214
In-line Skating 192
Line Dancing 312
Running (9-minute mile) 360
Sex 85
Skiing (cross-country) 222
Skiing (downhill) 183
Stair-stepping 206
Step Class (depends on step height) 200-300
Swimming (slow crawl) 237
Tennis 204
Walking (20-minute mile) 150
Yoga 100

What do YOU do to burn 200-300 calories per day? My plan for today is to mow the lawn for approximately 2 hours - probably burning 600 caloris... sounds like too much... but it's gotta be done. So I better get out there and do it while it's still cool. I am also planning to get up early (4am) four days this week and WATP - 2 mile express - with Leslie, (192 cal?) and one of 10 minute ab work out, target booster or & thigh & bun burner (30 cal?)and get one walk in during my coffee break at work (75 cal?)... should be about right.

I think I'm going to go back to journalling my food and exercise on paper. That way it can be more spontaneous or even planned '' Who'd a thunk it?". ;)

Anyways look forward to hearing from you all.
:sunny: