"Every-Day" 21-Day Challenge -- Make it a daily habit!
Okay, everyone, as is the tradition, I start a new thread when I personally start a new challenge.
Below is a short explanation of how this challenge works so all you newcomers can take a look and decide if you're game or not! I hope you are! Hop aboard and enjoy the ride. We've got a great bunch of supportive people, so I hope you'll give us a try. A lot of people try for a while and then disappear.. I hope some of you will keep trying. There is NO shame in starting over. Remember, it's not over till you give up. And our motto around here is:
NEVER GIVE UP!!...Just start OVER!! EXPLANATION AND RULES:
It works like this: you decide you'll do something for 21 days straight, every single day, so keep it doable. Then you count ....one through 21.....and if you flub it, you MUST go back to zero and start over again. Everyone will be on different days. You can start anytime. At the beginning of the challenge you declare what level it is -- Level 1, 2, or 3. Level 1 means you feel it's a relatively easy challenge for you and means you only give yourself ONE pause day (see explanation of pause days below). Level 2 would give you two pause days and so on...
And taking NO pause days is what I'm going to call "aceing a challenge," as in "I'm aiming on aceing this one!" Yowzah!!
With a pause day you pause in your counting and continue the next day with the number you left off with. Pause days are NOT substitutes for days, i.e. Day 12 -- Day 13 -- Pause Day -- Day 14..... I suggest taking a pause day late in the game (better to go back to Day 1 early on) if you need a break or screw up when you're well into the challenge, meaning, when you're on Day 15 or something like that.
In any case, the trick is to keep going. The momentum builds and it's great incentive to stick to your guns, cause if you don't.........back to START you go. And the really great thing about this challenge is that you are forming new habits that will wipe out the old! AND, you get to do it with a great bunch of really supportive people to whom you are accountable! THREAD GUIDELINES:
In the interest of maintaining structure, a sense of solidarity and facilitating support I ask anyone who wishes to join this thread to please strive to follow the following guidelines while participating in this challenge and in posting.
1. Although this is a fabulous support group, the focus is to be on your CHALLENGE/S and/or other people's challenge/s AND weight loss, whether your challenge is about it or not. Please keep the challenge a priority, although we welcome chattiness! This means tell us what day you're on when you post and it's a good idea to make regular mention of just what your challenge is. This an action-based thread. Our members are ON a challenge, RESTARTING a challenge, or just in between and looking to start up again REAL SOON. We also welcome posts from admirers, encouragers, and old friends!
2. Please refrain from posting food logs or recipes, except where you are really looking for help and advice on your eating. If journaling is your challenge, please keep the journaling off the thread and in a notebook or blog and just tell us if you've done what you set out to do. We have ALL types of dieters here, low-carb, high-carb, low-fat, high-fat, vegetarians, meat-lovers...please use simple mentions if you have something you want to share and then links and/or private messages to do so.
3. Please do NOT go into glowing accounts of any slipups, food indulgences or binges, what we here call "food porn." Simple mentions are fine, but use of smilies etc. as substitutes where possible is encouraged.
4. Please keep this a secular thread. Of course, passing references to your beliefs, a bit of introduction about your beliefs, brief faith-related words of encouragement are fine.
5. Please show support, support, support! This is key. You can waffle on about yourself but please, at least occasionally,come up and look around at others and what they are doing and MENTION it with words of encouragement and/or praise or sympathy. We understand "busy," poor computer connections, and bouts of self-pity and life problems where the focus turns to "me" and dealing with those problems, but these should be temporary, not a habit! ('cept in the computer case.)
In conclusion, let me say, the above are just that, GUIDELINES. Please realize that these guidelines have been added in an attempt to keep this a supportive and beneficial thread, at the LEAST, to those who need it MOST, those for whom weight loss is the hardest and, more often than not, the most crucial as well as for those who still, perhaps despite great success, know all too well that the road they walk will always be a slippery one.
The guidelines are also meant to cultivate an atmosphere of consideration and concern for ALL, not individually, but AS A GROUP.
Howdy, all. Well, here it is at last, the new thread. I will declare three of the old challenges again now. They are going to be HARD! My skin is bad again and I am itching all over. The heat is really bad and my skin is constantly wet from sweat. Sigh. It's so hard to feel positive when you feel wretched. Anyhow, here goes.
Three new challenges. No smoking, drinking or SUGAR. The first two I'll say started from yesterday. The sugar one starts NOW!
Hope to see you all soon!
1. Daily posts -day 17 with 3/3 pauses left
2. No frappes or sodas -day 15 with 1/3 pauses left
3. Follow exercise plan - day 16 with 2/3 pauses left
4. Daily abs and stretching - day 17 with 3/3 pauses left
Had to deal with some bad stuff at work. I soothed myself with a diet decaf soda. Oh my. I did have a bit of a stress supper, but did measure out what I ate, vs. eating whatever I could fit in the pan.
jolly, glad to see you over here!! It looks like it's just you and me. If your way of dealing with the stuff at work was only to drink a DIET decaf soda, then you are well ahead of the game! Good for you!! That doesn't constitute a pause on your no sodas challenge, does it?
I, unfortunately, was not able to start up two of the challenges I had planned to yesterday. However, I did keep one going.
So, here's the score.
No Smoking Challenge Day 0 completed
No Booze Challenge Day 0 completed
No Sugar Challenge Day 1 completed
Last edited by redballoon; 08-14-2010 at 10:34 PM.
Unfortunately, it did constitute a pause. I always drink diet, and usually try for decaf. But I love the taste, adn once I get going, drink too much soda, and not enough water. so any soda counts. But you are right, it is a small evil.
1. Daily posts -day 18 with 3/3 pauses left
2. No frappes or sodas -day 16 with 1/3 pauses left
3. Follow exercise plan - day 17 with 2/3 pauses left
4. Daily abs and stretching - day 18 with 3/3 pauses left
Going down to do yoga tape here in a sec, so that meets all goals for the day. Woo hoo. 3-5 days to go Also, weigh in this am was good - down 2.8 pounds.
Good for you, jolly!!
I made it through my first day.
No Smoking Challenge Day 1 completed
No Booze Challenge Day 1 completed
No Sugar Challenge Day 2 completed
1. Daily posts -day 19 with 3/3 pauses left
2. No frappes or sodas -day 17 with 1/3 pauses left
3. Follow exercise plan - day 18 with 2/3 pauses left
4. Daily abs and stretching - day 19 with 3/3 pauses left
Glad you got started Red. I am in awe of the no sugar thing. I am so not there yet. Off to take a nap before teaching munchkins tonight.
Hi Redballoon - not just you and Jollygirl anymore! Mine will be very small baby steps for various health reasons, but here goes!
1. 7 fruit/veggies per day - DAY 0 (3/3 pauses left)
2. Get fresh air twice per day DAY 0 (1/1 pauses left)
Welcome SeaWave Baby steps are steps. Whatever it takes to get you headed in the right direction is great. Good luck!
I should confess, I had to change the workout plan I am following. I seriously screwed up my knees somehow last week. I can't run. So had to be smart and substitute. I didn't count it as a pause, as I am doing other cardio in its place, and following everything else. I hurt them again today mowing on soft, hilly ground Grrrr. I have an appointment to be assessed by physical therapy, to see what I can do. I wanna run
Notched another day. It wasn't easy. I wanted to smoke, drink, eat sugar, but somehow I just (without really thinking of it) got distracted and stayed on track....
No Smoking Challenge Day 2 completed
No Booze Challenge Day 2 completed
No Sugar Challenge Day 3 completed
**************
SeaWave -- Welcome. Nice to have someone else around! Good luck on your challenges.
jolly -- Yeah, the sugar thing is hard, really hard. The world is tuned to rewarding with sugar. Pauses, little timeouts during the day, after meals, chatting with friends, it all seems to include something sweet, really sweet, not just a bowl of fruit. I suppose there's a chemical thing going on too that the body likes the hit. They say processed sugar is extremely addicting and nothing at all like natural sugar. I believe it. We are true addicts and because sugar has been OK'd by society we reach for it over and over again. I can't say I feel great without it but I am sick of the addiction. I am sick of being controlled by a substance, whether it be alcohol, nicotine or sugar. Actually, I am very controlled by caffeine but that is one thing I just can't see myself tackling just yet. How would I do any work? But that very thought shows me how unnatural having to rely on caffeine is. But, my God, to lose every little high when life isn't treating me very well...I don't think I want to take that on right now.
Sorry to hear about your knees but by all means, substituting and continuing the challenge sounds like the way to go!
Hello again lol. Not sure if you all remember me but I sure do reconize a few names. The meads are out of the system again and the chocolate chip cookies are out of the house. I am ready to get back to where I was lol.
1. Eat the required amounts of the 5 basic food groups each day ( at leat 4 bread group)
1. Walking arobic video 1-5 miles each week day
1. Resistance training 40 min twice a week
1. Thank God each day for his support Somedays I need his hands around my shoulders. Somedays I need his hands across my mouth.
These are the basic rules I followed to lose 56 pounds in a year. I can do it again. While they generaly are level 1's some days they are level 20's lol. We take the good leasons we have learned into the future with us. We leave the bad habits in the past.
15 minutes of Shimmies a day. This may sound stupid, but I hate (yes, hate is a strong word) shimmies and I suck at them and my current instructor is a shimmier.
To begin when I get home tonight (2 of 2 pauses left)....
Ok, I'm going to jump into a 21 day challenge for the first time...
1. No binges* - Day 0 (3/3 pauses left)
2. 30 minutes daily exercise - Day 0 (2/2 pauses left)
I need to define binge for myself here. I need to make it a looser definition and tighten it later. No buying and consuming large quantities of food not on my meal plan. No eating large quantities (eg., entire containers) of food during non meal times.
It is acceptable to eat seconds of on plan food at meal times. It is not a binge to eat a pre-planned, measured treat as a snack. It is acceptable to eat an on plan food if I'm truly hungry. I must remember that starving myself leads to binges.
Being binge free is going to be a big battle for me, especially on the weekend. I hope to post here every day to be accountable and to share support.
1. Daily posts -day 20 with 3/3 pauses left
2. No frappes or sodas -day 18 with 1/3 pauses left
3. Follow exercise plan - day 19 with 2/3 pauses left
4. Daily abs and stretching - day 20 with 3/3 pauses left
And hello to Shy, BurlyQ, and Chickie Good luck as you start your challenges. Find what works for you.
"Every-Day" 21-Day Challenge -- Make it a daily habit!
And the really great thing about this challenge is that you are forming new habits that will wipe out the old! AND, you get to do it with a great bunch of really supportive people to whom you are accountable! 
This means tell us what day you're on when you post and it's a good idea to make regular mention of just what your challenge is. This an action-based thread. Our members are ON a challenge, RESTARTING a challenge, or just in between and looking to start up again REAL SOON. 
We also welcome posts from admirers, encouragers, and old friends!
etc. as substitutes where possible is encouraged. 
If your way of dealing with the stuff at work was only to drink a DIET decaf soda, then you are well ahead of the game! Good for you!! That doesn't constitute a pause on your no sodas challenge, does it?
Also, weigh in this am was good - down 2.8 pounds.
Good luck on your challenges. 
