We're on our Own Ladies!

Hi family!  I'm so excited to do this with you all especially.  I'm glad we're on our own- now I hope we can all feel good about posting each week, our points as well as any thought we have about the challenge or how our week went or recipes, etc.  Here are the guidelines if you ever need to refer to them:

GUIDELINES:
Please Read through this entire lengthy post!  Sorry, but it's important to know what you're getting in to!

Hi Fitness Challengers!  I'm excited for this tough, but rewarding, 10 Week Fitness Challenge.  We'll be starting on Monday, July 9, and ending Sunday, September 16.  Here are the guidelines we'll be following:

Weekly Points (200 points possible per week)

1. 30 minutes of daily exercise 6 days/week. A possible 5 points each day (30 points per week)
If you work out for an hour ONE day you can count that for two days of exercise, but in total you need to be working out at least 4 days a week, for a total of 180 minutes (i.e., you can't avoid working out all week and then work out for 2 hours on Thursday and have it count
for more than 2 days).

2. Five servings of fruits and/or vegetables per day. A possible 5 points each day (35 points per week)
A serving size for fruit or vegetables is about usually about ½ cup. Greens like spinach and
lettuce are 1 cup per serving. A single piece of fruit (such as an apple or orange) counts as
one serving. A half-cup (4 oz.) of juice (100% juice only) can be substituted for no more
than ONE serving per day.

3. Drink 64 oz of water per day. A possible 5 points each day (35 points per week)
The 64 oz needs to be WATER, pure and simple. If you add artificial sweetener, you
cannot count it toward your water goal (i.e., crystal lite, vitamin water, iced or herbal tea,
diet soda, CANNOT be counted toward your 64 oz. requirement).

4. No eating after 8 pm. A possible 5 points each day (35 points per week)
Note: if you get home from work or another mandatory type activity after 8 pm and have
not had the chance to eat dinner, you can eat dinner without it counting against you. The
idea is to stop grazing after 8 pm, not starve you if you didn’t get a chance to eat dinner.

5. Take your vitamins or supplements. A possible 5 points each day (35 points per week)
Your vitamin or supplement can be whatever you think will aid you in your fitness goals
(i.e., multi-vitamin, fish oil, fiber supplement, etc.)

6. No sweets 6 days/week (i.e., one free day). A possible 5 points each day (30 points per week)
Sweets are defined as soda (diet soda is OK, except you cannot use it toward water goal),
doughnuts, muffins, candy, chocolate, cake, cookies, ice cream, frozen yogurt, etc.  Exception: you can have one moderate sized sweet if it is your birthday or an immediate family members birthday, or a major holiday and it won’t count against you.
On your "free day" you can have ONE moderate size dessert- it's not a "sweets day" where you get sweets all day.  If you have more than one sweet on your "free day" you lose 5 points!  The "free day" is set as Sunday on your points chart, but you get to decide which day to use it.

Point System:

Each week we will keep track of our weekly points as outlined above. Each week there will be a Weekly Challenge where extra points can be earned.  Each week you can also earn points for pounds lost based on your percentage weight loss for that week.  We'll go over that below. 

Weekly Challenges:
The weekly challenge will be posted every Sunday evening, so you can be ready to start it on Monday.  They range from eating new fruits & veggies, to not eating out all week.  They are a great way to earn lots of extra points!

Posting to the Blog (you should get an invite shortly):
On Monday morning (July 9th) we each need to weigh ourselves.
You DO NOT post those numbers - you use them as your starting point.
Each subsequent Monday morning we will weigh in, figure our points for the past week,
and post your results the blog by the end of the day Monday.

When you write your weekly blog post please do it in the following format:

Weekly Points = ______ (this will be from the 200 points possible)
Challenge Points = _______ (this will vary depending on the weekly challenge)
Weight Loss Points =_______ (calculated as described above)

And then feel free to comment on how your week went and any positives or challenges you had.  It's nice to hear how other people are doing!

Challenge Winners:
At the end of the 10 weeks the Challenger with the most points will win!  We won't do it for money this time around- just bragging rights?

Sick Days:
You get TWO sick days during the entire challenge (you can get all the points possible for that day)- but you can only use them if you are truly sick :) 

PERCENTAGE WEIGHT LOST:
Here's how we'll do weight loss points:

Take your starting weight for the beginning of the week.  Divide the number of pounds lost by the starting weight.  Then multiply that answer by 100.  And that's your percentage weight loss.

Here's an example:
Starting weight: 150
Pounds lost during the week: 1.5
1.5 / 150 = 0.01
0.01 x 100 = 1% weight loss

Then you multiply your percentage by 10 to get your points.  So 1% x 10 = 10 points
If your percentage weight loss is 1.2% then you's get 12 points for that week.  Sound good?

And for different circumstances since some of us have different weight loss goals, here are some guidelines:

You're at your goal weight and you maintained it that week- no weight lost or gained= 10 points
You're not at your goal weight and you didn't lose anything= 0 points
You're not at your goal weight and you gained= whatever your percentage gained is X 10, you remove those points from your total weekly points.  Example: your starting weight was 150, you gained 1 pound, your percentage weight gain is 1%.  Multiply that by 10, and you get 10 points subtracted from your total.