Lifetime Wellness Challenge

For months I've been promising myself that I would start better habits.  At first it was going to be 'after the first trimester'.  Then it was 'after the baby is born'.  Then it was going to be 'after we move'.  So when someone in our new ward sent an open invitation to join in the Lifetime Wellness Challenge I jumped at it.  I knew some outside motivation would help me.  The challenge started yesterday and these are the basic rules:

 

1. Exercise 30-45min. five days a week.

2. Eat five fruits and vegetables daily.

3. No eating after 9pm.

4. 3 or fewer sweets per week.

5. Drink 64oz. water daily.

 

There are some other things involved, but those are the important ones.  I'm on a team of six and we are competing against other teams with this.  The team with the most points at the end wins, and there is also a weight loss % winner.  That's where the outside motivation comes in.

 

I'm excited because this will hopefully help me develop better habits.  I like that it's realistic for life; I can eat some sweets and I don't have to count calories. 

 

Every week we will have an 'extra' assignment.  This week involves a fitness test, before picture, goal/ reward, and a personal letter.  I don't have to do any of it publicly, but somehow I wanted to do this piece of it on my blog.

 

Dear Becky,

 

Right now you are very focused on making this wellness challenge a success.  You could list a dozen goals, but really all you want is to have more energy and feel healthy.  You remember what it felt like a year and a half ago to reach your all time heaviest weight.  You were tired all the time and didn't even want to do active things.  You felt sort of sick all the time.  You reached a point where you didn't care how you looked anymore, you just wanted to feel better.  And so you made your first successful weight loss plan.  You took this before picture with the thought of sharing it someday if you succeeded.  Because you'd never before succeeded so you weren't very confident.

 

April 2012

Twenty pounds later you felt a LOT better, but didn't want to stop there.  You wanted to be free from the 'overweight' range, and this time it had nothing to do with what you saw in the mirror.  You wanted the energy you remembered from not so many years before.  But then a greater wish was granted and you spent nine months growing a precious life.  So you had to put the lesser desire on hold.  You promised yourself that you would exercise during your pregnancy, but an early scare convinced you to take no chances.  You're not sorry about that.  Your sweet Abigail was worth it.  Here you are with 35 additional pregnancy pounds.

April 2013

You were fortunate to lose all of your baby weight plus five and you breathed a huge sigh of gratitude.  You thoroughly enjoyed the extra energy you felt, but you knew it wouldn't last.  You kept promising yourself that you would eat better and exercise 'when'.  That 'when' finally came yesterday.  You wondered if it would be worth it to wake up at 6am just to exercise (the early hour was new to you).  Then as your body screamed, 'What do you think you're doing?!!' while you jogged a 'required' mile, you smiled inside and said, 'You'll thank me later'.  Yesterday you had a killer headache from the first high impact exercise you've had in years (because you've been swimming and using an elliptical instead), but your body felt HEALTHY.  Your children were impressed with all the vegetables you were snacking on and got the funny idea that you weren't going to eat anything else.  You experienced a little pregnancy deja vu as you frequently visited the bathroom.  And it felt so good.  This morning your thighs were sore and you were extremely grateful for your elliptical.  Then your bad knee started aching during your workout and made the last five minutes feel like an eternity.  But then you really felt good during school time.  You know your thighs won't be sore forever (or even next week probably), your knee will adjust, and soon all of it will feel good.  You're kicking yourself for not doing these things sooner.  So, here you are at the beginning of this new challenge.

September 2013

Now you're once again focused on the old goal, but with a different plan.  You feel pretty good now, but know you can feel even better.  Ultimately all you want is more energy.  You have a lot of things you want to do with the rest of your life, especially concerning your children.  You need energy for many years to come.  You need your body to cooperate.  And so your ultimate goal is energy.  For this challenge they want a measurable goal too, though.  So you're going to try to drop a clothing size during the next eight weeks and if you do it your reward will be a new pair of tennis shoes (because you also have to choose a reward).  But you know that won't be the real reward.  The real reward will be how good you feel.  Day number two is going well so far; just keep taking it one day at a time!

Sincerely,
Yourself