The Ten Week Challenge

Can you believe there are only 10 weeks until 2010? I've been thinking about my 2009 New Year's Goals, especially #2. Quit whining about my body and get into shape and actively do something to change it, OR come to terms with and accept my body how it is and get over it.

I am not where I want to be. I stopped jogging when I joined a gym back in May because I found some fun classes that I really enjoyed going to. I'm still going to the gym, but once homeschooling started, I've had a lot less time to fit that into my schedule. My goal is to go 3 days a week, but some weeks I don't make it at all, and others I go only once.

The thing is, all this exercising has actually made me gain weight! Well, I can't actually attribute it only to the exercising. I mean, maybe a pound is due to muscle since I am a teeny tiny bit more toned than I was. But I think a lot of it is that I feel more hungry and have eaten more without realizing it! I've gained 10 pounds over the course of the year! That is definitely the opposite of my goal. It was very gradual, a pound here, two there, and lately, a few more! I think the most recent weight gain is due to our eating out. I was working more and was so tired that it was just easier to grab lunch and dinner while we were already out and about.

Last weekend, I had finally had enough! I saw the scale continuing to inch up and decided that on Monday, I was going to do something about it. I was going to count calories! I had tried several times to do so in the past, but never got through even one full day of counting calories. I'd always eat something I shouldn't have, see that it was a lot of calories and give up.

I like to keep it real so I'll be honest here. I got on the scale Monday morning and saw that I was 152 lbs!

UGH!

Back in the day, before I got pregnant, I was a naturally skinny girl. I didn't diet, and I ate pretty much whatever I wanted. I was underweight at 109 lbs. Then I ballooned up to 159 lbs with my first pregnancy, gaining exactly 50 lbs. It took a good year before I started to really lose weight. Nursing didn't melt the pounds off like I had heard! It wasn't until I started weaning Jonah that I really started losing. I eventually settled around 125 lbs, which was perfectly fine with me. Then during my second pregnancy, I started at 123 and gained 42 lbs and ended up at 165 lbs. I lost 20 pounds initially and have struggled ever since. At the beginning of this year, I was around 140, and then over the spring, 145.

To see the scale on Monday and realize I was 7 pounds away from my 9 month preggo weight was very disheartening!

I don't want to be 109 lbs again. I don't even think I will ever be in the 120's again. I'm okay with that. I'd like to be a good, healthy weight for my height, which is 5'6". I think that for me, it would be somewhere around 130-140 pounds. I'm currently a size 8 and I'd like to be a 6. I don't need to be a 2 or 4. I have curves now that I like instead of that boyish figure I had when I was 109. I want to be realistic.

So, I want to do a 10 week challenge. I want to set an overall goal for the next 10 weeks and then set small mini-goals for each week leading up to the new year. I'm putting this out here in the hopes that it will make me accountable! I need your help!

And this is where you come in. If you'd like to join me, leave a comment with your 10 week goal and your first mini-goal for the week. Maybe you are also dealing with some postpartum pounds, or maybe you just want to make healthier choices. Maybe you're already at a good weight but you'd like to eat a little better or work on getting toned. Maybe you're pregnant or nursing and shouldn't be losing weight but you want to start drinking more water and remembering to take those prenatal vitamins or get in some light exercise. Maybe you want to get a head start on your 2010 New Year's Resolution, or you want to get in shape in time for Christmas and know that you can indulge in a few treats with zero guilt. Whatever your goals may be, join in!

And if you're already a size 0 vegan who exercises 5 days a week, well, that is awesome for you. Maybe you can be our cheerleader!

I want this to be a positive thing. I only want to hear the good that you've been doing. We as women beat ourselves up too much. We are too self-critical. If you messed up and ate a pan of brownies, I don't care. Life is not worth living if we never get to enjoy the simple pleasures of a chocolate chip cookie or a Dr. Pepper or a Starbucks Frappuccino (these are my weaknesses if you couldn't tell). But maybe instead of indulging everyday, make it a true splurge and limit it to only once or twice a week.

And while it is very easy to say you're going to lose 10 lbs in 10 weeks, or exercise every single day, it is not exactly very easy to do. Set up a realistic goal!

To sweeten the whole deal, we need something that will motivate us, right? After the holiday highs and fun times, the new year usually brings empty wallets and the humdrum "the holidays are over, it's winter and it's cold" blues. At least, it does for me. How about for those who join in, leaving a comment each week until the new year, get to participate in a give-away?
There will be a $30 gift certificate to the winner's choice of store.
Maybe you'll have lost a few pounds and want to shop for a new blouse at your favorite store, or you've been making healthy meals and getting your family healthy and you want to go to that great little health food store that's a bit pricey but has a lot of yummy healthy food. Or maybe you just want to splurge at Starbucks or Baskin Robbins! (I will not judge you.) Whatever store you want it to, the winner will get it (as long as I can actually get a gift card from that store!)

And like I said, even if you're already super healthy and can think of nothing more you can do to improve your health, you can still participate by leaving encouraging comments to cheer us on! The winner will not be based on who actually met their goal; anyone who honestly tried all 10 weeks will be eligible to win!

My overall Ten Week Challenge goal is to lose at least 5 pounds.
My mini-goal for the week: Count calories each day, even if I go over and don't want to see the numbers. ;)

We can do this!

Next Friday we will report back on how we did the first week.