Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Ok all you blog stalkers, friends, and family. It's about to get serious. I don't know how many of you also stalk me on Facebook, but if you do, you might have an idea what this is about. I'm getting serious about losing some weight. First, I'll let you know that I found a gym within walking distance that has childcare. Seriously good motivation to work out, because it means I can go somewhere during the day and do something without my children for an hour. Even though I despise working out, pretty much anything seems like fun if it means breaking up the day of whining children. (I do love my children, but 24/7 inside with them during the winter makes me nuts).

Now for the challenge. Starting next Monday, October 29th, I'm hosting a 8 week weight loss challenge. And you should totally join me. I've never done this before. I realize that it's a terrible time, because those 8 weeks will encompass Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my birthday. But, we all celebrate those holidays (well, maybe not my birthday, but you should), so it will be an even playing field, and you get a day off during the week.

The great thing is that you don't have to live anywhere near me to join. Which is great because everyone can join, and because you don't have to deal with the cranky version of me while I deny myself sweets. 

If you want to get in on the action it'll cost ya, $20. If you can't afford it, we could probably work something out, but I think $20 is pretty manageable, and it will be good incentive for you to not quit. The winners get the money, so it's not like I'll be taking any of it (although you are totally welcome to donate to my birthday shoe fund if you wish).

So here are some of the rules:

This is an 8-Week Challenge that starts on a Monday

-Decide an amount that each person pays to enter the challenge ($20 a person)

-There is a weekly point calendar for each of the 8 weeks. You earn points by eating healthy, exercising, drinking water, etc... It's not just for weight loss!

-Beginning on Week #2 there is a double point challenge (highlighted in yellow)

-You can exercise each day, but you will only receive points for exercising 5 days a week.

-You can choose to not each sugar/treats each day, but you will only receive points for not eating sugar on 6 days (everyone needs a free day!).

-There is a sample food journal that you can use or you can use your own kind of food journal to keep track of what you eat.

-Weigh yourself anytime each Sunday and tally up all points by 9 PM. Make sure that you weigh yourself under the same circumstances each week (for example: Morning/Night, Empty/Full stomach)

-Email me your points for healthy living and weigh in results by 9 am Monday.

-Daily contact with teammate: It’s amazing the strength that comes from encouragement from your teammates! We decided as a team that you could email, call, or text someone on your team to encourage them to have a healthy day. It helps knowing that you are all in this together and makes you accountable for what you do or don’t do.

-Example of weight loss points: You will get 5 points for maintaining your lowest previous weight AND 10 points for each whole pound. For instance, if you gained weight, you will report 0 points AND you don’t get any weight loss OR maintenance points in future weeks until you return to the lowest weight you had already achieved. If you maintained your previous lowest weight, you report 5 points. If you lost 1 pound, you would get 5 points for maintaining plus 10 points for that pound, so you would report 15 points.

-Cash prize money will be divided equally between the person who loses the largest percentage of weight and the person who has the most total weekly points. Also, if we get 15 or more people, we will take a vote to decide if we want to add a third winner: the EFFORT winner which will be decided on healthy living points alone.
 

 If you want to join, email me, ben.kortney@gmail.com. If you are a total random creepo stranger, I'll probably ignore you and block you from my blog, so please identify yourself and how you found my blog (I know my mom gives it out like candy).  

Seriously people, join me, I need motivation and this will be fun (or at least more fun than trying to do it yourself). Oh, and for the record, for all my sick friends out there, losing an organ does count as weight loss in my book. 

And I totally stole this from SixSistersStuff.com. 

OK - GO!!!!