21 going at snail pace

Post Week 5 Points Here.

Hi All,

Happy Halloween : )

Another week in the books! I don't know about you, but this was the hardest week for me so far. I feel like I kind of hit the wall and we had to get through Halloween to boot.

On a fun note. We challenged our girls to go with only one treat a week during the course of the challenge. Rachel, our 6 year old has done amazing, but was worried about how to handle her Halloween candy. We came up with the solution of putting it in a shoe box, wrapping it up like a Christmas present and then she wrote her self a little Christmas card. She will place the "present" under the tree and plans on opening it a little early.

On a sneaky note, at the ward Trunk or Treat, we know Chance that you put your son up to sending Michelle the little candy bar. Nice try!

Jake

family video

Now that we're almost to Halloween, it reminded me of Kristen's Halloween story when she was 11. I thought it was so inspiring, I thought I'd share one of my own. When I was little I was really big into working out w/ my dad, so I thought I'd share a video that was taken:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mztxYc3NUik

Enjoy and hopefully it adds a little motivation. If a 5 year old can do it why can't we!

Chance

Foods that are AWESOME

Hey guys- I would love to hear some of your ideas on what you snack on and stuff. We just ogt a trader joes and I have always loved this store- and now that it it close I can't stay away! One "trick" I came across there was Marscapone cheese- it is nearly ahlf the calories and fat of butter, but has a sweet and creamy flavor- it makes an amazing icing type on everything- the almost perfect TJ's fruit muffins, the pumpkin pancakes etc. It spreads and looks like cream cheese, but melts a little like butter. I have to HIGHLY recommend the potstickers, gyoza sauce and edamame beans that I could eat for every meal, every day.

I also found that Chobani yogurt makes 0% fat free pomegranate yogurt and it tastes divine! for you sugar tetollers out there, it is made with rice cane syrup, so a sweetner, but not technically the evil white crystals.

Sam's club sells the Da Vinci flavoring syrups that are sugar free and they are awesome in sugar free swiss miss with a small dollup of whipped topping.

and on the excercise round, I pulled up my little trampoline the other day and jumped and jogged and skiied while watching junk tv and it was so fun! AND never discount the but kicking power of SPIN (indoor cycling)!

Just wondering what you all are doing....to be healthy but still eat and excercise fun.

22 able to exercise twice this week but went on a binge on a day!!! Slow climb to 28! but keeping off the two pounds I lost....

POST WEEK 4 HERE

Hey Everyone,

I hope you are seeing some results, both Jake and I are pleased with what we've noticed. Ironically, I've been dying to join a gym to trim down and tone up, but the one I really want is pretty expensive. This challenge was a lot cheaper for similar results!

Hope you have a great week

~M

Already Seeing the Benefits

We had a "check your numbers" day at work today and I had my cholesterol checked. At my last doctors appointment, my cholesterol was on the borderline high side. I was anxious to see where I would come in today. It fell within the normal range (just barely). It is cool to see benefits in less than a month of being on the challenge.

I also agree that the 7 hours of sleep has been the hardest!

Gotta go to bed - I have to get up at 5:30am

Good luck everyone!

Jake

week 3

21( long steep climb to get exercise into the routine. but lost 1-2 pounds though for now. )

POST WEEK 3 POINTS HERE

In the comments section below, please post your points. I'll update them as close as I can to Monday morning, but with my internet and local phone both down it will be when it happens.

Week 2

20(not successful in adding exercise to the routine!) let's see what week 3 brings.

WEEK 2- Post your points here

I know I am a bit early, but this weekend is crazy for me. Go ahead and post your points (for just this week) before Monday morning at 8AM.

A few things you might have missed:

I updated the prizes (added a few) now that the numbers are final. You can see them on the first post of this blog.

You can also add to the "finish the sentence" post a few days ago if you are feeling creative.

Hope you had a great week! I can't quite believe how much better I am doing this time around off treats.

~M

Finish the Sentence

You know you are doing the 12 Week challenge when...

Week 1

Hello all

I am Emma. Probably the oldest in the group. I am a very proud mother of one, he is now 22, served a mission in Jamaica, working for his accounting degree in BYU and lately a nice girl likes him a lot to be his grilfriend and now I am praying that there will be a wedding soon. My son, Albert, knows I will support him getting married even before he finishes college. As you can see I cannot wait to be a grandma. I do not know of anybody else who wants to be a grandma so bad. And since I am so excited he has a girlfriend I am attaching some pics.

My eating goal is portions control and eating a lot of veggies everyday rather than carbs, meat and junk. My personal goal is read the scripture daily for at least 15 minutes like Michelle, read at least one chapter of Jesus The Christ, search the scriptures with the goal of learning more how to be a disciple of Christ.

This week I had this uncontrollable urge to eat pastries and cookies which I did very successfully, and more than palmsize as well. But will do better this week. I controlled my eating for two days after that and fortunately I did not gain any weight.

Best of luck to everyone this week.

Nightmare!

Can I just inform you that last night, I had a dream, or nightmare, that I was at a ward activity and ate pudding and jello. First, I do not eat pudding and jello, unless the jello is in a single cup serving and that is not the case at ward activities. I did not realize I broke the rules until I was throwing my plate away and thought, Oh my goodness! I just ate junk! I looked up and Jake Wasden was standing there.  I repeated myself, so he could hear me. He then looked at his plate with shock, because he had made the same mistake!
I woke up scared that I lost a point, or maybe two!

A week late to sign in, but ready for some tough competition!

Well I'm a week late on posting my intro, my name is Chance Bagley and this has been an absolute great week! I love health contests like this... Sweets are easy to avoid, but I absolutly love food, so saying no to 2nds is going to be hard, but it'll be well worth it... This AZ boy may not be used to all this humidity, but is enjoying the 6 days of exercise... though I do have to admit the legs were a little tired by the end of the week. We've liked the idea so well that our boys are ready to start their own competition tomorrow, so we'll be tracking their points this next week as they've set their goals today.... Thanks Michelle for kicking this off!!!

Jake thanks for the App ideas... I'll be downloading them and of course we'll be using a spreadsheet as well! As Taji said "of course we will."

And to Michelle's Brother ... I don't know about making friends, but if the Monkey King can do this... http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&brand=msn%20video&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:c7dadb30-2d62-48d6-abcc-71e74b000d16&showPlaylist=true&from=IV2_en-us_v11HP&fg=gtlv2

I'm sure we can do 11 more weeks... go Monkey King! (not really relevant, but I thought the video was worth sharing. Good luck everyone!

POST WEEK 1 POINTS in the comments section below

Hope you had a great first week! Tomorrow I will calculate the final prize amounts from the money that I have received. Hey, if you can do it for a week, then you can do it again!

By the way, feel free to check back and make sure that your tallies are correct in the side column. Let me know if your numbers look funny to you.

~M

Hi everyone, I'm one of Michelle's brothers, and I have just one thing to say: I'm not here to make friends! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0bOw1lqxBc

;-)

Ali H.

i'm an active 28-year-old wife and mother of one. i spent most of my formative years participating in individual and team sports and definitely would consider myself a competitive person. i've been training for a marathon for the last six months and, until i joined the church five years ago, i gave up chocolate for 40 days every lent; i'm keeping my fingers crossed that this puts me at an advantage where junk-food-and-sweets rehab is concerned. on the other hand, i often find vegetables boring (i can't believe i'm admitting this) and i'm wishing now that i hadn't been so ambitious in my "healthy food" requirements. but i suppose if this were going to be easy, we'd all be doing it already... good luck everyone!

p.s. i'm with jake. personal dashboards are crucial to success. plus, it feels really good to check off each requirement and watch those points grow. ;)

Anna F.

Hi. I'm Anna. I have two kids under 3. I thought, "Why not make it crazier by getting all caught up in a competition." Actually I'd like to think I'm doing this to have more balance in my life. I consider the exercise time my "me time" for the day, even if it is spent on my living room floor with my Jane Fonda Workout VHS from the 80's (leg warmers and leotards - oh yea!).

The healthy food isn't too hard. I'm about a 60% whole foods kind of gal already. Sugar and processed foods make me feel sick - literally. I think I have an advantage over others in this department. Three years ago I went on a no-sugar diet that lasted through Halloween AND Thanksgiving. When I say "no-sugar" I mean I didn't even drink juice or eat cereal and I had to count my carbs with exactness. I'm proud to say that I never cheated! (Yes, I did cry about it for like 2 weeks. Sometimes it was in public. That's natural right?) In the end I was 9 months pregnant and felt better than I ever had in my life.

My goal in this contest is tailored to me trying to be a better mom, and the sleep...that's the one I'm a little worried about. Does it count if I'm sleeping in the rocking chair while nursing the baby in the middle of the night?

PS - I have some really good chocolate ice cream and some popsicles in my freezer if anyone wants them. If you don't save them, we may just have to let them go bad. Who has the heart to let chocolate go bad?

PPS - Norah, Carrots - Shoprite brand has some really good ones that sell in 1 lb bags (whole not baby). When I say good, I mean they taste like someone grew them in sugar water or something. I just steam them - no salt. YUM!