A Big Challenge

Back in November, my sister gave my family a challenge to get fit and lose weight. She talked to us all at Thanksgiving about what the challenge would involve. For each person interested, we would pay in $10. We would weigh in weekly and email our weights to my sister once a week. Each week she would report back who was that week's winner, as well as everyone's progress.

When she first suggested it, I had no interest in participating. I have always been overweight and did not think any effort on my part would change anything. But my parents were signing up, and I thought if they were willing to give it a try, so should I.

So on Dec. 1, I emailed in my starting weight. I mailed in my check to my sister and joined myfitnesspal.com. I also found that the website offered an app I could download to my phone. This woudl allow me to log in my weight, my goals and my daily calorie intake/exercise.

I did not intend to exercise. That probably sounds awful, but I have never been a fan of exercise. I was hoping that keeping track of calories would be enough to look like I was participating. Yes, my initial intention was to do the bare minimum.

After a week of watching what I ate, I lost weight! I was shocked at how quickly pounds dropped off. I started reading up on diet and nutrition. I decided to eliminate pop from my diet, including diet pop. That also helped. Within two weeks, I had lost nearly 10 pounds!

I remembered I had a DVD called "Walk at Home" produced by Leslie Sansone. I had used it (once upon a time) to stay in shape and thought I'd try again. The DVD I had was for a four mile walk... quite challenging for a sedentary person! That first night I huffed and puffed and sweated. I barely did most of the steps, but I did finish it.

I also started walking everywhere. If I had to take something to the post office for work, I walked. The mild winter weather we have had certainly helped with that! The round trip walk was over a mile and really boosted my weight loss.

It was quite a challenge to be trying to lose weight during the holidays. There were moments where I had to simply refuse wonderful cookies and other treats because I didn't want to risk undoing all the work I had done.

I was thrilled to reach the new year with a resolution already in action! By Jan. 1, I had lost almost 15 lbs. I was amazed! I kept on working at it. I noticed a friend on Facebook mention something called, "Two a Days." I asked her about it and she said it just meant she exercised twice a day. I gave it a lot of thought and decided to try for that myself.

I started a new routine of waking up at 5 a.m. I would do my four-mile walk at home dvd (or five-mile, as by now I had purchased two more dvds). After showering I would get my kids up for the day and proceed through my day. After work, I would get my kids home from school and then work out again. I was amazed at how quickly I felt my body change! The numbers on the scale dropped much faster.

The 12 week challenge that my sister created flew by. I was thrilled to be the final winner, losing 15.6 percent of my weight. I went down four clothing sizes and felt like a whole new person.

Since that challenge ended, my sister has started a new one for us all. This time the goals are the same, but I am taking the whole process much more seriously. I am not concerned with winning this challenge (although the money I won last time was NICE!) This time I am hoping to get my weight down to where I can be off of the daily medications I am taking.

I see my doctor in just over a week for my check up. I'm pretty sure he's going to be pleased with my changes. Cross your fingers he will let me stop or at least reduce some of my meds!

Stay tuned.... I promise an update as my weightloss challenge continues!