Day 7 CHALLENGE!

I have decided to turn this blog into a 40 day challenge. That was my intention in the beginning but I had a fear of obligation towards 40 days and getting burnt out on writing (kind of like my pumpkin recipe blog a few years back). But I have been working on this blog for almost a month and have gotten some really positive feedback. Yesterday someone even told me that my blog has inspired her to return to Weight Watchers and make some healthy changes. It was so encouraging to hear that! So I decided to make this a 40 day challenge and the challenge will be unique to each person who wants to participate. Some of you have a lot of weight to lose and a lot of baggage to figure out. Some people (myself included) are pretty near their goal weight but have something in us that has stopped us from finishing. Some people might not even be overweight but you still have issues with the way you think about food or exercise. I feel like sometimes we need a challenge to get our booties off the couch and get done what needs to get done.


Here are a few things I hope you do with this challenge:

- Find a food plan that is realistic to follow, so realistic that you would be able to turn it into a lifestyle. I highly, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend NOT depriving yourself of food you love but to find a way to work it in, in moderation. Or maybe you can find an alternate food that tastes similar but costs less calories. I recommend Weight Watchers or Myfitnesspal.com because these are methods that work in real life.

- make it more than a diet/exercise challenge - journal to find out about where your bad food habits and issues come from.

- Be prepared to make mistakes but don't let them stop you, instead learn from them. Ask yourself questions to get to the root of why you made that mistake so you don't make it again.

- celebrate your successes: I will post more about this tomorrow

-when you get to 40 days, don't allow yourself to slip into old habit but instead build upon what you have learned. 40 days is not the end of the journey, just the end of the first part of a challenge.

-When you are ready to say you will do this with me for 40 days, write a comment or send me an email letting me know what day you started and when the 40th day of your challenge will be.

Example: I am Carrie Miller and I am excited to get started challenging myself to journal about the things that trigger my out of control eating, and figure out why I have been self-sabatoging myself from having complete success with weight loss. I will track my calories on myfitnesspal even when I go over my calories. I am starting this challenge 5/16/2-12 and my 40th day will be 6/24/2012. I don't expect to be at my goal weight by then but I do hope to be closer to it than I am right now. I promise myself that when I mess up I will not abandon this challenge but instead try to learn why I messed up.

Feel free to share as much or as little in your message to me. I know when I first began to have success and healing was when I finally admitted to another person that I was struggling with food issues.

I am excited to be on this journey. What is stopping you for coming with me? Come on, you are worth it! And if you don't believe me, then you need to come anyway and hopefully you will begin to believe that you are worth it!