This is a competition to motivate participants to live a healthier lifestyle. It is open to anyone age 14 or older who sincerely wants to establish habits that promote overall wellness.
DATES:
This will be an 8-week challenge starting November 15, 2010, and ending on January 10, 2011. You must commit to the full eight weeks and be prepared to give your health a serious effort.
COST:
Each participant will pay $30 upfront to do the challenge. I must have a firm commitment via email from each participant by Friday, October 29, and the money must be sent to me and postmarked no later than Saturday, October 30 (or hand delivered to me by November 1), to give me a little time to organize teams.
Although it costs $30, you may earn back more than half of your money by getting 95% of your "weekly points." For each week that you get at least 128 or more of your weekly points, you will get back $2, for a possible refund of $16, even if your team doesn't win the competition or win that week. You must earn back at least $4 for me to go to the effort to cut you a refund check.
WHAT YOU NEED:
You will need a scale. Weight loss can be tracked in whole pounds or down to the tenth of a pound, if your scale allows that option. You will need a method to measure your waist and hips. That could be a tape measure or a string you wrap around yourself and measure with a ruler. And you will need an internet connection. I will do almost all of my communication with you through this blog. You will report your points for the previous week through the blog on Mondays, I will post the previous week's winner on Wednesdays, and I will post your next week's challenge on the blog on Fridays. Other questions or comments can be directed to me most easily by email. Other than that, Excel on your computer will be helpful because I will send you a spreadsheet just before the competition starts to easily track your points, weight, and inches. If you don't have Excel, that isn't a problem but you may need to ask more questions to make sure you're scoring properly.
POINTS:
There are a few ways you earn points, so read thoroughly:
WEEKLY POINTS--Each Monday you will report your weekly points in six categories totaling 135 possible points.
1. Exercise: You can earn up to 35 points each week for exercise. You earn 5 points for doing 30 minutes of exercise and 7 points for doing 45 minutes of exercise up to 5 days per week. If you do more than 45 minutes of exercise or more than 5 days per week, WAY TO GO! But you do not get any additional points, and you can't carry the points or minutes over to future days or weeks of exercise. 7 points x 5 days = 35 points possible each week
2. Sweets: You can earn up to 30 points each week for not eating sweets. Each day that you eat no sweets, you get 5 points up to 6 days per week. Each day that you eat one sweet, you get 2 points. If you eat two or more sweets in a day, you get 0 points. What constitutes a sweet? Brownies, cookies, cake, ice cream, candy, donuts, or anything sweet that's preventing you from being healthy. HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE THAT EACH WEEK YOU GET ONE "SWEETS DAY" THAT DOES NOT COUNT AGAINST YOUR POINTS! Special occasions do not get extra free sweets, so use your free day accordingly. If you don't use your sweets day, you do not get any additional points. 5 points x 6 days = 30 points possible each week
3. Fruits/Vegetables: Each day that you eat at least 5 fruits or vegetables, you get 3 points. Each day that 3 or more of those are vegetables, you get 5 points. Generally speaking, one serving is approximately 1/2 cup, although leafy greens are approximately double that and dried fruits are about half that much. 5 points x 7 days = 35 points possible each week
4. Water: Each day that you drink at least 64 ounces of water, you get 2 points. 2 points x 7 days = 14 points possible each week
5. 9 p.m.: Each day that you stop eating before 9 p.m., you get 2 points. 2 points x 7 days = 14 points possible each week
6. Team: Each day that you are in contact with a team member by any method (email, phone, blog, text, voice mail, telegram, Facebook, U.S. Postal Service, etc.) you get 1 point. Through personal experience I've found that encouraging, motivating, sharing experiences, and staying accountable to others helps us to be more successful as individuals and as teams. 1 point x 7 days = 7 points possible each week
WEIGHT LOSS POINTS--Each week you will report your weight loss points. Please do your initial and weekly weigh-ins at approximately the same time and under the same circumstances each week (empty/full stomach, before/after exercise, etc.) First you must decide which of the following two plans you want to do:
1. Weight Loss Plan: If you are trying to lose weight, you will choose the "Weight Loss Plan." At the end of each week when you weigh in, you will get 5 points for maintaining your lowest previous weight and 10 points for each whole pound and 1 point per tenth of a pound you have lost beyond your lowest previous weight. 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 one pound, you would get 5 points for maintaining plus 10 points for that pound, so you would report 15 points. If you lost 2.1 pounds, you get 21 points plus 5 maintenance points, so you would report 26 weight points.
2. Weight Maintenance Plan: If you are trying to maintain a healthy weight which you have already achieved OR if you are pregnant, you will choose the "Weight Maintenance Plan." This challenge is for EVERYONE trying to be healthy, not just those trying to lose weight. So if you are maintaining your weight, you must decide what weight you are maintaining, and for each week that you are at or below that weight, you get 15 points. If you go over that weight, you get 0. If you are pregnant, please don't worry about the scale, but you must get at least 121 weekly points (90%) to get your 15 weight points per week.
BONUS POINTS--Each Friday I will post a bonus challenge to push you a little further or get you thinking about your health a little bit more. Each week the bonus challenge is worth 35 points. I will give instructions how to score your bonus with the challenge instructions.
INCHES POINTS--At the start of the competition and again at the end of week 4 and week 8, you will measure your waist and your hips. For each 1/2 inch you have lost at weeks 4 and 8, you will get 5 points.
WEIGHT LOSS % POINTS--At the end of week 8, you will report your weight loss percentage points. You will get 1 point per 0.1% weight loss. For instance, if I lost 4.8% of my body weight during this competition, I would get 48 points. I will give instructions later on, but it is calculated by taking the total pounds lost divided by your starting weight times 100 to get your weight loss %.
POINT REPORTING:
You will report your points at the end of each completed week (on Mondays) to me via the "Report Points" section of the blog. Points must be reported by 10 p.m. on Monday night. I will deduct 15 points from your team's total for each person who reports late. If your points are not reported when I declare a weekly winner on Wednesday morning, your points from that week will not count at all.
When I declare the team that wins each week, I will NOT be posting the points each team reported. Weekly results are not cumulative from previous weeks. At the very end of the competition, you will get to see the point grand totals, and I will rank the teams and declare an overall winner.
I want to add here that the way to win this competition is not by being on the team that loses the most weight. It is to get your entire team to commit to getting perfect or almost perfect weekly points. One team member not giving his or her very best can lead to the whole team losing because of that person's low points. Also, I ask that everyone please be honest in your point reporting. Your integrity is not worth a few points, and your health will reflect your commitment to living the rules of this competition.
WINNERS:
Obviously, everyone wins when you implement these sensible lifestyle habits. But at the end of the competition, I will award money to the person who gets the highest point total (weekly points only), the person with the highest percentage of weight loss, and each member of the team with the highest point grand total.
ARE YOU READY TO PARTICIPATE?
If you want to participate, please contact me by email as soon as possible (no later than October 29) and send your money to me right away (no later than October 30). I am not limiting the number of participants, so get your friends and family involved. When you email me, I need some information from you:
1. Your first and last name
2. The email address you want to use throughout this competition
3. Your mailing address (to send your money at the end of the competition)
4. Which weight plan you are doing
5. If you are on the weight loss plan, I need to know how much weight you need to lose to get to your goal weight (not the weight you hope to lose in these eight weeks, but the amount of weight you should lose to be a healthy you)
6. One or two people you would like to be teamed up with (I will do my best to honor teammate requests)
MY CONTACT INFORMATION:
Kali Hathaway (FYI: my first name is pronounced KAY-lee)
1005 Ada Ave.
Idaho Falls, ID 83402
kalihathaway@yahoo.com
(208)552-9750
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