The Mother's Day Healthy Living Challenge

I mentioned to E the other day that I wanted to lose weight.

I try to cut myself some slack and give myself a bit of recovery time after traveling since I always expect to see a gain when I spend days at a time eating out. It happens. I try not to beat myself up over it.

And so after a few weeks of traveling, I was really not surprised to see my weight had crept up-sadly though it was up higher than it was before the first surgery back in December. Yikes.

I am thankful that I was able to maintain my weight after the first surgery for about two months but over the last month it started to creep up and I am ready to put it to an end. I know there are lots of factors contributing to the gain; traveling/eating out, drinking more, exercising more (yes, this plays a role on a few levels), and changing up my diet. Now that I am restricted from activity again (just for a couple weeks, thankfully) I thought this would be the perfect time to switch my focus over to weight loss mode and spend the next couple months working to get back to where I started (~ 156) pounds and focusing on leading a healthy and (soon) active lifestyle.

Two years ago, right around this time, I hosted a weight loss challenge on my blog and it was awesome. Each week we had different challenges and each week the leader (based off of weight loss percentage) was named. At the end of the challenge the person with the largest percentage of weight loss won the grand prize- I don’t remember all the details but I think the final prize was some stuff from Lush. I picked it out myself since you know; I am a small time non-sponsored blogger. The prize was really just whatever I felt like buying for that particular person  ;)

BUT for this challenge I want it to be a bit different.

Because we are all so different. We have different goals, we live different lifestyles and have different limitations and barriers.

Yes! If you want to make it a weight loss challenge go right ahead. And yes! If you want to make this a healthy eating challenge that’s cool too. Maybe your goal is to meditate and de-stress your life- that’s awesome! I want this challenge to be based on your individual needs and with that being said, it is going to be for you to decide what your goals are for the 8 week (3/17 to 5/11- Mother’s Day) and each individual week’s challenges.

I am here to set some guidelines, throw out some ideas, post lots of inspirational memes, and of course my main roll- facilitate. You will need to check in with me each week in order to qualify for the final prize. And because I am not really an ‘adhere to the norm’ kind of girl, there may be more than one winner. You never know J

From Pinterest

So here is what I need from you, if you so wish to participate:

First- leave me a comment (or email me at MyRootsToGrow [at] gmail [dot] com) and let me know you want to join in. I have created a private group on Facebook for this challenge which will be used for communications (in addition to this blog), general discussions and, of course, motivation.

Second- email, message on FB or leave a comment here your goal for what you want to achieve over the next 8 weeks. If you are making this a weight loss challenge- feel free to email me your starting weight and goal weight. I will track this, privately of course, for anyone in the group who chooses to log their weight.

                *One of my 8 week goals is weight loss related so I, too, will be tracking and posting my weights

Third- email, message on FB or leave a comment here with your goal for this first week of the challenge. Since this is week one I want us to take a bit of an introspective look and see what we can change to help us achieve our goals and enact some small changes that can get us there.  It is so important that we take time for ourselves and make our health/wellness our top priority so this week your challenge is:

*Do something each day that represents what healthy living means to you*

Four- check in with me at the start of each week(by Monday)  with your weekly goal (and this week include your eight week goal, too) and then at the end of each week (by Sunday) to let me know how you did. This is the accountability portion of the challenge. Even though you are the one to set all the goals and decide whether or not you met them I still need you to check in with me weekly. This is how a winner will be decided.

The winner- I am sure you are interested to know how that will be decided. Well, the plan is to randomly choose a winner (or winners) from the group of participants whom set their goals and check in every week. That’s it. Easy, right?

And since I am in this with you I thought I would start this challenge off with showing you my goals not only so you can help keep me accountable but also so you can see what I need from you so I can start our group log.

8 Week Overall Challenge Goals (yes, you can have one or multiples- this is totally up to you)

-          Back to goal weight of 156 (I haven’t weighed myself in awhile so I may come back and update this is if this is not a realistic number- I will weigh in ‘officially’ Sunday and update this if need be)

-          Find a healthy (and maintainable) balance between foods I prepare myself and convenience (processed/takeout) foods. Back to maintaining my 80/20 rule

-          Earn an 'A' in my current grad school class (yep,  I am totally putting my educational goal in here because I view it as a big part of what I deem a healthy lifestyle- knowledge is power, people!)

Week One Challenge Goals:

-          30 minutes devoted to self-care every day. This can be reading, taking a long walk around the city, writing a letter, meditating- anything that will bring me some peace, happiness, and is purely for ME

-          8,000 steps a day. I have very limited activity until 3/26 but I can walk. So each day I will challenge myself to walk 8K steps. This is my constraint so I have to make it work for me, right?

-          Be grateful every day. Take time each day to express gratitude for friends, family, this life and the fact that I made it another day J

So, here it is. The Mother’s Day Healthy Living Challenge. I hope you will join in. Please email me (MyRootsToGrow [at] gmail [dot] com) or leave a message here in the comments or on FB or wherever if you have any questions or if you want to join in!

Here’s to a happier and healthier US!

Love,

Dacia

xoxoxox