Sunday, July 30, 2017

Thank you Steph!

Thank you for being in charge of all this during all of your travels and busy life! 
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Silk Touch MD
Erica K. Peterson

Final Challenge Results and Week 7 Prize Winner

Well, I have learned a lot this challenge.  I have learned that summer time is a really tough time to do a challenge.  In fact, I only had 3 people report to me their final weight and inches...but I went with the top 5 points totals at the end to divvy out the prizes.  I'm hoping that even if the majority of the group didn't see a lot of progress on the scale, that habits are healthier and everyone felt some positive changes just by participating.

So without further ado, here are the results:

1st Place ($100):  Amber, 687 points, 1.6% weight lost, 4.3% inches lost
2nd Place ($75):  Erica, 623 points, 2.8% weight lost, .5% inches lost, and maintained goal weight 6 weeks.
3rd Place ($50):  Melanie, 614 points, 2% weight lost, 3% inches lost.
4th Place ($25):  Cam, 610 points
5th Place ($15):  Sarah C., 496 points

Week 7 Prize Drawing:
Prize up for grabs is a $10 Walmart gift card.

Challengers in the drawing:  Trishia, Danica, Erica, Cam, Amber



Way to go Amber!  I will get all final prizes and weekly prize drawing prizes sent out tomorrow!

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Frustrated!

Ahhh! I am so frustrated with myself.  I forgot to blog last week.  We have two back to back vacations and then school starts so I was frantic last week trying to get everything set.  I am home for 1.5 days between vacations.  Just long enough to do laundry, repack and go.  I am also irritated that I didn't keep a food log on Monday while we were camping.  I didn't get service so I didn't know I had to log mon-thur. to get the points.  I just planned on having Monday one of my days off.  Oh well...  Thanks again to Steph for hosting this challenge.  Some weeks were better and more focused than others but it was always good to have this in the back of my mind to help push me back on track.

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Not eating after dinner and water only challenge

Well the only way I could cut myself off was to stop eating after dinner. Brush your teeth and be too lazy to want to brush them again and poof!!! Done. It was hard but I'm proud I did it.
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Silk Touch MD
Erica K. Peterson

Wrapping up this challenge

I'm flying out tomorrow to go to Nashville while my husband attends a conference there.  I will be home Sunday and will have our final prize drawing for last week and figure out the final results.  Thank you to everyone who participated this time around!  I'm so impressed with everyone!  I'm excited to hear about your successes and final results!  Please let me know if you have any questions.

The Home Stretch

I've tried my hardest to give this challenge my all and despite a few obstacles, I've definitely seen results and pushed myself even on hard days! But lately (the last week) I've felt like I've plateaued and that has been really un-motivating...I was seeing good results immediately at the beginning and now I feel like I hardly see anything several days in a row. I know its a slow process and I can't give up, so that I have been proud of myself for doing!! Hoping to kill it this final week and really show my mind set what I'm made of!

Monday, July 24, 2017

Week 7

This past week I had a family reunion.  We decided to all eat meals together.  I really wanted to achieve the group goal for the final full week.  One of the goals I picked was to eat enough fruits and veggies.  I knew this would be a difficult task because of all of us eating together.  I brought the fruits and veggies for the meals so that I would be sure that they were available for all the meals.  It worked out great and helped me achieve half of the group challenge.

Watching my calories and no eating after dinner

This last challenge was a good reminder of control and working out vs. no eating after dinner. I am glad that I was able to do that, but it wasn't easy. Logging my food in the morning helped me keep a good mind on what I needed to do to hit my calories. I also pushed myself in the gym so that I could earn a few more calories and have a little luxury that way. That extra scoop of peanut butter sure hits the spot. I am weirded out that this challenge is almost over and I didn't get to exactly where I wanted to, but have learned a few things about myself and eating. Its been a good challenege

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Keep on Trying!

This has been ROUGH! And even though it's frustrating to not be doing GREAT...I am proud that I haven't stopped trying. I am guessing I would have put back on all the weight from the last challenge had I not done this challenge. It's kept me aware, and wanting to try harder. The water intake has been continuing to be successful for once in my life...so I'm excited to keep with that! Thanks Stephanie for helping inspire everybody to get some healthy habits in their lives!

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

The difference maker...

I have always been big on exercise and actually consider it a "Like" for me. I love the feeling I get from a good workout! But I typically do the same work outs week in and week out and I enjoy them...the amount of time I have to commit...etc. AND I always justified eating what I wanted because I would exercise it off later. This challenge has REALLY made me focus on the opposite. Eating healthier to see the results I want. I've tried REALLY hard for the past 3 weeks and seen awesome results. I'm down 6 pounds, have a much better game plan for making this long lasting, and I love that I have more energy from clean eating (cutting out sugar and processed foods). Also I actually know how to cook vegetables I like! Weeee!

Week 6 Results and Prize Winner

Week 6 results, or should I say WEAK 6!  I now how hard it is to do a challenge in the summer.  I only heard from a few of you this week.  If you are still tracking, get me your points as soon as you can!

Week 6 Results:

1.  Amber F.                  536
2.  Cameron                  522
3.  Sarah C.                   496
4.  Erica                        394
5.  Stephanie                 344
6.  Trishia                     313

Week 6 Prize Winner:

Click Here

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Fruits and Veggies

Can't believe this is the last week of this challenge, but here we are. Fruits and veggies were good to eat. I usually do a decent job of eating them and there were some days that made me want to not eat just to be rebellious for the challenge, but overall it was good to see what different options were and everybody's different ideas on how to eat them. I'll usually eat a cup or more of veggies for lunch and need to up it throughout the day. It was a good reminder. Tracking my food has really helped as well and look at the nutrition tab in myfitness pal. This week i'm working on calories and no eating after dinner. This last week I got in the bad habit of snacking on whatever/whenever so i'm trying to get back to my good eating habits.

Monday, July 17, 2017

Keep Truckin' Along!

I haven't done as well as I had hoped on this challenge, but I love the weekly group challenges to help me get refocused on those areas where I have completely fallen off the wagon.

Whew

Well, I haven't done as well as I had hoped. I had a strong start, not so good in the middle, and hopefully I can finish strong! Good luck everybody!!!

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Things are going well. Not loosing what I hoped I would by now but I'm feeling motivated for this next week.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

This challenge is a harder one for me.  I love fruit and eat a ton of it but it's harder for me  to remember to eat veggies.  It makes me more aware of what I'm eating and how much I need to eat. I've noticed with myself that after buying groceries I have to cut up fruit and veggies right then. If I wait I forget I have them and they go to waste.  Here's to more veggies in my daily routine:)

Week 5 Final Standings

The temperature is rising and so are the stake's of this challenge!  I'm so impressed with those that are sticking with it!  Way to go!

Week 5 Results:

1.  Amber F.                  444
2.  Cameron                  434
3.  Linsey                      426
4.  Sarah C.                   422
5.  Sarah V.                   414
6.  Melanie                   388
7.  Erica                        349
8.  Stephanie                 344
9.  Danica                     325
10.  Trishia                   244

Week 5 Prize Winner:

Click Here to See Who Won

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Challenging challenge

I don't like this challenge! For some reason it feels like a lot more work to count cups of fruits/veggies even when I am already logging food.  I was at my friend's house the other day.  She is vegan and so I also get samples of whatever strange food she has.  This time it was simply steamed edamame! I had never had it and I loved it! Super easy and just in time for this weeks challenge.

New Workout

I forgot to blog too Erica!  I don't do well when I'm on vacation.  I wanted to post the links to the 2 new workouts I tried last week.  I thought they were great to finish out your workout after a little cardio...easy enough to do while watching a show too...but I still felt it the next day!


Pilates Legs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS5NZXdYAg8

KILLIN MYSELF!

I FORGOT TO BLOG LAST WEEK!
James did the same thing last challenge and he griped and moaned about it FOREVER and now I get it! Ha ha! I kept thinking about it and then the week just got away from me. So I'm getting it done early.

I am renewing my commitment this week to stick with it! I did better at exercising last week....and I want to keep doing better with that. Writing down what you are eating is SERIOUSLY so effective. But I gotta step that up again. I had 100% intention to do a new work out last week...but then I just didn't get to it. I thought my dance class would have us do a few leg or arm routines but that didn't happen...so I will have to do it this week just for fun.

But if you want to follow a fun dance class just search SHINE Dance Fitness on YouTube. They have some really fun routines, they are easy and really good aerobically and have some good squats and stuff in them. I also love Dance Fitness Marshall...he's hilarious and some of his dance moves are over the top...but if your giggling while working out it goes faster.

Pound those fruits and veggies peeps...lets finish this challenge out strong!
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Silk Touch MD
Erica K. Peterson

Monday, July 10, 2017

So yoga...who knew that it was such a tough thing?

I did Yoga all week to get a nice break from the gym and also to get some more flexibility...well I think i'm more flexible, but only because I didn't really have a choice. Yoga plays such relaxing music and then it hurts so bad. I think I know what nightmares and children's tears are made up of...its cause they thought of doing Yoga. I actually enjoyed doing Yoga for the whole week, but during it was a whole other story. I do feel more stretched and think it helped out, but there was some pain involved for sure. Looking forward to this eating challenge cause lets be honest...eating is the greatest thing in the world! fruits and veggies for the win!

Sunday, July 9, 2017

New route

There is a bike trail right next to my church building.  Every week for the past 1.5 yrs I have looked at it and thought I should explore it.  Well, thanks to this weeks challenge I made it a priority and took my dog on a walk this morning! I'll definitely be down that trail again :)
So I haven't been doing very well during this challenge but I need to get back on track even if I'm not going to win at the end. This week I've done pretty good though ... We got a tramp for our kids. We were on it for two hours yesterday. I'm counting that as my new workout for this week.  I haven't jumped on a tramp in so long and it was much more of a workout than I anticipated. Hahaha.  A lot of fun though.

Exercise

I tried running one day this week for exercise and also went camping and hiked a bit during the weekend, which hasn't happened for a few years.  It was fun to try a few new or forgotten things for exercise.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Hiking

My family and I were camping this week for the 4th and so I did a little hiking. I consider that trying a new workout for the week since I usually don't get that many chances to hike. But for some reason I just have forgotten that I am trying to be good and lose weight. I ate candy and cookies and all kinds of awful things this week!!! Camping gives me the munchies terribly! I'm really not sure why. So I'm back on the wagon this week trying again!!!!

Week 4 Results and Prize Winner

Hope everyone had a great holiday week!  I hope the reason I didn't get your points from you yet is because you were having so much fun.  Just let me know your points for week 4 when you can and I will add them to the totals.

Week 4 Results

1.  Amber F.                  359
2.  Sarah C.                   348
3.  Cameron                  345
4.  Linsey                      334
5.  Danica                     325
6.  Stephanie                300
7.  Melanie                   294
8.  Erica                       285

Prize Drawing and winner of the $10 Target gift card:

6 challenges stepped up to what I consider to be the hardest challenge of the compeition.  Congrats to Sarah C., Amber, Danica, Linsey, Cameron and Melanie!

Since I am traveling this week, I thought I would just use the computer to pick our prize winner.

http://random-ize.com/pick-from-list/

 Drum roll please!!!

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

So this week for the new workout I found a video on YouTube.  I'm kind of boring and like to do the same old thing everyday.  It was a good change for me to switch it up. I'm still struggling getting all my exercise points but I'm definitely doing better then I was before I started:)
Hopefully everyone is having fun and a fun summer too, I know even though I'm not exercising I'm constantly going all day long.

Monday, July 3, 2017

ice cream tastes so good when you get a cold

I don't really eat much junk food except for when I get sick. This last week I got hit by a summer cold and decided, as did my 2 year old, that I needed to eat lots of ice cream after every dinner. It didn't really help me feel any better, but i don't regret what i did. It was delicious and although it may have thrown me off a few pounds i'm working now to get back to it. This week i'm doing a rest week that's filled with Yoga which will be a nice change then next week i'm going to do what i've always dreaded...running on the treadmill! I hate hate hate hate treadmills and have finally gotten up to walking on them 10 minutes each morning for my warm up, but next week i've decided to kill myself and run the full 10 minutes for that extra push in the mourning (not a typo...i'll be mourning). This has been a good summer challenge to keep me working out during school/work/being a parent. There have been a few times that i've hit 10k steps in a day whereas before I only hit 5,000 - 7,000 steps. Good luck everyone!

Pre-holiday week not so good...

I was really trying to be good before my family came into town to celebrate the 4th, but I kept getting too busy to make great choices! Bummer!! I stayed strong in my exercise, water intake, and logging...but my quick food choices were not the best. That's where I fault...I want to be better this week about making things in advance so I don't cave on crappy food choices.

Saturday, July 1, 2017

Pushing through

This is the point in the last challenge that I started to get bored and my motivation slipped.  I am feeling the same way especially because the scale has not moved much this week.   PS- Thank you Steph for not doing a food challenge next week for the 4th!  Happy Independence Day everyone!

Challenges

I am not a soda or a juice drinker however, whenever this challenge pops up the only thing I want to drink is soda and juice!  I guess I don't like being told "no".  This weeks challenge is difficult for me because I don't notice I am eating.  Like last night, I was cleaning up the kitchen and some crackers were on the counter.  I ate a cracker as I was putting it away.  I never eat much but I usually have a few bites here and there and never notice!

****Edit to add that I just realize I never actually pushed the post button on this post from 6/21.  It has been sitting in the draft folder :). Oops!