A Thanksgiving Challenge

This past Thursday (November 20th), I was training with Jeremy and was telling him that I’m worried about the holiday’s coming up and gaining weight. I wanted to make a plan that would help me combat this. So Jeremy gave me a challenge. It’s a two part challenge.

Part 1 of this Thanksgiving challenge is this – I had to lose 1 pound by yesterday (Monday, November 24th). If I lost the pound, then I could continue on to the next part of the challenge. If I didn’t lose the pound, then I lost the challenge.

The good news is that I lost weight. And not only did I lose, I actually lost 3 pounds!!! I was grinning from ear to ear when I left the gym last night. Now I am working on part 2 of this Thanksgiving Challenge.

Part 2 of the Thanksgiving challenge is this – Jeremy and I came up with a plan for how I can eat on Thanksgiving. If I follow this plan and if I lose 1 more pound by my next training on Monday, December 1st, then I win the Thanksgiving Challenge. The exciting thing is that if I do this, I win 2 free training’s with Jeremy!!!

I’m really working hard at doing this. It will be exciting at the next official weigh in to have lost weight and inches. Just as a side note, I think the inches are going to be down a good amount at the next weigh-in. It’s exciting seeing changes on the scale, in the measurements, and in the way my clothes fit.

Over the weekend, I went to an event at the gym. The first part was all about nutrition and not gaining weight over the holidays. I learned some good things about eating smart over the holidays and making wise decisions. One statistic that stuck with me is that the average person gains 5 – 10 pounds over the holidays (from Halloween thru New Year’s). I think they also said that it only takes eating 500 extra calories a day to gain those 5 – 10 pounds.

The second part of this was a boot camp. Even though it was a short boot camp – just 30 minutes – I was very excited about completing my first boot camp. I didn’t really know what to expect. When I think of a boot camp, I think of someone yelling at me to go faster, jump higher, and me feeling like I want to quit because it’s so hard. It was hard but that’s where the similarities end. Maybe other boot camps are that way, but this one wasn’t because my trainer Jeremy led the boot camp and he’s not like that. Just as a side note, I did feel some pressure to do my best because Jeremy was leading the boot camp and I know that he knows what I’m capable and not capable of doing.

I left the gym that day with a renewed anticipation of things to come. Since then, I’ve done a lot of thinking and planning about things that I want to do to reach my weight-loss goals and remembering what those goals are.

Progress

It was hard making myself go into the gym on Monday for training. I know that my session would begin with getting weighed and measured again. Even though I knew that the weight wasn’t going to be what I wanted it to be, I knew that there would be a loss with the measurements – and there was a 4½ inch loss! I’m especially happy because most of that came from the problem area’s I’d been working so hard on the last few weeks. Thanks Jeremy for pushing me to do more! It's been great because I've been wanting to go the the gym and workout rather than having to make myself go. Now I'm motivated to work harder and do even more so that the next time I get to weigh in and do measurements, it will be even better!

Sitting on my desk at work is a treasure – it’s a framed picture of a Heather flower in bloom. But it’s really more than just a picture because of what it means. This personalized gift came from a good friend to serve as a reminder of what my name means and of what I’m capable of doing. It was so exciting to get measured this week and see that all the hard work is paying off!