Spoiler alert- I WON!!!!
Yes, I realize this means I had plenty of weight to shed in the first place, but I knew that, which is why I was excited back in February when my dad approached us- his whole family- about participating in a weight loss challenge. Jason and I come from very different body perception backgrounds, and we've tried carefully to keep the best and avoid the worst of both. But it has become obvious to me over the last two or so years that my body, metabolism, diet, and activity, have all changed, and perhaps not for the best. So it was a great chance to reflect on poor habits and replace them with good ones.
And I won! From February 4th to April 1st, I followed the following rules (set by myself, not by the challenger), and I intend to keep following most of them indefinitely.
1. Track all calorie intake. Good or bad, just be honest and become more aware of exactly how much I was eating. I never thought I would be the type to measure out my popcorn, but it was fascinating to learn just how much one serving is.
2. Weigh myself every day. I was back and forth about this one. I've never been one to weigh myself really at all, but I was curious to see progress and patterns, so I committed to weigh myself every day during the challenge and also to stop weighing myself every day once it was over. I didn't love seeing the daily fluctuations, but over the course of every two weeks (when we reported our loss) I did love seeing the consistent downward trend.
3. Exercise for at least 30 minutes every day. I upped this to 60 minutes- 30 minutes on the treadmill and a 30 minute cardio or weights session about 5 days into the challenge. I have not missed a day since I started and it feels great.
4. Three meals and two snacks a day. That's it. No mindlessly popping anything into my mouth.
5. Plan out and enjoy a Treat of the Week. One treat a week, which meant anything made mostly of chocolate, sugar, and butter was only enjoyed once a week. I already knew that freshly baked cookies are my absolute weakness, so I took those off the list altogether. I'm not lying when I say I could eat a dozen cookies in one afternoon before. As of this post, it's been about 65 day since I've made cookies. And I love cookies! This used to be a several times a week hobby for me and it's been really nice knowing that I can live without my favorite treat.
6. Drink lots more water! It took my body about two weeks to adjust, but I am now in a much better habit of constantly drinking water.
7. Along with that, lots more fruits and vegetables! Fruits and vegetables at every meal. It's a little difficult to want to eat a cold salad when it's 20 degrees outside, but give me a bowl of hot veggie soup any day!
8. No going crazy with a juice cleanse or a grapefruit diet or cutting out all breads or sugars. The key for me was SUSTAINABILITY. If I didn't think I could keep it up past the end of the Fat Chair Challenge (FCC for short), then I wasn't willing to do it. I didn't want to set myself up for failure, or re-gain weight the minute the challenge was over.
Jason, who admirably came in second place, followed basically the same rules as me, although I do think he was a bit stricter about bread and a little less strict about a treat of the week.
Now for some thoughts I formed during the last two months.
1. Food = social opportunities. If it's your birthday (which mine was smack in the middle of the challenge) people want to give you chocolate and take you out to eat. If you want to show someone you love them, you bake them a plate a brownies. If you want to thank someone for watching your kids, you give them a gift that has treats in it and a gift card to Panera. If it's a holiday, you will see a ridiculous increase of candy in your home, whether you brought it in there or not. All things that happened to me during the challenge.
In fact, I was so aware and frustrated by the barrage of treats that were kind of but not really tempting me that I started making a list of all the treats that I didn't bring into the house or accept during the challenge.
Yes, I realize this means I had plenty of weight to shed in the first place, but I knew that, which is why I was excited back in February when my dad approached us- his whole family- about participating in a weight loss challenge. Jason and I come from very different body perception backgrounds, and we've tried carefully to keep the best and avoid the worst of both. But it has become obvious to me over the last two or so years that my body, metabolism, diet, and activity, have all changed, and perhaps not for the best. So it was a great chance to reflect on poor habits and replace them with good ones.
And I won! From February 4th to April 1st, I followed the following rules (set by myself, not by the challenger), and I intend to keep following most of them indefinitely.
3. Exercise for at least 30 minutes every day. I upped this to 60 minutes- 30 minutes on the treadmill and a 30 minute cardio or weights session about 5 days into the challenge. I have not missed a day since I started and it feels great.
4. Three meals and two snacks a day. That's it. No mindlessly popping anything into my mouth.
5. Plan out and enjoy a Treat of the Week. One treat a week, which meant anything made mostly of chocolate, sugar, and butter was only enjoyed once a week. I already knew that freshly baked cookies are my absolute weakness, so I took those off the list altogether. I'm not lying when I say I could eat a dozen cookies in one afternoon before. As of this post, it's been about 65 day since I've made cookies. And I love cookies! This used to be a several times a week hobby for me and it's been really nice knowing that I can live without my favorite treat.
6. Drink lots more water! It took my body about two weeks to adjust, but I am now in a much better habit of constantly drinking water.
8. No going crazy with a juice cleanse or a grapefruit diet or cutting out all breads or sugars. The key for me was SUSTAINABILITY. If I didn't think I could keep it up past the end of the Fat Chair Challenge (FCC for short), then I wasn't willing to do it. I didn't want to set myself up for failure, or re-gain weight the minute the challenge was over.
Jason, who admirably came in second place, followed basically the same rules as me, although I do think he was a bit stricter about bread and a little less strict about a treat of the week.
Now for some thoughts I formed during the last two months.
1. Food = social opportunities. If it's your birthday (which mine was smack in the middle of the challenge) people want to give you chocolate and take you out to eat. If you want to show someone you love them, you bake them a plate a brownies. If you want to thank someone for watching your kids, you give them a gift that has treats in it and a gift card to Panera. If it's a holiday, you will see a ridiculous increase of candy in your home, whether you brought it in there or not. All things that happened to me during the challenge.
In fact, I was so aware and frustrated by the barrage of treats that were kind of but not really tempting me that I started making a list of all the treats that I didn't bring into the house or accept during the challenge.
-Plate of pink cookies with white chocolate chips
-9x13 chocolate cake (leftover from a wedding)
-Valentines Day Hershey kisses
-Birthday party goody bag filled with Reeses peanut butter cups
-Moon pies and Goo Goo clusters (from the thank you gift from our neighbors)
-Valentines Day package with M&Ms and Gummies
-Activity day sugar cookies from Leah (she was SO crestfallen when I told her I wouldn't be eating the cookie she decorated for me)
-Giant Hershey bar (from a friend at church
-Birthday Milky Way bar (from a friend at church)
-Girl Scout cookies
-Food group monthly meeting (the theme was chocolate)
-Church choir treats, a weekly occurance that included cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls and cheesecake
- A friend's birthday cake (again, not trying to be rude, but it wasn't the treat of the week!)
-A delicious looking spread of treats at a going away party
-Treats from a meeting with youth in our home
I stopped making this list about halfway through the challenge, but I learned quickly that there is very little reason for me to bring treats into the house. We are bombarded with them anyway! We didn't ask the kids to participate in the challenge with us, and they didn't seem to suffer one bit without my weekly contributions to their sweet teeth.
And the kids were our biggest cheerleaders! Every week they asked, "did you win this round??" I want so much for our kids to have a healthy perception of food and calories and exercise and the incredible gift and miracle that our bodies are, and our example is our best teacher. We've been very careful about the words that we use. Nothing is "off-limits" (except cookies, for me, for now), nothing is bad, but everything can be enjoyed in moderation.
2. If you're not trying to lose weight/be healthy/exercise, you don't want to listen to someone that is ramble on and on about it. I've been on both sides of this coin now. No one wants to hear about your weight loss journey because it might just remind you that you're not on one. And it might just remind you that you probably should be, or have been, or need to be again. So I had to carefully assess whether people really wanted to talk about it before I launched into my 8 weight loss goal parameters and my feelings about each one. Weight loss/getting healthy/exercise can be a real conversation killer, and it certainly isn't the only aspect of my life worth talking about.
3. Avoiding addiction is a HUGE reason that Mormons avoid drinking alcohol, coffee, tea, smoking or doing drugs. There are blessings that come from being in complete control of your body, your appetites and your cravings. When I started the challenge, I could NOT remember the last time I had gone a day without having a treat of some kind. That sounds like as much of an addiction to me as any, and I literally was counting down the minutes of the first day to see if I could actually go without a treat. And I did it! It felt like a huge accomplishment, as was the second day, and the third day, and every day after that. I don't want to be addicted to anything, and it has felt so good to be that much more in charge of my body and what I put in my mouth.
4. Early to bed and early to rise is a beautiful thing. I used to go to bed consistently at 10:40 every night, only to have Jason wake me up at 7:00 as he was leaving in the morning. Since the challenge, I've been going to bed around 9:30 and I wake up almost every day at 5:45. I start exercising at 6 and I'm usually done before I start helping the kids get ready at 7. Our whole family is happier because we aren't groggy and grouchy in the morning, and that has felt HUGE.
5. I feel so much better when I'm not constantly digesting butter, sugar, chocolate and ridiculous amounts of cheese. Enough said there. Moderation in all things, except vegetables.
6. Find my why. I wanted to make sure that I had a clear reason for making any effort at all. I have never tried to lose weight before. It just happened naturally in a cycle as I got pregnant, had babies, nursed, and then started all over again. And over the last 11 years, I've been all over the scale and completely fine with it. Just scroll back through the years of the blog to see the incredible shape shifting that my body has done.
But the baby years are behind me. Perhaps the years of mindless snacking and half-hearted attempts at exercise are too. So when my coat started to get hard to zip and my knees started to hurt when I climbed the stairs and I started to feel generally swollen, I needed to make a change. And I really loved (almost all) of this challenge to get me going in the right direction.
I don't have an official before an after photo, but from this day in January-
to this day in March-
I've started to feel like myself again. And that is the best feeling in the world!
So here's my winner's speech. Thanks to my dad, Grandpa Mark, who set us on the right path to make some good change, to Jason, for encouraging me to keep focused on the days that I wanted to quit and make some cookies, and for my sweet babies who affected the body I have today and who make everything better. Even when they watch me working out and say, "You're not doing what they're doing. You don't look as strong as them." Their baby truths and enthusiastic cheers when I was announced as the winner have kept me trying my hardest!
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