Introductory Post

Spring is here, and we are excited about taking the next 8 weeks and dedicating them to fitness and weight loss. C'mon, you know you're ready to do this!

If you choose to play, the next 8 weeks will involve some new challenges! Are we competing? Well, yes, but we’re also encouraging, helping, and cheering for each other.

Here’s the program for the BetterUFitnessChallenge.

THE GAME: 
7 Daily Tasks, 4 Weekly Tasks, and the Bonus Points

7 Daily Tasks
Basically, there are 7 things to do every day. You can get one point for doing each thing, which you will record using the honor system and a private online spreadsheet every day. You will not be asked to report your actual weight or measurements -- only the changes.
Keep in mind that the idea is to challenge yourself, so earning all 7 points a day is not necessarily expected. Just do your best!

A maximum of 7 points can be earned each day for doing the following:

1) Electronic Food Journal. This time around we are using MyFitnessPal.com, which is both free and easy to use from your computer and smart phone (if you have one). 

2) Burn more calories than you eat. MyFitnessPal will keep track of both your exercise and your food intake and compare them so you can see if you're eating more calories, or burning more calories.To get the point, you have to burn more than you eat for the day. (we call this a Positive Calorie Burn) (I don't know what the real name for this is.)

3) Drink 8 glasses of water minimum per day.

4) Eat a total of 5 fruits and/or vegetable servings a day.

5) Exercise to burn 300 extra calories per day minimum. One day a week, you will receive the exercise point for taking time to rest and relax, so to get the points every day you'll exercise six days per week and rest one day per week.

6) No snacking after 9pm. If it’s not possible for you to eat dinner before 9 (some of our players have late class/work schedules) then eat dinner when you get home, but no snacking!

7) Weekly WildCard. Just to mix things up a little and keep the game fresh, we’ll set a weekly fitness or weight loss related challenge. For example, one week the challenge might be to spend 5 extra minutes stretching after your workout every day. The next week it might be switching to skim milk for the week, or allowing yourself only one treat per day.
The WildCard Challenge for the upcoming week will be posted in a blog entry each Sunday.

4 Weekly Tasks:

Each Monday, there are 4 points available for reporting in on your progress during the prior week in 4 different categories:
1) Lose or maintain your weight. If you did either, you get one point. Gaining weight for the week = no point.
2) Lose inches (or centimeters). If you shrink enough to see it on a tape measure, you can award yourself a point for that.
3) *90 minutes cardio per week.
4) *60 minutes of muscle building per week.
** These two time requirements are to encourage cross-training, and they can definitely be included in your daily 300 exercise calories. In other words, you don't have to do an EXTRA 90 minutes of cardio and an extra 60 minutes of muscle building each week if you are already doing those activities for your daily exercise.