HEALTHY LIVING CHALLENGE 2020
School will be starting soon, which means we’re nearing the end of summer and I’d like to take this opportunity to say that I hope everyone is doing well during this uncertain, tumultuous time we’re in.
As we do our best to stay healthy and keep our families safe, this seems like a good time to start a new challenge. Usually, we do weight loss challenges, but I thought it would be nice to try something a bit different this time. Because not everyone has excess weight to lose, a “healthy living” challenge seems to fit in since we’re all trying to come up with, or reinforce ways to get/stay healthy.
You might need to lose/gain weight, have a heart problem or diabetes and need to implement a more healthful diet. You may be out of shape and need to start, or improve your exercise regimen or maybe you’re just looking for ways improve your overall health or want to feel more confident and better about yourself. Whatever goal(s) you might have, to improve the way you feel, look or think about yourself counts as a goal for the challenge. You can have more than one goal.
If weight loss is your goal, safe weight loss is 1-2 pounds/week. Since losing weight too quickly can be dangerous and often results in gaining much, if not all, of it back, I don’t recommend that you try to lose much more than that. We advocate healthy weight loss vs fad diets, pills, etc.
There are a lot of healthy diets out there, so if eating in a more healthful manner is your goal, you can explore various eating plans and try to come up with one that suits you best. The same goes for exercise – find what you like to do and will stay with – that’s usually the best plan for you.
The purpose of this challenge is to prompt us all to do better with whatever program(s) we decide to implement, as well as support and motivate each other. We also want to try to help each other find ideas that will help us reach our goals, so if you have issues that you need help with, don’t be afraid to let us know.
So – just post below that you want to join in the challenge and we’ll get started. If you have medical issues that affect your eating, ability to lose weight, etc, I recommend that you talk to your doctor(s) before starting any new program, whether it’s a new diet, exercise, etc to make sure s/he approves of what you’re doing.
On Sunday, I’ll post a thread on which we can all check in and discuss our goals and whether or not we reached them for the week. You can include things you’ve tried, things you want to try, what worked and what didn’t work. Currently, the weekly thread is a “weigh in” thread… I’ll probably call it a check in thread instead since some might not be trying to lose weight. Everyone is welcome to post on this thread, whether or not you choose to join this challenge, as we can all use encouragement or motivation. If weight loss is your goal, you never have to post your actual weight – only the pounds lost/gained.
Are you ready?? Let's get started...