springdellgirl

New Year New You

In January our Relief Society did the greatest thing. We started a "New Year New You" Program. I can't tell you how amazing this whole 7 week process was. It has made a huge difference in my life. The purpose was to help the women kick off 2010 in a positive way and to help them begin to set and attain goals. It was kind of like our own "Biggest Loser" but weight loss wasn't the only goal of the program.

The women who signed up were divided into teams of about 4 and a team leader and team name were picked. We actually had a good turn out of women who wanted to participate. Each day there were specific goals that needed to be accomplished and tally sheets had to be meticulously kept. You got so many points for doing certain things each day. Once a week you would meet as a team to give your point totals for the week, weight loss, inches lost, provide support to each other and to report on your personal goal.

Here's a break down of the program:

Exercise: 30-45 min. per day = 15 pts. and 45-60 min. per day = 20 pts. (Encouraged to work out every day except Sunday.)


Water: 1 pt. per 8oz. glass (encouraged to drink 8 glasses per day)


7+ hours of sleep per night: 5 pts.

5+ servings of fruits/vegetables per day: 10 points

No eating after 8pm or 2 hours before bed: 5 points



Prayers (morning and night): 2 points per prayer.



Scripture Reading: 5 points



Personal Goal (Each woman was encouraged to set a personal goal to work on): 15 points per week.

Lost Pounds: 10 pts. /1 lb and 5 pts. for a 1/2 lb. If you were wanting to lose weight you were encouraged to follow a weight loss program like Weight Watchers etc. For those who didn't want to lose weight they could journal for their points.

(If you didn't meet as a team and report your points/weight/inches each person would lose 10 points for the week.)

Each teams points for the week and ranking were displayed on a poster every Sunday. It was extremely motivating because you didn't want to let your team down by being the weak link.

Our ward did amazingly well. We had our end celebration a few weeks ago. The winning team received prizes as did the person who lost the most weight and the person who lost the most inches. Sadly my team didn't win but I feel I made some great progress and established some good habits. 7 weeks is a long time and it really had an effect on my daily life.

I somewhat followed Weight Watchers not seriously but just kept points/portions in mind. (I have done Weight Watchers several times in the past to great results.) I made sure I ate lots of fruit and veggies...fairly easy for a flexitarian/vegetarian family...but even I had to add a few more daily portions for myself. I really upped my water intake. I love water and drink it all the time but when I started paying close attention I realized I wasn't drinking even close to the amount I that I should be drinking daily. I also upped my workouts from 4 days a week to 6 days a week. (I started this program in January so I was even working out with my arm in a cast.)

The personal goal I set was to journal more...I decided that could take the form of blogging/facebooking/gratitude journal/regular journal. That was a good goal for me because my blogging had gone way down hill and I had to blow the dust off my gratitude journal (which I have previously kept very regularly for the past 13 + years.)

My results:

Since beginning this program I have lost 10 lbs and 10 1/2 inches. This was nice because I am back to my pre-baby weight and even had to buy a smaller pair of jeans because my pre-baby jeans were too big. I still would like to lose an additional 5-10 lbs and a few more inches plus firm up a lot more. But it has been a great way to start 2010 with good, healthy habits and some weight loss. I am still keeping track of everything and recording my tallies in a journal to help me stay on track.

This program was so much fun and I really appreciate all the hard work and time that went into putting this whole program together by some amazing women in our ward!!

How are you doing on your New Year's Resolutions? I've still got quite a few that could use some work but at least I feel like I have made some good progress so far.

***If any of you read the Mary Jane's Farm Magazine check out the April/May issue. My sister, Stacey, and her Dining Divas group were featured. Exciting!!***