The 40 Club

I am starting a new thing on my blog all about the 40s because things have begun to change. Turns out it wasn't just hype. How unfortunate. So here's my first installment for all you young ones to look forward to and learn from. This is reality people and it ain't pretty.

This is me at 8pm...no make-up and ready for bed...TOTALLY EXHAUSTED. This is me pretty much every night. Sad. I feel a like a 90 year old woman. Something has to change. So here's what I am doing...

3 weeks ago a big group of my friends started an 90 Day Fitness Challenge. It is the same program that I did several years ago back here 

Here's a quick 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.

We started a private group on Facebook and each Sunday we post our weight, measurements, and points earned. (Oh yes, you read that right. We post our weight and all our measurements.) It was super scary at first but then it was rather freeing. Actually really freeing. Seriously. Who cares what you weigh? It's just a number. It doesn't define me.

That's the one perk I've found about turning 40...I don't care much about a lot of things, especially what people think about me. I really enjoy that part of being 40. You want to know what I weigh? I am currently at 146.8. See! I don't care at all. I LOVE IT.

Anyway...back to our contest. Everyone kicked in $10 and the winner gets the cash. It is a great way to start cultivating some good, healthy habits and get back on track fitness wise. Reilly is doing too but mainly just to establish some good habits and to try to kick MY butt.

My extended family decided to do this challenge as well. So we have a super secret McClellan Family Fitness Challenge FB page. For this contest everyone kicked in $25. Woohoo. My family threw out the spiritual (surprise) and added in a few other things. Either way it has been fun doing it as a family. Me, Ty, Reilly, Stacey, Kelley, Jordin and Ramon are all doing it. Ramon is kicking our butts!!

The last time I did the 90 Day Fitness Challenge I lost 10 lbs and 10 1/2 inches. We will see what happens this time. My metabolism seems to be shot...NOT A PERK of being 40. Also, I clearly wasn't drinking much water, too many carbonated caffinated beverages, and I have discovered I am not a real fruit fan. Turns out I am super picky. I can eat a million veggies but fruit...meh.

So that's our new thing around here. HEALTHY LIVING. Wish us luck.

Tip #1: What you don't maintain...deteriorates. Sad but true.

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!!***