Back to Basics Challenge Finale! Are you a member of the 300 Club?

I'm not a member of the 300 Club, not yet, anyway.  Our challenge ended this past Sunday, it turned out so much better than I thought it would! Here are some fun facts from our Challenge:

Number of people committed to the challenge: 28

Number of people who paid $25: 24

Number of people who finished all 8 weeks: 18

Amount of money they all get back: $33.33

Average amount of points the first week: 128

Average amount of points the final week: 247 (Thanks to the 300 Club Challenge, there were 4 who are official members and a couple more who came really close- including myself).

Most overall points: 1791 (average of 223.8 points per week- seriously impressive).
(Not to mention the people who lost 10-12 pounds in just 8 weeks!!!)

I showed you my first week's chart: 108 points.  Here is my chart

Week 8: 289 points.  You know what's crazy?  It wasn't as hard as you might think after increasing my points a little at a time.  The whole point of this Challenge was to teach people (including re-teaching myself) how to improve healthy habits.

A comfortable spot for me is getting around 150 points.  I work out often, but don't always choose healthy food options.  I'm a sucker for sweets, especially good baked desserts or ice cream.  I usually make room for those in my day.  Which is totally fine- working out regularly and enjoying an daily treat is fine, if you're trying to MAINTAIN your weight.  If you're trying to lose an extra few pounds (such as 7 lingering pounds of post-pregnancy belly and saddlebags) then you need to push yourself past that point of comfort.

A big change for me was to keep a food log, make a meal plan and follow it.  I knew that those things were important going into this challenge, which is why I made them all worth 5 points each, but I thought that I could still get by with my comfortable maintenance habits and eventually the weight would fall back to my oh-so-natural 147 pound pre-pregnancy (including pre-kid) body. But it didn't.

In order to shoot for the 300 club, I had to average 45 points a day.  In order to do that, I had to make a meal plan and stick to it almost every day.  I don't have time to plan meals, so instead I made a list of acceptable foods.  Here's an example:

Fruits and Vegetables accepted anytime

Breakfast:
Eggs
Cereal
Oatmeal

Snacks x2 (morning and afternoon):
Protein bar
Smoothie
Edamame
Popcorn
String Cheese
Beef Jerky

Lunch:
Sandwich
Salad
1/2 quesadilla
Leftovers

Dinner:
Protein
(If I know I'm going out or I do have a meal planned then I will decide what I will order at the restaurant or what else to eat with the meal I have planned)

Treat: 200 calories

The key to this plan is understanding that I only choose one option and I only eat when I'm hungry and I stop before I get too full.  Some people may need a much more detailed plan than this.  I, however, have been doing this a long time, and I am roughly familiar with calories in common foods.  If I'm not sure, I look at the label, or use a Calorie Counter.

The other key is that I have is to eat what sounds good, which is why I have a lot of options.  I don't limit myself to the same foods all the time or else that gets boring and I won't stick to it.  I eat fruits and veggies first since I'm trying to get as many of those as possible.  However, eating fruits and veggies all the time makes me crave salty snacks, which is why I have a long list of options to choose from.  I decided it's much easier to make a list of foods I CAN eat, than a list of forbidden foods I don't allow myself to eat.  (It's also not a healthy practice to fall into- just ask Intuitive Eating Ladies).

I'm not perfect at this and I don't pretend to be.  I know that if I wanted to lose the weight faster, I could, but my habits wouldn't last  That's why this Challenge was perfect for me.  It gradually got me back to healthier habits and then by pushing myself at the end, I feel ready to keep pushing myself for a few more weeks.  My current goal is to achieve 300 Club status and try to keep it until my half marathon on the 21st, (almost 3 more weeks).

I love the feeling that I've had this past week.  I feel thinner (even though the scale says otherwise, which is why I hate weighing myself), but I feel mentally stronger than before.  I feel empowered by pushing myself out of that comfort zone and being successful.  It is an empowering thing to say no to a treat.  Or go all week of Halloween without eating a single piece of candy.  Seriously people, it can be done.

Not only do I feel physically better, but my house is cleaner, I feel more energized and motivated to get things done.  I'd like to say that I'm more patient with my kids, but I'm not sure if that's really true.

I know that I'm not going to keep track of my points forever, but I'm excited to keep pushing myself for a few more weeks.  I'll also be glad when it's over.  Then comes Thanksgiving and the holiday season.  Dun Dun Dun.

I mentioned to my peeps in the Challenge about a new Challenge I'm hosting over the holidays: Maintain, Don't Gain. It's not crazy and totally doable.  All you need to do is maintain your weight during the holidays.  As long as you don't gain weight between Thanksgiving and New Year's you'll get your money back, plus the money of anyone who doesn't get theirs back.  I'll keep you updated with more details to come.

Something that I've learned a lot through my adult years is the power of goal- setting.  If you want to really achieve something, you need to set a goal, but that's not the end.  Once you set a goal, you need to make a plan to achieve it, and stick to that plan until you do.  There are a lot of bumps and diversions that come while trying to reach a worthy goal, so you need to be prepared for them and mentally strong enough to keep going when you are not successful.  Most worthy goals are not that easy and therefore you will experience some level of failure.  You need to be strong enough to get back up and keep going.  Those are the kinds of people that succeed.