Joining a Challenge Group

What is a Challenge Group? I didn't know what a challenge group was till 3 before I started. My sister, Amber finished a challenge in December and started another one in January. She really loved her program, her coach, and officially joined the Forward Fitness Team in February. Amber was busy putting together a challenge group of her own but I wanted to start now. So she handed me to her coach, Brigitte Linford, who was starting another challenge group the following Monday. Signed up and nervously waiting to be in my first challenge group, I had a few things to do to prepare.


Body Measurements....who ever likes doing those! Fortunately Amber was there to make me just do them and post them right away to my TeamBeachbody profile. Measurements done, I now needed to do my Fitness Test! This was actually fun to do. I have yet to do my Resting Heart Rate and Pull - ups though. I keep forgetting to check my pulse when I wake up. As for Pull-ups, I was planning on counting those using the monkey bars at a park, but it has been snowing lately. Oh well, at least I did the rest. You may laugh after reading my results, but hey - just starting out here! It's okay, I'm laughing right there with you.

I explored more of my Team Beachbody site and discovered a Meal Plan you can create. They gave four base outlines and you can take a short test to see which one fits you best and how many calories you should be eating. I landed in the Balanced Slim Down with a daily intake of 1900 calories. Well.... after looking over the planned out days I knew I was not really going to use this. No offense here, but I tend not to have a lot of those random spices and interesting ingredients the meals ask for. Potentially this could be great, but for a girl who is living like a college student, it is unrealistic. At least for now. I've decided to focus on portion control and cutting out high processed foods. Bread is a major staple in my diet, but I will try to limit that intake down and replace with better choices. We will see how that goes! I installed a free phone app that will allow me to scan barcodes on foods - telling me serving sizes and all that interesting stuff. It keeps track of my calories and I can input any workouts so my caloric intake is adjusted. So far it has been fun cataloging what I eat. I have also decided to try out eating smaller meals roughly 3 hours apart instead of eating three large meals in a day.

Alrighty, back to my Challenge Group. There are a few things I need to do for Brigitte now. First: Accountability photo. I am supposed to find a photo to tape on my fridge that will be a motivator for me to keep pushing play! She gave suggestions of people I know who inspires me, or a photo of myself....well, I choose two photos of people who inspire me. Only, they are not technically real people... they are characters from some of my favorite shows and movies. Let me introduce....

http://collider.com

Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

http://www.ign.com

Yes,  I will admit it - I am a major Buffy fan. She rocks the fighting skills and wears leather pants doing it! Can't fight the evil beasties without a toned body.

                                                       Resident Evil - Alice.

Okay, I can't exactly have the strength and stamina as Alice (her body has bonded with the T-Virus...) but with key calves and bullet arms maybe no one will notice I'm not virally mutated. 

Goals! Really important but easy to forget. It is difficult for me to always keep up or follow through with my goals. First off, I rarely write them down - big mistake. I had to fill out a little questioner thing from Brigitte about myself and goals, so I thought I would share that here as well. The more you share your goals with others, the more likely you are to achieve them...at least in my opinion. I feel more accountable to them when others know. And that is a key player in joining this challenge group - Accountability. I have to answer not only to Brigitte but to all the others who have joined this challenge. So, back to goals - here they are. Not too bad for a start.

Choose a goal to reach one week from your start date:  

I want to use my car less. Most things are in walking or biking distance so I really do not need a car to survive everyday. I do have to drive to work, so my goal is to   choose walking over driving if it will take me a reasonable amount of time to reach my destination.

Now break it down into a 30 day goal:  

In 30 days I will have my bike tuned up and ready to hit the streets so I can bike to places that are too far to walk to. 

What’s your 60 day goal:

I am terrible at proportion control - especially when it comes to desserts. For the 60 day goal I would like to have established a regular routine of choosing better foods and proportions. I want to master it, this includes being diligent in shakeology 

What’s your 90 day goal:

Bike to work. There are a couple hills and it will be hot weather by then, but I want to be able to bike to work instead of driving.

What will your 90 day reward be?: 

I have been wanting a road bike for a few years now but could never justify buying one. The goals above help set up a life long pattern of choosing a more active mode of transportation. The workout program will also help my body become more fit and increase my energy, so I would say I could justify buying a road bike by then.