Two weeks ago, Becky posted on Facebook that she was going to do something for herself that day. In the conversation that played out in the comments, she told us that she was going to start on the Weight Watchers program. My parents and I are currently all following Weight Watchers, so we were excited to hear that we had another family member out there who was going to be going through it with us.
A few days later, when Becky posted that she was doing well with the program and was feeling good, my mom threw out the idea that we should have a family weight loss challenge. I think it's much easier to follow any kind of program when you have other people to lean on for support, so I ran with that idea. I contacted Sarah, who has done other programs with me in the past, and who has been a big support for me in the past, to see if she was interested, and she was "in".
I put the idea out to the family in a mass email, and got a lot of positive feedback. People I did not expect to hear back from were sending me emails, showing excitement for this idea. That got me more excited, and I emailed with several people to get ideas on what kind of challenge we could do.
As it turned out, many people were interested in participating in some way, and about half of those people wanted to do a weight loss challenge, while the other half would prefer to focus more on being healthy than on the number on the scale.
Before we lost momentum, I wanted to make sure we got the challenge started. I sent an email on Sunday to invite everyone to pick a weekly weigh in day, and send me their start weight. To date, I have gotten responses from 14 people with their weigh in information.
To be clear, Gumbels: This challenge will not change the fact that we are destined to have the "Gumbel Hips". Trust me, I wish I could do something about that, but I can't. Also, saying you are participating does not automatically mean you will magically eat better and have the energy to work out. We are all going to have to work together, and work hard, to make this happen.
What will happen: We will be able to encourage each other while we all work toward healthier habits. We've seen in the past that when Gumbels come together, great things happen (think Relay, and our lovely annual rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas). The more of us that choose to participate, the more likely we all are to succeed.
If you are not so concerned about losing weight, please consider joining us anyway. Even if you are not a contender for the "Biggest Loser" prize, you will still benefit from this, I'm sure of it. And we are still working on other ways to incorporate the other healthy habits into a second challenge, so please let me know if you have any ideas. We want to make this into something that works for everyone on some level, so feel free to chime in (Not that any of us are known for holding our tongues)!
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