...CHALLENGE...

welcome to monday.
the day after the dreaded "spring forward" time change.
after enjoying a weekend, most of us are forced to head back to work for five (or four-and-a-half) days.
and, on top of it all, you're now being posed with a challenge.

I'll start with the homework part, because i don't want to forget. please visit this site and register. it's a great site with arthritis resources (i suffer from rheumatoid arthritis), but they send you a free pedometer. so i'm sure you have some idea of what one of our future challenges will be about.

now, for this week.
i'll remind all four (haha) of our readers that we have a wide variety of people involved in this blog-- and we're all losing weight for different reasons. heck, some of us are gaining weight, but still concerned with eating healthy and providing proper nutrients for mini-people growing inside.

it was much more difficult than i thought to get this challenge started. i had to think of something that would be not too time consuming, something that everyone from a stay-at-home mom to a pregnant breadwinner could do.

most importantly, i wanted it to be POSITIVE.

it seems about three of us had off weeks last week. whether it was a gain in weight, or forgetting to write your blog until the last minute (um, sorry guys), it wasn't a great week. so, let's start off our week by thinking positive.

CHALLENGE (for your post this week)
tell us about something great from last week (or this week). did you hit a weight goal? did you eat super healthy? or did you just eat one hershey's kiss instead of 14? whatever it was, share it with all of us. the point this week is to focus on the positive instead of the negative. i know we all run short on time, we all pick the drive-through over healthy home cooking, we all skip working out for one (or four) days. this week, don't tell us that. tell us something GREAT.

i'll start:

i had two great things this week. i weighed in at under 200 lbs for the first time in YEARS-- 198, to be exact. now i just hope to keep it there, and keep doing a good job at eating right and working out! i will admit that i don't have a digital scale, but i think it's okay as long as i continue to use the one i have instead of switching between scales. as long as i'm precise, i don't care as much about being accurate.

also, i worked out longer than i ever had on the elliptical and stationary bike. i started thinking i could go 30 minutes on an elliptical. i mean, how difficult can it be to spin your legs in mini stair-step motions? FREAKIN' HARD! i started at about 8 minutes. each machine. this week? yeah, i made it up to 15 minutes for each machine. i felt awesome about it. i have been working out long enough where i can really feel a good work out, instead of getting so winded and sore right away i probably am getting no benefit from it.

so, ladies...
enjoy, and we all look forward to hearing your positive stories!