Hi DusterCat, Breecita, Gotaloseit and Hope1,

I was so glad to see your posts! Let's do this thing! I've been doing a little research, here are my ideas:

I think we should set a start date soon ... I was thinking Friday, July 25th. This will give the other folk from the TDC time to see our thread and join us if they desire.

The last few years, I've been working on only making commitments I can keep. I think I'd like to make a contract with myself for 8 weeks of forward progression (September 5th). How does that sound to everyone? We can always go longer next time ... (see how optimistic I am?!)

This should be our 'brainstorming' thread, and when we're ready to go, I'll start another one in the appropriate forum (Countdowns, Challenges and Buddies).

I agree with everyone that a Challenge needs structure. This is what I propose ...

In our first ‘official’ thread posting, we would make a personal goal statement naming what form of exercise we’re choosing. The time or intensity or distance would reflect where we are right now, fitness-wise. For example, "I will walk 10 minutes everyday”. This would be more than the minimum of what I can accomplish and well within what is do-able. Next week it could be “I will walk 13 minutes a day and do 5 minutes of Physical Therapy for my hip on M, W and F".

Realistically … meeting my goals isn’t about ‘perfection’, it’s more about stamina, perseverance and consistency. I want to end up having made great gains in my physical fitness in eight weeks. Now should I be a victim of alien abduction, I’m not going to stress out that I couldn’t go for my walk that day - but the next morning, I’ll be strapping on the sneakers again.

In our last Challenge posting, we could see how far we’ve come by comparing where we began to where we ended up. Maybe we could even consolidate everyone’s fitness gains and post them to the TDC Forum?!

Finally, I want to focus on loving my body right now. Simply being on a diet, a “WOE” is hard on my body image. Instead of appreciating what I have right now and what I'm doing to improve myself, I focus on what I don’t have and how far from okay I am. I believe large people are inundated with so many messages of fat hatred and disgust that it seeps into our psyches. The act of working on changing my body’s size seems to stir up those deep places, and I’ve got to draw out the poison and nourish my spirit if I want to my total health to improve.

I propose we focus on a different area each week: Arms, legs, head, belly, hips, chest, back torso and the full body. Modifying an exercise from Leslea Newman’s book SomeBody To Love, we’ll remind ourselves about what’s right with our body and pamper ourselves, too.

What do you all think? Anything to add or take away or change? I’m open to any and all suggestions!