Welcome to the Second TDC Fitness Challenge!
The purpose of this challenge is to increase our physical fitness - while avoiding injury - over the course of eight weeks. This is a special thread dedicated to support members of the Triple Digits Club, women and men who are (or were) looking to lose 100+ lbs.

Our challenge officially starts September 26th and ends November 21st, 2003.

Let’s Get Started with Week One …
Make a contract with yourself ~ commit to making fitness a priority in your life for the next two months. Also consider promising that you’ll check-in with this thread on a regular basis.

Goals
Make goals for what you will accomplish this week. Be realistic, make them attainable. Challenge yourself, but don’t set yourself up for failure by promising more than you know you can do.

~ Give some thought to how you’ll prevent injury during your workout.

~ Some of us will focus on increasing our activity each week, without a final fitness level in mind. However, if you have a set goal you want to reach by the end of this challenge, feel free to post it now, too.

~ If you like, you can include your start date weight and/or measurements.

The Alien Abduction Clause
Many of us have broken promises we’ve made to ourselves. Often we expect too much too soon, however at times life throws a curve ball. Be flexible when things happen outside of your control.

Should you find yourself beamed aboard a flying saucer, don’t stress that you didn’t get your workout in. Natural disasters, illness, injury, severe trauma, etc., fall into the same category. Just get back to your activity as soon as things calm down.

Extra Credit
This segment is purely optional, as is participation in the Challenge itself, of course! Extra Credit will focus on strengthening and deepening exercise motivation. At some point down the road, keeping dedicated to fitness might not be easy. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) state that dropout rates for those who do begin an exercise program reach 50% or more by the end of the first six months. I didn’t include that statistic here to discourage us. If we can educate ourselves about the personal, program and environmental issues that effect our decision to exercise, we’ll be prepared to face any obstacle that crosses our path.

I’ll be using excerpts from The Motivation to Move, an article by Pierson & Cloe (ACE certified Personal Trainers). Each week I‘ll include a question or two to consider. Feel free to participate by mulling over the question to yourself, or sharing with the group. This weeks question:

What is your past experience with exercise?

TDC Fitness Challenge Official Graphics
We’re lucky to have graphics provided by a very talented Marebear! Mary created three different logos you may want to add to your signature line … Choose your favorite!




Basic instructions for adding a graphic
1) Copy the address
Go to the picture you like; underneath you’ll see the web address; highlight it. While your pointer is still on the text, right click the mouse and choose ‘copy’.

2) Click ‘Profile’ near the top of this page

3) Click ‘Signature’

4) Insert the web address of your favorite image
Go to the main posting area and click to bring your curser into the main posting area; right click the mouse and choose ‘paste’.

5) Highlight text and click on the Image Formatting button
The Image Formatting button is yellow and looks like a mountain and sun.

6) You should now see something like this:

[IMG]the web address you chose[/IMG]

---> Make sure there are no blank spaces

7) Click ‘Preview Signature’ to see if it looks right to you.

8) Click ‘Save Signature’ if you’re happy with the results.


That should be it! If you have any problems, please don’t hesitate to PM me or leave a message here. I’ll do my best, but I’m rather new at this myself!

I, Liz, make this contract with myself and my fellow TDC fitness challengers:

I will take advantage of my YMCA membership and get to the Y a minimum of two days a week. While at the Y, I will do one-half hour (two miles) on the treadmill at an incline that keeps my heart in my target range. I will also swim one-half mile. In addition to going to the Y two days a week, I will walk at least three additional days each week for a minimum of 50 minutes each time.

Thank you Marebear for the graphics. They are beautiful! And thank you Monika for coordinating this challenge.

Hi guys,

Am I allowed to join? I feel 'spiritually' close to the TDC members, because if you look at my profile you'll see that while I now have less than 100 pounds to lose, if I ever get to goal, that is how much I will have lost - 100 pounds. And that's only my first goal - once I get there I have a suspicion I'll want to lose another 10. And you guys inspire me the most, too.

This is also great timing from me - I just got back from holiday and put on a few pounds while I was gone, and I'm planning another trip on November 23rd, so the dates are perfect for me to try and get fitter...

So, if allowed... I commit to (trying to be realistic here)

- 3 hours on the treadmill per week
- On those days I don't use the treadmill, at least half an hour walking outside
- Lifting arm weights 10 minutes a day, 5 days a week

If I find this is going well, I may up it a bit...

Deborah

Hi! Thanks for this thread and the awesome graphics! wow I might need to talk to talented Marebear! lol

I am starting out this fitness challenge with the flu! Today will be day 3 that I have been physically unable to exercise due to illness....dang aliens! lol


I commit to myself and the other challengers (once I am better)

Do 50 minutes of step aerobics at least 5 days a week.

Do Ab workout 6 days a week.

do an hour of cleaning per day (is exercise! 3 flights of stairs here!)



My past excperience with exercise... well I was in the marching band in both High school and 2 years in college. I am 28 so it wasnt ages ago or anything...lol 4.5 years ago I found myself in the worst health of all times and at my highest weight ever, at the time 272. I joined a nearby newly opened gym for women. I was in such bad shape at first the all I could do was walk on a treadmil at 2.0 for 10-15 minutes each day. within 5 months I had lost 51 pounds and was running a 10 minute mile! lol I also lifted weights 3 times a week, did circuit training 3 times a week, aerobics 5 times a week and kick boxing 2 days a week. I'd never felt so good or so healthy ever. However I started to feel run down and no matter how hard I tried I wasnt able to work out anymore. I went to a Dr because I was terrified and Low and behold... I was pregnant! I was sick for all the 9 (10) months and gained 60 pounds. I lost 40 with the birth of my child. I had excess water in there. Being a parent was stessful and needless to say I never recovered and never took care of myself again until recently. SO I started Atkins end of August and 1 week later started a step aerobic video at home by weeks end I was able to get through the whole thing. Now I am sick but hoping to get over this soooon! and YES this is the short version... I am talky!


I would eventually like to add to this or change it up a bit but for now here it is.

Hi all, glad I'm allowed to join... I have to confess that I've just broken diet bigtime - it's the Jewish New Year tomorrow night so at work we just had a little drink - my boss brought in wine, and there's only seven of us, so I really couldn't not have any, and it was sweet wine, and then I felt so tipsy I had to go eat something... anyway. I knew that with the festival looming it would be next to impossible to stay on the diet - come monday it'll be all systems go again. ANYWAY, now on to topic...

I have a question for anyone who can help. I actually far prefer to do aerobics than treadmill, and I have an aerobics programme I used to do regularly which I like. My problem is that no matter how much I stretch afterwards, the day after I do the work out the muscles in my calves have totally seized up and I'm practically crippled for the next five days. I think this is connected to the fact that all my shoes have at least 2 inch heels and so my muscles have got used to being a certain way and then when I do lots of exercise wearing trainers - ie without heels - my muscles aren't used to it and seize up even more than 'normal' people's do. So my question is, how do I avoid this? Obviously I can't add aerobics workouts into my schedule if I can't walk the next day. I'd like to be able to do a proper workout at least 4 times a week - so how do I get my muscles to cooperate??

Thanks

Deborah

Hello everyone - i'm so excited to start this!!


Goals for week one
A friend of mine GAVE me her old treadmill. She knows a trainer who told her to walk on it for 10 minutes a day until you can do so comfortably at 3 mph. So i have done that every day this week so far, starting September 22, 2003. i can keep to about 2.6 mph for MOST of the 10 minutes so hopefully that will change here soon.

i have a plethora of exercise tapes. i would like to go through them and, for now, do 2 a week, in addition to the treadmill. i tried a Pilates tape last night but i don't really like the instructor. She seems to make things more complicated than necessary.

What is your past experience with exercise?
i have never been the most athletic person. And i don't have an ounce of competitiveness in me with regards to sports. The exercise routine i have been able to stick with most is Jazzercise. i actually really LOVE Jazz. But a couple years ago, my heel spur started acting up. It's also just a tad expensive right now. Plus they have moved the center with my favorite instructors to another part of town so the time investment would be 30 minutes to get there, 1 hour class, 30 minutes back and another 30 minutes to take care of dressing before and showering after. 2 1/2 hours a night is too much. The thing about Jazzercise is that i LOVE to dance. Guess i need to find a man who likes to dance and "make" him take me dancing.

Let's SHAKE our combined booty!

(Thanks Marebear for the cool graphics!!)

Hey all!

Here's my pledge...

I, Nikki, make this contract with myself and my fellow TDC fitness challengers:

*Workout 3x/week at Curves
*Do Body Flex as a supplement 1-3x/week
*Walk daily
*I also bowl in a weekly league, does that count as exercise??

I'm just getting back into exercising after a nasty back injury (non-workout related), so I'm starting off slowly. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things and make good progress with this challenge.

As for my past experiences w/exercise...
We go waaaay back. I became "lazy" once I graduated from high school and started working more. Then I entered college and tried exercising more, but my schedule didn't allow it. High school was my savior fitness-wise. I was active in sports my first two years (softball, bowling, volleyball) and then my last two years were filled with performing in show choirs (mixed and all-female)-- the showchoirs were basically singing and dancing for a straight 15-20 min. Nevermind the fact that I had after-school practice 3x/week for 2 hrs. on top of the 2 hrs./day that we practiced during school. I walked everywhere also since I wasn't allowed to have a car until I was 18.

Looking back, I think I was a lot harder on myself that I needed to be in regards to my self-image. I constantly weighed between 160-180 (depending on season) and was in shape (loads of tone and definition), but I always felt like I was HUGE. Now I'd give basically anything to be that size again-- that's where this challenge comes in. I've been working out at Curves since April of last year and I started Body Flex this past May (or so). Aside from medical absences/restraints, I've been pretty faithful to my regimen. I'm just now getting back to it all and need all the support that I can get to keep my working towards my goal. I went through a funk of sorts while being restricted from exercise, but I whole-heartedly feel that it's all behind me.

Together we'll make this challenge a success!

Nikki

PS- Sorry for the ramblings...

Hi Challengers

This week I am finishing week 7 and starting week 8 on my BLF challenge (my weeks go from Sunday-Sunday). Here are my goals for the week:
Friday - Upper Body Workout (UBWO)
Sat - cardio - 20 minutes HIIT (4 high intensity intervals)
Sun - day off
Mon - Lower Body Workout (LBWO)
Tues - cardio - 20 min HIIT
Wed - UBWO
Thurs - cardio - 20 min HIIT

Daily - 100 oz water, visualizations

I'm glad you like the little graphics I love seeing everyone here!!

What is your past experience with exercise?
I have almost always exercised in my adult life, except for a few years when and after I did chemo - I was too tired. I LOVE lifting weights, and I love what they do for my body. They shape and firm everything up and make me feel better and have more energy. I also enjoy doing exercise videos. I use to have an exercise bike that I loved, and maybe I'll get one again some day. I work out at home early in the morning (5:30) and enjoy how it makes me feel great throughout the day.

Mary

Hi Deborah! I can't answer your question, but it is so cool to see someone from Jerusalem here! Happy new years and I hope you'll find out what causes your problems after you do aerobics!

My goal is to start out walking one time around my work place every work day (about a half of mile), and to increase that each week until I'm up to about half hour a day of walking.

Also I plan to hike each Saturday, starting out at half and hour and then progressing to whatever feels right.

I recently got my National Geographic Topographical maps to go with my Pocket PC and GPS receiver, so I'm all ready to go!! Plus, it's lots of FUN to hike in Arizona and the weather is getting much better (cooler).

Thanks for this fitness challenge. This is pretty neat!

Dean in Arizona

Hope you all don't mind me plagerizing some of your contracts - they are all great!

I, Darla, make this contract with myself and my fellow challengers: I commit to working out at our company fitness facility for a minimum of 30 minutes per visit and at least 3 times per week. Out of the 30 minutes I will use the recumbant bike for at least 10 minutes at my target heart range. I will also commit to drinking at least 1 litre of water during my workout to avoid dehydration.

Ditto the graphics - Beautiful!

Marebear the Artist! Nice job on the graphics.

I have made too many promises to myself in my life and started and failed at too many diets so I am a little shy about making pledges. I have hope this time is different, so here goes...

My pledge for this challenge is to add a trip around the block to my morning walks. I currently walk 1.2 miles and adding a trip around my block will up the distance to 1.35 miles (it's a small block). On my evening walks (if my feet allow me) I will do the same distance as in the morning.

Well I took my first step! I joined Omni Fitness today and actually started! I did 20 minutes on the treadmill! I am psyched now that I did it. I unfortunately have been a true couch potato up until now. I am resolved to change that and actually get to the point when I look forward to working out and feel terrible if I don't. I have been watching Dr. Phil and his weightloss challenge and what he says keeps going through my head.....you can't be overweight if your lifestyle doesn't support it. I think that's going to be my mantra. It really is so true. I am also trying to stop the negative self talk regarding the 'E' word. As I walked on the treadmill today I kept saying to myself "I love the treadmill, the treadmill is my friend." Sounds stupid but you gotta start somewhere!

My Goals
Stop the negative self talk.
Workout at least 5 times/week for a minimum of 20 minutes cardio per day.
Weight train to develop my muscles.