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?