The Challenge has ended, but the Quest continues…

Well all, we have made it to the end of the 2010 Trim-2-Win Challenge. WE MADE IT!!! Yeah for all who participated and made even just a little movement towards leading a healthier lifestyle - PAT ON THE BACK.

This has been a great 3 months for both Jeremiah and I. We did our official "weigh out" yesterday after a great workout!! 3 months ago I never thought I would put the words great and workout into the same sentence - but I did and I will be for a long, long time to come I hope! I will not spoil his ability to share his final results with you — but I will say he did a GREAT job!! My "loss" was a bit less than I expected it would be when I began this challenge; however, I gained so much knowledge about the right way to "take it off" that I think I will just continue to see good results - lasting results.

In 2008 Jeremiah and I participated in the Trim-2-Win challenge. He changed his eating and exercise habits and I changed just my eating habits. He saw a 55 pound loss — enough to win the Frontiersman employee 1st prize!! I lost about 40 pounds and felt like I was doing great … the catch here is that we both gained it right back and then some… ugghh, how defeating.

When this opportunity came about this year, we were all for it… Jeremiah was asked to do and I was practically begging to be included. Who would have ever thought I would be begging for that gym membership?? Not me, and not many people who know me… But I had come to the realization that I NEEDED to make some major changes and I NEEDED the support of a gym to make me do that.

Now don't get me wrong I have had memberships to workout places before, and I was successful, as long as a friend was right beside me - pushing me. Once the friend stopped or the schedules changed and the times we could workout together stopped - I stopped and I didn't stop myself from sliding backwards towards those bad habits over and over again.

No more, not this time …. I am proud to report that I have officially weighed out with a loss of 16.5 pounds on the scale …. The loss of fat is way bigger, I know … When I was at about 10 pounds down on the scale I was at 26 pounds of fat lost and almsot 16 pounds of muscle gained … so those numbers have got to be larger now than they were then — it will take another body composition test to see the final results … and I will have to schedule that, so I am sure I will get even better loss news soon!!

Last night we celebrated … we ordered Pizza Hut for dinner … Probably not the best choice of meals for people trying to loose and maintaid loses …. but also not the worst! The difference between our order last night and our orders 3 months ago was at least $25.00 and alot less food — 3 months ago an order would have included pizza (larges usually), cheese breadsticks, and chicken wings — our order last night was simply 2 medium pizzas … and there was at least a whole pizza left over … not a bad thing I believe.

We talked about it at length and we've decided we really did not miss the almost daily fast food trips and we did nto spend the last 3 months eating twigs and leaves — we found the happy medium. We realize we can have a cheeseburger, a steak, or a pizza night — it is all about what goes with it and how often you do it.

Well, I sure hope a lot more people weigh out today — when we did ours yesterday we were told that only 4 people had come before us and weighed out — one more did right after us … that is only 7 people the day before you have to have your officialy tally recorded, and 2 of those people are not eligible to win the money prizes (that would be us — darn it…). It will be very interesting to see how the final numbers all calculate out. I hope that many of you have had a successful go at it, as I know Jeremiah and I have and will continue to have if we have anything to say about it.

Best Wishes & Congratulations,

Amber