Getting to Know Kimi

I never really struggled with weight until I went to college. In high school, I was pretty active. I played sports my freshman year, then cheered my sophomore-senior years. When I moved out of my house, I thought it was so fun to buy Pop-tarts for breakfast and fast food for dinner. Needless to say, the weight came on quickly. I hired a personal trainer two years later and lost the weight before my wedding. I gained weight really quickly after getting married. I have always used the excuse that my husband has an amazing metabolism, which he does, but I am the one in control of the food I put in my mouth! I "know" how to lose weight, and have had pockets of success throughout my almost five years of marriage; however I never got back to my wedding weight. I gained weight before getting pregnant, and gained a lot more during the pregnancy.

I had my darling baby boy at the end of August, and committed that there was no way I was going to stay at my post-pregnancy weight. I have done pretty well during the past 6 months with diet and exercise. I have almost lost all the pregnancy weight, but I still have another 45 pounds to go until reach my ultimate goal weight.

During this weight loss competition, I hope to lose 25 pounds. I am a very competitive person, so I am very excited about this challenge. I hope it gives me an extra boost to continue my weight loss journey!

I plan on losing weight by eating around 1400 net calories per day, and exercising 4 days per week. I have had success so far by using the My Fitness Pal app on my iPhone, so I plan on continuing to count calories. I have found it is the best way for me to be aware of what I am eating. I especially like that you can see a total of fat, sugars, carbs, protein, sodium, etc. that you eat per day. I will allow myself one "cheat" day per week. I am a soda addict, and plan on limiting myself to one can per week.

Emily C.

Well this is my third challenge! I did the first one after my Linnea was born and made it to my ultimate goal, but of course three years and another kid later I've fallen of the band wagon. This new challenge is going to be different, I'm not in it to win it I guess you'd say I'm in it to change my family's lifestyle and eating habits. We were in the process of doing that before I even decided to join again. I am a recovering pop addict, literally I watch people drink pop and just want it so bad, so I've given that up as well as working on diet changes in our family. I'm not going to calorie count, I have decided to focus on natural foods and plant based foods for both weight loss and to help my family be as healthy as possible!!! I've done this way of eating before and never felt healthier so I plan to stick to it again. I'm really excited about this round already I've been finding and creating kid friendly natural recipes that ultimately are vegan, but still taste like comfort food. I also desperately need to get an exercise routine, so I plan on trying to implement exercise at least four nights a week. I wish us all luck and hope we all reach our goals despite who wins.

Katie B's story....

Okay so usually it takes me at least 3 x's to get something right so bring this challenge on again! :) My weight loss story doesn't really have a "beginning" my bad habits just finally caught up to me! I never really worried about my weight in High School- I knew I would never be a size 4 but I was always comfy as a 6-8. In college I gained quite a bit, I had some room mates that had awesome habits and went to the gym often, I went a couple times but I never had learned "how to work out" and so I would last about 10 mins and then just goof off!

I never really learned self control! Then I got married and the lbs just packed on after that! E and I both got really heavy! And BAM add a baby in the middle of that nonsense and I wasn't looking too great! I weighed more then a truck, or so it felt like, and about 9 months after baby I just couldn't handle it anymore! I hated all the pictures of myself! That was what finally hit me- seeing a picture of myself at a family party.. Who was the girl? I seriously wasn't THAT big... Was I? I still have that picture and look at it every once in awhile to help keep me motivated.

I truly believe it is what is on the INSIDE that counts- BUT I was so depressed, unhappy, lazy, and just mad at life! All of which do not mix well with my original make-up of myself. So Eric and I decided it was time to do something! WE started this contest and had great success! I lost a lot but over the holidays and... AGAIN.... Getting back into lazy habits, I would LOVE to lose 25-30lbs!

My Game Plan: Calorie count 1400-1500 per day. I signed up for my first ever 1/2 Marathon in May so I will be training for that, and I also got a gym membership and go there 3xWk! I use MyFitness Pal (FIND ME!) that helps me track my diet and I also plan to keep HEALTHY foods in the house at all times- if I don't have crap and treats I can't eat them! But I need to have yummy healthy snack foods so I am preparing my shopping lists now and will get those ready to go for this weekend! I let myself have a "cheat day" Sat/Sun but I won't go overboard on the weekends anymore!

So excited for this! Sounds like we have a really fun group of people for this challenge!

Get to know Jodi.......

HATE this picture...but I guess that's the whole point right?.........Motivation to lose weight.
I'm hoping to lose 25 lbs.
I never had a problem with weight until about 3 years ago. I like to blame it on infertility treatments and the many hormone treatments/stress that I have endured, but I have to take some of the responsibility. I have never been very active and I've never worried about eating health...I have a hard time with self control. My plan of attack is to eat a lower calorie diet (1500-1800 per day). I have been going to the gym about 4 times a week doing weights and cardio. Another goal of mine this year is to complete a 10K.

ROUND 3- New Challengers!

Alrighty folks we are about to start ROUND 3 of the Ultimate Weight Loss Challenge! We have some re-challengers and TONS of first timers so this should be a great 4 months with LOTS of success!

New Challengers:
1- Get a BEFORE pic of yourself on this Blog or email Katie with a little blurb about yourself and your weightless journey thus far. Also include your Game Plan for winning this thing!
2- Get a Game Plan for yourself!
3- Let those around you know what you are doing- the more people involved/supporting you the more success you will have!
4- Set a certain time each week for you to check the blog/email to keep involved any motivated! We all have bad weeks- the worse thing you can do is quit on yourself! We also are all VERY busy and your weightless can take a backseat to everything else (which is why we are all doing this now!) so if you have a set time to focus on finding healthy recipes, or planning a workout schedule etc BEOFRE you begin the more those lbs are just to going to fall off!
5- GET EXCITED!!!!

Reminder: March 3 is our first weigh in- you need to use the SAME SCALE each time you weigh in! March 10th will be our first reporting stats. All weigh in's need to be reported blog/email/text no later then 11 AM each Saturday Morning. If you will be out of town or something comes up just let Katie know beforehand. Thanks!!!