After a busy summer where most of the contestants hit a plateau in their weight loss journey, we at Suwanee Magazine brainstormed on how to help get everyone back on track.
First, we had everyone re-read their original submissions for the competition. Reading over the reasons they had decided to make this commitment in the first place definitely hit home with the contestants.
Secondly, we decided to introduce a point system, encouraging a little friendly competition. Contestants are awarded points for activities that will ultimately help them to achieve their fitness goals. Points can be earned by working out, attending group workouts, running a 5K, blogging, posting workout photos on Facebook, and more. There have been several prizes along the way including free workouts at 9Round and Rainbow Pilates, SkyZone tickets, gift cards and more. We also announced that the Grand Prize winner (the contestant that loses the highest percentage of weight) will receive a romantic getaway at Chateau Elan, a makeover from Salon Greco, a platinum membership to Rainbow Pilates and more. The person with the most
points will also receive a Chateau Elan retreat. Since the introduction of the point system, the contestants have been hitting the gym and workouts hard.
The contestants had some great group workouts that included a 9Round 30 minute workout, which is a combination of nine stations – most of which are boxing and kickboxing. The group also attended a Rainbow Pilates workout.
Contestants had the privilege of meeting and hearing personal accounts from Leah Fernandez and Jim Murphy, two people who have endured their own weight loss challenges and experienced success.
Since February 2011 Fernandez has lost 116 lbs., and in the past year, Murphy has lost more than 150 lbs. Both Fernandez and Murphy shared how they made the decision to get healthy, what they did to lose the weight, and what they do today to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle.
If you see one of the contestants in the gym or around Suwanee, let them know they are doing a great job. Knowing you have people rooting for you is a huge help. Follow their blogs – they are often inspirational and even entertaining. The Get Fit Suwanee final weigh in will take place in mid-December with the winner announced in the January/February issue of Suwanee Magazine.
Michelle has lost 31 lbs!
Michelle McShane has kept up a healthy diet and the scale is showing the results. Like the other contestants, McShane did not work out as much during the summer as she had hoped, but is now back on track regularly participating in group workouts, Big Peach Tuesday night runs and hitting the gym.
Bill has lost 18 lbs!
Bill King has had some setbacks including a back injury, but he is not giving up. He shared in a recent blog, “Weight loss is my fundamental need right now and it is my fundamental problem. Levi (King’s trainer) says, ‘You cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet,’ and he is right.” Now King is doing better and continues to push forward with his workouts and nutrition goals.
Divya has lost 36 lbs!
Divya Desai leads the point competition by a long shot. Between her frequent and multiple workouts each day and number of blogs she posts, it’s hard to keep up! In one of her recent blogs, she shares inspirational quotes and perhaps this quote sums up how far Desai has come in this challenge: “If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” – Bruce Lee. Desai is doing just that. She participated in the Skylar’s Run 5K Aug. 18, and beat her last 5K time in March by more than six minutes.
Erika has lost 15 lbs!
Erika Beckwith has done well with increasing workouts and keeping a positive attitude. Her recent blog explains her challenges and plan. “With almost four months left in the challenge (YIKES), it’s time for me to step things up a bit. For the past three weeks, I have been doing a great job with the active part of losing weight. I have been making a conscious effort to schedule my workouts for at least four to five days a week; sometimes working out at least two times a day. As a result, I feel great, have increased energy and have recently noticed that my clothes are starting to fit a little looser. However, the number on that scale has not moved significantly enough for me to claim total success. So this means it’s time for me to step things up a bit…no let me take that back…I need to significantly kick things into high gear. I already know who the culprit is – my diet is to blame for the slow decrease in weight. To help me identify where I am going wrong, I have decided to enlist the help of the app, Lose It!” Scroll to the bottom to read more about the Lose It! app.
Ginny has lost +2!
Ginny Wurttemberg has had added challenges with Multiple Sclerosis flare ups. Wurttemberg in her blog wrote, “This flare has been worse than others because it affected my feet and legs. For the past two weeks, I have felt like I was walking around on pins and needles that had just come out of the fire. I also had some weakness in my left leg. When I have a flare, I am put on intravenous steroids for three days and receive more steroids than 15 medrol dose packs you get when you have bronchitis or a severe sinus infection. Then after those three days, my entire system crashes because my adrenal gland shuts down since it wasn’t needed while using the steroids. The crash is WORSE than the medication itself. I’m still trying to come back to normal.” But Wurttemberg is a trooper and said the exercise helps her MS, and she has been hitting the gym and running when she can.
Lose It! (recommended by Jim Murphy) allows you to keep track of your daily food intake and exercise. You can customize the app according to your weight loss goals and it will tell you how many calories you should eat on a daily basis according to how many pounds you would like to lose on a weekly basis. It also includes comprehensive reporting features to make tracking your progress easy. Erika has been using Lose It! and has seen results.
“The main thing that I like about it is that you can use Lose It! on both your smart phone and via the internet. That means whether I’m working from home or I’m out with the family, I have no excuse for NOT making healthy eating choices. Nor do I have an excuse for NOT recording what I’m eating.” said Erika.
