Fat Ticker Friday--Strength in Numbers

Even though the "Hot for the Holidays" challenge ended last week, I'm still keeping up my Fat Ticker Friday posts....mainly, to keep me accountable for my weekly workouts. Nothing kept me going more than knowing that I was going to have to post on my progress for the week.

Quite a bit happened this past week.....

• I lost another pound, making my overall loss 13 pounds since starting in October. Only 2 more to reach my Christmas goal.
• I found a running/workout buddy
• Instead of waiting until Randy gets home at whatever hour, I get up at 4:15AM, nurse the baby, and head out to join my friend for an early morning run at 5AM.
• I managed to wake up on time and workout EVERY morning.
• I started incorporating strength training 2 days/week.
• And lastly, I made a tough decision not to run in the Austin Half Marathon in February (sorry, Sabrina and Christie). Money is a little tight, and the race fee + trip to Austin would have easily equalled a plane ticket, 1 of 5 we'll need to buy this summer for all of the wedding travel. However, I'm going to continue training just as I would be if I were running the race.

In addition to finding a running buddy and changing up my routine a little bit, I joined TWO groups (one online and one IRL) of ladies to help me continue my journey to lose the baby. Christie, our hostess for HFH, at Baby Tea Leaves started up a new challenge, Quest for Greatness; and my MOPS group started a Biggest Loser challenge. I'm super excited about each of these opportunities to gain overall health, shed weight/fat, and do it with other ladies who share similar goals.

The "rules" behind the Quest for Greatness are....

• Rule #1: There are no rules.
• Rule #2: Find an event somewhere around Feb/March
• Rule #3: PAY for it. It's harder to back out once you've put down $$.
• Rule #4: Weigh in, focusing on completing runs and workouts
• Rule #5: Add the event (rule #2) to Christie's calendar, so that it's there for ALL to see.

While I no longer have a mid-February "event", I'm still training for it. Plus, I'm planning to participat in a 10K scheduled for January 10. It should be pretty awesome, and I'm really excited about it...it's the Causeway Run. The cool part about the race is that the run is on the causeway bridge from Port Isabel to South Padre Island. FUN!!!!!

Of course, most everyone is familar with The Biggest Loser, so I don't need to go into all of the specifics. About 15 of my fellow MOPSters have joined in on the fun and challenge to change their bodies. We all put $5 into the "pot" and signed an agreement stating that should we gain, in either inches or pounds at any monthly weigh-in, we owe $1 per inch or lb. to the "pot". We will weigh in each month till our last MOPS meeting in May. And there are also incentives...not only will there be a big "stash" earned by the one of us that loses the highest percentage of weight loss, prizes will go to the one who is most consistent with their workouts each month. You can bet that I'm working my tail off to earn the most prizes. (It's no secret, I love gifts--it's my love language. That, and I can be very competitive person). My particular weight loss goal for The Biggest Loser MOPS Edition is 20 pounds, which would put me 10 pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant with Laney, which was 10 pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant with Josiah. I just love that trend. :-)

I am hopeful that I can achieve my goals with a little bit of support from my bloggy and IRL friends...and that there's some truth in the whole "strength in numbers" thing. :-)