Team Motivation

I've been doing okay at this whole SparkPeople thing. It's been 3 months and I'm down 22 pounds. I had hoped it would be more but I am choosing to look on the bright side and that's still 22 lbs less than what I was.

The biggest challenge was going thru my first plateau which hit in May and lasted 4 weeks!! I have to admit, I was getting a bit twitchy. This is the point where I've given up in the past. Could I survive it? It also came at a point where my life became unbelievably hectic! Well I did come thru it without gaining. I circled within the same 1.5 lbs for those 4 weeks. And then finally the scale started to move.

Something that appeared on my radar during this time was DAWNSUCCESS talking about the 5% Challenge team and that new signups were going on for the Summer Challenge. Even though at the time I didn't fully get the whole concept of how it would work, I did understand that this was an ACTIVE group that was there to support and motivate each other. Yes, we work in teams to try to be first to our destinations but really we are all in this group looking to give and provide support to each other whether we are trying to lose that 5% or maintain.

Our first flight took off on Saturday the 25th so we need to check in by the end of the each day with our exercise minutes and our "Living the Good Life" goal (this week drinking our water). This weekend was extremely busy but I did get my exercise minutes in and my water count down but I wasn't near my computer until late in the evening to update my numbers. And last night I almost went to bed until I remembered I still needed to log in. I jumped out of bed to get those numbers in. Apparently I am stressing about this just a bit because I had a dream (or nightmare?) where our team leader had a post today reprimanding us for not updating each night. *** I had to check first thing this morning to see if it was just a dream. It was. ***

Why is it we can let ourselves down but it is so much harder when there are others counting on you? Aren't we just as important? If I wasn't a part of this team, I would've put off updating my exercise minutes into SP until today... and then maybe forgot to do it.

Then by being a part of this team there's that extra motivation to do just a bit more. More minutes of exercise means more minutes for the team. Yesterday I had a 30 minute walk in but I found myself sitting on the couch at 8 pm. Part of me was tired and thought about going to bed. Then there was the part of me who was remembering her conversation with her doctor about strength training. I had really slacked off a bit on it... I thought about going to the gym. What to do? Well thanks to my participation in the 5% Challenge and the Tiger Monarchs, I went and got dressed for the gym and headed out. I felt fabulous once I got there. I did a few minutes on the treadmill for a warm-up and then hit some of the weight machines. It was a WIN all the way around... for me and for my team!

I'm really looking forward to this Challenge. Yes, of course, I hope to lose that 5% in 8 weeks. If I don't, it won't be from lack of trying. But more importantly, I hope to be inspired and maybe to even inspire someone else. This getting fit business can be a long lonely journey but with companions along the way who "get it" it doesn't have to be. So I will be there logging my minutes, my LTGL goals and my weight. I will be there cheering others on as they achieve success and ready to lend a hand if someone stumbles. And even if we don't come out on top, we will still emerge victorious!