I have been at both extremes of health and fitness. A few years ago I was in the best shape of my life, but it consumed my every waking moment and I neglected many other important aspects of life. Right after that I had a minor health scare that put these neglected aspects of my life to the forefront. The last year I have been bounced around in many other endeavors, but have continued to neglect the health and fitness part of my life.
So……
This is something for me to help me find that balance. I actually don’t believe that balance is real and tangible, but it is worthwhile to pursue. I want to get back to feeling good about my health, fitness, and body while still striving to live life to the fullest and have fun with family and friends.
This group and challenge is my attempt to do just that and hopefully inspire others to join along and make it happen. I have found that without a support group and feeling responsible to something more than my own being that I flounder. Together we can help each other all achieve what we want to conquer.
Here is how it works
Start Date: June 1st, 2014
You have until June 1st to get ready both mentally and physically. I don’t want to get all preachy and sound like an educator, but it is time to develop some SMART goals(as much as we cringe when we see SMART they do work!). Instead of developing a goal that takes all year to tackle to only end up feeling like a failure, I am shaking it up with this challenge by developing small monthly chunks of planning and focus.
You need to set one goal for the month of June. This is a goal that by June 30th you can either check off yes or no to the goal.
Now, some of you might have a long term goal that goes beyond June. That is fine. What you need to do is chunk the goal into smaller blocks. Look at your long goal and create a June checkpoint. For me, I have two long term goals.
1. I would like to fit into my dress pants that I was not able to wear one day to school this year due to them not making pass my knees.
2. Complete a sub 5 hour Pigman Long Triathlon
You don’t need a long term goal. What you MUST have is a June goal. Pick a goal. I don’t care what you are trying to achieve, but it must be measurable and something that you can figure out at the end of June if you made it or not. For some of you might this goal might be weight loss, some might be fat %, some might be a Crossfit goal, a lifting goal, eating clean goal, etc. This is where you assess yourself and what you want to accomplish. The only rule is that you will be required to post your goal for all to see that sign up for the challenge so we can help hold each other accountable.
Additionally, it is important that everyone has something in common that we are trying to achieve. I cannot speak for everyone, but dropping a few pounds of weight in general or body fat % is something that I think is important. Some of you who don’t need the weight loss it might be more to maintain or to tone. Regardless, there will be a group goal of tracking our weight loss. You do not have to share your weight if you are not comfortable(which would be a sign that you are not happy with that number!), but I would like for you to track with the group weekly weight losses.
Monthly Challenges
Each month I will be posting weekly, biweekly, or monthly challenges to add to your personal challenges so we have something in common. Some will be fitness challenges, some will be eating challenges, mental challenges, etc. I will try to keep things fresh as we go along.
So for the month of June I have developed one group challenge. The challenge is to run/walk 100 miles in the month of June. That comes out to roughly 3.3 miles a day to make the goal. I don’t care how you get it done, but that is goal. As we work collectively as a group I will have a group goal of total miles to achieve. Some might not reach 100, but others might go over. If the total of the group hits the goal we will have a celebration of some sort. This number will be dependent on the number who join the group. Miles can be ran or walked. Grab your pedometers, your favorite apps, or a manual clicker and start keeping track. This will force us to get moving and be active. More important than the miles it will require all of us to become aware of our current habits and see what we need to change. We will do this challenge in June before it gets too hot.
Not every challenge will be exercise focused. If you have great ideas I would love to eventually hand off the challenges to members of the group to run. For those that know me I love crowdsourcing so I treat everyone as a leader of the group. The more diverse and fun we make things the more we benefit.
At the end of the month I think it is important to party and celebrate. So depending on people and locations we will put together a gathering for us to get together and have fun before we embark on the July challenge. This is not all serious all the time. Remember the key is to strive for balance. We will work on this as people sign up.
How Do I Join?
Sound good? I hope so.
1. The first step is to fill out the registration form to join the group!
2. Join our Facebook Group Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1503754279853281/
Once I accept go ahead and say hi and start connecting. I hope to get a diverse group of people of prior friends and hopefully new friendships will develop.
3. Once you are signed up I will share out some Google Docs that are closed to only members. This is where we will track our numbers and hold each other accountable. This info is not public. It will be based on the honor system of telling the truth and respecting each other and our goals.
4. Here is our Pinterest Board to Share Ideas, Recipes, etc. I will add you to the board when you sign up http://www.pinterest.com/coffeechugbooks/coffeechug-fitness-challenge/
Once you are added you can add anything that you think we could all benefit from.
What’s next?
Go ahead and sign up.
If you have questions or ideas reach out to me on FB, Twitter, email, or in person.
I have some more information coming out as people sign up.
Let’s make this happen! Spread the word and let us all benefit.
As Jay Z proclaims
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