Come away with me...

Since the competition has ended, I have had many people ask me how I did it and how I am going to keep my weight loss off. So, I have decided to start another blog to journal my efforts and to share the tips (and tricks) that I learned from the Gazette Healthy Challenge. Please, come away with me... to Setting You Free from your weight loss failures.

Other prizes

So, I have been given a list of the other prizes:

1. 3 months unlimited Yoga at 9210Yoga valued at $375
2. $250 gift certificate for Day at the Spa courtesy of Salon Red
3. Home Whitening Kit courtesy of Fallsgrove Center for Dentistry
4. A 7 Plate Genesis water ionizer from Water For Life valued at $1695

I am truly blessed to have all of these sponsors offer such wonderful prizes. I am in awe and still in shock.

Thank you. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

And the winner is....

I am so excited to tell you... I WON! Can you believe it? I pulled it off with a 0.06% lead over Charles (from the red team). It was an incredible moment.

I won many prizes (besides taking the weight off), but I do not have a list of them yet. So far I have received:

1. 1 year membership to Rio Sport & Health
2. $250 gift card to Westfield Mall
3. $250 gift card to Whole Foods Market
4. $300 gift certificate to Wink Eyecare Boutique
5. 3 night stay at the Doubletree Hotel Palm Beach Gardens in FL
6. Airfare for 2 to West Palm Beach thanks to Bethesda Travel Center
7. A signed t-shirt from the Washington Freedom
8. One week of free meals with Diet to Go
9. $250 deposit in a Mid-Atlantic FCU checking account
10. $50 gift certificate at Flagship Carwash Center
11. $50 gift card at StetchAlicious

I am so thankful for this experience:

First and foremost, I give all my thanks for God. God has been with me ever step of the way. Without God, I would not have been kept injury free (remember I have a torn ACL that stop hurting in week 2), and definitely would not have won.

Secondly, my family. My husband, Lyle really picked up the slack and helped out with the kids and supported me throughout. And my children, Kiera and Brock sacraficed so much time with me. I LOVE you all so much.

Finally, I would like to thank my team and the trainers at Rio. I woke up on Monday really missing you. I hope we all stay in touch and keep the weight off.

Week #10 Weight Loss

Here are the results for Week #10:

David Drayer: -2.5 lbs.
Richard Feld: -3.0 lbs.
Susan Feidelman: -0.5 lbs.
Jen Green: -2.0 lbs.
Tina Hardy: -0.0 lbs. (did not weigh-in because she out of town)

I think the Blue Team is steady. I think we have the hearts to win... but aren't we already winners? Looking at each of us at Monday's workout made me notice that all of our body shapes have changed - for the better.

I have a confession: Week #10's weigh-in changed my focus, not for the better. With Charles losing .5 lbs, I was only behind him .1% - I started to dwell, stress, and worry about winning the whole competition. Instead of staying focused on the real prize: weight loss and keeping it off for the rest of my life, I began seeing myself win. Now, I know it is not a bad thing to stay focus, but we all know it is a bad thing when it consumes us. And without really knowing it, winning this compeition did.

Thanks to my ever faithful twin sister, Janet! She gave me some tough love on Monday night. It was what I needed to here. I need to continue to work out as hard as I can, not focus on the other team, encourage my awesome team and most of all trust God. God has kept me focused up until this point. My bible study the other day said that: I need to focus on not what God has done for me, but what God has done IN me. Can I get an, "Amen?" Now that is powerful.

So as the last week of the competition comes to a close, as we all try to find as much time as we can to work our bodies to the extreme, I pray that we are all thankful to what God is doing in us and not for us. Because it really isn't about the scale. It is about our life... and making sure we are living it the way God want's us too and that surely isn't worry about winning some competition.

Finally, if you want one more chance to meet us, our finale is at Montgomery Mall on Sunday, June 28th from 2-4. Come cheer on the Blue Team and be sure to introduce yourself.... we would love to meet our fans and pray that our journey has inspired some of you.

Week #9 Results

The results are published for Week #9:

David Drayer: -5.0 lbs.
Richard Feld: -2.0 lbs.
Susan Feidelman: -2.0 lbs.
Jen Green: -3.5 lbs.
Tina Hardy: -3.5 lbs.

At last night's weigh-in, I lost: 2 lbs. That makes my total 32 lbs. I am pleased that I continue to lose. Only 2 more weeks left. The anticipation for the finale is overwhelming.

4 for 4

As I posted earlier, on Sunday, we had our 4th and Final Challenge which was the Honest Tea Outdoor Challenge which was hosted at the Germantown Recreation Center.

There were two parts: A Physical Part and a Mental Part. The physical part consisted of a 1 mile walk/run with the pounds that we had lost in a back pack and a swim race to retrieve color coded bottles from the bottom of a 4 foot pool. The mental challenge was 3 questions based on Honest Tea trivia.

So we had to do the mile walk/run, take the quiz and then get in the pool. Due to techinical difficulties with the color coded bottles, it was decided to have a relay race. I am proud to say that the Blue Team came out the winner. Then it came to the results of the quiz... and by .4%, we edged out the Red Team.

That means that there have been 4 challenges, and we won all 4. Isn't that awesome? So at this point with the challenges combined, we are exactly .1% ahead of the Red Tea, Whoa, what a close race.

Come back tomorrow to see week #9's weight loss success.

New Goal

Having met my personal goal of losing 30 pounds in 9 weeks, I have been contemplating a new goal to be working towards. I had toyed with the idea of winning the entire competition; but with all of the stress related to that (who weighs what, how much are others working out), I received another idea.

During a phone conversation with a close friend, she was telling me that she was worried about my concentration on winning because she was afraid I would be disappointed if I did not win even though I have lost a lot of weight already. She really knows me and knows how much of a perfectionist I am.

It was revealed to me that I would be happy to weigh 150. Should I weigh less with my height? Yes, of course. But I truly believe that I would be happy at 150. So, my new goal is to reach 150.

And it is a realistic goal because there is no way I can lose 17.5 lbs in the next 2 1/2 weeks. Which means it is a goal that takes me past the Healthy Challenge and it is a goal that I know I can achieve. After losing 30 pounds, 17.5 pounds seems less daunting.

So, there it is. I am going to continue to work hard and continue to push myself and what ever comes off in the next 2 weeks is a bonus to the competition but will be helping me to reach my new goal.

Ahhh... I feel better. I feel less stressed. And I know I can do it! Yay!