Hi guys!! Hope everyone's ready to get started! It's officially summer! If you're like me, you may have hoped to be at your goal weight or ideal body by now, but for me, that's just more inspiration to be all that much closer to it by the *end* of summer!

So, we have our two teams, and here are the two challenges for this week:

Food Challenge

Journal your food! If you've already been doing this, great! Continue. But I need to make sure everyone knows how to do it, so it's going to be our starting point this week. Count every bite, taste, and sip. Eventually, we're going to work on getting the right % of macronutrients for our bodies and goals (ratio of fat/protein/carbs that make up our calories) but for now, let's just get used to keeping track of what we're eating. The journal here on buddy slim is a great tool, but if you have another site you like to use, that's fine.

Exercise Challenge

This week, I'd like to try an interval cardio workout for starters, and we'll add some weights in as we go.

**Interval Workout**
5 minutes: Warm up at an easy pace (RPE 4)
2 minutes: Go at a moderate pace (RPE 5)
3 minutes: Pick it up to a brisk pace (RPE 7)
2 minutes: Back to RPE 5
4 minutes: Speed up to RPE 7
2 minutes: RPE 5
5 minutes: RPE 7
2 minutes: RPE 5
6 minutes: RPE 7
4 minutes: Cool down at an easy RPE 4

Hope these challenges are ok with everybody. I used a workout that incorporates the rate of perceived exertion because that makes it different for everybody, adjustable. I kind-of just want to start out simple, see how everybody does, and go from there. Good luck everybody!

Hi Shaina, are we tracking points for these challenges, or just a "yes, did it" or "no, didn't do it"?

Just a daily "yes" or "no" is good. Since this challenge is for all summer, I think tracking points for a challenge *every* week will get old fast, so I figured we'd have some challenges like this, and then every now and then a points challenge. Does that sound ok to everyone?

Sounds good to me

So are we supposed to do the interval workout everyday?

Monday.
my evening workout at curves was great, i burned 475 calories tonight. now to do this workout. should sleep good tonight
food journal done..

I think (personally) that it's pretty necessary to weight loss to do cardio sessions most days of the week. One of the best ways to do cardio is in intervals, especially if you aren't able to do a whole workout at RPE 7 or 8. Taking a walk is good, way better if you add a few sprint intervals. And especially since this can be done with your choice of cardio activity (you can do something different with it every day, from walking and running, to swimming, elliptical, biking, you name it... ) I think it's versatile enough that it can and should be done every day. Basically, just pick an activity, then add the little bursts of intensity. **Probably a simple "yes" would have sufficed, but I just wanted to explain my reasoning.

Wow Becky!! You're gonna do awesome in this challenge if you keep working out like that!!

I did a walk/run on the trails at the park today. (After a 20 minute walk with my friend I told y'all about.) I feel GREAT!! I decided to have a Slim Fast shake before I left work, about an hour before going to the park, as my supper. I figured it'd be a real challenge to come home and fix dinner for my family and not fix a plate for myself but it's not even tempting me!! (I decided a while back to make my larger meals for the day lunch and breakfast instead of lunch and dinner, so since my dinners are really small now, I sometimes just have a shake since it's quick.) Also did this workout from Fitness magazine. Basically, you use a ball with every move, and it helps work your core double-time. The hardest was doing push ups with one hand on the basketball I was using. It took everything I had to stay balanced AND do a push up at the same time! I think that's a workout I'm going to keep. Now off to do that upper body circuit for my Rockstar team.

How's everyone doing with your food journaling? Believe me, I know what a pain it can be, but I also know how instrumental it can be to success. I just want to see everyone happy with their results at the end of this, so I'm going to do everything I can to help get us there.

Food logged...CHECK

Interval workout...CHECK. Swimming and biking for me!

Yesterday I slipped and went out to dinner (ate too much), but even though I really, really didn't want to work out when we got home, I did a 30 minute cardio workout. I have slipped into making excuses and blowing off workouts, so I was so proud and happy that I worked out and didn't break my exercise streak!

Oh yeah, and I just finished writing down what I ate for breakfast