National Body Challenge 2008: The End

I realized this morning that I never did a follow up post to the National Body Challenge, which ended last weekend. And the total amount lost: 14 lbs. Which almost spreads out to about 2lbs a week over the 8 week challenge. Which is the accepted amount for healthy weight loss. I would have to say that the challenge was a success. Although I can't help but wonder if it really was the challenge, in an early post I listed my top ten learn things, but most of them can be found in any diet that promotes a healthy change. The challenge had it pros for instance, I set my own pace, there was no over head number of pounds to be reached at the end of the challenge. It was really up to me to create and stick to a diet and exercise plan, the site, TV, and emails had a lot of good tips to help that along the way. However it also had some cons, even though you could sign on the site and join discussions in the forum...it was still a bit like you were doing it alone. It was up to you to find a buddy to do with you and create that sense of community. That's one thing I have to say about weight watchers and curves...they create a sense of community. You are in a building with like minded women who all want to lose weight for different reasons and you all take comfort in that. If you are a newbie at the diet thing it could be very overwhelming, at some points I felt like the challenge was aimed at seasoned pros. And although the initial cost was free, which meant it was totally budget friendly a lot of the following details were not. Since we don't have cable I had to rely a lot of the emails and the site to gleam information. Which wasn't easy mainly cause the site had a lot of downtime and issues, which was odd since it was a Discover channel child site. Like I said I had to create my own diet and exercise plan, granted it came with a 8 week membership to a Bally Fitness, the nearest one to me is three cities away and more than 2.5 hours, I'm sorry but I want to lose weight but not that much. So I had to use my local gym and come up with something. That also went for the diet, a lot of those recipes were just not kicking it so my creativity hat came on.

So was it really the challenge? Well yes and no...the challenge gave me a reason to do the things I did...but it was really my own doing the create the change. So yay for me! Will I stay with it? I'm not sure, anything is possible. I would like to keep up the momentum but not being in my own place makes it hard to change my diet when everyone around you isn't.

Losing Weight at a Discount

You know sometimes it pays to click on a random ad. Today when I logged onto my music "subscription", Ruckus (I'll tell you about that at another time) there was an ad for the National Body Challenge. For a while now I have been trying to lose a decent amount of weight, for various reasons. I can't claim to have tried many different diets, my Mom can though. You see I have an unnatural fear of vegetables. It goes behind the whole not liking vegetables, no they actually cause me fear. Over the years I've been trying to ad more and different types of vegetables, but it's going very slowly. At present I can stomach peas, corn, small doses of Alfredo drenched broccoli, onions, small amounts of carrots and that's about it.

I have tried two of the main stream diets, Weight Watchers and Slim Fast. I have strong opinions of both, the main one being they aren't budget/frugal friendly. Weight Watchers basis of going to meetings is a good one, I mean it's much easier when you feel like you have to answer to someone. And even though they say it's about community, come on who isn't going to be a little competitive in an area like that. Slim Fast, is advertised as free, which in a way they have one up on Weight Watchers, you can easily go online and use their tools and website for free. (Weight Watchers online tools is part of their Weight Watchers Online program and cost roughly the same as going to the meetings programs.) But Slim Fast is really geared around their products that are not cheap at all. It's hard to substitute regular food when they say have a Slim Fast Meal Replacement bar for Lunch...well does that mean for us normal folks?

So at first I was a bit skeptical of the NBC program. So I clicked on the ad and it took me to the Discovery health website, so far so good. So why am I psyched about this challenge. Well for starters its completely free. The package is amazing to be free, you get:

1. An 8-week free membership to a Bally Total Fitness
2. Customized meal plans
3. Progressive fitness plans, tailored to you by professional experts
4. Diverse community support (It's called the National Body Challenge for a reason.)
5. Individualized weight and fitness trackers
6. Various videos and interactive tools
7. Plus more!

There is one set back...it's only a 8 week challenge From January 5 2008 to March 2 2008. But I'm sure the information you learn both on the website and on TV you can easily take it with you to keep for life. Another important note is that the you can potential register anytime doing the 8 weeks but the 8 week pass to Bally Fitness is available until the 15 of January (11:59pm).

If your reading this after the end of it...don't worry it's a yearly thing. If I have a great experience this year, I plan on doing it again next year.