Good luck, Ms.Fits!
Author: Peter Jaret
The Ms.Fits, a group of friends and co-workers from the University of Iowa, are gearing up to begin the 100-day Live Healthy America challenge! PDQhealth will be covering their progress and posting their comments. The nationwide program, with teams in 47 states, encourages participants to be more active, eat a healthier diet and–for those with some weight to lose–shed pounds. Teams compete in two categories: accumulated minutes of activity and pounds lost. Check in with PDQhealth for regular updates.
Tags: Live Healthy America, Ms.Fits
Last year my husband and I finally had enough of our growing waistlines and waning energy levels, and joined a gym. In 2008, we lost 100 pounds between us (He-70, myself-30)!
My goals for 2009 are:
1. Continue to increase my fitness, especially in upper body strength, all over toning, and increased endurance.
2. To encourage others to renew themselves through exercise and SENSIBLE eating. I don’t believe in diets or magic bullets – I preach (ad nauseum, I’m sure some think) organic, whole and local (as much as possible) foods – call me a Michael Pollan groupie!
Every few months, I try to participate in some athletic event to motivate myself. Last year was RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) in July, a Century bike ride in September, and a 7-mile cross country race in November. This year is RAGBRAI again (500 miles this year!) and 2 triathlons in the summer, and the Century ride and cross country race again. I thought in my mid-30s that my days of being an athlete had passed me by… and here I am doing it at 41. I’m excited about another year of new achievements!
Hi —
I’m generally a very happy person – I have a great job, a wonderful family who lives nearby, and lots of friends that I socialize with. My problem is that all those things add up to eating out a lot! Like many women my age (over 50) I’ve gained 5 pounds a year for the last few years – not much each year but it adds up.
In 2008 I changed my eating habits – a little at a time, and was able to lose 30 pounds in six months! I feel much better, my blood pressure is lower and my cholesteral is lower too.
I did it my making sure that I had a balance between protein, carbs and fat at each meal. I realized that I had been concentrating on eating very low fat foods in the last few years, and since I’m not a big meat eater that left me with primarily carbs. To make it worse, I was eating a lot of high glycemic carbs which really affected by blood sugar during the day, resulting in hunger. We’ve all been there in that ‘vicious circle’. Once I broke the cycle I found I could easily control my hunger.
My goals for 2009 are:
1. Continue the 30 minutes a day of brisk walking/stair climbing that the Ms. Fits are doing as a group.
2. Lose another 10 pounds through proper diet and small portions.
Good luck to everyone who is supporting us – “Go Ms. Fits”!!
I’m so confident that many — if not all — of us are going to be successful at maintaining our group exercising activity of walking and climbing stairs twice a day for 15 minutes each! We’re really doing a good job of supporting each other. It’s a lot harder to say NO to the group asking if you’re ready to walk than it is to say YES to yourself to get up out of your chair and walk on your own! And many of us want to continue it after the Challenge ends.
I feel very motivated right now. To eat right, too, because I don’t want to do all of this exercise and then cancel out any of the benefits by piling on the calories. I’m using sparkpeople.com to track what I eat too. It’s great, because it figures all of the calories for you and tells you how many calories you have left for the day.
We started a little earlier than the 100 Day Challenge started, but I already feel better and have more energy in the evenings!
As we begin our 100 Day Wellness Challenge, I look forward to the start of improved health along with my friends/co-workers. We spend more time together at work than we do with our own families, so why not benefit from each other as a support team? It just makes sense.
I have over the past few years, gained and lost the same 30 pounds numerous times and with each gain, I always seem to gain a few extra pounds (sound familiar?). Like I said before, I met the man of my dreams and along with that new found relationship, I found an additional 30 pounds in two short years! NOT GOOD!
My main goal is to start out by walking twice a day with our team and to start paying closer attention to what I put in my mouth. I document all of my exercise and the food I eat on Sparkpeople.com, it really helps me to write everything down so that I have a running total of the calories I consume daily. I know that I can do this with the help of my teammates and the support of my family. I have a long history of heart disease and diabetes in my immediate family, both of my parents have diabetes and I know that I need to do this for myself and my loved ones.
Another goal of mine is to become a better role model as the college’s Wellness Ambassador and to practice what I preach. “Go Ms. Fits!â€
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