For those of you who participated in the 10:4 Challenge, September 1st marked the end of our 4 month quest to develop healthy habits and, if needed, would lose 10 pounds in the process. I missed my goal by a pound and the fault lies squarely with me. Ultimately, it wasn’t a failure though as I have made some small changes.
While I didn’t totally eliminate soda pop from my daily routine, I have cut back from what I normally drank. I have also drank more juice and more water than was my usual habit. In addition I significantly reduced the number of times I eat out at fast food joints during the work week and have eaten much more healthy food for lunches. I also don’t snack every single night like I used to. It has been a challenge of small victories, with 9 pounds lost.
And if you recall, this was all about increasing healthy habits that would benefit in the long run, not about crash dieting and losing weight. I feel so happy with the overall results that I am wanting to challenge myself, and anyone else who wants to participate, again.
So, I bring you:
The R.I.P.ing 5 Challenge, or R.I.P:5 for short. The challenge will coincide with the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge II running from September 1st to October 31st, 2007.
Again, the challenge is this: make some positive healthy changes to your lifestyle that will become habits leading to overall better health and a longer life. To stay focused I have included the goal of losing 5 pounds during this time, but please remember, you can sign up to join in without having to focus on the number of pounds lost. I need to lose the weight as well and that is why I am setting a goal.
Now that the weather is getting closer to bearable temps, I will be increasing my walks and spending more time outdoors. I am really looking forward to that. In addition I will continue to decrease my pop consumption and increase my water intake during the day.
Here are a couple of different sized banners if you want to join in!
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We are a mere two days away from the start of the 2008 season of the National Football League and I am quivering with anticipation. This year a small group of locals (6 in all) got together to do our own fantasy football league with yours truly taking on Commissioner duties for the first time. Our league is the Hands of Glory and my team, The Conqueror Worms, is set to put the Right Hand of Doom down on all my competition!
Can you tell I was in a R.I.P. II/Hellboy/Poe mode when I named the league and my team? I love football!!!
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SQT has given a favorable review to Charlaine Harris’ book, An Ice Cold Grave and within that review has an offer for a free book giveaway for the short story book, Many Bloody Returns.
Just read the review and leave a comment within the next few days (don’t delay) and you will be entered into the drawing for this book:
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The September issue of Estella’s Revenge is online and you must go over and read it. This month’s book giveaway is Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin. You can click over here to read an interview with her. Click on the main Estella’s Revenge link for details on how to get in on the free book chance.
This month’s theme is Confessions and there are a number of wonderful ‘confessions’ features, book reviews, author interviews (including one with last year’s R.I.P. favorite The Book Thief author Markus Zusak), a book tour of Salt Lake City and more. If you aren’t reading Estella’s Revenge, you really are missing out.
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In typical internet fashion, a significant amount of time and effort in gathering and typing questions for my interview with author Natasha Mostert got lost on the internet superhighway. Sooo, the interview will be delayed by a week. But, that doesn’t mean that I have to delay in handing out the first giveaway for the R.I.P. II Challenge!
Season of the Witch was a book that snuck up on me, sucked me in, and surprised me and I was thrilled when Natasha Mostert offered to donate a signed copy of the book for this challenge.
The only thing you had to do to qualify was sign up for the challenge by midnight last night. The response thus far has been tremendous and, as I’ve said before, I hope a bunch more people join in along the way. And so, the ultra scientific and random drawing a name from the hat method of picking a winner results in this name:
The Winner of an Autographed hardback copy of Season of the Witch is….
Melanie of the site Cynical Optimism!
Congrats Melanie! Send your address to cvincent68@comcast.net. The book is already packaged and ready to go!
To Close:
There are A TON of contest and giveaway opportunities coming your way. So many that you will no doubt be overwhelmed, but for many of them I want to give an appropriate amount of time. Tiny Stories, site visiting, short story reading, possibly some art…all are things that have prizes attached that you will read about SOON, right here, so stay tuned!!!
I need to get in on R.I.P.5 -though I may substiute the number for 7.5-10!
Now then – can I really survive without cheese?
Carl, thanks for mentioning the giveaway, but I reviewed An Ice Cold Grave — and the giveaway is on Many Bloody Returns. Which is a short story compilation with authors like Charlaine Harris, Kelley Armstrong, Tanya Huff, Jim Butcher etc. I put the giveaway at the end to kind of force people to read the review, but that might have been a mistake.
Oops, Sorry SQT, the correction has been made! 🙂
As I eat my grilled cheese with salt & vinegar chips, I think: I really need to do this R.I.P.5, even if just for the banner with the cutie vampire!
Congrats Melanie 😀
Count me in for the RIP5! I lost 8.6 pounds for the 10:5, which I’m still considering a success even though I failed miserably at the actual challenge :p The reason being, for the past two years, all I’ve done is gain weight, so to actually lose almost 9 pounds is awesome! Hopefully I can lose the 5 this time.
I’m so pumped about football. Preseason’s been fun, but thank God it’s over…it just doesn’t compare. Now onto some real games! And LSU last week…what a game! Love the name of your fantasy team…that’s awesome 🙂 Y’all should make shirts for that one.
as i’ve told jeff, i am very curious about american football. i have a friend stephane who is a big college football fan and, having gone to usc, naturally supports the trojans.
i hope i’ll get the chance to watch some more games this year – i managed to catch one last year.
i hope you’ll be posting about your football team as well as your fantasy team! i also play fantasy football and am incredibly competitive 🙂 its so weird, ’cause i’m so uncompetitive about everything else…
This is the first time in a decade that I am doing fantasy football with a group of people who all live in this area and that I see regularly. I’m really looking forward to alot of good natured ribbing. With a 6 person league we all have decent players so it will be interesting watching how this all unfolds.
Chris, I have Drew Brees for my starting QB…make sure you send him good vibes as I need him to lead me on to victory!
Hey, I had cheap (read ‘fattening’) pizza with my employees in staff meeting today, so I cannot talk. And I’m glad you like the vampire, Janet, he is one of my many Nightmare Before Christmas toys.
you are just the “give away fool”!! lol.. I don’t know how you find the time to keep all of these things organized!!
By the looks of the reviews coming in you will surpass the Fantasy reviews!! Way to go Carl!
I need to lose five!! And I’ll throw in sundry healthy goals, too. Maybe even a healthy finances goal…like not buying so many BOOKS. Gah!
Thanks for a great challenge so far, and here’s to more in the future!
*clink*
Well congrats on what you did lose! And good luck with the rest… at least it’s not near Thanksgiving or Christmas feast times yet.. lol
Exactly Angela…part of the purpose of this is to do so pre-holiday work so that I can gorge guilt free during the holidays! You have me pegged! 🙂
I like the healthy finances idea, Andi!
And you are indeed correct, Deslily, the review site for R.I.P. II is going to bury the Once Upon a Time Challenge!
*groaning(*.. did you really say “bury?” ..*more groaning*
Woohoo! Go Carl for Drew Brees as your QB…excellent choice, you’ve got the best 😉
Congrats on losing the 9 pounds, Carl. That’s awesome! 🙂
Of course, Deslily…do you think I would honestly let a chance for a pun that good pass me bye?
Chris, he better be… 😉
Thanks Court, I have a long way to go, but its a good start.
Good for you and your new, healthier habits. I am convinced, via much trial and error, that the only way to ever achieve lasting change in one’s eating habits is to do so by degrees, one step at a time. Keep stepping, Carl!
You’re right Wayne, that was the genesis of the first challenge. Not making a weight oriented New Year’s resolution and yet not making any changes led to this approach, which I am happy with so far.
Congrats on doing so well on the 10:4 challenge!
Congrats to you and all who stuck it through to the end of the 10:4 challenge.
I came back from the weekend, and there are already 57 reviews up on RIPYarns. OUAT is being buried indeed (as am I). It’s time for some excellent catch up reading 🙂
I know what you mean Kim, I’ve been scrambling just to keep up with the reviews.
Carl, nine pounds is a lot – congratulations! You are doing this the smart way, making little changes over a reasonable period rather than going on the cabbage-soup diet.
Ella! Does this mean you are back online?!?! Yay!
EIW! I’m so excited, I just finished Potter 7 and went straight to the book store and picked up both Colleen Gleason books!
The third book I want I was not able to find, but I have not given up hope!
Way to go on the 9 pounds Carl! it is sometimes so very hard to get the weigth off. I have been working on that myself. Does that mean I get to slap your hand when I see you carrying cookies around?
You probably should…but how often do you see me carrying cookies around? 😉
I’ve seen it before… You have to realize what season is FAST approaching, candy time!
It is not candy time that I am so worried about…it is vegetable stew, and chili, and homemade potato soup, and turkey, and green bean casserole…and yes, cookies too…
Yeah…I think I kind of failed to meet the 10 pounds….but I did lose about 5. Guess I should probably hang in there for a few more pounds!!
My husband’s fantasty football draft is tonight. I’m actually pretty excited about it myself, since football is my favorite sport to watch! Go BEARS!!! Sorry, had to slip that one in! Hopefully it will be a good season!
I started my RIP challenge out with a viewing of the new Halloween!!
I imagine your Bears will whip up on our Chiefs here early in the season! 😉
Wow, their draft is tonight! Talk about waiting until the last moment!
Well, I was a flaming failure on the weightloss challenge, and I don’t think I’ll take you up on the second (as much as I need to).
To be totally off-topic, I have some big farm news:
http://texasfarmwife.blogspot.com/2007/09/hes-here.html
Thanks so so much!
On the football subject, let me shout out to Chris for being an LSU fan! Nice to run into one in a random place like this. 🙂
Carl, you already know I’m in on this challenge. Only, I’m going by inches lost, not pounds. Actually, I lied. I’m going by centimeters lost (every little bit helps) rather than pounds.
I’m working on focusing on the majority of my eating being fruits, veggies, lean meats, whole grains…and some potatoes and pasta.
The hardest thing for me is cheese and chocolate.
CONGRATS on your 9-lb loss!! That’s fantastic, and not an easy feat. Very proud of you.
Thank you! You’ve definitely got some good ideas Colleen. Honestly, since most of my weight is centered in my gut I’m actually looking for inches loss there as opposed to pounds too.
Cheese is impossible to give up, isn’t it.
Does it show just how geeky I am that every time I see or hear the word “potatoes” I want to say, “What’s taters, Precious?”.
Chocolate’s impossible also. My main goal was to drink more water, which I was somewhar successful at. However, the fact that I got hooked on peach floats most every night for the past two weeks probably gives me the opposite award – for eating the most unhealthy.
Melanie, Always glad to find another LSU fan 😉 I actually just got my Master’s from LSU, but I’ve been a fan long before they were my school!
Carl, I couldn’t stop laughing when I read “What’s taters, Precious?” Me and Megan quote that to each other all the time!
So do Mary and I, Chris. Waaaay too much as a matter of fact. 😉
Geez…I can’t believe that it took this post to remind me to thank you. Thanks to your 10:4 Challenge, and a few thousand gallons of water (or so it seemed, at least!), I lost 12 pounds! Guess I should now shoot for that extra 5…but giving up cheese?!! Are you people crazy?!!
I’M not giving up cheese…that is that wacky author lady doing that. 😉
Congrats Debi, that is great!!!
Hey! Watch who you’re calling wacky, geek guy!!
😉
I love the idea of the RIP-5 challenge. However, I guess that means I have to give up the Adams Family M&M’s while reading the RIP challenge novels.
BooHoo.