This week…sigh…this week has been rough. I am finding, though, that inspiration/motivation lies everywhere…and sometimes in the least expected places. I will even be passing along some inspiration/motivation for all of you, so read it through, pretty please.
After yesterday’s melt down over being 5+ pounds over my lowest weigh in, Denise and I sat down to create a new plan. That starts tomorrow, and I cannot wait. This morning gave me a little relief (if I am being honest) because the scale reflected a loss. A pretty substantial loss (for one day), too. I am still up for the week, but not over 5 pounds – like I feared.
201.2
That is one pound up from last week, and two pounds up from my lowest weigh in. I would be lying if I said I was okay with that. I am not anywhere *near* okay with weight gain. I know it could be muscle. I know it could be water. I know it could be a million things *other* than fat. It still bothers me…terribly. It keeps me up at night (and, yes, I am aware that lack of sleep can also be a contributing factor here).
Hopefully with my new plan in action, I will shed that 2 pounds (again) by the end of this week. That would help me feel better…and sleep better…going forward.
As for inspiration/motivation…
I joined Grumpy’s challenge (as I mentioned yesterday), and I hope some of you will take it on as well. I was also approached by SlimKicker. Honestly, I had never heard of them, but I was excited to check them out. They take weight loss and add some fun twists to it (because we all know, it is not always fun). They offer weight loss/diet challenges (some created by other users, and some sponsored by SlimKicker) to keep your life interesting.
Signing up with them is free. You enter some initial (general) information, and they provide you with some recommended nutrition goals. They based the recommendations on what I currently weigh, what I want to weigh, how active I am, etc.
These were my recommendations:

Once you have joined, you can log food, exercise, find groups to join (for extra support), and join challenges to earn points. You can even create your own challenges! Additionally, they have other helpful tools to use, such as their Calorie Calculator.
Here is a screen shot of my main page:

The navigation is pretty straight forward, and it has a clean layout to keep everything organized. I think I would enjoy tracking with SlimKicker more than LoseIt! (which I rarely ever use, honestly). I know you can earn badges and such with them, but challenging other people…that I can dig! There is nothing quite like competition to keep you motivated, right?
Right now SlimKicker is on the hunt for new, fun, creative ideas for sponsored challenges. They want your help. So, if you have a fun or creative idea for a weight loss or diet challenge, please feel free to post it in the comments below. Each comment will be entered into a drawing to win this:

SlimKicker will choose the winner one week from today. Exciting, right?! So, get those wheels turning and share some of your best ideas for weight loss or diet challenges!
-Erica