Five women. Five mothers. Five writers.
Fifty (plus) unwanted pounds between us, as well as a myriad of less-than-optimal habits that could use a little improvement.
Five billion excuses as to why we simply don’t have the time, energy, or motivation to get in shape when we each already have so much on our metaphorical plates. We have families, deadlines, chores, commitments, chronic illnesses, and let’s not forget the desire to sleep more than four hours a night.
Anyone can make a New Year’s resolution to get fit, but it takes a special willingness to embrace mental illness to gather up a group of like-minded friends and make it into a very public undertaking. We shall boldly stride into the New Year ready to meet the challenges we set for ourselves, holding on tight to one another for support, motivation, and humiliation (when necessary).
Five women with a simple goal: Make sustainable changes for life, one manageable step at a time. Success means living healthier and longer, sure, but it also means looking really smokin’ in that cute outfit. Failure means being taunted mercilessly by the competitive and victorious.
Doesn’t that sound fun?
January 1st, 2010: First Challenge (Lose 10 Pounds)
In ten weeks, safely lose ten pounds apiece.
We will all embark upon different diet/fitness regimes designed to get us into shape and shed ten pounds in ten weeks. Total accountability, total honesty. For some of us, this is the first step on (or back on) the fitness wagon.
This is not about losing it the fastest or losing the most. Everyone who takes off ten pounds wins! Group status updates are posted on Saturdays, with general musings from each of us posted throughout the week.
Update, March 13th, 2010: The ten weeks are over, thankyoulord. We met with varying levels of success, thanks to varying levels of cooperation from our health, families, lives, and brains. Go figure.
March 14th, 2010: Second Challenge (Clear Your Space, Clear Your Mind)
In four weeks, make real strides in clearing out the clutter.
Some of us will interpret this literally—’tis the season to Spring Clean, after all. Some of us will get more creative with the definitions of “clean” and “clutter.” Again, the goal is to make changes which are personally meaningful to each of us, and further us on this fun little path of Living Life Without Losing Our Minds.
Obviously we are not competing against each other. The idea is to be able to look back at the end of four weeks and say, “I feel better now because I am more organized.”
Will you join us? Again, we’ll each post during the week.
Update, April 10th, 2010: Four weeks is, it turns out, plenty of time to ruminate on exactly what a cluttered wasteland your life has become. Yes. Nevertheless, we wrap up with cleaner closets, barer floors, and—in some cases—fewer pieces of anatomy than we had before.
April 11th, 2010: Third Challenge (the “I Dare You” Challenge)
For four weeks, we will each make a deliberate effort to step outside of our personal comfort zones and—dare we say it?—grow as people. I know, we’re not supposed to be doing that, here. Still, there’s value in going where we’d ordinarily fear to tread.
What will it mean for each of us? That’s as individual as we are. What is unremarkable for one of us is scaling Mt. Everest to another. It’s about facing our personal demons and saying, “I can do this.”
Join us as we stretch, possibly grow, and almost certainly whine.
Update, May 8th, 2010: Lydia became a rock star. Kira and Gray renewed their commitments to writing regularly. Mir decided to homeschool, then decided not to. And Joshilyn told us all about her own body trying to kill her, even though doing so made her almost as uncomfortable as the murder attempt itself. In short, our comfort zones were expanded, exploded, shredded beyond recognition, and bravely discarded. For a few weeks, anyway.
May 9th, 2010: Fourth Challenge (Get Your Learn On)
For four weeks, each of us will commit to learning something new. One something new? Four weeks of different something news? It matters not, so long as we’re carving out the time which surely none of us has to expand our horizons.
This one also suspiciously sounds like “growing as people,” but perhaps we will simply learn how to be judgmental and mean. (Kidding. Pretty sure no one is planning to learn that.)