Healthy Habits Challenge

This picture has nothing to do with the post. I just love it. This is a picture from my wedding day. The Wedding Series will be back soon, with more photos! This is a photo of  me and my beautiful siblings. Yep, I'm the only blonde in my family. One of these is unlike the other. And no, I am not adopted. (Why can't I be as skinny as my brother? What's up with that?! hahaha. JK Lanny.)

More like Healthy Habits Hell. (sorry mom)
Ha juuuust kidding.
Just recently, I have started a Healthy Habits Challenge with two of my sisters and some of their friends.
This is how it works: Everyone puts in 20 dollars and the person with the most points AND the person who lost the most weight after 9 weeks gets the money.
So far, it has been really hard. To be honest, it's not even that hard of a challenge, but for some reason, I  keep forgetting that I need to eat more vegetables, or I don't drink enough water. It's those little things that are killing me.
I was a bit wishy washy at first. It started on my birthday two weeks ago and I HAD to have desserts then (duh), and then things got crazy busy and I was distracted. But, alas, I am back on the wagon! I know that I am not fat. But, this has been good for me to get incentive to lose the weight that has come about through all the stress in my life and the stupid birth control in the past few months.
It also is reminding me to do the other important little things that make a big difference such as scripture reading, saying my prayers, writing in my journal, etc. Sometimes I am so exhausted at night that those are the last things that I want to do, but I know that I need to do them. And this sort of challenge has been just the thing to kick my butt in gear, especially since I tend to be very inconsistent in those things. (gasp! I'm such a bad mormon!)
Here are the challenges. You get one point a day for doing each of them:


o Eat six servings of vegetables or fruits, but at least three have to be vegetables.
o 10 Minutes of Scripture study
o 30 minutes of exercise per day
o Journal daily
o Don't eat junk (we get to choose what "junk" means to us--I have taken out fast food).
o Eat breakfast within an hour of waking
o No eating after 8 p.m.
o Get 7-9 hours of sleep (no more, no less)
o Say personal prayers twice daily
o Eight glasses of non-carbonated, sugar free drink per day



I have made some other personal goals to go along with this challenge:
*Lose 12 pounds by the end of the challenge.
*Go to yoga at least 2x a week and the gym at least 2x a week (preferably more since I get points for exercise more! Just setting realistic goals).
*Soda only 3 times a week.


I know that I am not going to look like I did when I graduated high school (don't we all wish we could though?) but I am trying to get healthier so I FEEL better about myself. That's what is most important. From my post on inadequacy, I am trying everything possible to get my confidence back up and I feel like this will help in that.
Here's to progression!