Gain or No Gain Challenge

Since the beginning of December, I've been participating in this gym contest, called the "Gain or No Gain Challenge." The basic premise is that each of the participants team up in pairs, and collect points by doing different nutrition, activity, and fitness challenges throughout the month. Each week we're given a new set of challenges, and then we submit our points to K-Dawg at the end of the week for her to tally. The winning team is the one who, on January 1st, has collected the most points. In the event of a tie, the team that has lost the most weight percentage-wise is the winner.

The activity challenges have been pretty easy for me. They involve things like weighing yourself every week (I already weigh myself every morning), keeping a food log (which I actually did for a six-month period of time last year), doing resistance training three times a week (which I already was doing with Group Power twice a week and Sculpt once a week), and stretching twice a week (which I already was doing with Pilates and Yin Yoga every week). The only activity I wasn't already doing or had not done before was doing cardio three times a week. I was only doing it about once a week, if I made it to spin or Group Kick.

When I first started this challenge at the beginning of December, I'd reached a hefty Happy-Weight-plus-14. Gah! Now, just three weeks into it, I'm down to Happy-Weight-plus-7. I've seriously lost seven pounds in three weeks (during the holiday season), and I know that it's because of this contest. Some of the things that have really helped me are logging each and every thing I eat every day (yes, including that one bite of bread pudding I had on Saturday) and actually doing at least 90 minutes of cardio a week.

The only thing that's been sort of hard for me has been the nutrition challenges. The first week we had to drink at least eight glasses (i.e., eight ounces each) of water a day. This was nearly impossible for me to do last year, but I found that because I was working out so much this year, getting all of my required water was surprisingly easy. My challenge partner, Mango, agreed with me about this being easier this year (probably because we're practically the same person). The second week we had to eat at least five servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables a day. This challenge was really hard, but I managed to get all of my servings in every day that week. (Mango, I'm still sad that you thought you'd been overachieving on this challenge, when, in fact, you were not. *sjf*) Last week's challenge, which was to eat a three-ounce serving of fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids at least twice that week, was by far the easiest. (Seriously, I eat sushi and/or sashimi pretty much twice a week as it is.)

However, this week's challenge is going to kill me. This week we have to eat at least 25-30 grams of fiber a day (A DAY!). Today I got up really late, so I didn't eat breakfast and we didn't eat lunch until 2:00. We ran a bunch of errands, then went to the Hawks' house so Shweetie could do a test run of Christmas dinner. We got there late and therefore ate late, especially since some of Shweetie's dishes took longer than he'd expected. After dinner, around 9:45 or so, as I was putting in all of my food into my food log, I realized, Crap! I've only eaten 14 grams of fiber today. What the heck am I going to eat? So, ladies and gentlemen in blogland, that is why you could later find me at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of high-fiber cereal (13 grams per cup!) at 10:00. I had the worst stomachache shortly afterward, but by God, at least I'd had 27 grams of fiber today.

This week is going to be fun. I can feel it. *shudder*