Week 1: Daily Tasks!

Eating every 3 to 4 hours. This allows you to eat smaller portions and keeps hunger away. It also allows your blood sugar to remain stable which prevents fat storage. If you keep your meals and snacks 3 to 4 hours apart the entire day, then you may click this box on the tracker and get a point for the day. If you find you are not hungry 4 hours later, that likely means you ate too much at the previous meal. If you are hungry before 3 hours, feel free to eat. Honor your hunger, but also listen to your body and stop when you are satisfied...not when you are "full." If you are too busy and don't have time to stop work or other activity to eat, put something easy to grab and eat in your pocket, i.e. nuts, trail mix, protein bar (Brands we like: Kind, Lara, Quest, Perfect, Good2Go, Rx, Square)

Eat AT LEAST 5 fruits and veggies each day. This doesn't mean 5 fruits AND 5 veggies, although that would be awesome. It's the combined total of the two, then you earn another point. So, what counts as a serving? So happy you asked.

1 small piece of fruit the size of a baseball or tennis ball
1/2 banana unless it is very small, then it can count as 1 serving
1 cup of melon or berries
1/2 cup of most other fruit
1/4 cup of dried fruit
3/4 cup fruit juice (although it's always better to eat your calories than drink them)
1 cup raw leafy veggies
1/2 cup other raw or cooked veggies
6 oz. V8 (preferably low sodium)

Drink your water. You need to drink half your body weight in ounces unless you weigh more than 160 lbs, then you need to drink at least 80 ounces, but you are welcome to drink more. For example: If you weigh 120 lbs, you divide that by 2 = 60 ounces of water. Make it convenient. Carry a water bottle with you, keep one in the car, on your desk, near your work station, etc. If it's readily available, you will drink. If you drink half your weight or at least 80 ounces of water each day, that's another point.

Stop eating 3 hours before bed. It's not that your liver decides that everything turns to fat at 9 pm, rather, this is the time when your guard comes down and bad choices can easily be rationalized. Most people are not cooking up a plate of steamed broccoli at 10:30pm...it's usually higher calorie, higher sugar, higher fat items that are the worst thing you could eat right before you go to bed. It's better for you to go to bed feeling like you could eat something, but instead, burn fat while you sleep, wake up ready for a good breakfast. If you stop eating 3 hours before bed, then you get another point for that day. **If you are already at a lean body fat percent and simply trying to gain muscle and not lose any fat, then you are exempt from this task. If you do eat, try to give your body just enough to fuel your muscles for the night, but not too much that it will want to store it as fat.

No treats. A sweet is a treat which includes brownies, cakes, cookies, candy, donuts, ice cream, regular soda, slurpees, or anything sweet that you would consider a treat. Even a "healthy" version of a treat, is still a treat. For example, if I make brownies with applesauce instead of oil...still a treat.

Contact each of your team members each day. You can do this by talking to them at work, shooting a text or an email. Keep everyone accountable and use your team if you need help, motivation, or to be talked out of eating that candy bar. :) Each day you do this, you get another point.

Exercise. There are 6 exercise days up for grabs...rest on Sunday. You will down to the nearest time completion. You want to total the minutes you spent actually exercising...not driving to gym, changing clothes, chatting with friends, etc...actual work! It can be anything where you are moving your body, from walking, to lifting weights, hiking, running, yoga, biking, etc. You can go to the gym or do it at home. Please note: The time spent towards the weekly TEAM Fitness challenges, DO NOT count towards this total amount.

So, in summary, you have the opportunity to earn 10 points daily from these daily tasks.

Sunday, May 22, 2016