The Challenge to Get Fit!

Hello, and welcome to my new blog, Feeling Fit Challenge!  Let me introduce myself.  For the purpose of this blog, I use the name, L. Rochelle.  I am an American, but I currently reside in Hong Kong.  A few weeks ago, one of my friends offered a "challenge" to get healthy to a bunch of women here.  I took it on, and it is changing my life.  So much so, that I want to share it with you - whoever you are - wherever you are.  I want you to experience the great changes in health and fitness that I am experiencing!  I want your families to enjoy the fruits (pun intended) of your efforts.

I am not a fanatic.  Okay, well, maybe about some things -- but I'm not a fanatic about food or healthy living.  I'm a middle-aged woman who realizes that what we do with our bodies - how we treat them and what we fuel them with, does make a difference to the way we feel.  It makes a difference to how we act.  It probably makes a difference to the length and definitely to the quality of our life.  I say probably because I'm not sure anyone can say how long we would live if we ate differently than we do.  I believe that only one Being can determine our death date and maybe, when our time is up, it's up whether we succumb to disease or other -- but, I do believe we can live with better health for however long we get to be here.

So - to that end - I want to share the Challenge with you to improve your fitness.  Take the first step, starting today, to make a better life for yourself.  I'll share my experience with you, and I hope you'll share your experiences with me.

"The Challenge" I refer to, was based on the challenge put forth on the  SixSistersstuff blog  - which, after reading their blog, I find, was based on the challenge at http://4everwellness.blogspot.com. Whoever gets the original credit, it's a great way to begin changing your life using good healthy principles.

Basically, the challenge encourages you to:
  Drink 64 oz. of water daily
  Eat at least 2 fruits daily
  Eat at least 3 vegetables daily
  Exercise 5 days a week
  Give up sugar 6 days a week
  Not eat after 9 pm
  Keep a food journal
  Do all these things with the support of a friend

You get points for all of the above, and for getting rid of those extra pounds you've been hanging onto, or for simply maintaining your lowest weight (during the challenge.)

How EASY is that?!  There's nothing about counting calories.  It's mostly all about what you should do -- very little about what you shouldn't do.  And, my experience has been that I spend so much time trying to figure out how to do the things I should (eat more fruits and veggies, drink more water, and exercise) that I don't really think as much about the things I shouldn't do  (eat junk food.)  Total win!

You can find details on starting your own challenge or joining an online challenge at one of the two sites linked above.  For now, I'll let that suffice, though I plan to add more detail here in the future.

My first post is just about long enough, but I want to share some of the benefits I've seen in the 5 weeks I've been doing this.  First of all, I am overweight.  It will take more than an 8 week challenge to get me back to a totally healthy weight, but, I am on my way.  In 4 weeks, I'm down 13 lbs.   I've already mentioned that I am a middle-aged woman.  For some time now, I've been feeling the decline in my joints and I've had a variety of annoying skin problems.  I had blamed many of those on the move to a hot humid climate, but, most of those have either reduced in severity and frequency, or disappeared altogether -- all in the last 5 weeks.  I have to give credit to this challenge.  The exercise I've done, which - because of my joint pain, age, and other factors - has been minimal, has increased my stamina and actually improved some of that joint pain!!!  Is it any wonder that I'm excited about this?  I hope you will be too.  I'll be sharing ideas for what to eat, how to add more fruits and more veggies to your diet, and how to enjoy life without all the sugar! Right now, I have to go exercise!  See you soon!