Weekly Challenge #1

This week's challenge is to make sure your Contact Information is added to the Spreadsheet, and to Choose your 3 Personal Wildcard goals.

Also, if you haven't sent in your Picture and Quote, Heather will be coming after you in your sleep!  DO IT!

We purposely make this Challenge an easy one, because we will all be getting used to everything else:  keeping our goals, marking our points, updating our Food Journals, etc.

** A Word about Your Personal Wildcards:  Make them specific.  Writing down, "Morning Prayers", is more specific than, "Prayers".  Or, "Eating 5 fruits and veggies" is more specific than, "Eat better".

You get it?  Make your Personal Wildcards measurable.  For instance, "Drinking Water" is more vague than, "Drink 8 glasses of water."
Do you want to go to bed, or wake up earlier?  Write down a specific time to help you stick to it.  You will find that the more specific the goal is, the more change you will see in your personal behavior.

GOOD LUCK!!

FAQ'S

Do you have any of these questions?  Look below for the answers!

- What are my personal wildcards and am I stuck with the ones I choose for the whole challenge?
- What are the Weekly Challenges?
- What's all this Blog business?
- What are these team-thingys?  I thought this was an individual challenge?
- Any hints to working the spreadsheet?


What are my personal wildcards, and am I stuck with the ones I choose for the whole challenge?
Personal Wildcards are the things you want to work on, separate from the group challenges.  Since the whole point is to better ourselves, we gotta choose something specific to us, in each of our 3 Categories:  Physical, Spiritual, and Family.  If your goals are private, just mark, "Personal", or "Private" on the spreadsheet.  It's up to you how you want to handle them.
And, no, you don't have to keep the same goals for the entire challenge.  Every 3 weeks, you get to change them!  Aren't we nice?
  
What are the Weekly Challenges?
The weekly challenges are things that all of us can work on to improve our lives.  We choose them based on the 3 main categories we are trying to be better at.  Each week, on SUNDAY, watch for a new blog post.  That's how we'll tell you what the weekly goal is.  Make sure you stay up on them!!
  
What's all this Blog Business?
"What's all this Blog Business"?  Really.  No need to be rude.  :)  The blog can be one of the best parts of the challenge!  It's how we lend a hand to our fellow competitors.  We can offer words of encouragement, advice, or explanations.  Each week, on WEDNESDAY, we will post a topic of discussion.  Please respond with a meaningful comment.  You get to mark a point on the spreadsheet, AND you get to connect with everyone else.  Watch for the new posts!  You have from Wednesday to Sunday to reply.

What are these team-thingys?  I thought this was an individual challenge?
Yes, the challenge is individual. You measure your own points, and are not compared to others.  The teams are a way for us to feel connected.  Use them however you feel you need to.  When Erin and I were on the same team last fall, we called each other, or emailed encouragement.  We gave each other reminders on the areas we struggled in.  
There will be a couple of weeks where we take your WHOLE TEAM'S total points.  The team with the most points will all win a prize.

Any other questions?  Reply to this blog, and check the box that allows all followers to see your response.  Erin and I will answer the questions asap, and everyone can see! 
Is there no end to our generosity?......   

Any hints to working the spreadsheet?
Yes! 
1)  Notice the Tabs.  Tabs will get you everywhere!  The total calculation page is not usually the page you need to worry about.  I know it's the first tab, and it shows you everything, but Move On Over to your Group Tab.  Your Group Tab is your friend!

2)  Mark your Contact Info.
3)  Write your Personal Wildcards down.
4)  Give yourself a Point on the total calculation tab.
5)  Woo Hoo!  
  

Start Up and Look Forward to your First Week

Wanna Get Off on the Right Foot?

Follow This Checklist:

1)  Have you Paid Your $25?

2)  Have you Sent in your picture and quote?

3)  Have you filled in your Contact information on the Spreadsheet?

4)  Have you Decided on your Personal Wildcards?  You need one for each category!

A note about the blog:  Please watch every Sunday for the New Weekly challenge.  We rotate them every week, and you will need to know what it is to get your daily points.

Also, when you respond to blog posts, please check the box that allows everyone to see your response.  It is truly helpful as we all respond, as we will not have to log on every day to see every comment-- we can just see them in our email inboxes. 

WELCOME, FAMILY MEMBERS!

Dear Family,

Erin and Heather are starting their VERY OWN BetterU Challenge.  We would like to invite all family members who are interested to join in.  We are SO excited about doing this with our family.  We have each participated in one before, and saw good results in our lives.  Remember, this is a GAME! 

WHAT IS THE BETTER U CHALLENGE?

The challenge was started by the American Heart Association as a way to get women to help each other lower their risk of heart disease.  It encourages the overall well-being of all individuals in the areas of Nutrition, Exercise, Stress Reduction, and Education.  Typically, a small fee is paid so that winners of different parts of the challenge can receive a prize.

Here is a BASIC RUNDOWN of the program, as quoted from our cousin-in-laws:

"Physical, Spiritual, and Family

 We are excited about spending the next 9 weeks focusing on things that are really important, and finding a balance for all those important things in our lives.  We are also excited about inviting YOU to join us! There is something about working with positive, encouraging women that is so... well... positive and encouraging! To be clear, it is a game.  There are  rules, winners, and prizes.   But truthfully, the reason most people play - and keep coming back - is the feeling of community, encouragement, and accomplishment, whether you are winning in the point tally of the game, or really winning at life, because you are accomplishing more today than you were last week."

Challenge Dates:  April 1-June 3

9 Weeks

All members REGISTER by emailing Heather at heather.schneg@gmal.com.  Registration includes $25.00 mailed to Erin Jordan at 1500 Green Edge Trail, Wake Forest, NC 27587, or use the PayPal button at the bottom of the blog.  ALL monies will be used for rewards, only.  Registration also includes a picture and quote sent to heather.  We want everyone to know who you are!

CHALLENGE GOALS:  Each category will have 2 pre-set goals.  One goal per category is reserved for you to tailor to your personal needs.  This is called a Wildcard.
We will be throwing in a Weekly Task to keep you on your toes!  This makes a total of 10 Daily Tasks.

PHYSICAL

1) EXERCISE 30 MINUTES MINIMUM PER DAY
One day a week, you will receive the exercise point for taking time to rest and relax, so to get the points every day you'll exercise six days per week and rest one day per week.

2) DAILY ELECTRONIC JOURNAL
The ones we use are MyFitnessPal.com, or livestrong.com.  They're free, and do a really good job.  But if you have another one you like - it's ok to use that.  It does need to total and keep track of your calories in vs calories out.  (You don't have to tell us the totals, just keep track for yourself.)

3) YOUR PHYSICAL WILDCARD GOAL

Find something that's a challenge for you! You can change this one every 3 weeks. Ideas:  5 fruits and veggies, daily strength training, positive calorie burn, set a bedtime.

SPIRITUAL

4) 15 MINUTES RELIGIOUS READING (scriptures, magazines, books, etc.)

5) 5 PENNY SERVICE 
This is named after the story of a woman who, despite finding herself in her last few months of life, continued to place pennies on her windowsill as a reminder to do little acts of service throughout the day.  As she completed an act of service, she would move a penny from one side of the sill to the other.  Her acts of service inspired her family, and others.  We can meet this goal by finding small acts of service to do anytime, anywhere, for anyone.  Be Creative!  Have Fun!  Look for small ways to help those around you, and make them count.

6) YOUR SPIRITUAL WILDCARD GOAL

Find a spiritual goal that's a challenge for you! You can change this one every 3 weeks. Ideas: personal prayer, journaling, family history.  Make sure it's one you can measure daily.
.

FAMILY

7) 5 MINUTE HOME ENRICHMENT HOT SPOT

This task focuses on the little things that sometimes slip through our fingers:  replacing a light bulb, pulling a few weeds, filing papers, dusting ceiling fans, sweeping the garage, replacing the line in our weed trimmer, etc.
8) SPECIAL TIME WITH FAMILY MEMBER

Make the time to spend one on one with any family member. You might consider making each day of the week a day for a different child, your spouse, or brother/sister. Or perhaps you're working on strengthening your marriage, communicating with your teen, or reading with your kindergartner and you'll focus every day on that aspect of your relationship. Maybe you will choose to call someone who lives far away.  Regardless of how you choose to personalize this task, we hope it will be meaningful and helpful.

9) YOUR FAMILY WILDCARD GOAL

Find a family related goal that's a challenge for you! You can change this one every 3 weeks. Ideas: family prayer, family scriptures, set and keep a dinnertime, family history.

10) CHANGING WEEKLY TASK*

*The Weekly Task is a goal that mixes things up a little.  The new Weekly Task will be posted every Sunday night on the blog.

Extra Points:

• Weekly Blog Comment - On Wednesdays we will post a question to the group.  You can give yourself a point when you comment on that post.  Of course, you are always welcome to comment on other posts as well.  We love it.

• Team and Partner Weeks - You get bonus points for participating in these, as well as bonus points if your team/partnership gets at least 85% of the weekly points.  Most people love these weeks, and somehow it's a different kind of motivation when someone else is counting on you.

Prizes!

To keep people motivated along the way, we will have weekly prizes and drawings for players who do well in any given week.  Erin will be working very hard to find gifts that can be used by all ages and genders.  Rewards will be given throughout the challenge.  

Endpoints will also be tallied to reveal:

Overall Winner   

Physical Points    

Spiritual Points   

Family Points   

  

Things to Know 

• All players keep track of their own points daily using a separate spreadsheet. You will mark a '1' if you completed the task, and a '0' if you did not. Points that are not entered daily are forfeited.  After midnight, Heather will mark the forfeited points with an 'X'.  We recommend writing down phone numbers, so that if you lose your access to a computer you can call or text and we will put them in for you.

• We don't make money on this.  All the funds we collect are paid out in prizes.  For us, it's about the fun, support, and accountability.  We will do our very best to keep things fair and honorable.  If you feel like there's a problem, please let us know and we will do whatever we can to solve the problem.