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.