GAME ON 4 WEEK CHALLENGE

Welcome to the GAME ON CHALLENGE!

This 4 week challenge is an opportunity to participate in a fun and healthy way of recalibrating your body for optimal health and fitness! If you want to participate, please let Tara know by Friday, August 19th. Even if you have vacations or other plans coming up, I encourage you to try this challenge as the scores are based on a point system that allows for imperfection. It’s like real life, sometimes things come up that make it hard to eat healthy or exercise, and this will teach you how to adapt and enjoy yourself!

At the end of the challenge, you will have learned what works for you and what doesn’t. You will have implemented some new, healthy habits, and hopefully gotten rid of those habits that don’t serve you well. Your clothes should fit better, and your energy levels should be more steady. And to top it off, the team with the highest score will select an activity or event and all participants will participate! So if Tara wins, look forward to a mud run or something strenuous that benefits the Humane Society or other animal organization. You get the idea… (Yes, Tara is playing!)

The information you will need is below. It’s a lot, but don’t worry, there’s an easy scorecard you will use to make it super simple to track (see link below… be sure to save your own copy). It’s not as hard as it looks! There will be texts, emails, Facebook, and other forms of virtual communication to keep you motivated and on track.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l7qAgfkLf5YR63t_-yDjki1P_CBwkDjE1F1B-RhnQ0o/edit?usp=sharing

To start, choose your team (unless you want to go it solo), set your “habit” goals, and let Tara know!

WHEN
August 22 through September 18
(You will have 5 weeks to complete the 4 week challenge… if you need to “take off” a week of the challenge, you will have until September 25th to complete the challenge)

WHO
Any Revolution Personal Training Client OR a teammate of your choosing. Really anyone can play!

TEAMS
You must decide your teams prior to the challenge. Teams can be 1 person and up to 3 people. Your score will be tallied and averaged at the end of each week. The idea of choosing teams is to help keep each other motivated and accountable! Everyone’s actions count, so turn in your best score!

COMMUNICATION
You must be in communication with at least one member of your team and a competing team at least once a day. You can communicate via email, text, phone, or in person. You can earn 5 daily communication points for communicating. (You must communicate with both your team and an opposing team to earn points). Also, you will submit your team’s weekly points total to Tara by the end of each Monday.

THE HONOR SYSTEM
Each player keeps their own score. Please do this with absolute integrity. Judge yourself at least as harshly as you would judge your opponent. Everything counts. Eat even one Jelly Bean in between meals… take the snacking penalty.

WATER
Drink a minimum of 3 liters (about 12 cups) of water a day for a total of 10 points each day. You do not earn partial points for drinking some of the water.

SLEEP
To earn 15 sleep points, you must be in bed with the lights out a minimum of seven hours before you know you have to wake up. You do not earn partial points for fewer hours of sleep.

EXERCISE
You must exercise (any kind of exercise that elevates your heart rate) for a minimum of 20 minutes a day, to earn 20 points a day. Extra minutes each day do not earn extra points. There are no partial points for less than 20 minutes of exercise.

THE FOOD
*Eat five small meals a day.
*Each meal should include a combination of lean protein, healthy fats, carbohydrates (whole grains, fruit, and/or vegetables).
*A list of suggested foods will be provided.
*Meals must be no fewer than two and no more than four hours apart.
*Meals must contain NONE of the foods listed on the FOODS TO AVOID page you will be provided.
*You must include veggies in at least two of your meals or you cannot receive your meal points for these meals.
*Each fully sanctioned meal is worth 6 points for a total of 30 possible meal points a day. There are no partial points for meals that meet some of the rules. 6 or 0.
*Between meals, you may snack on ONLY cucumbers and celery without penalty. Any other snacks, including juices, pop with sugar, and lattes earn you a snack penalty.*
*The Exception: Each day, in addition to your five meals, you may consume up to 100 calories of whatever you want but not including alcohol, or soda.
*Penalty: If you eat anything between meals besides cucumbers and celery, you must deduct a 10-point snacking penalty.
*Coffee- You can have your coffee, but just can’t have your frothy coffee drinks.
Here is a really quick overview of what the food plan looks like. Be sure to check the foods lists to see what foods are allowed and what are not.

MORE FOOD DETAILS
– 5 meals a day (or you can think of it as 3 meals and 2 snacks, but the rules are the same for all meals)
– EACH MEAL must include:
1 palm sized portion of a lean protein
1 fist sized portion of carbs OR a fruit
1 thumb sized portion of something from the fats list (note butter and margarine are not on the list)
– 2 of your meals a day must include a serving equal to the size of two fists of vegetables
– you may also eat unlimited green vegetables with any meals
– you also get 100 free calories that you can use for whatever you want (condiments, butter, a piece of chocolate)
-the guideline, if you are using your 100 calories to have a treat (such as a bite of cake), in situations where you cannot find out the actual calories, is to assume that a portion the size of -your thumb is the equivalent to 100 calories (this is the strategy we will use for this challenge)
– the only snack you can have outside of this meal structure is cucumbers and celery

DAY & MEAL OFF
You get one full day off. Give yourself full points for everything on this day.
You get one other meal off. Full points awarded for this meal, whatever you eat.
Each day you get 100 calories that you can use for “treats”, excluding alcohol and soda.

HABITS
You earn 10 points a day by eliminating an unhealthy habit and 10 points a day by practicing a new healthy habit. You must declare both of your habit choices to your teammates and Tara and stick with them for the entire game.

THE WEIGH IN
Weigh yourself on Monday, August 15th, in the morning, as soon as you can after waking. Then, weigh each Monday morning before doing the final points tally for the week.

BONUS POINTS…Each week, you must lose 1 percent of your body weight to earn a bonus that equal 20 percent of your points scored for the week.

Calculations:
Your weight x 0.01 = Weekly weight loss needed goal to earn Bonus Points

Your Points Earned this week x 0.2 = Bonus Points

Note: If weight loss is not a goal, you can set yourself a fitness goal instead. You must declare your fitness goal in advance, and you are accountable to report on your progress honestly.

PENALTY… DO NOT WEIGH YOURSELF MORE THAN ONCE A DAY. IF YOU DO, YOU LOSE A POINT EACH EXTRA TIME YOU GET ON THE SCALE!

(Details on the Fitness Goal)
DETERMINE an appropriate and very aggressive Fitness Goal that you can use in place of the weight loss goal. Here are the guidelines from the book. Note the examples are challenging, much more so than just doing 20 minutes of exercise a day.

– Do a HIIT workout on Monday. If you do a stationary bike, and the highest level you can sustain for a certain amount of time is 6, then set yourself a goal of reaching level 7 by Sunday. If you do it, you get your bonus points. The key here, as with every aspect of this game, is complete integrity. Ride as hard as you can on Monday. Then train like hell to beat yourself a week later. If you don’t do it, you don’t get the bonus points!
– You can also set yourself a distance goal (if you can run only five miles on Monday, you want to be able to run five and a half by Saturday).
– Or a weightlifting goal (set yourself a goal weight). You get the idea.

FOODS TO AVOID
F.L.A.B.B. (Fat-loading and Belly-bloating) Foods

All fried foods
High-fat/processed meats
Anything made with refined sugar (which includes sugar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, and sucrose)
Anything made with white flour
Butter
Margarine
Whole-fat cheese
Cream
Dried fruit/fruit juice**

Some common foods that fall into these categories:
Baked goods
All sugery breakfast cereals
Most breakfast bars
Cakes
Candy
Chocolate
Condiments (ketchup, BBQ sauce, mayo, mustard, etc)
Cookies
Donuts
Ice cream
Pastries
Pies
Granola**
Potato chips
French fries
Fruit “drinks”
Sugar-sweetened beverages
All sodas (Coke, Pepsi, etc.)*
Bacon
Fast-food sandwiches and burgers
Hot dogs
Jerky
Salami
Sausage
Bologna
Chicken nuggets, strips, figners
Fish sticks
Mayonnaise

* Not options for your 100 calories a day
** Not junk food but very high calorie

As a general rule, the more processed and packaged and preserved it is, the worse it is for you. And further away from actual food it is, the worse it is for you.