We Are The Champions My Friends

Twelve grueling weeks, ten healthy rules and fourteen competitors head to head in a battle of health and will power.

Meet the competition:

Me
Instigator of the Competition

Lauri
My mother and keeper of the cash

Mike
My older brother
Jeff
My younger brother
The three Hale sisters, my very lovely cousins:

Rachel

Roxanne

Melanie

Brittnee
Also a very dear cousin

Traci

A high school friend

Melissa
Also a high school friend

Rich
Husband to Jeanine...a high school friend
Tammy
A college room mate and world famous opera singer

My Ohio friends and the only Husband and Wife pair to enter the competition:

Autumn

Jake

Just a refresher...These were the rules to live by:


Points are awarded daily for the following (one point for each healthy choice):

1. 30 minutes of exercise
2. 15 additional minutes of exercise (a point for this 15 min is only awarded if you've already exercised for 30 min)
3. healthy breakfast
4. healthy lunch
5. healthy dinner
6. no sweets / soda all day
7. 3 servings of vegetables
8. 2 servings of fruit
9. no unhealthy snacks
10. 64 oz of water

Ten points per day...60 points per week. (Sundays are free days.) Everyone received 2 free points a week...meaning you could make two mistakes and still get a perfect score. In the event of a tie, any unused free points would be counted and the player with the most left over free points would win.

The prize? Cold, hard cash. All players had to pay an entrance fee of $20.

The 12 weeks was up a week ago...points have been tallied, and the first place position goes to yours truly! I made it twelve weeks...through the holidays and a move across the country...with (Are you ready for this?) a perfect score and ALL 24 FREE POINTS UN-USED. Can I get a whoop! whoop! Although the cash was great, my real motivator was the weight loss. I lost 16 pounds during those twelve weeks. The prize money ought to come in handy for some new clothes for this new bod.

A very close second was Tammy...who also had a perfect score, but only 8 leftover free points. And trailing close behind and landing himself in the third place position was Rich. He had a perfect score, but used all free points...up until the very last week when he was extremely sick. He lost a couple extra points that week, but managed to hold his third place position. More than that, he lost over 20 pounds. Way to go Rich!

Honorable mention goes to Melanie...who could have taken Rich's third place position, but lost points for not turning her scores in on time. So sorry Mel. It was one of the rules.

I also have to give a shout out to Mom and Autumn who stuck it out to the end, even though they weren't winning. It seemed to be that the competitors slowly started dropping out once all hope of winning was lost. For some that happened at week 2, other made it most of the way through.

And one more recognition goes to the two pregnant girls. Although they didn't win, way to go for even attempting such a thing. I'm leaving these two nameless because one hasn't made the announcement yet. Don't worry Cindy, it's not any of your daughters. Thanks for trying you two. Congrats and good luck!

My feelings are bittersweet as this competition comes to a close. It was really hard to live those rules 100%. But nothing could have been better to get me into shape and get me on track living healthy. I've still got some baby weight to lose and I don't know how to keep it up without the motivation of the other 13 competitors.

So thank you to all who played...not just thanks for your money... but I know there is no way I could have done this without you. Thanks for playing along. (And sorry about the pictures. I pulled them mainly from your blogs or the blogs of your family members...those of you without blogs didn't have many options.)