First Day :)

Ready to hit the ground running? You ladies are all going to do great :)  I am very excited! First thing first, this blog is to encourage positivity in hitting our goals. Please make comments as encouraging as you can. If you're having a horribly rotten day, then we'd love it if you would just skip that day and comment the next day; no problem, we all go through that. Second, first thing this morning log into your My Fitness Pal free profile, click on check-in, and enter in today's weight and other body measurements (customizable for which ones you want to track). You'll want to do this after you use the restroom and before you eat breakfast if possible. Check out the "How to Accurately Weight and Measure Yourself" link on the left sidebar. This is your starting point. Second, track what you eat and track what you burn off in exercise in the My Fitness Pal profile. We'll only weigh in once per week and we'll only measure once every three weeks.
Here's a little Metabolism 101 lesson for us: Your body has a base metabolic rate that is the amount of calories your body naturally burns just by breathing in and out each day, pumping your heart, operating bodily functions, etc. There are additional calories your body requires just in normal walking around in everyday life (why MFP asks if you're usually sedentary, moderately active, etc.).   These things contribute to the goal of net calories that MFP determines (diff for each of us) with our stated weight loss goal.  Whatever you burn above the net calorie goal you eat.  The basics of losing weight is that you burn more calories than you take in (a.k.a. calorie deficit). The more complicated explanation of losing weight is that different behaviors, foods, and workouts lend themselves to increasing the rate at which you burn calories (metabolism) or some foods will burn faster and more efficiently than other foods or will sustain your energy for longer than other foods, etc. We'll talk more about that later. So this being day one, just try to, in the words of Abby from the Biggest Loser, "Watch your calories. Keep moving. It works."
Google metabolism and weight loss then share with us what you learn or already knew about how to pump up our metabolisms and make them burn more efficiently! We are calling the crash cart to rescue our sleepy metabolisms and make them amped up and ready to rock this next six weeks! I know you all can do this challenge and hit your goals if you DECIDE you can and DECIDE to challenge your excuses and DECIDE to do whatever hard work it takes to make it happen :)