Monthly Challenge

Kick Fat’s Butt!!

November 2, 2012 by Ajima Jackson 1 Comment

Today’s Inspiration | If someone was trying to take your life, you would fight them. If they were trying to rob you of your joy, you would resist. You have to take the same stance when it comes to defending your health and wellness agains

t a bad diet and lack of exercise. It’s Day 2 of our November challenge and I’m putting FAT on notice. It WILL be defeated. I claim the victory! – Ajima

Black Women Losing Weight’s November Challenge Goals

October 30, 2012 by Ajima Jackson 442 Comments

Our November 2012 Weight Loss Challenge will be the “Exercise 5 days per week | Avoid sweets, candy, soda, or white flour Challenge”!!! We will also be juicing as a bonus challenge for those who are interested.

We will begin on Nov 1. What do you need to do to join the challenge?

1. Commit to the challenge goals!

Exercise 5 days per week for a minimum of 30 min per day. Of course you can do more, but this is the baseline minimum.
Reduce your sugar intake – We will focus on processed sugar (white sugar, corn syrup, artificial sugar, etc). No soda, no diet soda, no sweets, no candy, no cake. You can have natural sweeteners like agave nectar and honey in reasonable quantities. You can also have fruit and sweet veggies like carrots.
No white flour – Our goal will be to avoid as much white, bleached flour as possible. You’ll want to avoid most breads, baked goods, crackers, etc.

2. You will commit to check-in with your fellow BWLW sisters on our online community each Saturday in November to let us know how the challenge is going for you. You will let everyone know your workout totals in terms of days and hours worked out. You will also note what challenges and successes you’ve had while trying to avoid sugar and white flour. Of course, you’ll also note how your weight is affected by the challenge goals. Check-in with a status message, photo, blog post…it’s your choice. We just want to hold each other accountable. BWLW members will also be posting on our Facebook page.

Bonus Challenge – Juicing at least once per day!
Do you want to step up the complexity of this month’s challenge? Interested in adding juicing to your daily eating goals? Me too. I’ve decided to add at least one 20 oz glass of juice to eating regime each day. There are a lot of free recipe resources online that you can check out. I’ll be using a great collection of 101 recipes I found: “101 Juice Fast Recipes“. I bought it after I saw the juice fasting documentary “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead“. Just $1.01! for 101 recipes from African American Juicing Diva, Carla of Raw Raw Life. Check it out!

Leave a comment below and let me know what your goals for November are and what you’d like to get out of this month’s challenge.

Our book of the month will be “Ada’s Rules” and I’ll be posting book club questions on the blog for discussion for those who are interested.

Ada’s Rules: A Sexy Skinny Novel – Ada’s Rules, the story of a black preacher’s wife who has 100 pounds to lose and maybe a cheating husband provides 53 principles for a personal health and beauty revival. A funny novel about serious subjects, from diabetes and obesity to infidelity, it provides a road map that any reader can follow to create change in their own lives and in the world. And it may just be the secret weapon we need to help us all balance the national health budget. Readers will see Ada in themselves as she perseveres through the joys and pains that come with being a loving parent, daughter, wife, friend, and community member pushing for change. Join Ada’s Army. Be one of the readers shifting the shape of the future one body at a time.

Black Women ARE Losing Weight with our monthly challenges! Let’s keep the momentum going in November.

What should BWLW’s November Challenge Be? Vote Today

October 25, 2012 by Ajima Jackson 25 Comments

Update 10/30: Thank you so much for voting in the poll!!! The results are in!!

BWLW's November Weight Loss Goals

Original post 10/25 ——————————————————

Ladies, it’s time to weigh-in on what our November Challenge should be. I’ve included 2 book club challenges where we would read along together and impliment the book suggestions as part of the challenge. You will find the poll below.

Ada’s Rules: A Sexy Skinny Novel – For this challenge we would be reading about and then using Ada’s rules to help us with our weight loss. – Ada’s Rules, the story of a black preacher’s wife who has 100 pounds to lose and maybe a cheating husband provides 53 principles for a personal health and beauty revival. A funny novel about serious subjects, from diabetes and obesity to infidelity, it provides a road map that any reader can follow to create change in their own lives and in the world. And it may just be the secret weapon we need to help us all balance the national health budget. Readers will see Ada in themselves as she perseveres through the joys and pains that come with being a loving parent, daughter, wife, friend, and community member pushing for change. Join Ada’s Army. Be one of the readers shifting the shape of the future one body at a time.

Eat to Live – For this challenge we would follow the plan outlined in the book – The Eat To Live 2011 revised edition includes lots of new success stories from readers of the original book, plus a brand new chapter highlighting Dr. Fuhrman’s discovery of toxic hunger and the role of food addiction in weight issues. This new chapter provides novel and important insights into weight gain, and explains how and why a diet of high micronutrient quality leads to the sensation of true hunger and maintenance of a healthy weight. It instructs readers on how to leave behind the discomfort of toxic hunger, cravings, and addictions to unhealthy foods.

Other updates include:

New recipes and meal ideas
Inspiring success stories from people who have used the program to lose shockingly large amounts of weight and recover from life-threatening illnesses
New and revised Frequently Asked Questions
All references and material reviewed and updated to reflect current research and knowledge in the field of nutrition.

This easy-to-follow, nutritionally sound diet can help anyone shed pounds quickly-and keep them off.

Black Women ARE Losing Weight with our monthly challenges! Let’s keep the momentum going in November.

Check-in Day #3 – October Challenge

October 20, 2012 by Ajima Jackson 8 Comments

It’s Day 20 of our October Challenge!! Time to check-in and let us know how you are doing with the Challenge weight loss goals you committed to at the beginning of the month. Accountability is Key! If you need help, reach out. If you are doing well, let us celebrate with you!

3rd Oct Challenge Check-in

I reached my 5 hour goal and I really committed to eating more raw fruit and veggies. I feel good and I’m down 4 pounds for the month. How about you?

Click here for review the October Challenge Details.

2nd Check in Day for the October Challenge

October 13, 2012 by Ajima Jackson 9 Comments

It’s time to Check-in and tell us how you are doing with the October Challenge Goals. Have you been meatless, eating clean, and working out a minimum of 5 hours per week? Have you lost weight? Do you feel healthier? Let your sistas know and stay accountable! Leave your comment below.

Day 9 – New Workout Resources – BWLW October Challenge

October 9, 2012 by Ajima Jackson 5 Comments

HEYYYYYYY, BWLW LADIES! LOL! Sorry, I’ve been listening to the “Gangnam Style” song during my elliptical machine workouts. One of the best things you can do is put together a great playlist of music for your iPod or mp3 player that really motivates you to work out. Sometimes those songs will carry you when you feel like giving up.

It’s Day 9 of Black Women Losing Weight’s October Challenge and I’m on track with my workout goals. I hope you are too. Today I want to share 3 great workouts that I’ve found online that you can do at home. No excuses. You don’t need to have a gym membership to get fit, Ladies. Give these great , free workouts a try. They are challenging, but that’s what we want. Workouts that will challenge us and give us results.

Women’s Health: The Ultimate Boot Camp Workout – Check out the link for photos of the exercises.

Crazy Home Boot Camp Workout from BodyRock.tv – This one is for those who have been working out for a while and want a challenge.

Day 5 – Recipe Resources for BWLW’s October Challenge

October 5, 2012 by Ajima Jackson 2 Comments

It’s Day 5 and I’m loving this month’s challenge. I’ve been able to maintain my 9 lb weight loss from our September challenge and I feel better. I’m able to run up stairs with ease (had to chase my dog) and my breathing feels even clearer. I feel great. I wanted to share a few of the websites that I’m getting my daily recipes from to keep my diet diverse and interesting. A lot of people complain of boredom when they take out all the junk and negative foods out of their diets. You’ve got to keep your eating interesting. Enjoy!

The Naked Kitchen’s Pledge to go Veg Meal Plans

The Clean Eating Mama’s Breakfast Recipes

Clean Eating Vegetarian Recipes on Yummly

Clean Eating Chelsey – Vegan recipes that are gluten-free and corn-free

Also, Here is a great article from Livestrong.com on how to eat clean as a Vegetarian. Great advice.

Day 30 – September Smoothie Challenge – Last Day of our Challenge

September 30, 2012 by Ajima Jackson Leave a Comment

It’s the last day of our September Smoothie Challenge. I’m down 9 lbs for the month and loving it. Like many other Black Women Losing Weight members, I’ll be continuing with smoothies as part of the Meatless part of our October Challenge.

Today’s Recipes:

Go Green Shake

1/2 ripe banana
1 kiwi, peeled and chopped
½ cup kale (chopped)
½ granny smith apple
¼ cup white grape juice (unsweetened, natural)
¼ avocado, diced
Ice cubes to taste

Green Morning Smoothie

2 cups vanilla almond, coconut or soy milk (I suggest unsweetened)
1/2 cup whole oats (uncooked)
1 1/4 cups fresh, frozen or canned peaches (or mango)
1 cup ice cubes
1 cup baby spinach, loosely packed
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas

Green Tea Spice Smoothie

1/2 cup lowfat vanilla frozen yogurt
2 handfuls of organic, washed baby spinach
1/4 cup chilled brewed green tea (organic if you can)
1 ripe banana
1 tablespoon honey, plus more for garnish
1 cup ice
Dash of nutmeg and a dash of cinnamon

October Challenge – Meatless, Clean Eating, 5 hours of Exercise

September 30, 2012 by Ajima Jackson 131 Comments

Hey Ladies!!! It’s time for our October Challenge. We will begin on OCT 1, 2012 with 3 goals – Meatless, Clean Eating, 5 hours of exercise each WEEK.

I hope you consider all of the goals, but ultimately it’s up to you what you chose to do. If you only want to do 2 out of the 3 for example, that’s fine. If you want to eat fish, that works too. The goal of our monthly challenges is that Black Women Losing Weight members try new positive habits that can enhance their weight loss efforts. You are committing to these lifestyle changes for a whole month!

Determination is KEY!! I will post resources and links daily on our Facebook page, online community, and here on the blog to help you stay on track.

What do I have to do to participate?

Decide what parts of the Challenge you want to commit to. – Meatless Eating, Clean Eating, 5 hours of Exercise EACH Week.
Each Saturday you will check-in and give a status of how the week has gone within our online community, www.blackwomenlosingweight.com. You can do this as a blog post or status message on your profile page. You can also post to our Facebook page to let your BWLW sisters know how the Challenge is going for you. This is how keep each other accountable and encouraged. You will also be able to discuss the challenge every monday night during our LIVE weight loss support chats.

October Challenge Goals – This is what you are committing to!

We are going MEATLESS for 31 days – That means no fish, no chicken, no pork, no beef, no bison…no flesh foods. If it has a mom, we aren’t eating it. In essence we are going vegetarian for 31 days. You will need to consider how you can cook more and plan your meals. I will provide a number of resources for you daily via Facebook and here on our blog.I suggest that you take a B12 supplement or B-Complex supplement at least 3 times per week while going meatless. Most multivitamins have B12 in them as well.If you are wanting to continue our September Smoothie Challenge for another month, please do so as part of the meatless goal. Oh, Eggs are optional. It’s up to you.
We are committing to CLEAN EATING for 31 days – What is clean eating? When you eat clean you will be eating unprocessed, whole foods that are cooked in ways that don’t add a lot of extra chemicals and toxins. We are talking fruits, vegetables, tofu, soy, whole grains, lots of water, healthy dairy, fresh juice, and lean meats.We will be working to avoid fried food, white flour, artificial ingredients, soda, commercial juice and sugary drinks, processed sugar (white sugar, corn syrup), foods with preservatives and extra chemicals, saturated fat, and trans fat.
We are committing to WORKING OUT FOR 5 HOURS EACH WEEK – You can work out at home with DVDs. You can work out in the gym. You can walk at work or in your neighborhood. It’s up to you. Running, yoga, weight lifting, walking, jumping rope, pilates, spin class, zumba…the choices abound. The goal is that you commit to 5 hours of exercise each week.