“Lose to Win” Rules
1. Exercise: You need to get at least 20 min. of exercise a day with one day off.2. Sleep: Get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. This consists of lights out and a good effort of trying to sleep. If you lay there unable to sleep and don’t get up to do something else, you get your sleep points. You will eventually fall asleep. You get two days off of this rule. (In the case of a mother with children who need attention during the night, you may tend to their needs then go directly back to bed with no penalty)
3. Water: Drink at least 2 liters (quarts) of water a day. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it!
4. Habits: Choose two things you'd like to work on each day. These habits are chosen at the beginning of the game and remain the same throughout the 4 weeks of the game. Some examples of this are: Make sure my dishes are done before I go to bed, Floss my teeth daily, Spend quality time with my child, Practice piano 30 min a day, etc.
5. Communication: Communicating with at least one person involved in the game daily earns points. This helps you stay motivated, plus it’s FUN! This can be accomplished by email, text, phone, or in person. Three days out of the week need to be communication on our private Facebook page. This helps people stay motivated to communicate as a group.
Now for the Nitty Gritty:
6. Meals:
a) You get at least four meals a day but no more than six. For at least three days, your daily meals will include the three key ingredients (protein – size of palm (This is LEAN meat if your protein is in meat form. Stay away from fatty meats: bacon, ham, some beef etc). , healthy carb – size of fist (this consists of vegetables, fruit, and whole grains), healthy fat – size of thumb unless it’s oil then size of thumbnail. You may have one "free" tablespoon of honey a day so use it wisely.
OPTIONAL – For up to three days, you may just count calories for your meals and not worry about combining the above nutrients in your meals. You must keep your calorie intake lower than your calorie burn. A good way to track this is by using a site such as myfitnesspal.com. It will record your exercise as well as the food you consume. This option replaces a day off.
b) No fried foods.
Other: You are allowed to have a 6-inch Subway sandwich. Although, I wouldn't do it more than once a week because it definitely IS a larger serving of grain, if you eat the turkey, no cheese, you are within a good calorie limit. I wouldn't eat the meatball marina until a meal or day off.
A meal replacement shake can be used once a day. It's so important to get your nutrients with whole food so I like to limit these. Sometimes we need something quick - grab and go. Make sure you look at the ingredients and don't have one that contains sugar. Really watch for aspartame and other sugar substitutes too. Let me know what you find.
Clean Eating Clean eating is no processed food at all. No cans, packages or boxes with the exception of eggs and lean meat. The idea here is that we eat the food in it's natural state before any processing. These foods would include: Vegetables, fruit, nuts, lean meat, eggs, and hot air popcorn on clean eating days. Eating clean earns you forgiveness of one SQUARE on your score sheet. This can be used for only one clean eating day.
1. Two string cheese WILL be allowed a day (or equivalent in low fat cheese)
2. Two (this is a change from previous post) 8 oz glasses of milk a day
3. Hot air popcorn (no butter or oil)
4. No limit to portion sizes on fruit or vegetables.
5. No more than fist size of protein (this is up from palm size)
The idea is to eat nothing processed. You don't need to follow the portion sizes, but you need to be careful. Just remember, you can sabotage your weight loss if you eat too many nuts, etc. Protein shakes are not allowed (processed). Yogurt - not allowed (processed). I believe we gave an exception for yogurt if it was homemade, but it would need to replace a cheese ( you are allowed 2 string cheeses)
Generally, clean eating means one ingredient things.
Raw Eating You can choose to eat "raw" (this doesn't mean raw meat!) and not worry about portion sizes. These foods would include: RAW vegetables, fruit, nuts, sprouts, raw milk. There are really technical ways of making crackers, breads, and gourmet dishes with a dehydrator if you want to get into it! The idea here is that heat above 115 degrees destroys some of the nutrients. Be careful to get a good variety of foods and enough protein or you may just deprive your body which makes it want the bad stuff! Eating one day raw earns you forgiveness for two squares on your score sheet. You can eat this way as many days as you'd like, but can only use it once a week for two "forgiveness" squares.
7. Snacking:
a) There will be acceptable snacks between meals. These will include any vegetables in proper portion sizes. You may eat one serving of any vegetable unless it is a green leafy salad, which is unlimited. Celery and cucumbers are also unlimited. Be careful not to eat too many starchy vegetables.
You could also choose to snack on fruits as long as you have no more than two snacks of fruit servings a day.
b) Dressing on snacking salads is limited. You still only get five portions of healthy fat during the day so you may learn other ways of dressing your salad or just eat raw vegetables. Some ideas of low calorie dressings are: Lemon juice, salad spritzer, a little salt and pepper.
c) Non-acceptable snacks include everything else and carry a ten point snacking penalty.
8. Exceptions (Things to make it all easier!):
a) You get 100 calories during the day of anything you want each day. ANYTHING. Just remember 100 calories is not much.
b) You get one meal off during the week. You can choose to use this meal to eat whatever you want. This meal can last 1 ½ hours. Portions or limitations on what kinds of food you eat are not assessed during this meal.
d) You get one day off of ALL rules. You can take these separately or all in one day.
b) You get one meal off during the week. You can choose to use this meal to eat whatever you want. This meal can last 1 ½ hours. Portions or limitations on what kinds of food you eat are not assessed during this meal.
d) You get one day off of ALL rules. You can take these separately or all in one day.
9. Penalties:
Points
are taken away for changing your habits mid game, snacking on
unacceptable snacks (past your 100 calorie limit), not getting at least 4
servings of vegetables in a day and for eating more than 2 servings of
fruit a day.10. Fasting:
There is no penalty when fasting for religious purposes. You don’t need to plan your day off for a fast day. If you are fasting, give yourself full points for food and water missed during that period and resume with one or two meals after you break your fast with the game rules applying.
11. Redeeming Yourself:
For every full clean eating day, you can wipe out one mistake on your score sheet. A clean eating day consists of eating totally natural - no preserved food at all (boxes, bags, cans of food). Clean foods include: lean meat, eggs, nuts, fruit, vegetables, beans if not canned.
I've thought about [the all or nothing mentality we sometimes feel after not losing weight for the week] and wondered if there could be such a thing as a 2 day redemption if you didn't lose weight. You could have Monday and Tuesday to exercise 2 extra hours, go both days without sugar in anything, and do 2 thoughtful acts of service.
If you'd like to exercise this option when you don't lose weight for the week, just report that you have done these things and you can have your 20% added to the last week's score. This needs to be done Monday and Tuesday and reported on Wednesday to count.
12. Bonus Points:
Each week we will present opportunities to earn bonus points. A) A weekly challenge will earn extra bonus points B) Lose weight, inches, OR fat percentage during each scoring period. This bonus is figured as 20% of your score BEFORE the other extra bonus points.
13. Winning the game:
The high weekly winner will receive a "free square" to be used however he/she pleases on the score sheet. This free square is for weeks 1, 2, and 3. On the 4th week (the end of the game), there will be a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place monthly overall winner.
14. Scoring:
The score sheet allows 20 points per meal. The full 20 points are scored when the proper elements are eaten together (protein, carbohydrate, and fat) in the proper portions. (See under *Meals* for proper sizes) If one of the key elements is left out, or if something is eaten from the “do not eat” list, and you are not using it toward your 100 calorie snack, your full 20 points are forfeited. PLEASE FIGURE YOUR SCORE FROM TOP TO BOTTOM OF THE SCORE SHEET. If you add it in order it will work the way it is meant to. If you take the points possible and subtract your penalties, then add your bonus, it won’t be fair. Your score will be higher than when figured in order.
Scores need to be posted to the group on our private Facebook page by 8 pm each Monday evening or your score will receive a 10 point deduction.
When eating using the calorie counting method, the following scoring is employed:
If you were to eat five meals a day, and stay under 1500 calories, you would need to eat 300 calories per meal on average. So if you go over calories by:
1 - 300 deduct 20 points from your score sheet (equivalent of one meal)
301 - 600 deduct 40 points from your score sheet
601 - 900 deduct 60 points from your score sheet
901 and up - That's just wrong... you lose 120 meal points!
Maintenance
Once you make your goal weight, you can continue with us in the support of the healthy eating plan by choosing a fitness challenge to work on instead of a weight loss challenge. Accomplishing this fitness goal will earn your 20% bonus points for the week. You will have to adjust your portion sizes a little to maintain weight instead of lose. You may find that it really doesn’t need to be adjusted much. Generally, it will change to a palm for protein, a fist plus your other hand wrapped around your fist for the healthy carb, and the same for healthy fat (thumb size or thumbnail for oil).
