Cinderella Pact Week 1 is done! 39 More to go!

I hope this email finds everyone 1 pound lighter or in Gretchen’s case at least the same!

Amber is going to join our little pact, which is GREAT because now Gretchen and Amber have a face to face support system as opposed to phone to phone.

I lost my one pound and I have to exercise today but I’m right on track for getting in my 4 days this week! How about you?

Rachel
Question of the week: What do you do when there is an unexpected GINORMOUS birthday cake with that lovely icing that makes your heart happy at work and everyone is eating it? Does anyone have a good mantra? I was thinking “___________ won’t taste as good as skinner will feel!”

Cinderella Pact rules:
• $ 10 bucks went into the pot for safe keeping (Joe for MD, Warren for MT)
• Goal: 2 pounds in 2 weeks, (or maintain for Gretchen until she gets ok from Doc) if goal not achieved then you add how much you deemed necessary to motivate you to lose those two pounds. Holly and I have placed a $20 on the fridge to remind ourselves of what we’ll have to give up!
• Long Term goal of 40 pounds in 40 weeks, to end right before Thanksgiving, because let’s face it the holidays are a time to focus on maintaining rather than gaining!
• In November, as an additional incentive, (this may not be for everyone but I know it is for me) you have to get a picture taken of yourself. A NICE picture with a photographer! Because we all know how much we avoid those pesky pictures and we don’t want generations to go by without some sort of pictures of ourselves. (Joe teases me that when the kids get older they will ask, “How come we don’t have any pictures of Mommy?” as I am very good at avoiding pictures of myself.)
• And MOST importantly: This is about making little changes to help get ourselves healthy and be here for the long haul, because let’s face it we have all crash dieted, or starved/dieted ourselves to death and lost all of those jiggly parts but we went back to our old ways and have found that those jiggly parts just reattach themselves. I for one do not want to turn 40 and be this unhappy with my jiggly parts!

Exercise Bet Rules:
• For 10 weeks, (or 9 now for Amber) we will exercise at least 4 times a week (Gretchen will start when Doc gives ok)
• You can work out more than 4 days and have a day banked for emergency weeks (see Gretchen and Ice Skating Incident). Last bet I pulled a muscle picking up Liam and was thankful I had one ‘banked’ day.
• If you have an accident (See Gretchen and Ice Skating incident {I’m teasing}) you can drop out of bet but only if you have a doctor’s note! Yes I am a hard a$$ on this one as we’ve had some lame excuses out there about why some people can’t exercise. Plan People Plan! Must be the German in me!
• Minimum amount of time is 20 minute, but more is certainly worth it! But don’t overdo it, people! There was some discussion on if you did 40 minutes can you call that extra 20 a banked day, um…I think we said no to that, because it is a daily thing not a ‘oh crud, I didn’t exercise this week let me cram in 4 twenty minute sessions on Sunday!’ This is about making those changes and not letting ourselves get distracted/or put everyone first mentality we have.
• If you lose, it is ok, we still love you! However, you have to pay 100 bucks to some organization that will motivate you to get off of facebook/ the couch/ the internet. My motivation is to give 100 bucks to the opposite political party, Holly’s is that she has to join a dating service, Gretchen’s is she has to give 100 bucks to me (I think) but more importantly she can’t lose to me! 
• What type of exercise you do is up to you, the point is to be moving and hopefully sweating!