How I Lost 14.5 lbs and 10.75 inches in 6 weeks ( my weight loss story )

After hearing about April Kennedy’s Body Mind and Soul challenge from fellow blogger, Jen Hadfield, at Tatertots and Jello, I decided to sign up with a team of 3 other bloggers and commit to losing weight the healthy and natural way. April’s program does cost $30 per person ($120/team), but it’s pooled into a pot that rewards the teams with the highest weight loss percentage and inches lost and the winners reap the benefits not only of great new bodies, but of a financial incentive of upwards of $400 per winning team! I like to think of losing weight on a team as sort of peer pressure weight loss. You don’t want to be the person with the lowest points each week (although sometimes you are)…so it motivates you to get moving!

So here’s how the challenge worked! Each week April sent us all out a score sheet where we keep track of our points. She also provided a positive, neutral, and negative food list at the beginning of the challenge, which tells you what you should and should not be eating. You’re to eat as much off the positive list as you can, a limited off the neutral, and for anything you eat off the negative list you get negative points. Each week you’re allowed two free negative points and each challenge you’re allowed one free day without loss of points.

For the weekly scoring cards, they consist of calculating if you have to eat at least 10 foods off the positive list a day, of which 5 should include fruits or veggies (you shouldn’t get hungry on this challenge). You also must drink the required amount of daily water, exercise at least 30 minutes 5 days a week, as well as some mental exercises to cover the spiritual part of the challenge. You’re also not allowed to eat after 9 p.m. or you lose those points for the day…and so on. Each week the water intake increases until you’re drinking a steady 8 glasses of water per day and each week you also get “bonus” points and ways to earn more points for yourself…some of the bonuses included flossing daily for a week…cleaning your car out…eating Whole 30 for two days, etc. At the end of the week you tally up how many points you got out of the possible 500 and email them, along with your teams, to April for scoring. Then she emails out the standings for all the individuals and teams. Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with the specifics on the food, you need to sign up to get that—but it basically consists of fruits, veggies, whole wheat/whole grain pasta/breads, no sugar, etc.

I’m fully aware my before pictures are makeup-less and awful…don’t judge.

I’m happier and healthier and still want to lose about 10 more pounds. I’ve taken the last few weeks to just kind of relax and enjoy what I like a bit (and avoid the scale), but I’m starting up on another 6 week BMS challenge on April 11^th and I really can’t wait. April has a Facebook group for you to bounce questions and ideas off of too…and provide support to each other. And your team will help get you over the hump and encourage you along every step of the way.

For someone like me who’s struggled to find the time and motivation for a while now, this challenge far exceeded my expectations and helped me remember that you don’t need to do the fad diets to lose weight. With a little bit of dedication and a strong support system, the good old fashioned way of eating healthy and working out WILL help you lose weight and keep it off…and create long lasting habits. I encourage you to take a moment to check out April’s site and bookmark April 2^nd to sign up for her next challenge!

Let me know if you have any questions! I do have better before and after photos, but given my line of work I choose not to put them on my blog, so you’ll just have to take my word for it 😉

I was not compensated for this post in any way, nor am I earning anything for writing about it. I just felt compelled to tell my story about something that FINALLY worked for me and motivated me to lose weight in a healthy and affordable way and teach me to make better life choices.