Welcome!

Hi! Thanks for joining us here on Healthy, Fit, and Fabulous! You've taken the first step to a new you, and we are so glad that you are here! We are people from all walks of life, and from all over the world, banding together to help motivate one another to accomplish our goals of a thinner, newer, healthier you! I will briefly go over the little things, but first thing's first.

In order to get you all of the start up materials that you need, you need to email us at: HealthyFitandFabulous@cox.net with your name and email address so that we can send you the Welcome Packet. Inside the Welcome Packet, you will find much more in depth information than what we are about to share with you. Now, on to the good stuff. :)

Every Sunday, there will be a Weigh In post here at the blog. Everyone participating in The Plan will need to come to the blog every Sunday and post their pounds lost for that week. There is no need to tell everyone how much you weigh every week, a simple, "I lost 3 pounds this week!!" will suffice. :) Each week, after Sunday is over and everyone has posted their weight loss for the week, the numbers will be tallied, and we will keep a Pounds Lost tracker in the top right corner of the blog so that we can always see how much weight we have collectively lost. Obviously we want that number to be as large as possible, so we will all want to do our best to feed the meter! What is the most important is that we are honest in our weigh ins every week. It does us no good to merely wish away the pounds and report false numbers.

Every week, there will be a different challenge posted off to the right hand side. This is a challenge to help keep us on our toes in being more active throughout the week. Each week, they will get progressively more difficult. The challenge could be anything from "Try to add an extra ten minute walk in this week on at least two days" or "Try to eat more 4-Star foods this week." The challenge could be exercise related, food related, or a challenge with a reward attached to it. Whatever it is, it is not mandatory that you participate. Nothing on this site is mandatory at all. It is just a way of keeping people motivated. In your Welcome Packet, there is a Weekly Challenge Log, where you can write down (or fill in using Word) the challenge for the week, and then check off the days that you accomplish that challenge. On Sunday, there will be a Challenge Check In to see how we did in accomplishing the weekly challenge.

Along with the weekly challenge being posted off to the right hand side, there will be a poll for everyone to participate in each week. It will just be a random question for everyone to answer, and the answers are anonymous. It will be a fun way to break up all of the serious talk on here. :)

A key factor to losing weight is knowing where you are starting. The Welcome Packet will walk you through finding out your BMI, how many calories you should intake in order to lose weight, how to weigh and measure yourself, as well as give you charts for you to mark your starting points and check in points along the way. We have done our best to come up with the simplest charts and logs to use, but, again, if you find that you do not like them and you have an easier way of keeping track of your progress, these are not mandatory forms that you need to keep.

Each week, we will try to share a new healthy recipe with everyone, or another day's worth of meals to help keep your meals fresh. If there is every anything that you would like to share with us, whether it be one of your day's worth of food or a new recipe that you tried and loved, you can always e-mail us and we will review it and then share it on the blog. If you are sharing a recipe, try to have the nutritional facts included at the end of the recipe so that we can pass these numbers along as well. However, don't let it stop you from sharing the recipe. We can always do investigative work to find out the numbers. :)

The Welcome Pack has a Personal Bio sheet included. We are asking that everyone fill it out and e-mail it back to us along with a current photo of you. Each week, we will feature a different member participating in The Plan so that we can all get to know each other.

Losing weight can be difficult. Especially when you go at it alone. It is always easier to have a group of people who are trying to achieve the same goal as you are who will stand by your side and help to push you to be a better you. That is what we are trying to do. We are here to keep you motivated to reach your goals. Share with us your success stories, your dreams, your fears. Let us help your to be the Healthy, Fit, and Fabulous person we know you are!