ROUND 2 Starts Today: Let’s Get Healthy and Lose Weight Together!! A *NEW* 8 Week Challenge! (Plus, a Cash Pot to Keep You Motivated!)

Just a quick reminder that this starts TODAY!  So here is your last call to join in, if you want.  We already have OVER 170 people signed up to do it.  So that’s a lot of cash and incentive to help you reach your goals!  :)

Ok, it’s time for Round 2!  If you didn’t join last time, or loved it so much you want to do it again, it’s time to sign up! This 8 week session starts on April 6th (the day after Easter so you can eat as much Candy and Cadbury Eggs as you want before we start. 😉 ).

I know I’m not the only one out there who has a goal to either get healthier, eat more clean, or just lose weight.  And I’m sure a lot of you might even have a New Year’s Resolution to do that as well. Towards the end of January, and after a few weeks of keeping on track, it might be getting harder to keep going.  So the Feel Great in 8 Challenge is just what we need!

Here are a few thoughts from the F2D Readers who participated in our last challenge:

Reader Katie Said:  This challenge was exactly what I needed to get back on track health-wise. I lost 17 pounds during the challenge thanks to making healthier food choices and getting back into a good exercise routine. My baby girl is 8 months old and the weight just wasn’t going away. I’m now 7 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight and finally back into my regular pants! My ultimate goal is to get back to my pre-marriage weight and now I feel like I’m actually on the right track.

Reader Erica Said:  I’ve lost my last 12 vanity lbs. (hello high school weight smile emoticon and seriously feeling great – I love feeling in control of my eating and feeding my family better but more than anything I love the time spent reading scriptures, praying and gratitude journaling these past 8 weeks. With 5 kids under 9 it was so hard to find the time for it and this has really helped me to organize my day to fit it in and it’s been an amazing blessing. My goal was to be a nicer mom and this whole program (nourished body, mind and spirit) was a magic bullet for extending my patience.

Reader Chantel Said:  I’m so grateful for a wise and amazing friend that talked me into doing this challenge with her! It gave me the motivation to make some healthy changes in my life and stay consistent with those changes. I have lost 15 lbs and am feeling so good! I am proud of myself to have stuck with it and was grateful for this challenge coming into my life when it did. I accomplished my goal of running a 5k again today and even got to do that with my wonderful friend Josie. I am more aware of what I’m eating and have renewed my love of working out. I’m also so thankful for the other mental and spiritual aspects of the challenge. Thanks Feel Great in 8!!!

Reader Emilie Said:  I have absolutely loved doing this challenge! I have accomplished my goal to be able to run a 5k. I ran my first one on Tuesday in 33 min, which is much better than I thought I could do! I’ve lost 10 lbs, and feel so much better all around. Tiffany was truly inspired to create this challenge and I’m so grateful I found it through freebies2deals! Thank you so much!!

And there are lots more where that came from!!  But we don’t need this post to be any longer. 😉

Tiffany from Feel Great in 8 put together a “Freebies2Deals Feel Great 8 Week Challenge” just for us!!  Participants will put in $20 into “the pot” and you’ll get points for eating things like fruits, vegetables and staying away from sweets and junk food.  You’ll also get points for drinking water, exercising and taking supplements your body needs.

One of the cool and different things about this program is that you will also get points for things like spending time with your family, journal writing, meditation or prayer and doing a weekly service act.  So not only will you be feeling better physically, but more than likely you will feel better on the emotional and mental side as well!  **Oh and one more thing I need to make sure I mention… you even get points for getting enough sleep at night!! (I LOVE sleeping.  So that’s an added bonus for me!)

Tiffany will be pulling weekly cash prize winners. And at the end of the 8 weeks, competitors with the most points will win cash prizes as well! The cash prizes will be bigger depending on how many people we have participating. So I’m hoping we can get a lot of you!!  However, in the past 7 years that Tiffany has been doing this, winners have received up to $350!! And in 8 weeks, she’s had participants lose up to 36 pounds.  Awesome!!  If you want more information on the Cash Prizes, you can read her blog post over here.    I am hoping that with a ton of us doing this together, we can have a HUGE Cash Pot and have a lot more money to divvy out to more winners! During our first Freebies2Deals Feel Great in 8, we had 192 readers participate last time— that means $1920 to give out in cash for weekly drawings.  Grand Prize Winners each won $220!!  

Things to Note:

• Each week you will get to have 2 unhealthy treats to splurge on without losing points. YAY!!
• You will also get 1 entire FREE MEAL to eat whatever you want during the challenge without losing points.  If you have a Birthday, Anniversary or Occasion you want to use that on, you can choose that day as your cheat Meal.
• For those of you who might fast for religious reasons, anytime that needs to happen, you will not lose points because of that.  Details are in the full packet after you register.
• Tiffany and I have also created a Private Facebook Group we can all join.  So all of us in the 8 Week Challenge can work together and be an awesome support system.  If you have questions or need help, Tiffany will be there to answer and give you any support you need too!  I know that for me, having some sort of accountability when trying to get healthy or lose weight is one of the best ways to have success.  And having the group be private is a great way to not have the whole world see what you are doing on FB.  (After you sign up, Tiffany will email you a link to the Private FB Group so you can join.)

So Here is How It Works:

• On Monday, April 6th, we will start our 8 Week Program. It will go until May 31st. So mark your calendar.
• Starting NOW through Monday, April 6th you can sign up to be on our TEAM. (I would do it sooner vs later so you can get the Challenge Packet and have everything you need and groceries before we start on Monday.) Just head over here and click the Pink “Join the Challenge” button.  You will see an option to join the “Freebies2Deals Feel Great Challenge”.  Make sure you join that one so we can be on the same team and then pay your $20.
• After you have paid your $20 to participate, you can read the Challenge Packet and see the point tracker.  It will tell you everything you need for Monday.

NOTE:  In the Feel Great in 8 Packet we will all get, you will see the list of foods you can and can’t eat and all of the details.  I have to be honest.  This is the most comprehensive and well put together program I’ve seen!  It’s really easy to track points and know exactly what to do and what to have before we get started.

**One of your concerns may be about your grocery purchases during this time frame and the cost of healthy food.  You might want to read this post I did earlier on “9 Tips to Score Healthy Grocery Deals”. Healthy food isn’t more expensive.  You just have to make sure you are purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables “in-season” and shopping from the Front Page (the Loss Leader) of the Weekly Ads.

I want us all to not only reach our goals with this program, but save money while we are doing it!  And I KNOW it is totally doable.  So who’s in???  

I know some of you have voiced concern about people cheating to win the cash.  I had that same concern and after talking with Tiffany about it when we were figuring this all out, I felt a ton better! Here is more info on that from Tiffany:

It’s definitely true that this challenge requires an element of trust. I can’t follow everyone around to make sure they are being completely honest, and even if the winners were based on an easier thing to track like weight loss (like a biggest loser competition), someone could just not eat for a few days to drop the pounds and then win.

There are a few elements of the challenge that I can and do track, like participation in the Facebook group and reporting scores by Monday, but other than that I just have to have faith that people are being honest. And in my 7 years of doing this, there have only been a few times I’ve had to deal with a cheater. I truly believe most people participating are completely honest.

On the very first day of the challenge every participant is also required to read this post about integrity. I’m excited to be part of the group, to get to know you all a little bit, and to see your successes! Let me know if you have any other questions!